IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v23y1998i4p253-270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China's key role in climate protection

Author

Listed:
  • Bach, Wilfrid
  • Fiebig, Stefan

Abstract

China is in the process of becoming the fourth main global player in the world economy, together with the US, the EU, and Japan. Due to an energy mix with 75% dependence on coal, a high energy intensity and low energy prices, it is, after the US, the world's second largest emitter of CO2. China's recoverable fossil fuel reserves have a CO2 emission potential of some 225Gt (the current global CO2 emission is about 22Gt/yr). Under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, all of it would be released to the atmosphere by 2040. This emission may cause a significant disruption of the climate system, resulting in severe adverse climatic and ecological impacts on China and the world. To avoid this outcome, an equitable climate-protection strategy is introduced to explore an alternative energy/climate future. Using a macroeconomic approach, it is shown that under BAU conditions, the year 2100 emissions of CO2 will increase above 1990 levels by 370 and 96% for China and the US, respectively. In contrast, for the climate-protection conditions required by the Climate Convention, CO2 emissions must decrease by 36% for China and by 90% for the US below 1990 levels. Using a microeconomic-engineering approach, the total CO2 reduction potential is found to be about 4600Mt for 13 specific measures over a 10-yr period. The incremental costs range from US$ 0.09 to 18.55 per ton of CO2 reduction for coal-saving stoves and solar cookers, respectively. The total reduction costs for China would be about US$ 2 billion per year or ∼0.4% of the 1994 GDP of China. This estimate does not allow for benefits from saved resources and avoided damages. We conclude with a discussion of various avenues for obtaining needed technological and financial support for China.

Suggested Citation

  • Bach, Wilfrid & Fiebig, Stefan, 1998. "China's key role in climate protection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 253-270.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:23:y:1998:i:4:p:253-270
    DOI: 10.1016/S0360-5442(97)00095-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544297000959
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S0360-5442(97)00095-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ishiguro, M. & Akiyama, T., 1995. "Energy Demand in Five Major Asian Developing Countries," World Bank - Discussion Papers 277, World Bank.
    2. Chen, Robert S. & Kates, Robert W., 1994. "World food security: prospects and trends," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 192-208, April.
    3. Johnson, T.M. & Li, J. & Jiang, Z. & Taylor, R.P., 1996. "China: Issues and Options in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Control," World Bank - Discussion Papers 330, World Bank.
    4. Chen, Lin-Yuan & Goldenfeld, Nigel & Oono, Y. & Paquette, Glenn, 1994. "Selection, stability and renormalization," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 204(1), pages 111-133.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gnansounou, Edgard & Dong, Jun & Bedniaguine, Denis, 2004. "The strategic technology options for mitigating CO2 emissions in power sector: assessment of Shanghai electricity-generating system," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 117-133, September.
    2. Luo, Zhongyang & Wang, Shurong & Cen, Kefa, 2005. "A model of wood flash pyrolysis in fluidized bed reactor," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 377-392.
    3. Indora, Sunil & Kandpal, Tara C., 2018. "Institutional cooking with solar energy: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 131-154.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammed Redha Qader, 2009. "Electricity Consumption and GHG Emissions in GCC Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Gundimeda, Haripriya & Kohlin, Gunnar, 2008. "Fuel demand elasticities for energy and environmental policies: Indian sample survey evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 517-546, March.
    3. Wohlgemuth, Norbert, 1997. "World transport energy demand modelling : Methodology and elasticities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(14-15), pages 1109-1119, December.
    4. James Boyce & Matthew Riddle & Mark D. Brenner, 2005. "A Chinese Sky Trust? Distributional Impacts of Carbon charges and Revenue Recycling in China," Working Papers wp_brenner_riddle_boyce, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    5. Blackman, Allen & Wu, Xun, 1999. "Foreign direct investment in china's power sector: trends, benefits and barriers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 695-711, November.
    6. Zhu, Ying, 2005. "Energy and motorization: scenarios for China's 2005-2020 energy balance," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Innovation and Organization SP III 2005-105, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    7. Michieka, Nyakundi M. & Fletcher, Jerald & Burnett, Wesley, 2013. "An empirical analysis of the role of China’s exports on CO2 emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 258-267.
    8. Lakner, Zoltan & Baker, Gregory A., 2014. "Struggling with Uncertainty: The State of Global Agri-Food Sector in 2030," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 1-36, November.
    9. Harris, Jonathan M. & Kennedy, Scott, 1999. "Carrying capacity in agriculture: global and regional issues," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 443-461, June.
    10. Stéphane Hallegatte & Przyluski Valentin & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2011. "Building world narratives for climate change impact, adaptation and vulnerability analyses," Post-Print hal-00618688, HAL.
    11. Tangka, F. K. L. & Emerson, R. D. & Jabbar, M. A., 2010. "Crossbred cows and food security: A study of smallholder farm households in the Ethiopian highlands," Research Reports 208728, International Livestock Research Institute.
    12. Jonathan M. Harris, "undated". "Agriculture in a Global Perspective," GDAE Working Papers 01-04, GDAE, Tufts University.
    13. Karani, Patrick, 2001. "Constraints for activities implemented jointly (AIJ) technology transfer in Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 229-234.
    14. Diakosavvas, Dimitris & Green, Christopher J., 1998. "Assessing the Impact on Food Security of Alternative Compensatory Financing Schemes: A Simulation Approach with an Application to India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 1251-1265, July.
    15. Reid, Walter V & Goldemberg, Jose, 1998. "Developing countries are combating climate change : Actions in developing countries that slow growth in carbon emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 233-237, February.
    16. Erkossa, Teklu & Hagos, Fitsum & Lefore, Nicole, 2014. "Proceedings of the Workshop on Flood-based Farming for Food Security and Adaption to Climate Change in Ethiopia: Potential and Challenges, Adama, Ethiopia, 30-31 October 2013," IWMI Conference Proceedings 208911, International Water Management Institute.
    17. Haripriya Gundimeda & Atheendar Gunnar Köhlin, 2006. "Fuel Demand Elasticities for Energy and Environmental Policies: Indian Sample Survey Evidence," Working Papers 2006-09, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    18. Masayasu Ishguro & Takamasa Akiyama, 1995. "Electricity demand in Asia and the effects on energy supply and the investment environment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1557, The World Bank.
    19. Brenner, Mark & Riddle, Matthew & Boyce, James K., 2007. "A Chinese sky trust?: Distributional impacts of carbon charges and revenue recycling in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1771-1784, March.
    20. Sa'ad, Suleiman, 2010. "Improved technical efficiency and exogenous factors in transportation demand for energy: An application of structural time series analysis to South Korean data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2745-2751.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:23:y:1998:i:4:p:253-270. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.