Contents:
We have a dedicated site for Germany. Editors: Huang , W. This book is based on multidisciplinary research focusing on low-carbon healthy city planning, policy and assessment. This includes city-development strategy, energy, environment, healthy, land-use, transportation, infrastructure, information and other related subjects. This book begins with the current status and problems of low-carbon healthy city development in China.
It then introduces the global experience of different regions and different policy trends, focusing on individual cases. Finally, the book opens a discussion of Chinese low-carbon healthy city development from planning and design, infrastructure and technology assessment-system perspectives. It presents a case study including the theory and methodology to support the unit city theory for low-carbon healthy cities.
The book provides readers with a comprehensive overview of building low-carbon healthy cities in China. Research Interests and Honors Prof. He has made significant achievements in these areas, and has published several well-recognized books such as Aerothermodynamics. Thermal Sciences.
V16 4 , IGTC pp. He received his Ph. During his work and study, he is exploring new ways to help the central and local governments to get sustainable development in the future. His work is supported by around 10 sciences foundation projects, and 6 international research cooperation projects, to explore city and transportation development in China and the United States. He is formerly a president of the Chinese Scholar Union, and has worked for several government departments.
The background of his research and government work experiences make him to take more responsibility to create bridge between actual urbanism projects and the new technology from both China and other places in the worldwide.
Procedia Computer Science Journal. One barrier to a greater rate of change in energy systems is that economic growth in the past has been coupled to the use of fossil fuels. Disruptive innovation and socio-technical changes could enable the decoupling of economic growth from a range of environmental drivers, including the consumption of fossil fuels, as represented by 1.
This may be relative decoupling due to rebound effects that see financial savings generated by renewable energy used in the consumption of new products and services Jackson and Senker, ; Gillingham et al. A longer data trend would be needed before stable decoupling can be established. The observed decoupling in and was driven by absolute declines in both coal and oil use since the early s in Europe, in the past seven years in the United States and Australia, and more recently in China Newman, Oil consumption in China is still rising slowly, but absolute decoupling is ongoing in megacities like Beijing Gao and Newman, 49 see Box 4.
In some regions and places, incremental adaptation would not be sufficient to mitigate the impacts of climate change on social-ecological systems see Chapter 3. Transformational adaptation would then be required Bahadur and Tanner, ; Pant et al. Transformational adaptation refers to actions aiming at adapting to climate change resulting in significant changes in structure or function that go beyond adjusting existing practices Dowd et al.
Few studies have assessed the potentially transformative character of adaptation options Pelling et al. Transformational adaptation can be adopted at a large scale, can lead to new strategies in a region or resource system, transform places and potentially shift locations Kates et al. Some systems might require transformational adaptation at 1.
Implementing adaptation policies in anticipation of 1. Transformational adaptation would seek deep and long-term societal changes that influence sustainable development Chung Tiam Fook, ; Few et al. Adaptation requires multidisciplinary approaches integrating scientific, technological and social dimensions. For example, a framework for transformational adaptation and the integration of mitigation and adaptation pathways can transform rural indigenous communities to address risks of climate change and other stressors Thornton and Comberti, In villages in rural Nepal, transformational adaptation has taken place, with villagers changing their agricultural and pastoralist livelihood strategies after years of lost crops due to changing rain patterns and degradation of natural resources Thornton and Comberti, Instead, they are now opening stores, hotels, and tea shops.
With growth of oil production, investments were made for rural development. A later drop in oil production decreased these investments. Alaskan indigenous populations are also dealing with impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, which is altering their livelihood sources.
Transformational adaptation is taking place by changing the energy matrix to renewable energy, in which indigenous people apply their knowledge to achieve environmental, economic, and social benefits Thornton and Comberti, Demand-driven disruptive innovations that emerge as the product of political and social changes across multiple scales can be transformative Seba, ; Christensen et al.
Such innovations would lead to simultaneous, profound changes in behaviour, economies and societies Seba, ; Christensen et al. Rapid socio-technical change has been observed in the solar industry Creutzig et al.
Similar changes to socio-ecological systems can stimulate adaptation and mitigation options that lead to more climate-resilient systems Adger et al. The increase in roof-top solar and energy storage technology as well as the increase in passive housing and net zero-emissions buildings are further examples of such disruptions Green and Newman, b System co-benefits can create the potential for mutually enforcing and demand-driven climate responses Jordan et al. Examples of co-benefits include gender equality, agricultural productivity Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner-Kerr, 71 , reduced indoor air pollution Satterthwaite and Bartlett, 72 , flood buffering Colenbrander et al.
Innovations that disrupt entire systems may leave firms and utilities with stranded assets, as the transition can happen very quickly IPCC, b; Kossoy et al. The presence of multiple barriers and enablers operating in a system implies that rapid change, whether the product of many small changes Termeer et al. Climate responses that are aligned with multiple feasibility dimensions and combine adaptation and mitigation interventions with non-climate benefits can accelerate change and reduce risks and costs Fazey et al.
Also political, social and technological influences on energy transitions, for example, can accelerate them faster than narrow techno-economic analysis suggests is possible Kern and Rogge, 84 , but could also introduce new constraints and risks Geels et al.
China Low-Carbon Healthy City, Technology Assessment and Practice. Editors: Huang, W., Wang, M., Wang, J., Gao, K., Li, S., Liu, C. (Eds.) Free Preview. Weiguang Huang. Mingquan Wang. Jun Wang. Kun Gao. Song Li. Chen Liu Editors. China Low-. Carbon Healthy. City, Technology. Assessment and. Practice.
Disruptive innovation and technological change may play a role in mitigation and in adaptation. The next section assesses mitigation and adaptation options in energy, land and ecosystem, urban and infrastructure and industrial systems. This section translates this into four main system transitions: energy, land and ecosystem, urban and infrastructure, and industrial system transitions. This section assesses the mitigation, adaptation and carbon dioxide removal options that offer the potential for such change within those systems, based on options identified by Chapter 2 and risks and impacts in Chapter 3.
The section puts more emphasis on those adaptation options Sections 4. They also form the basis for the mitigation and adaptation feasibility assessments in Section 4. This section emphasizes that no single solution or option can enable a global transition to 1.
Rather, accelerating change, much of which is already starting or underway, in multiple global systems, simultaneously and at different scales, could provide the impetus for these system transitions. The feasibility of individual options as well as the potential for synergies and reducing trade-offs will vary according to context and the local enabling conditions. These are explored at a high level in Section 4. Policy packages that bring together multiple enabling conditions can provide building blocks for a strategy to scale up implementation and intervention impacts. This section discusses the feasibility of mitigation and adaptation options related to the energy system transition.
Only options relevant to 1. Socio-technical inertia of energy options for 1. Supply-side mitigation and adaptation options and energy demand-side options, including energy efficiency in buildings and transportation, are discussed in Section 4. All renewable energy options have seen considerable advances over the years since AR5, but solar energy and both onshore and offshore wind energy have had dramatic growth trajectories.
They appear well underway to contribute to 1. The largest growth driver for renewable energy since AR5 has been the dramatic reduction in the cost of solar photovoltaics PV REN21, Small-scale distributed energy projects are being implemented in developed and developing cities where residential and commercial rooftops offer potential for consumers becoming producers called prosumers ACOLA, ; Kotilainen and Saari, Such prosumers could contribute significantly to electricity generation in sun-rich areas like California Kurdgelashvili et al.
The feasibility of renewable energy options depends to a large extent on geophysical characteristics of the area where the option is implemented. However, technological advances and policy instruments make renewable energy options increasingly attractive in other areas. For example, solar PV is deployed commercially in areas with low solar insolation, like northwest Europe Nyholm et al. Feasibility also depends on grid adaptations e.
For regions with high energy needs, such as industrial areas see Section 4. Another important factor affecting feasibility is public acceptance, in particular for wind energy and other large-scale renewable facilities Yenneti and Day, ; Rand and Hoen, ; Gorayeb et al. Research indicates that financial participation and community engagement can be effective in mitigating resistance Brunes and Ohlhorst, ; Rand and Hoen, see Section 4.
Bottom-up studies estimating the use of renewable energy in the future, either at the global or at the national level, are plentiful, especially in the grey literature. It is hotly debated whether a fully renewable energy or electricity system, with or without biomass, is possible Jacobson et al. Scale-up estimates vary with assumptions about costs and technological maturity, as well as local geographical circumstances and the extent of storage used Ghorbani et al.
Urban land use influences energy intensity, risk exposure and adaptive capacity Carter et al. Institutional feasibility can be negatively affected by an information deficit, with the absence of international frameworks for integrating SLCFs into emissions accounting and reporting mechanisms being a barrier to developing policies for addressing SLCF emissions Venkataraman et al. Editors: Feng , S. A key governance challenge is how the convergence of voluntary domestic policies can be organized via aligned global, national and sub-national governance, based on reciprocity Ostrom and Walker, 17 and partnership UN, 18 , and how different actors and processes in climate governance can reinforce each other to enable this Gupta, ; Andonova et al. Reductions in SLCFs can provide large benefits towards sustainable development, beneficial for social, institutional and economic feasibility. Doctor Frank Ackerman. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Bioenergy is renewable energy from biomass. Biofuel is biomass-based energy used in transport.
Chapter 2 suggests that pathways limiting warming to 1. Smith et al. Sustainable deployment at such or higher levels envisioned by 1. Some of the disagreement on the sustainable capacity for bioenergy stems from global versus local assessments. Global assessments may mask local dynamics that exacerbate negative impacts and shortages while at the same time niche contexts for deployment may avoid trade-offs and exploit co-benefits more effectively.
In some regions of the world e. Biofuels are a part of the transport sector in some cities and countries, and may be deployed as a mitigation option for aviation, shipping and freight transport see Section 4. Lower emissions and reduced urban air pollution have been achieved there by use of ethanol and biodiesel as fuels Hill et al.
Many scenarios in Chapter 2 and in AR5 Bruckner et al. Even though scalability and speed of scaling of nuclear plants have historically been high in many nations, such rates are currently not achieved anymore.