China’s electricity emission intensity in 2020 – an analysis at provincial level

Passive Sampling: A Greener Technique for the 'Dual Carbon' Goal While Implementing the Action Plan for Controlling Emerging Pollutants

In response to global climate change, China recently committed to achieving peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Carbon emission reduction should be considered in every sector of society including environmental monitoring. As an energy-saving technique in environmental monitoring, passive sampling has many advantages, such as in-situ sampling and a reduction in time/labour requirements. This perspective illustrates the "greenness" of passive sampling techniques, by comparison with traditional sampling methods, and its potential contribution to the 'dual carbon' goal. At the same time passive sampling can provide key support for the action plan for controlling emerging pollutants in China.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution and the Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions from Urban Production Energy Consumption

Urban production energy consumption produces a large amount of carbon emissions, which is an important source of global warming. This study measures the quantity and intensity of carbon emissions in 30 provinces of China based on urban production energy consumption from 2005-2019, and uses the Dagum Gini coefficient, kernel density estimation, carbon emission classification and spatial econometric model to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution and driving factors of quantity and intensity of carbon emissions from China and regional production energy consumption. It was found that the growth rate of carbon emission quantity and carbon emission intensity of production energy consumption decreased year by year in each province during the study period. The imbalance of carbon emission was strong, with different degrees of increase and decrease, and there were big differences between eastern and western regions. The classification of carbon emissions differed among provinces and there was heterogeneity among regions. The quantity and intensity of carbon emissions of production energy consumption qwre affected by multiple factors, such as industrial structure. This study provides an in-depth comparison of the spatial and temporal distribution and driving factors of quantity and intensity of carbon emissions of production energy consumption across the country and regions, and provides targeted policies for carbon emission reduction across the country and regions, so as to help achieve China's "double carbon" target quickly and effectively.

Impact Measurement of COVID-19 Lockdown on China's Electricity-Carbon Nexus

Lockdown measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in the plummeting of China's overall electric-power demand and production. To date, power generation remains one of the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting sectors of China on account of its high carbon intensity. Within this context, our study seeks to measure the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on the electricity-power related carbon footprints on both generation and consumption sides. Built on statistical data of electricity generation and consumption released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), we calculate he nationwide electricity related CO2 emission changes in regional, economic-sectoral and technological dimensions during January-April 2020, when the strictest lock-down measures were taken in China and compare the results with the same months of the year prior. Our results show that both east and central China power grids witnessed drastic reduction (15.0% and 13.8%) in electricity-generation caused CO2 emissions; and the biggest falls of provincial-scale electricity-generation CO2 emission took place in Hubei (27.3%). Among China's electricity production mix, coal remains the biggest CO2 emitter and contributed 95.7% of the overall nationwide reduction. The most significant decline of the nationwide consumptive-electricity carbon footprint was by 10.1% in February, with the secondary economic sector the biggest contributor.

The Role of National Energy Policies and Life Cycle Emissions of PV Systems in Reducing Global Net Emissions of Greenhouse Gases

The energy sector and electricity generation in particular, is responsible for a great share of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. World electricity generation is still largely based on the burning of fossil fuels. However, Brazil has already a very low electricity carbon intensity due to the country’s large hydropower capacity. In countries with low grid carbon intensities such as Brazil, the investment in photovoltaic solar systems (PVSS) even if it is cost-effective, might become challenging as any new generation competes essentially against other renewable generation and the carbon offset is not a key driver for investment anymore. This study builds further upon that case to examine if national renewable energy incentives could actually lead to an increase of global net carbon emissions from the installation of PVSS in countries with a low grid carbon intensity. The study presents a life cycle analysis (LCA) of ten photovoltaic systems representative of the different operational conditions in regions across Brazil. It was found that the average energy payback time of the studied PV plants is between 3 and 5 years of operation. This result shows the feasibility and viability of such investments in the Brazilian context. When the LCA was integrated into the analysis though, the results showed that the “local” direct emissions avoidance from two out of ten studied PV plants would not manage to offset their “global” life cycle emissions due to the 2020 projected Brazilian grid emission factor which is already low. It is important to recognize that public policies of unrestricted, unconditional stimulus to photovoltaic systems investment might not help towards reducing global net emissions when the PV systems are installed at countries with a low carbon emission electric matrix. That is also something to consider for other countries as the carbon intensity of their grids will start reducing at levels similar to Brazil’s. It is likely that in the near future, the real net carbon offset achieved by PV systems at the global level will be largely defined by the manufacture procedures and the production’s carbon intensity at the country of origin of the PV panels.

Carbon Emission Reduction Strategy for Energy Users in China

The Chinese government has made a commitment to control carbon emissions, and the deployment of renewable energy power generation is considered as an effective solution. In recent years, great effort has been exerted to support the development of renewable energy in China. While, due to fiscal pressures and changes in management policies, related subsidies are diminishing now and energy users are asked to pay for the cost. Regulations about carbon cap and renewable energy consumptions are issued to transfer the responsibility of consuming renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions to energy consumers. A national carbon trading system is set up in China and is under its growth stage. Therefore, this study lists the factors that should be considered by the energy users, analyzes the levelized cost of electricity generated by renewable energy in four cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and compares the results with current carbon prices. Based on the research, under the current status, it is still more cost-efficient for enterprises to buy carbon credits than introduce renewable energies, and great differences among cities are shown due to different natural conditions. Besides, with diminishing subsidies and development of the carbon trading market, the carbon price will gradually reflect the actual value and carbon emission reduction costs will become an important part of enterprise expenditure. In the long term, enterprises should link more factors to carbon emissions, like social responsibility and brand image, instead of only the cost.

Sensitivity Analysis in the Life-Cycle Assessment of Electric vs. Combustion Engine Cars under Approximate Real-World Conditions

This study compares the environmental impacts of petrol, diesel, natural gas, and electric vehicles using a process-based attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) and the ReCiPe characterization method that captures 18 impact categories and the single score endpoints. Unlike common practice, we derive the cradle-to-grave inventories from an originally combustion engine VW Caddy that was disassembled and electrified in our laboratory, and its energy consumption was measured on the road. Ecoivent 2.2 and 3.0 emission inventories were contrasted exhibiting basically insignificant impact deviations. Ecoinvent 3.0 emission inventory for the diesel car was additionally updated with recent real-world close emission values and revealed strong increases over four midpoint impact categories, when matched with the standard Ecoinvent 3.0 emission inventory. Producing batteries with photovoltaic electricity instead of Chinese coal-based electricity decreases climate impacts of battery production by 69%. Break-even mileages for the electric VW Caddy to pass the combustion engine models under various conditions in terms of climate change impact ranged from 17,000 to 310,000 km. Break-even mileages, when contrasting the VW Caddy and a mini car (SMART), which was as well electrified, did not show systematic differences. Also, CO2-eq emissions in terms of passenger kilometers travelled (54–158 g CO2-eq/PKT) are fairly similar based on 1 person travelling in the mini car and 1.57 persons in the mid-sized car (VW Caddy). Additionally, under optimized conditions (battery production and use phase utilizing renewable electricity), the two electric cars can compete well in terms of CO2-eq emissions per passenger kilometer with other traffic modes (diesel bus, coach, trains) over lifetime. Only electric buses were found to have lower life cycle carbon emissions (27–52 g CO2-eq/PKT) than the two electric passenger cars.