PROSPEK LEMBAH KLANG KE ARAH BANDAR RENDAH KARBON (Prospect of Klang Valley Area Towards Low Carbon City)

The goals to reduce 50% of global carbon emissions by 2050 require fully participation from various components of the local community. Therefore, this study has been conducted to explore the prospects of the Klang Valley area towards Low Carbon Cities (LCC) based on the perception, level of readiness and limitations in community participation. Klang Valley is selected as the area of observation due to its rapidly growing population and economic sector. This study adopted qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interview instrument and the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. 8 themes appeared in the analysis which are the themes of definition, criteria and sources of carbon emissions under the dimension of public perception; the themes of practice and awareness under the dimension of community readiness; and the themes of incentives, politics and awareness under the dimension of the limitation of community participation. All themes indicated that changing of the lifestyle of the individual towards energy saving in daily activities is prime important to achieve the LCC goal. In conclusion, the prospect for Klang Valley to become a low carbon city in regard to the dimensions of community perception, awareness and partipation limitation is high. Keywords: Low carbon cities; Perception; Readiness; Limitations; Community

Does Low-Carbon City Construction Improve Total Factor Productivity? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

Low-carbon city construction (LCC) is an important strategy for countries desiring to improve environmental quality, realize cleaner production, and achieve sustainable development. Low-carbon cities have attracted widespread attention for their attempts to coordinate the relationship between environmental protection and economic development. Using the panel data from 2006 to 2017 of prefecture-level cities in China, this study applied the difference-in-differences (DID) method to analyze the effects of LCC on the total factor productivity (TFP) of the cities and its possible transmission mechanism. The results show significantly positive effects on TFP, but the effects on each component of TFP are different. Although the LCC has promoted technical progress and scale efficiency, it has inhibited technical efficiency. The accuracy of the results has been confirmed by several robustness tests. Mechanism analysis showed that the pilot policy of low-carbon cities has promoted technical progress and scale efficiency by technological innovation and the upgrading of industrial structure, but resource mismatches among enterprises have been the main reason for reduced technical efficiency. Regional heterogeneity analysis showed that the effects on TFP in the eastern region have been more significant than in the central and western regions. In the eastern region, they have promoted technical progress, while in the central and western regions, they have promoted technical progress and scale efficiency but hindered technical efficiency. This paper presents our findings for the effects of LCC on economic development and provides insightful policy implications for the improvement of technical efficiency in low-carbon cities.

IMPLEMENTATION OF LOW CARBON CITIES PROJECT IN BANDAR BARU BANGI, SELANGOR

During the United Nations Climate Conference (COP15) in 2009, Malaysia pledged to reduce the country's carbon emissions by up to 40% by 2020 compared to 2005. Meanwhile, in the Paris Agreement in 2015, the pledge was renewed to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 45% in 2030. Thus, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (MEGTW) has launched a low carbon cities framework known as the ‘Low Carbon Cities Framework and Assessment System’ (LCCF) to realize the pledge. Following the launch, the Selangor State Government has determined that the LCCF be adopted in urban planning policies in all Selangor local authorities in order to contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions intensity. Bandar Baru Bangi is a city under the administration of the local authority of Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) which implements the LCCF project to achieve a carbon reduction target of 45%, subsequently emerging as a low carbon city that is sustainable and comfortable to live in by 2035. This article discusses the implementation experience of the LCCF project in the city as well as the achievement of carbon reduction as a result of its implementation.

Does Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Alleviate Urban Haze Pollution? Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

As a comprehensive environmental regulation, the low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) may have an impact on haze pollution. The evaluation of the effectiveness of LCCP on haze pollution is greatly significant for air pollution prevention and control. Taking LCCP as the starting point, in this study we constructed DID, PSM-DID, and intermediary effect models to empirically test the impact and mechanism of LCCP on haze pollution, based on the panel data of 271 cities in China from 2005 to 2018. The findings show that (1) LCCP has significantly reduced the urban haze pollution, and the average annual concentration of PM2.5 in pilot cities decreased by 14.29%. (2) LCCP can inhibit haze pollution by promoting technological innovation, upgrading the industrial structure, and reducing energy consumption. Among these impacts, the effect of technological innovation is the strongest, followed by industrial structure, and energy consumption. (3) LCCP has significantly curbed the haze pollution of non-resource dependent cities, Eastern cities, and large cities, but exerted little impact on resource-dependent cities, Central and Western regions, and small and medium-sized cities. (4) LCCP has a spatial spillover effect. It can inhibit the haze pollution of adjacent cities through demonstration and warning effects. This study enriches the relevant research on LCCP and provides empirical support and policy enlightenment for pollution reduction.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Working toward Zero-Waste and Its Indication to Low Carbon City Development

Low carbon city development and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation in urban communities are urgent. There is great potential to improve the GHG inventory at the community level. Meanwhile, building zero-waste cities and improving waste treatment efficiency have been significant environmental issues due to the rapid increase of waste generation. This research aims to develop a community-scale GHG emission inventory of the waste sector and improve its accuracy and consistency through applying the bottom-up approach. This study covers both direct and indirect emissions categories of the waste sector with the goal of building a zero-waste community. Honjo Waseda community, located in Japan, was used as a case study community. Energy consumption waste treatment sectors were evaluated and calculated through first-hand field data. GHG emission estimation of the waste sector included waste incineration, residential wastewater, and waste transport. The highest emissions originated from Beisiagate supermarket due to the large waste amount produced, and the CO2-biomass carbon emissions reached approximately 50% of the total emissions. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of the implementation of new technologies was also conducted. This study created proposals for GHG emission reduction toward a zero-waste community through the comparison of three cases. Case 1 was business as usual; Case 2 proposed a combination of incineration bio-gasification (MBT); Case 3 introduced a combination of solid recovered fuel (SRF) and a bio-gasification system. SRF contributed the most to emission reduction, and Case 3 exhibited the highest energy recovery. Furthermore, comparing the GHG emissions produced by the use of SRF for power generation and heat supply revealed that using SRF as a heat supply reduced more GHG emissions than using SRF for power generation.

Evaluation of China’s low-carbon city pilot policy: Evidence from 210 prefecture-level cities

As the largest carbon dioxide emitter, China is working towards the direction of a green economy. As an irreplaceable part of establishing a green economy, the low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy is implemented in many large cities in China, and the scope of implementation will be further expanded. However, to date, there has been an absence of empirical studies basing on prefecture-level cities about the evaluation of China’s LCCP policy. Evaluating and optimizing the LCCP policy is constructive to achieve the goal of China’s green economic transition. In this paper, we evaluated the effect of the LCCP policy on China’s low-carbon economic transition by using the difference-in-difference (DID) approach which can effectively alleviate endogenous problems and better evaluate this effect and the panel data of 210 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2016. The empirical analysis revealed that the LCCP policy inhibited China’s low-carbon economic transition in general. Specifically, the policy worked well in the eastern region but failed in the central region and western region by studying the regional heterogeneity and influence mechanism. The reason is that the LCCP policy can stimulate low-carbon innovation with the help of innovation offset effects in the eastern region, but it failed to do so in the central region and western region. In addition, this paper analyzed the performance of three types of policy tools adopted by local governments to implement the policy, we found that market-economic tools are valuable to improving the low-carbon economic transition in pilot areas, but command-mandatory tools and voluntary tools have failed to achieve the expected objectives. The research results of this article can provide policy recommendations for optimizing the low-carbon policy and provide a reference for countries that are determined to develop a green economy.