Management of Energy Enterprises in Zero-Emission Conditions: Bamboo as an Innovative Biomass for the Production of Green Energy by Power Plants

Research on Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Management Evaluation of Listed Companies in Energy Industry Based on Portfolio Weight Cloud Model

Under the background of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” strategy, energy saving and environmental protection (ESEP) management has become one of the most important projects of enterprises. In order to evaluate the ESEP management level of listed companies in the energy industry comprehensively, this study puts forward the evaluation framework of “governance framework-implementation process-governance effectiveness” for ESEP management level. Based on the comprehensive collection and collating of related information reports (e.g., sustainable development reports) of listed energy companies from 2009 to 2018, the ESEP information was extracted, and the portfolio weight cloud model was used to evaluate the ESEP management status of listed energy companies in China. It is of great theoretical innovation and practical significance to promote the evolution of the economy from “green development” to “dark green development”. The results show that: (1) the number of SHEE information released by listed companies in the energy industry shows a steady increasing trend, but the release rate is low, and there are differentiation characteristics in different industries. (2) The ESEP management level of most listed companies in the energy industry is still at the low level, and only 17.19% (S = 65) of the sample companies are at the level of “IV level-acceptable” and “V level-claimable”. (3) In terms of governance framework-implementation process-governance effectiveness, B1-governance framework (Ex = 3.4451) and B2-implementation process (Ex = 2.9480) are relatively high, but B3-governance effectiveness (Ex = 2.0852) and B4-public welfare (Ex = 2.0556) are relatively low. The expectation of most ESEP evaluation indexes fluctuates between “III level-transition level” and “II Level-improvement level”. Finally, some suggestions are put forward to improve ESEP management levels.

Technological Innovation, Fiscal Decentralization, Green Development Efficiency: Based on Spatial Effect and Moderating Effect

Green development efficiency is an essential measure of China’s economy turning into a stage of high-quality development in the new era. This paper establishes a spatial Durbin model based on the new geography economics. It empirically investigates the spatial effect of technological innovation on regional green development efficiency and the moderating effect of fiscal decentralization on the above mechanism using panel data of 29 provinces in China from 2010 to 2018. The results show that: from 2010 to 2018, both technological innovation and green development efficiency in Chinese provinces show significant spatial clustering effects; technological innovation not only has a significant role in promoting green development efficiency in the region but also leads to the improvement of green development efficiency in neighboring regions; and fiscal decentralization positively regulates the direct effect of technological innovation on green development efficiency in the region, and negatively regulates the spatial spillover effect of technological innovation on green development efficiency in neighboring regions.

CO2 Reduction Potential from Efficiency Improvements in China’s Coal-Fired Thermal Power Generation: A Combined Approach of Metafrontier DEA and LMDI

Among the G20 countries, China is the only country to experience an increase in electricity generation from coal-fired thermal power plants from 2019 to 2020. This study aims to develop an analytical framework combining metafrontier data envelopment analysis with the logarithmic mean Divisia index for a detailed decomposition analysis of ‘mass-based’ energy-related CO2 reduction potential through efficiency improvements in coal-fired thermal power plants in China. The results show that inefficiency in power generation can be largely attributed to differences in the location of power plants and the production scale. Moreover, the impact of regional heterogeneity on the changes in power generation efficiency is more notable for the small–medium power plants in the northeast region than the large power plants in the western region in China. However, when focusing on the mass-based CO2 reduction potential associated with the regional heterogeneity, its positive effects in the western region for the large power plants are 6.2 times larger than that in the northeast region for the small–medium power plants. These results imply that an analysis that focuses only on the efficiency score would ignore the production scale of coal-fired thermal power plants and thus would fail to properly evaluate the environmental impacts associated with efficiency changes.

Market Stakeholder Analysis of the Practical Implementation of Carbonation Curing on Steel Slag for Urban Sustainable Governance

Carbonation curing on steel slag is one of the most promising technologies for the iron and steel industry to manage its solid waste and carbon emissions. However, the technology is still in its demonstration stage. This paper investigates the market stakeholders of carbonation curing on steel slag for construction materials for its effective application by taking China as a case study. A holistic analysis of the competition, market size, and stakeholders of carbonation curing on steel slag was carried out through a literature review, a survey, a questionnaire, and interviews. The results showed that carbonation curing on steel slag had the advantages of high quality, high efficiency, low cost, and carbon reduction compared with other technologies. Shandong province was the most suitable province for the large-scale primary application of the technology. Stakeholder involvement to establish information platforms, enhance economic incentives, and promote adequate R&D activities would promote carbonation curing of steel slag into practice. This paper provides a reference for the commercialization of carbonation curing on similar calcium- and magnesium-based solid waste materials.