Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China? — A review

Analysingwastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomesmany limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by lawenforcement agencies as a device tomonitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, themethodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China.     

Mercury levels and estimated total daily intakes for children and adults from an electronic waste recycling area in Taizhou, China: Key role of rice and fish consumption

In order to assess the potential health risks of Hg pollution, total mercury (T–Hg) and methyl mercury (MeHg) concentrations were determined in air, dust, surface soil, crops, poultry, fish and human hair samples from an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling area in Taizhou, China. High concentrations of T–Hg and MeHg were found in these multiple matrices, and the mean concentration was 30.7 ng/m³ of T–Hg for atmosphere samples, 3.1 μg/g of T–Hg for soil, 37.6 μg/g of T–Hg for dust, 20.3 ng/g of MeHg for rice and 178.1 ng/g of MeHg for fish, suggesting that the e-waste recycling facility was a significant source of Hg. The inorganic Hg (I–Hg) levels (0.84 μg/g) in hair samples of e-waste workers were much higher than that in the reference samples. Pearson''s correlation coefficients showed that strong positive correlations (p < 0.01) between hair I–Hg and time staying in industrial area (r = 0.81) and between MeHg and fish consumption frequency (r = 0.91), imply that workers were mainly exposed to Hg vapor through long-time inhalation of contaminated air and dust, while other population mainly exposed to MeHg through high-frequency fish consumption. The estimated daily intakes of Hg showed that dietary intake was the major Hg exposure source, and Hg intakes from rice and fish were significantly higher than from any other foods. The estimated total daily intakes (TDIs) of MeHg for both children (696.8 ng/(kg·day)) and adults (381.3 ng/(kg·day)) greatly exceeded the dietary reference dose (RfD) of 230 ng/(kg·day), implying greater health risk for humans from Hg exposures around e-waste recycling facilities.     

基于改进灰色关联分析法在居民环境消费结构中的研究

依据平顶山市2005年-2012年的统计年鉴,平顶山市居民环境人均消费性数据,选取食品、衣着、居住、家庭设备用品及服务、医疗保健、交通和通信、教育文化娱乐服务、杂项商品及服务八大类,将改进的灰色关联度分析方法和综合评价模型相结合,建立灰色关联度分析模型,对平顶山市居民环境结构关系进行分析.结果表明:教育文化娱乐环境服务的关联性最高,食品、交通通信、居住医疗保健、衣着、家庭设备用品及服务、杂项商品和服务环境位居其后.     

Energy consumption,emissions and economic growth in Bahrain

This study examines the Granger causality relationships between economic growth, energy consumption and emissions, from 1980 to 2007 in Bahrain, controlling for capital and urban population using Toda and Yamamoto’s approach. It was found that there is unilateral causality which runs from urban population, economic growth, capital and energy consumption to environment. Further, we found strong support for causality running from economic growth to energy consumption, emissions and capital. The existence of these linkages suggests that the government of Bahrain may pursue energy efficiency strategies and carbon emissions reduction policy in the long run without impeding economic growth. Additionally, the long run pursuit of high economic growth given sustained increases in energy efficiency may also reduce CO₂ emissions intensity per unit of her GDP.     

Towards a new climate economics:research areas and prospects

International cooperation to address climate change now stands at a crossroads.With a new international regime for emissions reduction established by the Durban Platform, "New Climate Economics(NCE)" has become a research hotspot.The need for urgent action to combat climate change has prompted discussion on reforms of economic growth patterns and the energy system.The industrial civilization,therefore,now faces a transition towards a new pathway for ecological sustainability.NCE explores new economic concepts,theories,and analytical methods to design a balanced pathway for sustainable growth and emission reduction.Instead of getting trapped in discussions on allocation of emission reduction responsibilities and obligations among countries,NCE pays more attention to developing win-win multilateral cooperation mechanisms that facilitate collaborative RD and knowledge sharing.In addition,NCE studies incentives for low-carbon transition,turning carbon emission reduction into a domestic need for countries to increase their international competitiveness.To achieve the 2°C target,most countries around the world face challenges of insufficient emission allowances to cover expected emissions associated with their projected economic growth.As carbon emissions rights becomes an increasingly scarce resource,increasing the carbon productivity of the economy turns to be the critical path to address the dilemma of green or growth.NCE studies the historical evolution of carbon productivity for countries at different development stages as well as ways to enhance such carbon productivity.This type of study provides invaluable lessons for emerging economies to reach their own emission peaks without losing the momentum of growth.Replacing fossil fuels with new and renewable energy has proven to be an inevitable choice for reshaping the energy system and addressing climate change- it has already become a global trend.NCE studies incentives for new energy technology innovation and deployment provided by carbon pricing,and sheds light on the co-benefits of climate change mitigation,such as resource conservation,environmental protection,and energy security.The role of carbon pricing in promoting intemational RD cooperation and technical transfer will also be studied.The shift in consumption patterns is another key factor enabling a low-carbon transformation.Therefore,NCE also explores the theoretical work on new values of wealth,welfare and consumption,new lifestyles in the context of ecological civilization,concepts and implementation of low-carbon urban planning in developing countries,and the impacts of consumption pattern changes on social development,material production,and urban infrastructure construction.     

SMART-SREC: A stochastic model of the New Jersey solar renewable energy certificate market

Markets for solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) are gaining in prominence in many states, stimulating growth of the US solar industry. However, SREC market prices have been extremely volatile, causing high risk to participants and potentially less investment in solar power generation. Such concerns necessitate the development of realistic, flexible and tractable models of SREC prices that capture the behavior of participants given the rules that govern the market. We propose an original stochastic model called SMART-SREC to fill this role, building on established ideas from the carbon pricing literature, and including a feedback mechanism for generation response to prices. We calibrate the model to the New Jersey market and backtest it, analyzing parameter sensitivity and demonstrating its ability to reproduce historical dynamics. Finally, we run simulations to investigate the role and impact of regulatory parameters, thus providing insight into the crucial role played by market design.     

碳中和时代下我国能量自给型污水处理厂发展方向及工程实践

基于碳中和背景及污水处理可持续、低碳运行理念,分析了我国污水处理厂不同水质、工艺类型、规模等条件下的能源消耗及能源回收特点,提出了以“碳改向技术+低耗高效复合脱氮技术+污泥厌氧共消化技术+污水热能回收技术+节能降耗技术”的污水处理新模式是实现我国能源自给型污水处理厂的关键,并提出我国污水处理厂实现碳中和应分为“完全能源自给”及“能源供应工厂”两个目标.此外,对基于此背景下建设的北京某再生水厂的理论能源自给情况进行了分析,结果表明,通过节能降耗、引入外源有机物、污水源热泵回收等措施,北京某再生水厂能源自给率由12.2%分别提高至17.1%、21.6%、84.7%.     

城乡空置住房的识别、特征与成因——基于华北平原X县用电量等多源数据

对空置住房进行精准感知在国土空间规划中具有重要意义。基于华北X县2019年全县居民用电大数据构建了一种精准的空置识别和空置率计算模型。结果显示：该县出现过空置的住房占比高达33.81%,年空置率为21.64%;月空置率在一年中随月份小幅规律波动,波谷出现在2月和8月,波峰出现在5月和11月;村空置率具有空间自相关属性,县城为空置率高值集聚区;全年性空置为1931种空置节律模式中最主要的一种。将空置成因归纳为举家迁移和入城团聚等新流动模式促使全年空置和春节空置增多;扩展家庭内部住房过滤引发老旧住房空置;县城住房城镇化导致中心城区出现空置。应重视空置识别在国土空间规划中的基础作用,客观看待乡村住房空置现象,高度警惕县城的高空置率问题。     

Europe–Middle East–North Africa cooperation for sustainable electricity and water

This report summarizes the results of two studies of electricity supply for Europe (EU), the Middle East (ME) and North Africa (NA) up to the year 2050. It shows that a transition to competitive, secure and sustainable supply of electricity and water is possible using renewable energy sources, efficiency gains and fossil fuel backup for balancing power. A strong cooperation between the EU and MENA for the market introduction of renewable energy and the interconnection of the electricity grids by high-voltage direct-current transmission are keys to the success and survival of the whole region. However, the necessary measures will take at least two decades to become effective. Therefore, adequate policy and economic frameworks for their realization must be introduced immediately. The importance of sustainable energy for the security of freshwater supplies in MENA is also described.

环境约束下长江经济带全要素能源效率的时空分异研究——基于超效率DEA模型和ML指数法

基于超效率DEA模型和ML指数法,考察长江经济带1999~2013年全要素能源效率。实证研究结果显示:研究期内,环境约束下的长江经济带全要素能源效率年均下降2.9%,而不考虑环境因素的全要素能源效率年均下降幅度仅为0.4%,污染是导致能源效率损失的重要因素;长江经济带整体层面全要素能源效率的发展演变基本呈"双峰一谷"的"M"形分布,表现为两个"上升—下降"周期,而省际和上中下游全要素能源效率的演变特征迥异;从空间差异看,省际全要素能源效率差异远远大于上中下游差异,但近年来这种差异均有不同程度的缩小。未来长江经济带发展必须践行生态文明发展战略,保证发展的可持续性,同时加强能源、环保等领域的合作,促进长江经济带全要素能源效率发展的协同进步。