3 results
Chapter 18 - Urban Energy Systems
-
- By Arnulf Grubler, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria and Yale University, Xuemei Bai, Australian National University, Thomas Buettner, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon Project and National Institute for Environmental Studies, David J. Fisk, Imperial College London, Toshiaki Ichinose, National Institute for Environmental Studies, James E. Keirstead, Imperial College London, Gerd Sammer, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, David Satterthwaite, International Institute for Environment and Development, Niels B. Schulz, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria and Imperial College, Nilay Shah, Imperial College London, Julia Steinberger, The Institute of Social Ecology, Austria and University of Leeds, Helga Weisz, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Gilbert Ahamer, University of Graz, Timothy Baynes, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Daniel Curtis, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Michael Doherty, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Nick Eyre, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Junichi Fujino, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Keisuke Hanaki, University of Tokyo, Mikiko Kainuma, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Shinji Kaneko, Hiroshima University, Manfred Lenzen, University of Sydney, Jacqui Meyers, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Hitomi Nakanishi, University of Canberra, Victoria Novikova, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Krishnan S. Rajan, International Institute of Information Technology, Seongwon Seo, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Ram M. Shrestha, Asian Institute of Technology, Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Indian Institute of Management, Alice Sverdlik, International Institute for Environment and Development, Jayant Sathaye, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Global Energy Assessment Writing Team
-
- Book:
- Global Energy Assessment
- Published online:
- 05 September 2012
- Print publication:
- 27 August 2012, pp 1307-1400
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Executive Summary
More than 50% of the global population already lives in urban settlements and urban areas are projected to absorb almost all the global population growth to 2050, amounting to some additional three billion people. Over the next decades the increase in rural population in many developing countries will be overshadowed by population flows to cities. Rural populations globally are expected to peak at a level of 3.5 billion people by around 2020 and decline thereafter, albeit with heterogeneous regional trends. This adds urgency in addressing rural energy access, but our common future will be predominantly urban. Most of urban growth will continue to occur in small-to medium-sized urban centers. Growth in these smaller cities poses serious policy challenges, especially in the developing world. In small cities, data and information to guide policy are largely absent, local resources to tackle development challenges are limited, and governance and institutional capacities are weak, requiring serious efforts in capacity building, novel applications of remote sensing, information, and decision support techniques, and new institutional partnerships. While ‘megacities’ with more than 10 million inhabitants have distinctive challenges, their contribution to global urban growth will remain comparatively small.
Energy-wise, the world is already predominantly urban. This assessment estimates that between 60–80% of final energy use globally is urban, with a central estimate of 75%. Applying national energy (or GHG inventory) reporting formats to the urban scale and to urban administrative boundaries is often referred to as a ‘production’ accounting approach and underlies the above GEA estimate.
Changes in environmentally sensitive productivity and technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s
- HIDEMICHI FUJII, SHINJI KANEKO, SHUNSUKE MANAGI
-
- Journal:
- Environment and Development Economics / Volume 15 / Issue 4 / August 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 June 2010, pp. 485-504
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Technological modernization is widely believed to contribute positively both to economic development and to environmental and resource conservation, through improvements in productivity and strengthening of business competitiveness. However, this may not always be true, particularly in the short term, as it requires substantial investments and may impose financial burdens on firms undertaking such investments. This study empirically examines the effects of technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s on conventional economic productivity (CEP) and environmentally sensitive productivities (ESPs). We employ a directional distance function that can handle multiple inputs and outputs to compute relative production efficiencies. We apply these models to the data covering 27 iron and steel firms in China between 1990 and 1999 – a period when the Chinese iron and steel industry modernized rapidly. We find that ESPs have continuously improved, even in the period when the CEP declined.
A Study on the Chemical Forms and Migration Behavior of Carbon-14 Leached from the Simulated Hull Waste in the Underground condition
- Satoru Kaneko, Hiromi Tanabe, Michitaka Sasoh, Ryota Takahashi, Takayuki Shibano, Shinji Tateyama
-
- Journal:
- MRS Online Proceedings Library Archive / Volume 757 / 2002
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 February 2011, II3.8
- Print publication:
- 2002
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
The chemical forms of carbon leaching from carbon-containing Zr and Fe-based metallic materials have been investigated to improve the estimation of the contribution of C-14 in the performance assessment of TRU waste disposal. Both organic and inorganic carbons were identified in the leached solution with carbon containing zirconium and steel, and the concentrations of total carbon (organic plus inorganic) in the leached solutions increased with time. The carbon concentrations in the leached solution for both metallic samples were higher at higher pH. With High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), organic carbons were identified to be low-molecular weight alcohols, carboxylic acids and aldehydes.
To explore the chemical state of carbon in the matrix materials, the leaching experiments were carried out also for ZrC, Fe3C, the powder mixtures of carbon and zirconium, and of carbon and iron. The low-molecular weight organic carbons were detected only in the case of carbides (ZrC and Fe3C). The chemical forms of carbon in the zirconium alloy were suggested to be carbide or carbon by H.D. Smith[1]. The present result suggests that the chemical forms of carbon in zirconium or iron are mainly in the form of carbide.
In the interest of performance assessment, the distribution coefficients of the organic carbon species identified in the leached solution for cement were obtained. As expected, some of them were shown to be larger than the values assumed in the performance assessment of Progress Report on Disposal Concept for TRU Waste in Japan[2].