China-Indian Silk Trade： Current Production and Future Prospects

As an important traditional labor-intensive industry of both India and China, the cocoon silk industry has long made great contributions to the ecological environment protection, rural economic development and the increase in export income of both countries. India is not only a very important cocoon silk trading partner, but an important production competitor of China. In recent years, there has been a large increase in the production and trade of the cocoon silk between China and India; however, China relies heavily on Indian market, which leads to a tendency of further deterioration in the silk trade environment between both countries. The present article makes an empirical study of the cocoon silk resources of the two countries and the scale, product mix and market structure of China-Indian silk trade from 2001 to 2007. Overall silk trading volumes from China to India and market concentration rate are on the increase because of the superiority of Chinese cocoon silk production over that of India. Owing to scattered market share and export that mainly focused on raw materials product, there has been a phenomenon of price reduction and quantity increase. India carries out fierce competition with China in the international market and even imposes antidumping sanction on Chinese silk, which are key factors restricting further increase between China-India trade. Based on the abovementioned facts, the authors aim to put forward suggestions for steadily developing the production and trade of China＇s silk.     

Study on Water Consumption Coefficient of People''''s Living and Its Regional Disparity in the North of China

1 INTRODUCTIONWater shortage will be one of the common risks peoplehave to face in the 21st century. China, a country withwater shortage, possesses only as much as 1/4 of the world'smean occupation for every person and is enlisted as oneof the thirteen countries where water is in a great shortage.Furthermore, in China, the water resources distributionhas been terribly unbalanced from region to region. NorthChina, covering 15 provinces, possessing 45% of thefarmland and 38% of the populat…     

CO_2 Emissions Embodied in China-U.S.Trade

After the Kyoto Protocol was implemented, carbon leakage exerts great influences on international trade and economy. Trade creates a mechanism for consumers to shift environmental pollution associated with their consumption to other countries. China has overtaken the U.S. as the world＇s biggest CO2 emitter since 2006. As China＇s second largest trade partner, the U.S. has the biggest trade deficit with China which has aroused a lot of disputes between the two parties. But so far the assessments of the trade imbalance of China-U.S. have paid little attention to environmental impacts associated with the trade imbalance. Applied an input-output approach, the article estimates the amount of CO2 embodied in China-U.S. trade during 1997-2007. It was found that through trade with China, the U.S. reduced its CO2 emissions compared with a non-trade scenario. Due to the greater carbon-intensity and relatively less efficient production processes of Chinese industry, China-U.S. trade resulted in more CO2 emissions in China and the world. In the end, the article gives some suggestions： it is equal and sustainable that the international accounting methodologies should be improved, for CO2 emissions responsibility must be designed to account for the dynamic nature of international trade.     

Study on Residential Water Use in North China:Analysis of Nationwide Statistical Data and Case Study of Taiyuan City

Residential water use is gradually becoming the focus in China‘s municipal water supply planning and management in recent years. Little is known, however, about the residential water use in modem China due to the transition of economy and enhancement of management on water conservation. In order to better understand the characteristics of residential water use in North China, a model for identifying the determinants of residential water use was established and analyzed by using panel data and cross-section data methodologies. Then Taiyuan city, the capital city of Shanxi Province in Northern China was selected as a case study. Both the analyses and field investigation indicate that the relatively slow increase of residential water use in recent years may result from the implementation of strict laws and regulations on water conservation. And through the investigation,first-hand information about water consumption pattern, water reuse/conservation, people‘s attitude toward water quantity and quality, etc. have been obtained.     

An in-depth view of climate change:addressing climate change while making a transition on the development mode

While fossil fuels greatly contribute to human society,they pose great challenges to natural resources,the environment,and climate change.Developed countries,like the United States,formulated strategic measures to ensure their sustainable development and leading positions in the world.These measures include new green policies,development of shale gas,revitalization of nuclear power,energy independence,reindustrialization,and new low-carbon development based on a combination of Internet technology and renewable energy.Developing countries are also trying to introduce balanced strategies of poverty alleviation and sustainable development.Globally,industrial civilization is being transformed to ecological civilization and green,low-carbon development is a global trend.Addressing climate change provides new strategic factors to further this development.China should take substantial actions to realize sustainable development in a new road:China is in the critical stage of changing its development mode,so it is vital to choose an appropriate development path.This extensive development comes at the high price of consuming too much resources and scarring the environment.Mitigation and adaptation strategies for addressing climate change can help the transition of development.Based on the analysis of the development data of developed countries,the author introduces the concept of"two-type developed countries"with an understanding that not all developed countries must take the same development mode.He also holds the view that China should achieve modernization in a more energy-saving and more carbon-efficient manner compared with that of two-type developed countries.An analysis of"two competitions"that China is facing shows that changing the developing mode is urgent and China should grasp this opportunity in the next five to ten years,which is a key period for this transition.This paper discusses the low-carbon development goals and the three-step process.Low-carbon development does not necessarily restrict economic development.It,however,can expedite the transition of the development mode and this is a low-carbon and green development path.Transition of the development mode includes implementation of China’s green and low-carbon energy strategies,low-carbon society construction,development of agriculture and forestry,garbage sorting and utilization,innovation of urbanization,etc.Improvement of national infrastructure construction includes water safety,environment and climate monitoring system,intelligent energy web,basic database,etc.Addressing climate change can significantly improve the nation’s basic research level.In summary,it mitigates backward production capability,extensive development,and environmental damage while promoting technological advancement,scientific development,and ecological civilization.     

Land Degradation Evaluation in North Hebei Province Based on Remote Sensing and GIS

Land degradation is one of the serious environmental problems that can lead to poverty, and is especially prominent in eco-fragile areas in developing countries and increases the risk of environmental safety. North Hebei Province belongs to an ecologically fragile region in North China, which has great impact on the eco-safety of Beijing and Tianjin. Using Landsat TM data and GIS, this paper evaluates land degradation in North Hebei province of China from the the 1960＇s to 1987 and 2000. Land use/cover change pattern from 1987 to 2000, its regional difference and forest change characteristics will also be analyzed; soil erosion intensity and arable land suitability were also evaluated. Results revealed that land use/cover pattern in this study area did not change greatly from 1987 to 2000. The structure and function of regional land ecosystem was at a level of local improvement and integral deterioration. Land above medium soil erosion intensity reached 21 percent, which was also the area with a serious soil erosion and land degradation problem. Soil erosion and land degradation intensity of grassland was the biggest. For the present arable land, the proportion of high suitability was 13 percent.     

Share-Shift Analysis of Geo-Economic Pattern on Global Cereal Crops in Recent 50 Years

In recent 50 years, with the rapid development of international food trade, the geoeconomic pattern of cereal crops has changed tremendously which produced a significant impact on global food security. This paper attempted to analysis the production pattern and trade pattern of global cereals, especially three main crops of wheat, maize and rice by using the method of share-shift. Given the fact of almost every economic phenomenon is driven by their economic return behind them, this paper attempted to a further step into their economic pattern by examining their net trade flow. The results showed that from the view of production and trade, the geographic pattern of global cereals has changed greatly which can be described as developing countries has replaced developed countries and become the world’s biggest cereals production and trading area. But when moving to the net trade flow, it turns out to be another story that can depicted as the regional fixation features of economic returns which can be convinced from the labor division of global cereals trade, among which developed countries acts as net trade profit area while developing countries as net trade output area, and their gap between net export and net import has been widening from the view of evolution trend. So what we learn from the evolution of geoeconomic pattern on this topic is that our place in global cereals trade system, and therefore alert us to concern not only on the pattern transition but also the economic meaning behind it, only by doing so can we learn to plan our food future more wisely and effectively.     

Sustainable Development of Export： Theoretical Meaning, Evaluation Model, and Empirical Research

With the effect of the human trade doctrine in the international trade field, almost all the countries have paid more attention to the sustainable development of international trade. This article chose the export sustainable development as the research object. On the basis of the analysis of the theoretical connotation of the export sustainable development, this article tried to establish an evaluation indices system and set up an evaluation model of the export sustainable development level, and finally made some empirical research on China. The result indicates that the comprehensive level of the export sustainable development in China showed a tendency to rise from 1985 to 2003 and the export sustainable development level of China in these years can be divided into four grades： excellent, good, moderate and poor. In most years, the social economic benefits of export was obtained at the cost of the deterioration of environment and the depletion of resources, and the economic profit of export did not increase with the enlargement of the export scale because of the deterioration of the terms of trade. Therefore, China should be careful about the problem of poverty accompanied by the increase of export.     

Energy revolution:for a sustainable future

The discovery and use of fossil fuels have not only helped the evolution of human society from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization,but also caused serious environmental and climate problems.The earth is calling for a sustainable future,and a change from industrial civilization to ecological civilization based on the new"energy revolution".A macroscopic quantitative analysis of China’s environmental capacity and climate capacity shows that China is in urgent need of changing the extensive developing mode and having an energy revolution.It is foreseeable that fossil fuels will remain the most consumed source of energies in China now and in the next few decades.Although the efficient and clean use of fossil fuels are very important,this is not an energy revolution or the fundamental solution to environmental and climate problems.Unconventional gases including shale gas play an important role in the mitigation of environmental problems and climate change,but"shale gas revolution"or"shale gas era"is not suitable to China since the proportion of natural gas in primary energy structure in China can only be increased by a maximum of 20%.The transition of Chinese energy structure from fossil-fuels-dominating stage to multiple-energy-sources stage and then to a nonfossil-fuels-dominating stage is the inevitable future,with the help of great contribution from renewable energy and nuclear energy.Among renewable energies,the proportion of non-hydro renewable energies will gradually increase.Improvement of their market competitiveness(economic efficiency)relies on technological innovation.Renewable energies will be the main energy source for the earth in future.Despite the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster,the whole world,including China,will not give up nuclear energy development.Safe,steady,and large-scale development of nuclear power is a rational choice of China.Transition from nuclear fission power plant to nuclear fusion power plant is the inevitable future.Nuclear energy will be a sustainable energy source and another main energy source of the earth in future.China needs to enhance energy security consciousness,promote energy saving,and change the energy supply-demand patterns,that is the transition from"meet a too-fast-growing demand with an extensive supply"to"meet a reasonable demand with a rational supply".All countries need to work together to address global environmental problems and climate change.Energy revolution is the foundation for a sustainable future.With a wide range of international cooperation,the win-win cooperation is the only way of overcoming these challenges.     

Climate Change Responsibility and China’s Endeavor

The problem of climate change is a global challenge.It is closely associated with social development and human survival,and it has a significant impact to all countries on energy development,economic competitiveness,technological innovation,and way of life.In recent years,with the rapid economic development in China,there is a rumor that the rapid growth of China’s carbon dioxide emission offset the efforts of the international community in reducing emissions,and China should bear the international responsibility corresponding to its significant role in greenhouse gas emission,which obviously are unfair and not objective.As this paper reveals,"China environment responsibility" that is the socalled "China environment threat" or theories,China has made a positive contribution to addressing the climate change in the past and China will still be the backbone on the protection of global climate in the future.     

An International Comparative Analysis on China's Economic Growth and the Convergence in Energy Intensity Gap and Its Economic Mechanism

In this paper,the authors have empirically analyzed the convergence in per capita GDP gap and the convergence in the variation of energy intensity with respect to the change of per capita GDP between China and eight developed countries.Then,the authors run a regression on the impact of decisive factors of economic growth on energy intensity and its change,so as to find out the economic mechanism of energy intensity gap changing with respect to the variation of economic growth.This study concludes that:First,there is a convergence in per capita GDP gap between China and the eight developed countries.With the convergence in per capita GDP gap,the energy intensity gap between China and eight different countries also converge,and the convergence rate of the latter is faster than that of the former,i.e.if the per capita GDP gap between China and the eight developed countries decreases by 1%,the energy intensity gap between them will correspondingly decrease by 1.552%.Second,the energy intensity decreases with the improvement of industrial structure,the rising of energy prices,the advances of technology,and the expansion of investment in fixed assets,and it slightly increases with the increase of FDI.Third,the energy intensity gap between China and eight developed countries narrows with the lessening of the difference in fixed assets investment,energy prices,and technological progress between China and eight developed countries,yet increases with the narrowing of the difference in FDI,and has no significant correlation with the difference in industrial structure.Fourth,the narrowing of difference in per capita GDP between China and the eight developed countries can result in the lessening of energy intensity gap,whose economic mechanism is that the decisive factors,such as difference in investment,technology,and the competition mechanism of prices,which can determine the difference in economic growth,can significantly affect the energy intensity gap.     

Analysis of the Energy Embodied in Foreign Goods Trade of China

In recent years, scientists have been increasingly interested in the energy embodied in traded goods among countries. In this article, the direct energy intensities in various economic sectors of China were calculated with the data of energy consumption and output value of each sector, and the input-output table was used to estimate the external energy consumption. The total energy intensity of all sectors was then obtained. From the data of international trade, the energy embodied in goods trade of China was estimated for the period of 1994-2001. During this period, the average energy intensity of imported goods was always higher than that of exported ones. As a country with a surplus in international goods trade, China actually imported net embodied energy in the past few years. The net embodied energy imported was at the same magnitude of the imported energy in the form of fossil fuels.     

SWOT Analysis and Challenges of Nile Basin Initiative：An Integrated Water Resource Management Perspective

River Nile is one of the longest transboundery rivers and it is shared and used by Burundi,Democratic Republic of Congo,Egypt,Ethiopia,Eritrea,Kenya,Rwanda,Sudan,Tanzania and Uganda.As of today,the Nile is a crucial resource for the economic development of the Nile Basin countries and a vital source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300 million people living in the 10 riparian countries.The Nile Basin Initiative(NBI) is one of the international cooperative river basin management program and regional partnership where all the Nile Basin countries except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development,improved land use practices and management.This review therefore focused on the challenges not faced on NBI in terms of integrated use of the river and conducted analysis of strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and threats(SWOT) based on secondary data.The result of the review revealed that for decades,the Nile Basin people have been facing many complex environmental,social,economic and political challenges that have made it difficult for the proper management and sustainability of Nile water.The initiative provides training to develop skills in government ministries,non-governmental organizations and local communities in each country.It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks of environmental education practitioners;developing curriculum in the education sector.The challenges of NBI include the involvement and funding of World Bank,lack of sufficient staff,procedural and policies conflicts,lack of coordination and linkage with other regional institutions and lack of recognition as river basin organization.Considering the complex nature of the project,it is recommended that the NBI should come up with a strong multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to follow up all implemented projects.The NBI should carry out participatory land use planning in communities along the river basin.Moreover,livelihood analysis should be carried out especially in communities along the Nile to come up with poverty eradication projects which are socially acceptable,applicable,economically viable and affordable.     

A Comparative Study on the Implementation of CDM Projects in India

Since the Clean Development Mechanism(CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol was initiated,China and India have overwhelmingly led other developing countries regarding CDM projects development.A comparative study of the CDM in India and China is conducted as there are many similarities between both India and China with regard to the CDM implementation due to the fact that India is another major developing country with a large population and a potential source of GHG emissions rivaling China in the near future.Through examining the development of and legal issues for CDM projects in India,its experience and lessons regarding developing and managing CDM projects that China can critically learn are discussed.     

Can regional economy influence China’s water use intensity?:based on refined LMDI method

China experienced a decline of water use intensity in the 11th Five Year Plan,but the water use intensity actually increased in 2009.To the best of our knowledge,the index decomposition analysis method was rarely used to analyze changes in water use,and no decomposition analysis has investigated the role of regional economy in the decline of water use intensity.In this paper,we use logarithmic mean Divisia index(LMDI)techniques to decompose the change of water use intensity in the period 2006-2010.We find that the change of industrial water use intensity is confirmed as the dominant contributor to the decline in the overall water use intensity;the regional structure effect and the industrial structure effect is positive to the decline of overall water use intensity;the decline of China’s water use intensity is mainly attributed to the effect of developed eastern provinces;meanwhile,the effect of central and undeveloped western is also positive to the decline of overall water use intensity;at least one out of three effects is positive to the decline of water use intensity in the different provinces;the intensity effect is positive and the industrial structure effect is positive to the declines of China’s water use intensity based on chaining approach except the period 2008-2009,individually;and the deviation of regional structure effect and industrial structure effect between with regional economy and without regional economy in LMDI is 0.9 and2.3 m~3/10~4 RMB,respectively.     

The Mixed Mechanism in the Management of Water Resources in China

1 INTRODUCTION As an irreplaceable resource for the subsistence and development of mankind, water is essential to sustainable economic and social development. As a resource-poor and the biggest developing country in the world, China is facing the challenge from water resources.2 THE MAIN PROBLEMS OF CHINA'S WATER RESOURCES In China, the problems of water resources involve four aspects: drought and water shortage, serious threats of flooding, water pollution, soil erosion an…     

Absorptive Capacities for Sustainability Technologies： Perspectives from the BRICS and China

For the development process in the rapidly growing economies, knowledge transfer and technology cooperation are becoming important issues. Research and technological competences are key indicators for the absorptive capacity of sustainability technologies and for the ability to export them. These issues are analyzed empirically for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa （BRICS）. Sustainability related research in BRICS is mostly carried out within broader, more sector oriented programmes. Specialization patterns of international patents and in foreign trade indicate various strengths and weaknesses of the BRICS countries. The differences within the countries imply that the analysis must proceed at a technology specific level. China has considerable capabilities in technologies such as photovoltaics, solar thermal or buildings. There is a strong need for strategic positioning of the countries and for coordination of the various policy fields involved.     

Energy Embodied in Goods in International Trade of China: Calculation and Policy Implications

In recent years, China’s energy demand and Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have grown very fast, quite an amount of which was exported as energy embodied in goods in international trade rather than consumed domestically. Starting from the concept of embodied energy, based on input-output energy analysis approach, in this paper the energy embodied in goods in international trade of China during the period from 2001 to 2006 is calculated. The results show that although China has become a net importer of petroleum since 1993, China is a net exporter of embodied energy due to international trade in goods. In 2002, the total amount of energy embodied in exported goods was about 410 million tce (ton of coal equivalent, hereinafter referred to as "tce"). Eliminating the amount of energy embodied in imported goods of about 170 million tce, the net export of embodied energy was about 240 million tce, accounting for 16% of the aggregate primary energy consumption of that very year in China, and the net export of embodied emissions was about 150 million tons of carbon. With the rapid growth of China’s international trade, assuming no structural input-output changes of among sectors, in 2006 the net export of embodied energy went up to about 630 million tce, an increase of 162 % over 2002. In addition, this paper also analyzes the possible sources of error in calculation, and also discusses the policy implications according to the result of the calculation.     

Assessing the Eutrophication of Shengzhong Reservoir Based on Grey Clustering Method

Reservoir water environment is a grey system. The grey clustering method is applied to assessing the reservoir water enviromnent to establish a relatively complete model suitable for the reservoir eutrophication evaluation and appropriately evaluate the quality of reservoir water, providing evidence for reservoir management. According to China＇s lakes and reservoir eutrophication criteria and the characteristics of China＇s eutrophication, as well as certain evaluation indices, the degree of eutrophication is classified into six categories with the utilization of grey classified whitening weight function to represent the boundaries of classification, to determine the clustering weight and clustering coefficient of each index in grey classifications, and the classification of each clustering object. The comprehensive evaluation of reservoir eutrophication is established on such a foundation, with Sichuan Shengzhong Reservoir as the survey object and the analysis of the data attained by several typical monitoring points there in 2006. It is found that eutrophication of Tiebian Power Generation Station, Guoyuanchang and Dashiqiao Bridge is the heaviest, Tielusi and Qinggangya the second, and Lijiaba the least. The eutrophication of this reservoir is closely relevant to the irrational exploitation in its surrounding areas, especially to the aggravation of the non-point source pollution and the increase of net-culture fishing. Therefore, it is feasible to use grey clustering in environment quality evaluation, and the point lies in the correct division of grey whitening function     

Research on carbon emissions in China's export trade based on input-output model

Becoming the world’s largest emitter of carbon makes China the object of criticism;however,people may ignore the fact that when China exports low-carbon products,the carbon emissions have been left in the meanwhile,forming the so-called"embodied carbon".Using the input-output model,this paper analyzes the carbon emission intensity and amount of embodied carbon of various sectors in China’s export trade in 2002 and 2007,and filters out high carbon emission sectors.In addition,this paper also points out the problem of carbon emissions’international transfer from developed countries to China through the analysis of national and regional flow of export carbon emissions and changing of the proportion of emissions for exports relative to total emissions,and explains the reason that caused carbon transfer to China by using the treadmill of production theory.Based on that,this paper proposes some measures for carbon reduction in China from the foreign trade perspective.