China Population, Resources and Environment最新文献

In recent years, China's economy has been growing rapidly and caused a dramatic increase to energy demand. To investigate the dynamic relationship between economic growth and China energy, a cointegration analysis and an error-correction model are used in this study to examine the long-term equilibrium relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and energy production (EP) and energy consumption over the period 1980 to 2005. The results indicate that the two variables are cointegrated, but specifically, the growth of GDP forcefully drives energy to increase while energy has a little effect on GDP. Furthermore, the impulse response function is used to trace the dynamic response paths of shocks to the system. As a result of recent energy-saving policy, EP and consumption present a sinusoidal growth with a lag length of 2-3 years. The policy implication of this finding is that through the measures of controlling economic growing speed and conducting energy-saving policy continuously, the target of reducing energy intensity for 20% is not difficult to achieve.

This article analyzes China's coal consumption changes since 1991 and proportion change of coal consumption to total energy consumption. It is argued that power, iron and steel, construction material, and chemical industries are the four major coal consumption industries, which account for 85% of total coal consumption in 2005. Considering energy consumption composition characteristics of these four industries, major coal demand determinants, potentials of future energy efficiency improvement, and structural changes, etc., this article makes a forecast of 2010s and 2020s domestic coal demand in these four industries. In addition, considering such relevant factors as our country's future economic growth rate and energy saving target, it forecasts future energy demands, using per unit GDP energy consumption method and energy elasticity coefficient method as well. Then it uses other institution's results about future primary energy demand, excluding primary coal demand, for reference, and forecasts coal demands in 2010 and 2020 indirectly. After results comparison between these two methods, it is believed that coal demands in 2010 might be 2620–2850 million tons and in 2020 might be 3090–3490 million tons, in which, coal used in power generation is still the driven force of coal demand growth.

Climate change is one of hot spots all around the world. China, the second biggest CO₂ emitter, is facing increasingly severe pressure to reduce CO₂ emission. The article first describes Kaya Identity and its policy implications. Second, it uses the modified Kaya Identity and makes decomposition without residues on CO₂ emission during the period 1971–2005. Taking into account the changes of macroeconomic background, it conducts a detailed analysis in terms of CO₂ emission trend from 4^th Five Year Plan through 10^th Five Year Plan. The decomposition results indicate that economic development and increase in population are major driving forces, and that improvement in energy efficiency contributes to the reduction of CO₂ emission, and that decarbonization in primary energy structure is also an important strategic choice. Finally, the article stresses that in CO₂ order to realize the binding target of 20% reduction in GDP energy intensity during the 11^th Five Year Plan, China should speed up the readjustment of the industrial structure and energetically develop the energy-efficient technologies and clean fuel technology, which will effectively promote the country to reduce CO₂ emission and contribute to the mitigation of climate change.

From the history of human economic development, it is known that there is a close relationship between economic development and environment quality. Thus, in this study a factor decomposition model of carbon emission in China is built and the contributions that economic scale, industrial structure, and carbon emission intensity make to carbon emission quantitatively from 1990 to 2005 are analyzed, in other words—scale effect, structural effect, and technical effect—using the decomposition method of average distribution cushion which is based on the environmental Kuznets curves model is studied. The result suggests that the average of the effect changes of carbon emission in China is 19.55%, the effects brought by economic scale, industrial structure, and carbon emission intensity are 15.76%, −0.86%, and 4.65%, respectively. In general, the relation between carbon emission and China's economy was more like an “N” curve; Economy scale is a primary drive factor and has incremental effect to carbon emission. Since otherness of different industry is getting bigger, the industrial restructure has certain decremental effect to carbon emission, but the restrictive function is not obvious, the industrial structure still need to be further optimized; the technical effect is positive and its volatility is large. From the perspective of reducing carbon emission, the current technology has not played to its advantages. This study will promote the understanding of the theory about the relationship between carbon emission and economy development and provide reference value by all means to the adjustment of industrial development.

The article establishes an evaluation index system of the intensive land use from the perspective of enterprises. It is based on the questionnaire survey and evaluates the levels of the intensive use of the land in the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry in Changzhou, Nantong, and Yancheng of Jiangsu Province. The evaluation result shows that there is obvious difference in the levels of the intensive use of the land in this industry in the three cities. The present article makes a detailed analysis on the causes of the difference. The analysis shows difference in results of the socio-economic and urban development stage, industrial features, population density, and technological progress. Finally, it proposes some suggestions to improve the efficiency of the industrial land use.

Researchers are looking for an effective solution to mitigate climate change along with the growth of global average temperature and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate disasters. However, after the ratification of Kyoto Protocol, which is the international agreement dedicated to solve the problem, climate change is getting more serious in the recent decade. It is considered that the ultimate reason is not from the limitation of current technology or policy instrument but from the cognition part, which is the basis guiding people to comprehend problems and search for solutions. Until now, the research on the climate change issue is consistently based on a deficient assumption that climate change is a kind of “the tragedy of the commons.” This phenomenon could be considered as the “Pluto phenomenon” and directly cause the inefficiency of current solution. Therefore, the cognition's reconstruction is vital to guide researchers and relevant stakeholders to search for an efficient approach to mitigate climate change.

Ecosystem approach, a new comprehensive approach to the conservation and management of natural resources, has received universal concern and approval in the world, and it requires the application of the eco-compensation mechanism. Some basic ideas for establishing the marine eco-compensation mechanism are: payers and payees can be identified through analyzing marine ecosystem service changes and impacts on the stakeholders; financial transfer payment and environmental taxes and fees can be used as the main channels for compensation; payment standard can be set up by following the principle of a compromise between calculated theoretic results and “price bargaining”. Focusing on the key human impact on marine ecosystem in Bohai Sea, some preliminary ides on eco-compensation application are given: reform the ongoing charge system of pollutant discharge and enhance its incentives to reduce land pollutants; implement eco-compensation for freshwater demand between Bohai Sea and the river basins for the purpose of increasing freshwater inflow; popularize and strengthen the existing eco-compensation on fishery resources management, and implement the charge system of eco-compensation on reclamation from the sea for land construction.

With China's rapid economic growth, ecological construction and environmental protection become increasingly important. The regenerated resources industry is an effective way to solve problems, such as resources depletion, energy shortage, and pollution, and it also has strategic importance for the construction of a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. The regenerated resources industry has been established in Miluo for long time, which includes a recycling system, a processing and utilization system, and a refuse decontamination system. An industrial cluster is in its early stage of development. In order to solve current problems, such as short industrial chain, low processing rate, and low added value, the industrial cluster should be dynamically upgraded by means of technology innovation, chain nucleus creation, and chain extension. We think the industrial cluster of regenerated resources will become a local brand for Miluo, from which other regions or cities will gain valuable experiences and inspirations.

In the background of China's rapid urbanization, the conflicts between urban population, economy, space, and environment are intensified and complicated. This article aims to establish a coordinate assessment method for studying urban population, economy, space, and environment interactions in city scale by principal component analysis and regression analysis. On the basis of the case study on Shenyang city, the results indicated that the integrated development of urban population, economic, and space was in a poor situation from 1993 to 1999, whereas it turned better after 2000, and the urban environment improved steadily after 1998. The static coordination degree of urban integrated development and environment showed obvious periodical and fluctuant characteristics. Compared with the static coordination degree, the dynamic coordination degree appeared to be smooth and lag. The static coordination degree was elementary discoordinative in 1993, 1994, and 1999; whereas it turned to be elementary coordinative between 1995 and 2005. The dynamic coordination degree was elementary discoordinative from 1993 to 1996, whereas it became elementary coordinative overall after 1997.

To analyze current policies on cultivated land protection, this article discusses the application of transferable development rights in cultivated land protection by examining the connotation, operation mechanism, and construction on the market mechanism, benefits driving forces, and expected benefits. The results suggest that economic incentives and fairness have been neglected in previous policies on cultivated land protection. Moreover, the introduction of transferable development rights can not only eliminate the imbalance of interests, but also enhance the incentives for farmers and developers. In addition, it can significantly reduce the fiscal expenditure of the government.