Embodied energy consumption and carbon emissions evaluation for urban industrial structure optimization

doi:10.1007/s11707-013-0386-7

Front Earth Sci

2014, Vol. 8

Issue (1) : 32-43 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-013-0386-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Embodied energy consumption and carbon emissions evaluation for urban industrial structure optimization

Xi JI¹, Zhanming CHEN²(

), Jinkai LI³(

)

1. School of Economics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; 2. Department of Energy Economics, School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China; 3. Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

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Abstract

Cities are the main material processors associated with industrialization. The development of urban production based on fossil fuels is the major contributor to the rise of greenhouse gas density, and to global warming. The concept of urban industrial structure optimization is considered to be a solution to urban sustainable development and global climate issues. Enforcing energy conservation and reducing carbon emissions are playing key roles in addressing these issues. As such, quantitative accounting and the evaluation of energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions, which are by-products of urban production, are critical, in order to discover potential opportunities to save energy and to reduce emissions. Conventional evaluation indicators, such as “energy consumption per unit output value” and “emissions per unit output value”, are concerned with immediate consumptions and emissions; while the indirect consumptions and emissions that occur throughout the supply chain are ignored. This does not support the optimization of the overall urban industrial system. To present a systematic evaluation framework for cities, this study constructs new evaluation indicators, based on the concepts of “embodied energy” and “embodied carbon emissions”, which take both the immediate and indirect effects of energy consumption and emissions into account. Taking Beijing as a case, conventional evaluation indicators are compared with the newly constructed ones. Results show that the energy consumption and emissions of urban industries are represented better by the new indicators than by conventional indicators, and provide useful information for urban industrial structure optimization.

Keywords embodied carbon emissions embodied energy industrial structure optimization urban economy

Corresponding Author(s): CHEN Zhanming,Email:chenzhanming@ruc.edu.cn, chenzhanming@pku.edu.cn; LI Jinkai,Email:lijinkai@sina.com

Issue Date: 05 March 2014

Cite this article:

Xi JI,Zhanming CHEN,Jinkai LI. Embodied energy consumption and carbon emissions evaluation for urban industrial structure optimization[J]. Front Earth Sci, 2014, 8(1): 32-43.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-013-0386-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2014/V8/I1/32

Tab.1 Integrated input-output table including energy, greenhouse gases, and economic factors

Fig.1 Input and output flows of a sector.

Tab.2 Emission factors of greenhouse gases from main energy resources ()

Fig.2 Embodied energy intensity of the 42 sectors of Beijing in 2005.

Fig.3 Embodied carbon emission intensity of the 42 sectors of Beijing in 2005.

Fig.4 Comparison between direct energy consumption intensity, and embodied energy intensity across the 42 sectors of Beijing in 2005.

Fig.5 Comparison between direct carbon emission intensity and embodied carbon emission intensity across the 42 sectors of Beijing in 2005.

Fig.6 Comparison of embodied energy intensity between Beijing and China in 2005.

Fig.7 Comparison of embodied carbon emission intensity between Beijing and China in 2005.

Tab.3 Aggregate energy consumption and carbon emissions of different economic activities of Beijing in 2005.

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