How does environmental regulation promote technological innovations in the industrial sector? Evidence from Chinese provincial panel data
Xiaoling Ouyang, Qiong Li, Kerui Du
Promoting technological innovations by environmental regulation is one of the essential means to achieve green transformation. This study investigates the effect of environmental regulation on technological innovations based on the provincial panel data of industrial sectors in China during the years 2005–2015. The two-way fixed-effect panel data model is used to investigate the marginal and heterogeneous impacts empirically. Results indicate a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and technological innovations. In the short-term, environmental regulation has an “offsetting effect” on the research and innovation capacity of China's industrial sector. However, with the deepening of environmental regulation, it forces the industry to reduce the cost of pollution control by improving technological innovation capacity, thus creating a “compensation effect”. Results also show that environmental regulation policies changed the location and industry selection of foreign capital, which weakened the positive effect of FDI on technological innovations, indicating the “pollution shelter” effect. From the perspective of different types of enterprises, due to the higher cost of energy conservation and emission reduction, environmental regulation is detrimental to the technological innovations of state-owned enterprises. In particular, we find that industries with a higher degree of market competition and higher human capital investment tend to have stronger technological innovation capabilities.
Exploring the relationship between climate change, air pollutants and human health: Impacts, adaptation, and mitigation strategies
Gibson Owhoro Ofremu, Babatunde Yusuf Raimi, Samuel Omokhafe Yusuf
et al.
The innumerable impact of climate change is a global menace to human health. This paper conveys a comprehensive review of scientific literature to explore the relationship between climate change, air pollutants, and human health. The integral relationship between climate change and health is complex and has a significant impact on every facet of human life. The impact can either be direct (e.g., exposures due to extreme heat, storms, flooding, and air pollution) or indirect (e.g., displacement, food security, and variation in water). The rising temperature of the planet could lead to increasingly severe health impacts from climate change in the future. It is important to take stringent climate actions to mitigate the climate change risk and adapt to the impacts that are already happening. To lessen the speed and severity of climate change, mitigation focuses on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Options for adaptation include things like advancing to higher ground to stop sea levels from increasing, growing new crops that can grow in a new environment, or using novel construction methods. Investing in novel or enhanced technology, infrastructure, and research is frequently required for adaptation. The review emphasized the importance of considering both short-term and long-term adaptation strategies as well as mitigation efforts, which call for steps to address the root cause by halting or reducing the growth in fossil fuel emissions that might severely and completely increase the earth's scorching temperatures. The results of this study provide insightful viewpoints on adaptation measures, and mitigation strategies for decision-makers, experts in public health, and researchers working in the field of climate change and its effects on human health.
Renewable energy sources, Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade
Photovoltaic performance of semi-pure and crude dye extracts from the leaf of Lonchocarpus cyanescens as natural sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC)
Moriamo O. John, Chukwuemeka Isanbor, Taofeek B. Ogunbayo
et al.
In this study, the natural dye was extracted from Lonchocarpus cyanescens (LC), and both the crude and semi-pure extracts were used as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Characterization of the prepared dye was carried out using UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. Different DSSCs based on the extracted dye were fabricated. The light conversion efficiency of the DSSC from the purified extract was found to be 0.057%. This value is lower than the performance of the DSSC from the crude extract of Lonchocarpus cyanescens with 0.116% efficiency. An electrochemical study of the cells was carried out to validate the results using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for the first time. The difference in the performances of the 2 samples is attributed to the loss of co-absorbers that acted in synergy with absorbing species of crude extract during the process of purification. These absorbing species also act as adsorbing species to the TiO2 surface. In this study, we have established the relationship between the photovoltaic performance of semi-pure and crude extracts of Lonchocarpus cyanescens DSSCs and their charge transport properties.
Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade, Renewable energy sources
Spectral Energy Distribution Analysis of the Supersoft X-ray Source CAL 87: Multiwavelength Constraints
Paulo E. Stecchini, Francisco Jablonski, Marcos P. Diaz
et al.
We analyse the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the eclipsing supersoft X-ray source CAL 87 covering wavelengths from X-rays to the near-infrared. Our study incorporates 26 data points across ultraviolet to near-infrared, sourced from published literature, unpublished data, and new observations. In addition, archival XMM-Newton spectra were used to represent the X-ray emission. Care was taken to use out-of-eclipse flux measurements when the irradiated side of the companion faces the observer. The SED model includes contributions from a central source, a reprocessed accretion disk, and an irradiated companion star atmosphere, resulting in a good match to the observed fluxes. The revised and new parameters for the disk and the central source align with previous studies and match expectations for such systems. The temperature of the irradiated side of the companion star was estimated based on its B-V colour during the secondary eclipse. This work highlights the importance of broad wavelength coverage for understanding the properties of supersoft X-ray sources.
en
astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.SR
Towards a cleaner and sustainable Europe and Central Asia: An investigation of the logistics‐environment nexus
M. Shamout
The logistics industry is the backbone of global trade and is crucial for the attainment of economic progress across the world. However, the industry involves activities that increase the consumption of energy resources including fossil fuels, which harms the environment. Thus, with a special focus on Europe and Central Asia, this study explores the logistics‐environment by evaluating the impact of logistics performance (LP) on environmental performance (EP) while controlling for key macroeconomic indicators such as income, trade openness, foreign direct investment, and industrialization. The motivation for this study is derived from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs‐11 and 13) which highlight sustainability and climate change mitigation. Using Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood with high‐dimensional fixed effects (PPMLHDFE) for 47 European and Central Asian countries over the period 2007–2018, the findings revealed that the overall logistic performance, and some of its components—customs, trade, and transport infrastructure, and tracing and tracking have a significant positive impact on the overall EP, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. Additionally, the study confirms the detrimental effects of economic growth, trade, and industrialization on environmental quality and health from logistics and supply chain management (SCM) perspectives. Further policy caveats and suggestions are elucidated in the concluding section.
Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Tissue Paper Production
A. C. Dias, Ricardo Carvalho, Cristina Marques
et al.
The environmental performance of tissue paper varies greatly based on factors such as the type of fibre used as the raw material, the production process and the fuels used to meet the energy requirements. One possible strategy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in tissue production is the integration of pulp and paper mills and their energy systems at the same site. However, the environmental trade-offs associated with this strategy are still unclear. Therefore, this study aimed (i) to assess for the first time the environmental impacts of tissue paper produced at a typical industrial site in Portugal using slush and market pulp as the main raw material, and (ii) to assess the environmental effects of the integration of bioenergy produced in the pulp mill in tissue production. A life cycle assessment was conducted from cradle to gate using real data from the production of eucalyptus wood, eucalyptus pulp and tissue paper. The results showed that energy consumption in tissue paper production is the main hotspot for most impact categories. When bioenergy is used in tissue production, the environmental impacts decrease by up to 20% for categories other than marine eutrophication and mineral resource scarcity. These results are relevant to support decision making concerning sustainable practices not only for the pulp and paper industry but also for the authorities in charge of defining environmental policies, incentives and tax regulations.
Application of QPSO-BPSO in fault self-healing of distributed power distribution networks
Xuan Liu, Meng Liu, Hong Yin
Abstract With the widespread application of distributed power sources in distribution networks, fault self-healing technology has become the key to ensuring the reliability of power systems. The micro-grid ensures system stability with a three-layer structure, where the designed method handles optimization problems, achieving faster global search and optimal solutions. Agents develop targeted recovery strategies by understanding network load, which are then executed by higher-level agents to ensure that the optimal recovery command is implemented by the system. According to the research results, during peak load, the system successfully outputted 7 kilowatts and met the load demand through battery discharge, demonstrating its self-healing ability. The output analysis of photovoltaic and wind turbines showed that the system reasonably scheduled within 24 h according to the changes in solar energy and wind power. Based on the quantum behavior particle swarm optimization algorithm, the system has achieved lower active power loss and greater power supply capacity. Although the number of switch operations has increased, the system performance has significantly improved, meeting the requirements for improving system economy and safety. It has promoting effects on the sustainable development of future power systems.
Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade
Energy-GNoME: A Living Database of Selected Materials for Energy Applications
Paolo De Angelis, Giovanni Trezza, Giulio Barletta
et al.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in materials science is driving significant advancements in the discovery of advanced materials for energy applications. The recent GNoME protocol identifies over 380,000 novel stable crystals. From this, we identify over 33,000 materials with potential as energy materials forming the Energy-GNoME database. Leveraging Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) tools, our protocol mitigates cross-domain data bias using feature spaces to identify potential candidates for thermoelectric materials, novel battery cathodes, and novel perovskites. Classifiers with both structural and compositional features identify domains of applicability, where we expect enhanced accuracy of the regressors. Such regressors are trained to predict key materials properties like, thermoelectric figure of merit (zT), band gap (Eg), and cathode voltage ($ΔV_c$). This method significantly narrows the pool of potential candidates, serving as an efficient guide for experimental and computational chemistry investigations and accelerating the discovery of materials suited for electricity generation, energy storage and conversion.
en
cond-mat.mtrl-sci, cond-mat.other
Profit‐maximizing of perennial energy crop production through optimized management practices: A commentary on Zhang et al. (2022)
Yiying Zhang, Wei Hou
I was invited to make a brief commentary on a recent article titled “Determining Spatially Varying Profit‐Maximizing Management Practices for Miscanthus and Switchgrass Production in the Rainfed United States” published in GCBB by Zhang et al. (2022). In the work, they propose management practices to maximize profitability through economically optimal N fertilizer application, temporal and spatial variation, and optimal age rotation of two energy crops. This interesting and thoroughly investigated result would be instructive for the applications of perennial energy crops.
Renewable energy sources, Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade
Optimization of Fossil Fuel Consumption under Grid Energy Supply by Wind Energy and Auxiliary Batteries Using Fossil Fuel for Energy Supply
Yi Chen
In this paper, a class of systems in which auxiliary batteries fed by fossil fuel generation and wind farms work together to supply power to the grid are modeled and strategies are solved to minimize the consumption of fossil fuels while still allowing the total energy to satisfy the energy demand of the grid. The wind resource is modeled using stochastic differential equations and the grid energy demand is also stochastically modeled using stochastic differential equations. The two stochastic models are well calibrated using wind resource data from historical wind farms and historical grid energy demand data. Finally, dynamic programming is used to solve this optimization problem.
Natural gas overview for world economy: From primary supply to final demand via global supply chains
Siyi Kan, Bingya Chen, Xiaofang Wu
et al.
As the world is smoothing the transition towards a low-carbon energy structure, natural gas has occupied a critical position in global energy supply. Also, globalization has catalyzed ever-increasing indirect energy flows in international trade. In order to present a comprehensive overview of natural gas use in globalized economy, this paper applies the systems multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis to track natural gas use from primary suppliers to final consumers via the links by producers in the world economy, supported by typical statistics for the year of 2011. Natural gas embodied in international trade is revealed amounting to 2722.1 bcm, in magnitude up to 90% of total gas extraction for energy use, indicating the intensive relocation of gas use by trade. 83% of traded embodied natural gas is associated with intermediate trade, mainly from leading primary suppliers, including Russia, USA and Western Asia, to dominant final consumers, like USA, EU27 and East Asia. Significant differences are found between direct and embodied natural gas flows. Consumption-based resource efficiency can break the illusion of efficiency improvements, and trade imbalance in terms of gas use can be opposite to the trade imbalance in conventional monetary terms. This paper has constructed a comprehensive analytical framework to trace natural gas flows in globalized economy for the first time, aiming to provide new insights for policy making.
Decarbonization in Сhina: energy transition and financing challenges
Y. A. Makeev
In the second decade of 21st century China has evolved as the world largest producer, consumer and importer of fossil fuels, including crude oil, natural gas and coal. The other side is the country’s leadership in emission of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2. The problem, already addressed during five-year plans in 2006-2015, got special attention in the thirteenth five-year plan under the concept of ‘beautiful China”, which contains ambitious goals in ecological reconstruction of China. The central problem among these goals is decarbonization and phasing down coal as the backbone of China’s energy system. The existing plans and models are viewed by the authors together with the short history of energy sector, rapid progress in building a sound renewables segment, which is also number one in the world. Special attention in the article is given tothe complexity of China's energy transition, the authors analyze the current state of the PRC's energy industry and provide possible scenarios for energy transition and emerging green finance in China. The methods and instruments of the state policy in the field are presented, including trade in emissions of CO2 which has a huge growth potential. Energy transit in China doesn’t look as a close perspective due to complex domestic issues and international environment where the interests of developed and developing countries collide. At home there is a problem of financial efficiency of renewables, at the world scene China at present can hardly trust western partners in rebuilding the energy sector, which has a strategic significance.
Extreme events and carbon emissions: What we could learn from decomposition of national- and sector-carbon emission
Qiang Wang, Rongrong Li, Min Su
et al.
The lockdown policies related with the COVID-19 pandemic brings carbon emissions slump, but emissions potentially restore to increase as lockdown policies relaxed and the economy recovers. In this context, this study aims to explore the changes in carbon emissions and their underlying factors in the post-COVID-19 era from a national and sectoral perspective by drawing on the experience of carbon emissions before and after the 2008 global crisis. The latest extreme event and carbon emission trends might provide some implications for curbing potential emission rebound after the pandemic. The results indicate that, (i) developing countries like China and India still struggle with carbon reduction, which need more efforts made to control continuously increased carbon emission; (ii) energy intensity and economic level are respectively major contributor and inhibitor to national and industrial emission reduction whether in developing or developed countries, while in developed countries, energy intensity has a slightly stronger impact on carbon emissions than economic level. Carbon intensity had both positive and negative impact on carbon emission, and population scale usually drove carbon emission increase, particularly in developing countries like India; (iii) Industrial carbon emissions vary widely across economies, but most industrial carbon emissions continue to decrease in developed countries while increase in developing countries. Therefore, we contend that energy intensity is the key point to prevent a potential rebound of emission in post-COVID-19 era.
Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade
Precision test of the muon-Higgs coupling at a high-energy muon collider
Jürgen Reuter, Tao Han, Wolfgang Kilian
et al.
We explore the sensitivity of directly testing the muon-Higgs coupling at a high-energy muon collider. This is strongly motivated if there exists new physics that is not aligned with the Standard Model Yukawa interactions which are responsible for the fermion mass generation. We illustrate a few such examples for physics beyond the Standard Model. With the accidentally small value of the muon Yukawa coupling and its subtle role in the high-energy production of multiple (vector and Higgs) bosons, we show that it is possible to measure the muon-Higgs coupling to an accuracy of ten percent for a 10 TeV muon collider and a few percent for a 30 TeV machine by utilizing the three boson production, potentially sensitive to a new physics scale about $Λ\sim$ 30-100 TeV.
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Wind and Energy Storage Coordination in Wholesale Energy and Ancillary Service Markets
Jinhao Li, Changlong Wang, Hao Wang
Wind energy has been increasingly adopted to mitigate climate change. However, the variability of wind energy causes wind curtailment, resulting in considerable economic losses for wind farm owners. Wind curtailment can be reduced using battery energy storage systems (BESS) as onsite backup sources. Yet, this auxiliary role may significantly weaken the economic potential of BESS in energy trading. Ideal BESS scheduling should balance onsite wind curtailment reduction and market bidding, but practical implementation is challenging due to coordination complexity and the stochastic nature of energy prices and wind generation. We investigate the joint-market bidding strategy of a co-located wind-battery system in the spot and Regulation Frequency Control Ancillary Service markets. We propose a novel deep reinforcement learning-based approach that decouples the system's market participation into two related Markov decision processes for each facility, enabling the BESS to absorb onsite wind curtailment while performing joint-market bidding to maximize overall operational revenues. Using realistic wind farm data, we validated the coordinated bidding strategy, with outcomes surpassing the optimization-based benchmark in terms of higher revenue by approximately 25\% and more wind curtailment reduction by 2.3 times. Our results show that joint-market bidding can significantly improve the financial performance of wind-battery systems compared to participating in each market separately. Simulations also show that using curtailed wind generation as a power source for charging the BESS can lead to additional financial gains. The successful implementation of our algorithm would encourage co-location of generation and storage assets to unlock wider system benefits.
Blazar jets as possible sources of ultra-high energy photons: a short review
Gopal Bhatta
In this work, I present a qualitative discussion on the prospect of production of ultra-high photons in blazars. The sources are a subclass of active galactic nuclei which host supermassive black holes and fire relativistic jets into the intergalactic medium. The kpc scale jets are believed to be dominated by Poynting flux and constitute one of the most efficient cosmic particle accelerators, that potentially are capable of accelerating the particles up to EeV energies. Recent IceCube detection of astrophysical neutrino emission in coincidence with the enhanced gamma-ray from Tev blazar TXS 0506 + 056 further supports hadronic models of blazar emissions in which particle acceleration processes such as relativistic shocks, magnetic re-connection, and relativistic turbulence could energize hardrons, e. g. protons, up to energies equivalent to billions of Lorentz factors. The ensuing photo-pionic processes may then result in gamma-rays accompanied by neutrino flux. Furthermore, the fact that blazars are the dominant source of observed TeV emission encourages us to search for signatures of acceleration scenarios that would lead to the creation of ultra-high energy photons.
The environmental and economic impact of the emissions trading scheme (ETS) in Vietnam
Duy Nong, T. Nguyen, Can Wang
et al.
This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining the impacts of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) in Vietnam, as the policy has been discussed for a decade in the country but the likely impacts on the economy and different sectors are still unidentified. The simulations are carried out in a global energy computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, an extension of the GTAP-E model, which treats Vietnam as a country region. Results show that restricting the number of industrial sectors in the emissions trading market substantially affects the country's economy with a decline in real GDP by 4.57%. However, the country experiences much smaller adverse impacts (e.g., real GDP declines by 1.78%) when all industries participate in the emissions trading market. In either case of the ETS design, the coal mining, manufacturing, transportation, and electricity sectors are highly adversely affected; however, the crude oil and natural gas extraction sectors would experience expansion in their production levels due to substitutions for coal. In general, under the policy the emission levels from burning fossil fuels decline at significant rates, particularly from the electricity generation sector.
Malaysia's economic growth, consumption of oil, industry and CO2 emissions: evidence from the ARDL model
B. Aslam, J. Hu, S. Ali
et al.
Securing technology-critical metals for Britain
A. Walton, Paul Anderson, Gavin Harper
et al.
Global outsourcing of carbon emissions 1995–2009: A reassessment
Nicolai Baumert, A. Kander, Magnus Jiborn
et al.
Abstract Increasing global production fragmentation allows for outsourcing of emissions, which may undermine national climate policies. Researchers focusing on the gap between consumption-based and production-based emissions have concluded that developed countries are systematically outsourcing emissions to developing countries. However, asymmetries in emissions embodied in trade may emerge due to differences in carbon intensity of energy and production between different countries, and need not be evidence of outsourcing. This study investigates if previous results concerning emission in –and outsourcing of developed and developing countries hold when emission flows are adjusted for technological differences. Two striking results are demonstrated: first, the magnitude of outsourcing is significantly smaller than previous studies have suggested, and, second, there is no clear divide between developing and developed countries. Large developed Anglophone countries (US, UK, Canada and Australia) were increasingly outsourcing emissions between 1995 and 2009 by shifting toward more carbon-intensive goods in their imports and less carbon intensive goods in exports, whereas other developed countries (i.e. the Nordics, advanced Asia and even the aggregate EU-27) maintained a positive emission trade balance. Among major developing countries, China is a major insourcer of emissions, while other emerging economies show no consistent pattern (e.g. India, Turkey and Brazil) or marginal outsourcing (e.g. Indonesia and Mexico). These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of international trade on global carbon emissions.