Optimal range of plug-in electric vehicles in Beijing and Shanghai

Both China’s national subsidy policies for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) purchasers and passenger cars corporate average fuel consumption and new vehicle credit regulation (dual-credit policy) favor long-range 300+ km battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 80+ km plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). However, these electric vehicles tend to have lower energy efficiency and higher purchase and operation costs. Vehicle with larger batteries can also be less equitable because the subsidies are often provided to more expensive vehicles and wealthier owners. This study takes advantage of a novel dataset of daily driving data from 39,854 conventional gasoline vehicles in Beijing and 4999 PHEVs in Shanghai to determine the optimal range of BEVs and PHEVs within their respective cities. We simulate a model to explore ranges with which PEVs emit less GHGs than that of a baseline hybrid and conventional gasoline vehicle while ensuring that all daily travel demands are met. Our findings indicate that in both cities, the optimal ranges to balance cost and travel demand for BEVs are 350 km or less and for PHEVs are 60 km or less in Beijing and 80 km or less in Shanghai. We also find that to minimize carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, the ranges are even lower 10 km in Beijing and 30 km in Shanghai. Our study suggests that instead of encouraging long-range PEVs, governments should subsidize PEV models with shorter ranges. Parallel efforts should also be made to both increase renewable energy over fossil fuels and expand charging facilities. Although individual mobility demand varies, the government could reduce occasional long-distance driving by subsidizing alternative transportation choices. Providing week-long driving trials to consumers before their purchases may help decrease the demand of very long range PEVs by alleviating the range anxiety through a learning process.

     

Deployment of plug-in electric vehicles in China and the USA: issues and opportunities,foreword

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change -     

A novel state-of-charge-based method for plug-in hybrid vehicle electric distance analysis validated with actual driving data

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - Promoting Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) is viewed as a promising strategy to mitigate the energy consumption and greenhouse gas...     

Well-to-wheels greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from battery electric vehicles in China

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - Electric vehicles (EVs) play a crucial role in addressing climate change and urban air quality concerns. China has emerged as the global...     

Plug-in electric vehicles in China and the USA: a technology and market comparison

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - As the top two plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) markets in the world, China and the United States of  America (USA) have developed...     

Economic benefits from decreased mercury emissions: Projections for 2020

Anthropogenic processes have increased the exposure of humans and wildlife to toxic methyl mercury (MeHg). Mercury emissions will increase by about 25% between 2005 and 2020, if the present trajectory is maintained. A global assessment of societal damages caused by the ingestion of methyl mercury, based merely on loss of IQ (Intelligence Quotient), suggests that the annual cost will be approximately US$3.7 billion (2005 dollars) in 2020. The corresponding cost of damages resulting from the inhalation of methyl mercury is estimated at US$2.9 million (2005 dollars). Under a higher degree of emission control such as in the case of the Extended Emission Control (EXEC) and the Maximum Feasible Technological Reduction (MFTR) scenarios, total emissions could decrease in the period 2005–2020 by about 50–60%. The corresponding annual benefits in 2020 are estimated to be about US$1.8–2.2 billion (2005 dollars). Large economic benefits can be achieved by reducing global mercury emissions.     

Reducing energy consumption in road transport through hybrid vehicles: investigation of rebound effects,and possible effects of tax rebates

Hybrid powertrains are considered to be a promising method to raise the overall fuel efficiency of passenger cars. They are predicted to enter the automobile markets in increasing numbers in the near future. This paper investigates 2 aspects relevant to the promotion of hybrid vehicles as part of an energy reduction strategy. First, are hybrid cars accompanied by rebound effects, which counteract their increased fuel efficiency? Second, do tax rebates indeed lead to higher sales numbers? We present results from a survey conducted with all 367 buyers of hybrid second-generation Toyota Prius in Switzerland in the first 9 months after market entry (response rate, 82.6%). As control group, questionnaires were also sent to 250 Toyota Corolla (61% returned) and 250 Toyota Avensis (52%) buyers. Among other items, the surveys asked for the car being replaced, if any. Main results are that the increase in car size for hybrid car buyers was lower than both, the market trend and the control group. Increase in car size was lower for hybrid car buyers than for both control group and market trend. 6% of hybrid car purchases did not replace a previously owned vehicle (control group 3%, P = 0.05), the Swiss market average being 20%. Hence rebound effects could be identified neither for vehicle size nor for vehicle ownership. As an energy policy measure, hybrid vehicles are eligible for tax rebates in parts of Switzerland. We found evidence that these tax rebates indeed lead to significant higher sales. We present a rough cost estimate of such tax rebates as CO₂ abatement policy tool.     

Public coordination for escaping from technological lock-in: its possibilities and limits in replacing diesel vehicles with compressed natural gas vehicles in Tokyo

This paper analyzes a recent attempt by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to replace diesel vehicles with low-emission vehicles, particularly, compressed natural gas vehicles. As commonly observed in the transportation sector, when strong complementarities among the components of a complex technological system exist, a failure in coordination results to a state of technological lock-in. In this respect, the public sector can serve a focal role in coordination to promote new technologies. The Tokyo experience illustrates the potentials and limitations in overcoming a state of technological lock-in by effective management of the behaviors and expectations of the relevant actors involved in using, producing, and supporting alternative clean vehicles.     

Reducing black carbon emissions from diesel vehicles in Russia: An assessment and policy recommendations

The paper assesses options and challenges of reducing black carbon emissions from diesel vehicles in Russia. Black carbon is a product of incomplete diesel combustion and is a component of fine particulate matter. Particulate matter emissions have adverse health impacts, causing cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer; black carbon is also a large climate forcer. Black carbon emissions from Russian diesel sources affect not only the Russian territory but also contribute to overall pollution. This paper analyzes current ecological standards for vehicles and fuel, evaluates policies for emission reductions from existing diesel vehicle fleet, and assesses Russia's attempts to encourage the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel. Based on best practices of black carbon emission reductions, this paper provides a number of policy recommendations for Russia.     

Wireless charging and shared autonomous battery electric vehicles (W+SABEV): synergies that accelerate sustainable mobility and greenhouse gas emission reduction

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - Emerging technologies play important roles in shaping future mobility systems and impacting sustainability performance of the transportation...     

Cleaner production for continuous digester processes based on hybrid Pareto genetic altorithm

Pulping production process produces a large amount of wastewater and pollutant emitted ,which has become one of the main pollution sources in pulp and paper industry.To solve this problem,it is necessary to implement cleaner production by using modeling and optimization technology.This paper studies the modeling and multi-objective genetic algorithms for continuous digester process.First,model is established, in which environmental pollution and saving energy factors are considered.Then hybrid genetic algorithm based on Pareto stratum-niche count is designed for finding near-Pareto or Pareto optimal solutions in the problem and a new genetic evaluation and selection mechanism is proposed.Finally using the real data from a pulp mill shows the results of computer simulation.Through comparing with the practical curve of digester, this method can reduce the pollutant effectively and increase the profit while keeping the pulp quality unchanged.     

Carbon benefits from Amazonian forest reserves: leakage accounting and the value of time

Amazonian forest reserves have significant carbon benefits, but the methodology used for accounting for these benefits will be critical in determining whether the powerful economic force represented by mitigation efforts to slow global warming will be applied to creating these reserves. Opportunities for reserve creation are quickly being lost as new areas are opened to deforestation though highway construction and other developments. Leakage, or the effects that a reserve or other mitigation project provokes outside of the project boundaries, is critical to a proper accounting of net carbon benefits. Protected areas in the Amazon have particularly great potential mitigation benefits over an extended time horizon. Over a 100-year time frame, virtually no unprotected forest is likely to remain, meaning that potential leakages (both leakage to the vicinity of the reserves and that displaced by removing protected areas from the land-grabbing market) should not matter much because any short-term leakage would be “recovered” eventually. The effect of the value attributed to time greatly influences the impact of leakage on benefits credited to reserves. Simple assumptions regarding leakage scenarios illustrate the benefits of reserves and the critical areas where agreement is necessary to make this option a practical component of mitigation efforts. The stakes are too high to allow further delays in reaching agreement on these issues.     

The dinosaurian origin of feathers: perspectives from dolphin (Cetacea) collagen fibers

The early origin of birds is a hotly disputed debate and may be broadly framed as a conflict between paleontologists and ornithologists. The paleontological emphasis has shifted from Archaeopteryx and its origins to recent finds of Cretaceous birds and feathered dinosaurs from China. The identification of alleged feathers has, however, relied principally on the visual image. Some workers have interpreted these integumentary structures as collagen fibers. To test the latter hypothesis, using light microscopy, collagen from the hypodermis (blubber) and subdermal connective tissue sheath was examined from a dolphin that had been buried for a year as part of an experiment. Within the blubber, toward the central thicker parts of the material, the collagen fibers had compacted and the three-dimensional latticework of normal blubber had more or less collapsed. Chromatographic analysis of the blubber revealed pronounced oxidation of the unsaturated lipids, probably accounting for the collapse of the latticework. Fibers normally bound together in bundles became separated into individual fibers or smaller bundles by degradation of the glue-like substance binding them together. These degraded collagen fibers show, in many instances, feather-like patterns, strikingly reminiscent of many of those identified as either protofeathers or modern feathers in dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. The findings throw serious doubt on the virtually complete reliance on visual image by supporters of the feathered dinosaur thesis and emphasize the need for more rigorous methods of identification using modern feathers as a frame of reference. Since collagen is the main fiber type found in most supporting tissues, the results have wide implications regarding the degradation and fossilization of vertebrate integument, such as that of the ichthyosaurs, dinosaurs and birds.     

Waste from road transport: development of a model to predict waste from end-of-life and operation phases of road vehicles in Europe

This paper presents the model developed within the TRENDS (TRansport and ENvironment Database System) project for the prediction of waste produced from road vehicles, both at their end-of-life and during vehicle operation. The model covers passenger cars and light-duty commercial vehicles on a detailed level, and heavy-duty vehicles and buses with less detail. The computer model forecasts the waste produced by road transport in Europe from 1990 to 2020 in annual steps. In analogy to the well-known emission factors, which indicate the amount of airborne emissions per kilometre travelled by a vehicle, so-called waste factors were derived which express the amount of waste produced, both per vehicle kilometre (for waste from vehicle operation), and per vehicle scrapped (for waste from end-of-life vehicles). Waste factors depend on the technology stage (EURO I, II, etc.) of the vehicles in order to reflect the rapid change in technology and in the material composition of vehicles over the last decades. Materials covered are ferrous (iron, steel) and non-ferrous metals (aluminium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc, and mercury), various plastics and various kinds of operating liquids (lubricants, engine oil). On the side of the vehicle components, batteries and tires are included. Activity data needed for the forecast of the total annual waste production, such as the number of scrapped vehicles and the annual mileage per vehicle category and EU member country, were obtained from the so-called Road Transport model of TRENDS. Model results are presented for all material components as well as tires for the entire EU15 as time series from 1990 to 2020. They were validated against data originating from various sources, including the European Environment Agency and the European Tyre Recycling Association. Finally, methods for the future enhancement of the quality of the model forecasts are discussed.     

中国城市道路机动车CO、HC和NOX排放因子的测定

为了测定我国城市道路机动车污染物排放因子，在西安城市交通隧道内设３个空气监测点，对通过隧道的机动车排气形成的污染物浓度、隧道内风速、过往隧道的交通量以及车型进行采样、观测、统计和分类根据测试数据用大气扩散方程求得我国城市道路机动车平均单车 ＣＯ、 ＨＣ和 ＮＯｘ排放因子分别为 ３３．２７９±１２．１５８、 ３．５７７±１．８１６和 ４．６０５±１．９８１ ｍｇ／（ｍ·ｖｅｈ）．与国外的成果相比，我国城市道路机动车ＣＯ、 ＨＣ和ＮＯｘ排放因子分别是发达国家城市道路汽车排放因子的 ７～８倍、 ８～１０倍和 ３～４倍.     

电子废弃物资源化的研究与进展

探讨了电子废弃物资源化的意义,重点研究了电子废弃物中金属、塑料、玻璃的回收技术,以及国内外电子废弃物的资源再利用现状。建立有效的回收体系,最大限度地循环利用资源,使我国的电子和电器制造业及电子废弃物处理业协调发展。     

Building institutions based on information disclosure: lessons from GRI's sustainability reporting

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the best-known framework for voluntary reporting of environmental and social performance by business worldwide. Using extensive empirical data, including interviews and documentary analysis, we examine GRI's organizational field and conclude that since its modest beginnings in 1999 GRI has been by several measures a successful institutionalization project. But the institutional logic of this new entity, as an instrument for corporate sustainability management, leaves out one of the central elements of the initial vision for GRI: as a mobilizing agent for many societal actors. This emergent logic reflects GRI's dominant constituency – large global companies and financial institutions and international business management consultancies – and not the less active civil society organizations and organized labor. We attribute these developments to factors such as building GRI within the existing institutional structures; the highly inclusive multistakeholder process; and the underdeveloped base of information users. From the institutional theory perspective, this case shows how the process of institutionalization is deeply affected by initial strategies of the founders, and how it reproduces existing power relations. From the governance perspective, this case leads us to question the power of commodified information to mobilize civil society and to strengthen governance based on partnerships.     

The origin and early evolution of birds: discoveries,disputes, and perspectives from fossil evidence

The study of the origin and early evolution of birds has never produced as much excitement and public attention as in the past decade. Well preserved and abundant new fossils of birds and dinosaurs have provided unprecedented new evidence on the dinosaurian origin of birds, the arboreal origin of avian flight, and the origin of feathers prior to flapping flight. The Mesozoic avian assemblage mainly comprises two major lineages: the prevalent extinct group Enantiornithes, and the Ornithurae, which gave rise to all modern birds, as well as several more basal taxa. Cretaceous birds radiated into various paleoecological niches that included fish- and seed-eating. Significant size and morphological differences and variation in flight capabilities, ranging from gliding to powerful flight among early birds, highlight the diversification of birds in the Early Cretaceous. There is little evidence, however, to support a Mesozoic origin of modern avian groups. Controversy and debate, nevertheless, surround many of these findings, and more details are needed to give a better appreciation of the significance of these new discoveries.     

Challenges and opportunities for REDD+: A reality check from perspectives of effectiveness,efficiency and equity

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a promising mechanism of payments for ecosystem services with the aim to effectively reduce emissions in an efficient and equitable manner. REDD+ is part of the Paris-agreement reached at the UNFCCC COP21 in December 2015, but questions on whether REDD+ will work and bring multi-benefits are still hotly debated. Moreover, the results and messages from research on REDD+ in different regions are mixed, context-based and fragmented. Here, we employ a survey among REDD+ stakeholders, researchers, and consultants to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of REDD+ for achieving effective, efficient and equitable outcomes and co-benefits (3E+). We substantiate our survey results with a literature review. Results suggest that the challenges in achieving the 3E+ relate to the disproportionality between deforestation drivers and mitigation measures, diverging perceptions of equity among REDD+ stakeholders, complexity of property rights, and fragile willingness of stakeholders to engage in REDD+. If these challenges can be successfully addressed by the involved stakeholder groups, they can be turned into opportunities for realizing REDD+.