Narrow Results

This paper explores the factors that lead to increased carbon dioxide emissions in the 18 countries of the APEC. We apply the LMDI multiplicative decomposing method to 18 countries between 1971 and 2012. We summarize these factors that are as follows: (1) population increase and economic growth play a key role in increased carbon dioxide emissions. (2) All the 18 countries of the APEC have improved their energy efficiency as manifested in the change of energy intensity ($\mathrm{\Delta }I$), which is less than 1 in the 42 years; (3) In terms of energy substitution effect ($\mathrm{\Delta }M$) and fuel coefficient effect ($\mathrm{\Delta }CE$), the decomposition results point out that Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia witnessed growth in $\mathrm{\Delta }M$ and $\mathrm{\Delta }CE$, indicating the only factor to reduce the emissions for these three countries is intensity effect, which gives rise to relatively higher emission for these three countries during the period. In the case of Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, we witnessed increases in $\mathrm{\Delta }M$, but decreases in $\mathrm{\Delta }CE$; In the case of Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the US, there seem to decrease in $\mathrm{\Delta }M$, but increases in $\mathrm{\Delta }CE$ during the 42-year period.

The problems of excessive CO₂ emissions and global warming caused by human activities are becoming more serious. Carbon Tax (CT) and Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) are popular emission mitigation mechanisms. This paper establishes four counter-factual (CF) scenarios with different CT rate, and constructs a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, named China Energy-Environment-Economy Analysis (CEEEA) model, to study the impact of different CT rate on the economy, energy and environment. The results indicate that if CT complement ETS, and the cap of ETS is based on grandfathering method, the carbon trading price will reduce due to the changes in carbon allowances demand and supply. CT can share the mitigation pressure from ETS coverages into non-ETS coverages. When CT complement ETS but nothing is changed in mechanism of emission trading, the total emission mitigation effect will reduce slightly but the mitigation cost will reduce significantly. All in all, using CT as the supplement is a good mitigation strategy to release Gross Domestic Product (GDP) loss. But if we want to get more mitigation effect, rising CT rate or a stricter carbon cap may help.

Heating and cooling systems contribute greatly to the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of many countries. Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are promising energy saving systems for residential, commercial or industrial heating or cooling purposes. A method to estimate the energy consumption and CO₂ emission of GSHPs is therefore very eminent. This paper reviews the methodology to calculate the energy consumption and CO₂ emission of GSHPs. The discussed methodology is then used to compare the energy consumption and CO₂ emission of an open-loop and closed-loop GSHP using data from field test. It is observed that the open-loop GSHP saves 28% energy and reduces CO₂ by 28% than the closed-loop GSHP in the cooling season. When used for both cooling and heating purposes in the year, the open-loop GSHP saves about 6% energy and reduces about 6% of CO₂ emission than the closed-loop GSHP.

The Public Electricity and Heat Production (PEHP) is the most emissive sector in European economy. The characteristic features of PEHP contribute to the importance of its mitigation role. In this study, the decarbonization potential of energy sector was retrospectively analyzed. Proposed algorithm contained, at the first layer, the year-by-year data analysis and calculation while at the second graphical interpretation and pattern grouping. Despite the double-layering, the developed approach included the three following stepwise stages: the CO₂ emission alternatives scenarios pathways methodology, the CO₂ emission driving forces modes and influence weight methodology, and the transformation pattern identifying and grouping. Based on 1990–2017 CO₂ emission inventories, the investigation of long-term PEHP decarbonization in 26 European countries was performed, in year-by-year and country-by-country processing. All results and findings have become the foundation for describing achieved decarbonization goals and 27 years mitigation ways. The Energy Consumption (EC) and Emission Factor (EF) have been pointed as a key driving forces of CO₂ emission and as a key development indicator of PEHP sectoral transformation structure. Based on the developed country-by-country graphical interpretation interface, the five key patterns of PEHP decarbonization processes in European countries were observed and defined. The algorithm which has been applied and tested in 26 countries for 27 years was proved to be a universal and flexible tool to determine the lack of a utilitarian path of PEHP CO₂ emission mitigation in Europe.

Under great and continuous demand of mechanization and energy consumption, excessive use of natural resources and natural energy deposits are resulted from. Production needs and consumption demands have been satisfied, but problems such as serious environmental damage, high CO₂ emission, and greenhouse effect have also resulted. Therefore, discussing how to implement a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model and use it for instituting a sustainable green urban development is a major topic to address.

Green Compressed Air Energy Storage (GCAES) is a new concept that combines thermal energy storage with traditional compressed air energy storage. The goal is to recover the heat of compression and reuse it during the expansion phase, thus eliminating the need for external heat. This chapter compares the overall performance of GCAES with its traditional Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) counterpart and estimates the amount of greenhouse gas reduction. Generally, a small change in one of the parameters of CAES systems can propagate to other factors, significantly altering the performance of the plant. A change in the system status can also alter the process parameters of the thermal sub-systems. The key process parameters are air and thermal fluid mass flow rates, temperature, and pressure of the system at each design point. These parameters can significantly influence the performance of a CAES plant. This chapter compares the effect of variations in these parameters on the performance of GCAES and traditional CAES plants with three stages of expansion. Thermodynamic model simulations were carried out over a pressure from 40 bar to 80 bar and hot water mass flow between 176 kg/s and 216 kg/s. The obtained results show that the net generated power for the GCAES and the traditional CAES systems are about 110 megawatts and 65 megawatts, with maximum efficiencies of 78.6% and 70.5%, respectively. This study also reveals that a GCAES not only makes accessible greater energy generation but can also reduce up to 80 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per discharge cycle. This is equivalent to more than 270,000 tons of CO₂ emission per operating year for the modeled CAES plant.

In recent years, with the development of the ethnic minority area economy, minority rural residents’ CO₂ emissions also increased. Therefore, the development of low carbon economy is particularly important. This paper is based on the example of nine kinds of ethnic minorities in Yunnan province to estimate their lifestyle behavior of CO₂ emissions from 2012 to 2014 and analyze their carbon structure. It is concluded that waste generated higher level of CO₂, biological energy utilization rate is relatively low; biogas related facilities penetration rate is not high. According to the present situation of CO₂ emissions, four suggestions are proposed to explore low carbon economy and low carbon lifestyle.