IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v358y2024ics0306261923019116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy-related carbon emission reduction pathways in Northwest China towards carbon neutrality goal

Author

Listed:
  • Xu, Meng
  • Zhang, Silu
  • Li, Panwei
  • Weng, Zhixiong
  • Xie, Yang
  • Lan, Yan

Abstract

The Chinese government has announced ambitious carbon reduction goals to address climate change, however, there has been limited scientific attention to the achievement of deep decarbonization in regions with insufficient economic development. Moreover, the complex impacts of climate change mitigation on energy system, environment and economic development remain unclear in Northwest China. Here we construct a comprehensive evaluation model system to evaluate the effects of different climate mitigation pathways in Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Results show that the four provinces need to vigorously increase the share of electricity that consumed in final energy to 53.1–60.0% and 52.9–62.0% for 2 °C and 1.5 °C target, respectively, and reduce total energy demand to 11.6–44.4 Mtoe and 8.2–34.1 Mtoe in 2050. Meanwhile, the CO2 emissions for their energy systems will reach peak by 2025 at lower values. Moreover, the synergies of CO2 reduction are most conducive to abating SO2 pollution and also contributing to decreasing PM2.5 concentrations. Additionally, the GDP losses in 2050 fluctuate from 5.0 to 21.7 billion USD in the 2 °C scenario to 11.5–52.7 billion USD in the 1.5 °C scenario. Our study provides practical guidance on achieving carbon reductions in less developed regions of China and lays foundations to promote decarbonization of energy systems in other provinces.

Suggested Citation

  • Xu, Meng & Zhang, Silu & Li, Panwei & Weng, Zhixiong & Xie, Yang & Lan, Yan, 2024. "Energy-related carbon emission reduction pathways in Northwest China towards carbon neutrality goal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:358:y:2024:i:c:s0306261923019116
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122547
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923019116
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122547?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. Joeri Rogelj & Daniel Huppmann & Volker Krey & Keywan Riahi & Leon Clarke & Matthew Gidden & Zebedee Nicholls & Malte Meinshausen, 2019. "A new scenario logic for the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal," Nature, Nature, vol. 573(7774), pages 357-363, September.
    2. Zhou, Ziqiao & Zhang, Lin, 2022. "Sustainable waste management and waste to energy: Valuation of energy potential of MSW in the Greater Bay Area of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    3. Zhang, Runsen & Zhang, Junyi, 2021. "Long-term pathways to deep decarbonization of the transport sector in the post-COVID world," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 28-36.
    4. Ryna Yiyun Cui & Nathan Hultman & Diyang Cui & Haewon McJeon & Sha Yu & Morgan R. Edwards & Arijit Sen & Kaihui Song & Christina Bowman & Leon Clarke & Junjie Kang & Jiehong Lou & Fuqiang Yang & Jiaha, 2021. "A plant-by-plant strategy for high-ambition coal power phaseout in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Liu, Xianmei & Peng, Rui & Bai, Caiquan & Chi, Yuanying & Liu, Yuxiang, 2023. "Economic cost, energy transition, and pollutant mitigation: The effect of China's different mitigation pathways toward carbon neutrality," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    6. Castán Broto, Vanesa & Baptista, Idalina & Kirshner, Joshua & Smith, Shaun & Neves Alves, Susana, 2018. "Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 645-655.
    7. Zhang, Guo-Xing & Yang, Yang & Su, Bin & Nie, Yan & Duan, Hong-Bo, 2023. "Electricity production, power generation structure, and air pollution: A monthly data analysis for 279 cities in China (2015–2019)," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Qin, Pengcheng & Xu, Hongmei & Liu, Min & Xiao, Chan & Forrest, Kate E. & Samuelsen, Scott & Tarroja, Brian, 2020. "Assessing concurrent effects of climate change on hydropower supply, electricity demand, and greenhouse gas emissions in the Upper Yangtze River Basin of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    9. Teng Ma & Silu Zhang & Yilong Xiao & Xiaorui Liu & Minghao Wang & Kai Wu & Guofeng Shen & Chen Huang & Yan Ru Fang & Yang Xie, 2023. "Costs and health benefits of the rural energy transition to carbon neutrality in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Fang, Yan Ru & Peng, Wei & Urpelainen, Johannes & Hossain, M.S. & Qin, Yue & Ma, Teng & Ren, Ming & Liu, Xiaorui & Zhang, Silu & Huang, Chen & Dai, Hancheng, 2023. "Neutralizing China's transportation sector requires combined decarbonization efforts from power and hydrogen supply," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    11. Wang, Huan & Chen, Wenying, 2019. "Modelling deep decarbonization of industrial energy consumption under 2-degree target: Comparing China, India and Western Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1563-1572.
    12. Dong, Huijuan & Dai, Hancheng & Dong, Liang & Fujita, Tsuyoshi & Geng, Yong & Klimont, Zbigniew & Inoue, Tsuyoshi & Bunya, Shintaro & Fujii, Minoru & Masui, Toshihiko, 2015. "Pursuing air pollutant co-benefits of CO2 mitigation in China: A provincial leveled analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 165-174.
    13. Chen, Hao & Qi, Shaozhou & Zhang, Jihong, 2022. "Towards carbon neutrality with Chinese characteristics: From an integrated perspective of economic growth-equity-environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    14. Luo, Shihua & Hu, Weihao & Liu, Wen & Xu, Xiao & Huang, Qi & Chen, Zhe & Lund, Henrik, 2021. "Transition pathways towards a deep decarbonization energy system—A case study in Sichuan, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    15. Nie, Yazhou & Deng, Mengsi & Shan, Ming & Yang, Xudong, 2023. "Clean and low-carbon heating in the building sector of China: 10-Year development review and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    16. Keywan Riahi & Christoph Bertram & Daniel Huppmann & Joeri Rogelj & Valentina Bosetti & Anique-Marie Cabardos & Andre Deppermann & Laurent Drouet & Stefan Frank & Oliver Fricko & Shinichiro Fujimori &, 2021. "Cost and attainability of meeting stringent climate targets without overshoot," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(12), pages 1063-1069, December.
    17. Zou, Chenchen & Ma, Minda & Zhou, Nan & Feng, Wei & You, Kairui & Zhang, Shufan, 2023. "Toward carbon free by 2060: A decarbonization roadmap of operational residential buildings in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    18. Zhang, Sheng & Yu, Ran & Wen, Zuhui & Xu, Jiayu & Liu, Peihan & Zhou, Yunqiao & Zheng, Xiaoqi & Wang, Lei & Hao, Jiming, 2023. "Impact of labor and energy allocation imbalance on carbon emission efficiency in China's industrial sectors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    19. Bompard, E. & Botterud, A. & Corgnati, S. & Huang, T. & Jafari, M. & Leone, P. & Mauro, S. & Montesano, G. & Papa, C. & Profumo, F., 2020. "An electricity triangle for energy transition: Application to Italy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Luo, Shihua & Hu, Weihao & Liu, Wen & Xu, Xiao & Huang, Qi & Chen, Zhe & Lund, Henrik, 2021. "Transition pathways towards a deep decarbonization energy system—A case study in Sichuan, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    2. Johnson, Elliott & Betts-Davies, Sam & Barrett, John, 2023. "Comparative analysis of UK net-zero scenarios: The role of energy demand reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    3. Wang, Zhaohua & Zhang, Hongzhi & Li, Hao & Wang, Bo & Cui, Qi & Zhang, Bin, 2022. "Economic impact and energy transformation of different effort-sharing schemes to pursue 2 ℃ warming limit in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    4. Weiwei Chen & Yibo Wang & Jia Zhang & Wei Dou & Yaxuan Jiao, 2022. "Planning and Energy–Economy–Environment–Security Evaluation Methods for Municipal Energy Systems in China under Targets of Peak Carbon Emissions and Carbon Neutrality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Oshiro, Ken & Fujimori, Shinichiro, 2022. "Role of hydrogen-based energy carriers as an alternative option to reduce residual emissions associated with mid-century decarbonization goals," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    6. Chen, Siyuan & Liu, Jiangfeng & Zhang, Qi & Teng, Fei & McLellan, Benjamin C., 2022. "A critical review on deployment planning and risk analysis of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) toward carbon neutrality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. He, Liuyue & Xu, Zhenci & Wang, Sufen & Bao, Jianxia & Fan, Yunfei & Daccache, Andre, 2022. "Optimal crop planting pattern can be harmful to reach carbon neutrality: Evidence from food-energy-water-carbon nexus perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    8. Yang Yang & Ji-Qin Ni & Weiqing Bao & Lei Zhao & Guang Hui Xie, 2019. "Potential Reductions in Greenhouse Gas and Fine Particulate Matter Emissions Using Corn Stover for Ethanol Production in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, September.
    9. Canabarro, N.I. & Silva-Ortiz, P. & Nogueira, L.A.H. & Cantarella, H. & Maciel-Filho, R. & Souza, G.M., 2023. "Sustainability assessment of ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    10. Gorbach, O.G. & Kost, C. & Pickett, C., 2022. "Review of internal carbon pricing and the development of a decision process for the identification of promising Internal Pricing Methods for an Organisation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    11. Zhao, Yincheng & Zhang, Guozhou & Hu, Weihao & Huang, Qi & Chen, Zhe & Blaabjerg, Frede, 2023. "Meta-learning based voltage control strategy for emergency faults of active distribution networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    12. Ploy Achakulwisut & Peter Erickson & Céline Guivarch & Roberto Schaeffer & Elina Brutschin & Steve Pye, 2023. "Global fossil fuel reduction pathways under different climate mitigation strategies and ambitions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Li, Yanmei & Cui, Yifei & Cai, Bofeng & Guo, Jingpeng & Cheng, Tianhai & Zheng, Fengjie, 2020. "Spatial characteristics of CO2 emissions and PM2.5 concentrations in China based on gridded data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    14. Yongsheng Lin & Zhe Liu & Rui Liu & Xiaoman Yu & Liming Zhang, 2020. "Uncovering driving forces of co-benefits achieved by eco-industrial development strategies at the scale of industrial park," Energy & Environment, , vol. 31(2), pages 275-290, March.
    15. Andrej Predin & Matej Fike & Marko Pezdevšek & Gorazd Hren, 2021. "Lost Energy of Water Spilled over Hydropower Dams," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    16. Florian Humpenöder & Alexander Popp & Carl-Friedrich Schleussner & Anton Orlov & Michael Gregory Windisch & Inga Menke & Julia Pongratz & Felix Havermann & Wim Thiery & Fei Luo & Patrick v. Jeetze & J, 2022. "Overcoming global inequality is critical for land-based mitigation in line with the Paris Agreement," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Zhao, Yuhuan & Shi, Qiaoling & li, Hao & Qian, Zhiling & Zheng, Lu & Wang, Song & He, Yizhang, 2022. "Simulating the economic and environmental effects of integrated policies in energy-carbon-water nexus of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).
    18. Inese Mavlutova & Dzintra Atstaja & Janis Grasis & Jekaterina Kuzmina & Inga Uvarova & Dagnija Roga, 2023. "Urban Transportation Concept and Sustainable Urban Mobility in Smart Cities: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-16, April.
    19. Fan, Zhi-Ping & Cai, Siqin & Guo, Dongliang & Xu, Bo, 2022. "Facing the uncertainty of renewable energy production: Production decisions of a power plant with different risk attitudes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1237-1247.
    20. Shao, Tianming & Pan, Xunzhang & Li, Xiang & Zhou, Sheng & Zhang, Shu & Chen, Wenying, 2022. "China's industrial decarbonization in the context of carbon neutrality: A sub-sectoral analysis based on integrated modelling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    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:appene:v:358:y:2024:i:c:s0306261923019116. 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    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.