Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies

As part of their efforts to cope with climate change, many municipal governments have considered the improvement of urban resilience as an important strategy. In this study, we take the megacity of Beijing as an example and conduct a mixed-methods research using both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore linkage between resilience and development. First, based on expert consultation, we develop an analytical framework and propose reference indicators for measuring urban resilience. Second, we conduct an exploratory factor analysis to justify this analytical framework and rank the urban resilience index for 16 districts in Beijing. Results indicate that urban resilience at the district level is distinguished by the characteristics of the district's functional zones. This implies that the development focus of each district influences the driving factors of urban resilience. This article provides evidence that development and adaptation can be complementary. We showcase in Beijing that urban generic resilience is highly dependent on socio-economic development and urbanization, whereas specific resilience to climatic extremes can be attributed to natural endowment and environmental investment. In conclusion, using this study's findings as a guideline, mega-cities are urged to adopt development-oriented adaptation as a strategy of proactive risk planning in the context of rapid urbanization and global climate change in China.

Guangdong is one of many fast-developing regions in China that are confronting the challenges of air pollution mitigation and sustainable economic development. Previous studies have focused on the characterization of production-based emissions to formulate control strategies, but the drivers of emission growth and pattern changes from the consumption side have rarely been explored. In this study, we used environmentally extended input-output analysis with well-established production-based emission inventories to develop a consumption-based emission inventory for seven pollutants in the years 2007 and 2012. The results showed that the demands of construction, transport and other services dominated the emissions from the consumption perspective, followed by electric power and some machinery and light industries. The varying trends of air pollutants from 2007 to 2012 were associated with production-based control measures and changes in economic structure and trading patterns. From the consumption perspective, due to the stringent control of SO2 in power plants and key industries, the SO2 emissions underwent substantial declines, while the less controlled PM10, PM2.5, VOC and CO emissions continued to grow. The contributions of the cleaner (that is, with lower emission intensity) service sectors (third-sector industries, excluding transport, storage and post) to all seven pollutants increased. This increase could be a consequence of the expansion of the service sector in Guangdong; in this five-year period, the service sector grew by 41% in terms of its contributions to Guangdong’s gross domestic product. Meanwhile, exports accounted for more than half of the emissions, but their share had started to decrease for most pollutants except VOC and CO. The results suggest that Guangdong moved towards a cleaner production and consumption pathway. The transformation of the industrial structure and increase in of urban demand should help to further reduce emissions while maintaining economic development.

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport in China has encouraged research on the spatial effects and safety of these two modes of transport, and on the competition between them. We report here an investigation of the effects of competition between HSR and air transport in China from a geographical perspective. The spatial service hinterlands for HSR and air transport accessible within one and two hours by road transport were investigated using a method based on a geographical information system and the overlapping service hinterlands of HSR and air transport were established. A city with both HSR stations and airports, or that was accessible to HSR stations and airports within a certain travel time by road transport, was defined as the overlapping market. The spatial effects of competition between HSR and air transport at present and in the future were then studied with respect to the planned HSR network and airports. The results showed that both HSR and air transport tend to serve areas with high population densities and well-developed economies and in 2012 most of the population and GDP in China were accessible within two hours by road transport to an HSR station or airport. The different technical and economic characteristics of HSR and air transport determine the advantage markets. Spatially, the service hinterland of HSR mainly focuses on urban agglomerations and economic corridors in the eastern and central regions, whereas air transport has a competitive advantage in the more inaccessible western region of China. The overlapping market of HSR and air transport will become increasingly large in the future and cities with a population of over one million and cities within 30 km to both airports and HSR stations will become the major competitive markets. Considering the cost of construction and the number of passengers required for economic operation, as well as the competition with air transport, it is suggested that the construction of some HSR projects in the western region of China should be canceled or slowed down.

City-level CO2 emission accounting is necessary to identify the different energy circumstances among all cities. However, due to a lack of data, energy consumption and emission statistics are not well documented. Focusing on the industrial production using fossil fuels, our work provides the first detailed city-level estimation of production-based sectoral CO2 emissions in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In 2010, 15 cities in Xinjiang emitted a total of 304.06 million tonnes CO2, and 97.7% of those emissions were related to fossil fuel combustion (i.e. energy-related emissions), with the remaining 2.3% from industrial processes associated with the production of cement (i.e. process-related emissions). The consumption of raw coal and crude oil were the main sources of Xinjiang’s emissions (50.3% and 23.0%, respectively), whereas ‘petroleum processing and coking’ and ‘power and heat production’ were the two sectors that contributed the largest emissions at 32.6% and 27.9%, respectively. The cities in Xinjiang presented considerable variations in the total CO2 emissions and emissions per capita. The emissions intensity and emissions per capita shared similar distributions, and the emissions are significantly spatial autocorrelated. Cities whose economies relied on emission-intensive pillar industries and/or energy mainly sourced from raw coal tended to have high emissions per capita and high emissions intensities. Those cities included Altay, Changji, Hami and Shihezi. We also examined the time-series emissions of Urumqi, the largest city, from 2005 to 2015. Urumqi presented a generally rising trend in CO2 emissions over the decade, with emissions increasing by 324.2%. The major driving sector was ‘power and heat’, which showed increases in the total CO2 emissions and percentage of Xinjiang’s emissions. Based on the findings, policy recommendations for emission reductions and low-carbon development for the cities in Xinjiang are provided, including adjusting the energy structure and introducing multiple industries.

The research analyses the question of to what extent the focus on state projects between Russia and China is based on the Russian desire to switch from an economy that is dependent on natural resources. Through the analysis of existing capabilities of the Russian companies to propose opportunities for innovative and technological projects that can be used in the long run. At the same time, the research will focus on energy trends and their presence in Russian and Chinese energy markets. Keywords: Energy Sources, China Energy Policy, Resource Saving, Economic Development, Energy Cooperation.JEL Classifications: C30, D12, Q41, Q48DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.8509

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping the configuration of spatial socio-economic structures and influencing regional accessibility. Although China’s transport infrastructure has been experiencing a rapid development in the last 100 years, there lacks a systematic examination of the complete evolution history of China’s transport development, particularly with all kinds of transport modes. This paper first aims to clarify the history of China’s transportation from 1910 to 2012, and divides its evolution process into five periods (1911, 1935, 1953, 1981 and 2012) whereby each period represents the preliminary development time for each transport mode. Second, the paper calculates the transport dominance and analyses its spatial distribution in each period, with county as the basic analysis unit. Transport dominance here is defined as an integrated indicator for evaluating regional transport conditions. The results demonstrate the following: (1) areas with relative good transport dominance have expanded from scattered dots such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou in 1911 to extensive areas with each provincial city as cores in 2012; (2) transport development is improved by advances in transportation technology. The construction of modern transport infrastructures such as seaports, airports, high-speed rails (HSRs), and freeways lead the expansion of national territorial areas with good and excellent transport dominance and the increase of the value of transport dominance over time; (3) transport dominance is spatially unevenly distributed and exhibits resemblance with the expansion of transport network, which is closely related to China’s socio-economic development and policies.

No abstract received.

Considerable efforts are being organized to build a functioning carbon market in China. This paper presents an overview of the development of the Chinese carbon market and offers an industry perspective on the domestic regulatory and investment environments. It is based on a review of relevant publications and interviews with Beijing-based finance executives. We found that few financial institutions with the expertise required have been brought into the process of institutional development. Corporate demand for advanced financial services linked to emission trading is weak. Current regulations permit limited trading options, significantly reducing investment opportunities. The market scale is too small to attract investors and financial service providers. Consequently, the Chinese carbon market remains illiquid. Domestic financial institutions have not assumed a critical role in market development. It is suggested that policy-makers minimize administrative intervention in the market, but a modest degree of direct administrative control is still considered to be instrumental. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Energy issues are the focus of global concern, and estimations of the energy rebound effect are very important for energy policy. Existing research has proved the existence of the energy rebound effect. This paper, based on the estimation of China’s capital stock in 1952, establishes three elements of the neoclassical production function to calculate the contribution rate of technological progress on economic growth. It then calculates China’s energy rebound effect over the past 20 years from the perspective of technological progress. The research results show that though China’s energy intensity has been declining from 1994 to 2017, the energy rebound effect each year is obviously different, with an average level of 54.4%. Technological progress leads to the improvement of energy efficiency, which reduces energy consumption, but the rebound effect makes energy savings less effective than expected. This paper proved the Granger causality between energy structure adjustment and the rebound effect. And the increase of coal consumption will enhance the rebound effect. So, upgrading the structure of energy consumption is considered helpful to reduce the energy rebound effect, which can promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

The impact of environmental change on internal migration has received wide attention in recent years. Mass internal migration has been a significant economic and social phenomenon in China, and soil erosion is a major environmental problem that impacts sustainable socioeconomic development. This study aims to identify the impact of soil erosion on internal migration in China at the county level based on gravity model by analyzing related data, such as the sixth national population census data and the soil and water conservation survey data. The results of spatial overlay could not identify an obvious relationship between soil erosion and net outmigration in China. The traditional gravity model of migration is modified to analyze the impact of soil erosion on net outmigration while other variables are controlled. The results indicate that only serious soil erosion increases the possibility of outmigration and that the impact is considerably higher in agricultural counties than in non-agricultural counties. In general, the impact of soil erosion on internal migration is far less than the impact of socioeconomic factors.

The Paris Agreement introduced a 1.5 °C target to control the rise in global temperature, but clear arrangements for feasible implementation pathways were not made. Achieving the 1.5 °C target imposes high requirements on global emission reduction. Nationally Determined Contributions of all Parties are far from the 1.5 °C target, and conventional emission reduction technologies and policies will also have difficulty in fulfilling this task. In this context, geoengineering is gaining interest in the international arena. The Paris Agreement includes afforestation, carbon capture, utilization and storage, and negative emission technologies such as bio-energy with carbon capture and store. All of these techniques are CO2 removal technologies that belong to geoengineering. Solar radiation management, which is highly controversial, has also attracted increased attention in recent years. Although the outline of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C does not include a specific section on geoengineering issues yet, geoengineering is an unconventional technical option that cannot be avoided in research and discussions on impact assessment, technical options, ethics, and international governance under the 1.5 °C target. On the basis of analyzing and discussing abovementioned issues, this paper proposes several policy suggestions for China to strengthen research on and response to geoengineering.

Since the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, its real estate has closely followed reforms in economic, land and housing systems. There have been two critical junctures since the advent of the Reform and Opening-Up policy in 1978: the introduction of housing monetization in 1998 and the reinstatement of low-income housing in 2007. Those two junctures divide the development of China's real estate industry into three stages, namely the embryonic period of housing marketization (1978–1997), rapid development period (1998–2006) and integrated development period (2007–2016). Report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017 affirms that “housing is for living in, not for speculation,” marking a new development stage for China's real estate industry. It is expected that innovations in land system, housing system and macro-control will promote the development of China's real estate in the future.

Urban Transformation refers to the significant change and transition in urban various fields and aspects,which is a comprehensive transformation with multi-field,multi-aspect,multi-level and multi-angle.In the past,China's urban development has mostly been on the road of extensive model,characterized by high growth,high consumption,high emission and high expansion.With this deve-lopment model,some problems have appeared in the process of China's urban development,such as the disorderly and inefficient development,the imbalanced urban-rural and regional development and the in-coordination of social development etc.,and obviously,this is not sustainable.At present,Chinese cities are experiencing in a new stage of accelerated and overall transformation.It must quickly realize the economic,social and ecological overall transformation,to establish a new mode of scientific development with low consumption,low emission,high efficiency,and harmonious and orderly development,taking the intensive,innovative,integrated,harmonious,green and characteristic development road.

This paper elaborates the progress of the studies and negotiations on a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent and quality jobs, in the context of implementing response measures under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Just transition in essence deals with the employment issues, thus the impact of climate change policies on employment should be understood in the first place. Low-carbon development refers to a development path to low-carbon economic growth by phasing out fossil fuels, with the objective of achieving sustainable development while fighting climate change. Adjustments in the industry structure and energy structure will not only have an impact on the employment scale and structure but also generate new demand for job skills. In order to achieve just transition in implementing climate policies, China should promote targeted research, create more low-carbon jobs by increasing green investment, and pay special attention to people who lose their jobs due to the implementation of climate policies and keep them from falling into poverty.

Climate engineering is a potential alternative method to curb global warming, and this discipline has garnered considerable attention from the international scientific community including the Chinese scientists. This manuscript provides an overview of several aspects of climate engineering, including its definition, its potential impacts and risk, and its governance status. The overall conclusion is that China is not yet ready to implement climate engineering. However, it is important for China to continue conducting research on climate engineering, particularly with respect to its feasible application within China, its potential social, economic, and environmental impacts, and possible international governance structures and governing principles, with regard to both experimentation and implementation.

Abstract China's rapid economic growth in the past few decades has been accompanied by huge increases in energy demand. The Chinese energy sector faces the multiple challenges of mobilizing huge investment to keep energy supplies in line with increases in demand, securing international oil and gas supplies to meet the widening gap between domestic demand and supply, and reducing environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Identifying China's approaches toward ensuring a sustainable energy future in the last two decades and assessing their effectiveness can be of great value to the future of energy policy‐making in China, as well as to other developing countries facing similar challenges. This article gives a brief overview and assessment of the Chinese approaches toward ensuring a sustainable future. It starts with a description of the challenges facing China in securing universal, clean, affordable and reliable energy supplies, and the evolution of China's strategies for energy development since 1990. On the basis of an empirical review of the different policies and measures taken by the government over time, it explains China's approach to achieving the different aspects of a sustainable energy future. It then uses eight indicators to assess China's progress in improving the sustainability of its energy system. This article finally discusses some aspects that could be improved and the new directions and initiatives China is taking to tackle new issues in its energy development. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:409–423. doi: 10.1002/wene.101 This article is categorized under: Energy and Climate > Economics and Policy Energy and Development > Economics and Policy

To build a beautiful China and enhance ecological security, we should maintain a balance between ecosystem supply and demand. In terms of supply, we should allow natural ecosystem productivity to achieve an optimal state, thus maintaining the maximum carrying capacity of the ecosystem. In terms of demand, we should change our consumption behavior and reduce our ecological footprint so that they are compatible with the ecosystem production and carrying capacity.

Purpose Over the past several decades, there has been an increasing trend towards inter-city cooperation, which is an efficient policy option to deal with the challenges from globalization, regionalization and the externalities resulting from urban entrepreneurialism. Specific to China, the city governments, which mainly refer to prefecture-level and county-level governments, have also made many attempts to cooperate with respect to their local economic development and public affairs. Nevertheless, the results of these initiations to cooperate vary to a great extent. Based on a review of regional pollution governance in the Xiaoqing River area, tourism cooperation initiatives at Weishan Lake and transport integration between Jinan and Laiwu. The findings demonstrate that China's idiosyncratic institutional background has a significant impact on the shaping of inter-city cooperation. For the most part, leading small groups (LSGs) and their leadership property tend to determine the effectiveness of inter-city cooperation. Design/methodology/approach To examine the effect of the LSGs, we categorize them into three types, groups with strong leadership, weak leadership and self-forming leadership. Through reviewing regional pollution governance in the Xiaoqing River area, tourism cooperation initiatives at Weishan Lake and transport integration between Jinan and Laiwu, we try to probe the role of leading groups in the settlement of cross-administrative border issues. Findings Based on these three cases, the conclusion can be drawn that the leadership type of the LSG can exert an important influence on the efficiency of inter-city cooperation. If there is a leader with a higher administrative rank or authority, the cooperation can be quite efficient. Otherwise, the cooperative ending might be very negative. In terms of the operation principle, we can infer that even though the cities are always self-development oriented, the leader with higher authority or a strong coordinating capacity can convince and persuade the city leaders to overcome their self-centered behavior template and boost the cooperation to March on smoothly. Also, it means that the LSG is constrained by its personalistic characteristic. Key command derives from the person who chairs the LSG other than specific rules and norms. If the lead of the LSG leaves his position, the cooperation might just become paralyzed. From this point of view, the lack of legal basis remains to be the LSGs' significant deficiency and the future reform should attach more importance to the legalization of the LSGs so the operation of LSGs can be more standard and stable. Originality/value Many scholars have proposed their own theoretical models to explain the reason some cities successfully and effectively form cooperative relations, while the other cities do not. However, their models do not consider the idiosyncratic context of China or, how and to which extent LSGs can promote cooperation. Therefore, this paper seeks to probe which path in the context of China cities usually follows in the formation of joint efforts, and what role LSGs play in enabling cities to cooperate.

During the past five years known as the period of the 11th Five-Year (2006–2010) Plan, China made great efforts on energy saving and emission reduction, and obtained great achievements, including a 19.06% drop of per unit GDP energy consumption. One of the major targets of China’s development during the period of the 12th Five-Year (2011–2015) Plan or the next five years, is to lead China’s economy on to the path of sustainable development, with emphasis on clean energy construction, emission reduction promotion, and a drastic reduction of energy intensity as well as carbon intensity. Therefore, a target for carbon reduction (a reduction goal for per unit GDP CO2 emissions) was added in the 12th Five-Year Plan in addition to the target for energy saving and conventional pollutants emission reduction. The target has been set, but opinions [Yang et al., 2011; Wu, 2011; Liu, 2011] still vary on whether it is optimal as well as how it should be comprehended and implemented.

According to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s report at the 19th CPC National Congress, realizing China’s great dream in the new era demands a great struggle, a great project, and a great cause. In terms of the construction of ecological civilization, entering a new era means China must ensure the harmony between man and nature, and undertake “a great struggle with many new contemporary features”, in response to major difficulties and challenges in nature. To realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation requires a clear understanding of the “Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the Basic Policy” introduced at the 19th CPC National Congress that involves such concepts as the vision for development, fundamental rules, environmental ethics, the rule of law, the model, objectives and driving forces of development, ways of life, and global governance. Based on the connotations of such concepts, the ecological civilization can systemically grasp the basic strategy for building a socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics. This paper discusses the cognition of building an ecological civilization in the new era, examines the development paradigm of ecological civilization from the perspectives of ethical values, value theory and principles of growth, and specifies the strategic measures for building an ecological civilization in light of the new circumstances and demands.