Review of China's Energy Policy in 2023

In 2023,China's energy policy primarily focused on deepening systemic and institutional reforms,enhancing energy security capabilities,strengthening energy conservation and carbon reduction,and improving the standard system.It has laid the foundation for China's policy direction,which is predicated on ensuring energy security,centered on economic construction,and aimed at achieving the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals on schedule.In the current key tasks,China has accelerated the construction of a big unified electricity market,vigorously promoted upgrading industries for low-carbon,high-end,and intelligent development,and established carbon markets and standard systems aligned with international practices,achieving substantial progress.

China’s Monetary Policy Impacts on Money and Stock Markets

This study investigated the impact of China’s monetary policy on both the money market and stock markets,assuming that non-policy variables would not respond contemporaneously to changes in policy variables.Monetary policy adjustments are swiftly observed in money markets and gradually extend to the stock market.The study examined the effects of monetary policy shocks using three primary instruments:interest rate policy,reserve requirement ratio,and open market operations.Monthly data from 2007 to 2013 were analyzed using vector error correction(VEC)models.The findings suggest a likely presence of long-lasting and stable relationships among monetary policy,the money market,and stock markets.This research holds practical implications for Chinese policymakers,particularly in managing the challenges associated with fluctuation risks linked to high foreign exchange reserves,aiming to achieve autonomy in monetary policy and formulate effective monetary strategies to stimulate economic growth.

Policy Iteration for Optimal Control of Discrete-Time Time-Varying Nonlinear Systems

Aimed at infinite horizon optimal control problems of discrete time-varying nonlinear systems,in this paper,a new iterative adaptive dynamic programming algorithm,which is the discrete-time time-varying policy iteration(DTTV)algorithm,is developed.The iterative control law is designed to update the iterative value function which approximates the index function of optimal performance.The admissibility of the iterative control law is analyzed.The results show that the iterative value function is non-increasingly convergent to the Bellman-equation optimal solution.To implement the algorithm,neural networks are employed and a new implementation structure is established,which avoids solving the generalized Bellman equation in each iteration.Finally,the optimal control laws for torsional pendulum and inverted pendulum systems are obtained by using the DTTV policy iteration algorithm,where the mass and pendulum bar length are permitted to be time-varying parameters.The effectiveness of the developed method is illustrated by numerical results and comparisons.

Secured Access Policy in Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption for Cloud Environment

The cloud allows clients to store and share data.Depending on the user’s needs,it is imperative to design an effective access control plan to share the information only with approved users.The user loses control of their data when the data is outsourced to the cloud.Therefore,access control mechanisms will become a significant challenging problem.The Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption(CP-ABE)is an essential solution in which the user can control data access.CP-ABE encrypts the data under a limited access policy after the user sets some access policies.The user can decrypt the data if they satisfy the limited access policy.Although CP-ABE is an effective access control program,the privacy of the policy might be compromised by the attackers.Namely,the attackers can gather important information from plain text policy.To address this issue,the SHA-512 algorithm is presented to create a hash code for the user’s attributes in this paper.Depending on the created hash codes,an access policy will be formed.It leads to protecting the access policy against attacks.The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is assessed based on decryption time,private key generation time,ciphertext generation time,and data verification time.

Evolution of Climate Policy in the UK before and after Brexit from the Perspective of Normative Power Theory and Its Enlightenment to China

As the host country of the 26 th United Nations Climate Conference,the United Kingdom(UK)fully carried out climate diplomacy at the conference,and intended to promote the green concept in the international community through diplomatic means,which shows its greater ambition in international climate governance.However,the UK,as the source of the Industrial Revolution,has not always followed the so-called green norms in history.In the interaction with the EU norms after joining the European Community,the UK gradually developed from an"opponent"of green norms to an"advocate"of green norms.After"Brexit",the British government did not stop at the previous green norms of the EU,and further gave the green norms a special brand of the UK on this basis.At present,during the term of Boris Johnson's government,the green norms shaped by the UK have been basically formed and disseminated within a certain mechanism.In this paper,based on the normative power theory and relevant historical facts,how the UK has shaped international norms and obtained normative power through a series of climate policy will be discussed,and some enlightenment to China's participation in the construction of international norms system today will be obtained.

Present Situation, Problems and Strategies of Agricultural Credit Policy in Dingxi City

This paper analyzes the current situation of agricultural credit policy in Dingxi City,and further studies the problems in the implementation of credit policy in Dingxi City,and puts forward strategies and suggestions according to these problems.

Analysis of Offshore Wind Power Industrial Policy in China

After more than ten years,offshore wind power industry in China has got into a new stage of high-quality development.The economy has gradually improved to be affordable,floating wind power has been in the stage of engineering,and integrated development innovation has been flourished.Industrial policy system of offshore wind power has gradually been established and improved.A series of measures work together to promote the industrial clusters and guide the persistent and healthy development.The current policy framework was sorted in this research.The national and local government policy guidance was analyzed from the aspects of development planning,resource allocation,enterprise support,scientific research support,power system,financial services,etc.Aiming at the problems of industrial layout,organization mode,integration of industry and finance faced,policy suggestions were proposed,i.e.,planning as a whole to the sites and industrial layout as well as corresponding policies,promoting the integration and coordination of the floating offshore wind industrial chain,and strengthening the guidance and innovation support of green finance.

Review of China’s Energy Policy in 2022

2022 has seen continuous release of energy policies.Influenced by changes in domestic and international situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic,the Ukraine crisis,the European energy crisis,the China-US game,and climate change,Chinese central government has attached great importance to energy security.The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Central Economic Work Conference made important instructions on the development of China’s energy,which reflect the systematicness and synergy of China’s energy security concept.A series of“14th Five-Year Plan”and medium to long-term special energy development plans have been successively issued.The“Dual-Carbon”1+N policy system has been basically established.The energy field is of paramount importance to achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality;thus,reform and protection policies have been intensively released,and the construction of a national unified energy market has made great progress,making overall energy security and green development become the main policy themes.For oil and gas companies,opportunities outweigh challenges.They should follow the national policies,make good use of resource and technological advantages,continue to consolidate the main business of oil and gas production,develop emerging businesses and accelerate green,low-carbon transformation.

Global Burden of Disease, Injury and Risk Factor Study 2010: Its Policy Implications for China

Results of the Global Burden of Disease, Injury and Risk Factor Study 2010 （GBD 2010） were released on December 13, 2012 in London, a series of papers concerning the project have been published in the Lancet[1]. Research findings of the project have been reported in the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, China[2] and Australia, and widely applied across the world. In addition, the GBD 2010 will see more countries report their project research findings and implement these findings in the near future. The GBD 2010 provides researchers, administrators and policymakers with new and critical sources for their research, teaching and policymaking.

Forecasting of China's natural gas production and its policy implications

With the vigorous promotion of energy conservation and implementation of clean energy strategies,China＇s natural gas industry has entered a rapid development phase,and natural gas is playing an increasingly important role in China＇s energy structure.This paper uses a Generalized Weng model to forecast Chinese regional natural gas production,where accuracy and reasonableness compared with other predictions are enhanced by taking remaining estimated recoverable resources as a criterion.The forecast shows that China＇s natural gas production will maintain a rapid growth with peak gas of 323 billion cubic meters a year coming in 2036;in 2020,natural gas production will surpass that of oil to become a more important source of energy.Natural gas will play an important role in optimizing China＇s energy consumption structure and will be a strategic replacement of oil.This will require that exploration and development of conventional natural gas is highly valued and its industrial development to be reasonably planned.As well,full use should be made of domestic and international markets.Initiative should also be taken in the exploration and development of unconventional and deepwater gas,which shall form a complement to the development of China＇s conventional natural gas industry.

Multiagent Reinforcement Learning:Rollout and Policy Iteration

We discuss the solution of complex multistage decision problems using methods that are based on the idea of policy iteration(PI),i.e.,start from some base policy and generate an improved policy.Rollout is the simplest method of this type,where just one improved policy is generated.We can view PI as repeated application of rollout,where the rollout policy at each iteration serves as the base policy for the next iteration.In contrast with PI,rollout has a robustness property:it can be applied on-line and is suitable for on-line replanning.Moreover,rollout can use as base policy one of the policies produced by PI,thereby improving on that policy.This is the type of scheme underlying the prominently successful Alpha Zero chess program.In this paper we focus on rollout and PI-like methods for problems where the control consists of multiple components each selected(conceptually)by a separate agent.This is the class of multiagent problems where the agents have a shared objective function,and a shared and perfect state information.Based on a problem reformulation that trades off control space complexity with state space complexity,we develop an approach,whereby at every stage,the agents sequentially(one-at-a-time)execute a local rollout algorithm that uses a base policy,together with some coordinating information from the other agents.The amount of total computation required at every stage grows linearly with the number of agents.By contrast,in the standard rollout algorithm,the amount of total computation grows exponentially with the number of agents.Despite the dramatic reduction in required computation,we show that our multiagent rollout algorithm has the fundamental cost improvement property of standard rollout:it guarantees an improved performance relative to the base policy.We also discuss autonomous multiagent rollout schemes that allow the agents to make decisions autonomously through the use of precomputed signaling information,which is sufficient to maintain the cost improvement property,without any on-line coordination of control selection between the agents.For discounted and other infinite horizon problems,we also consider exact and approximate PI algorithms involving a new type of one-agent-at-a-time policy improvement operation.For one of our PI algorithms,we prove convergence to an agentby-agent optimal policy,thus establishing a connection with the theory of teams.For another PI algorithm,which is executed over a more complex state space,we prove convergence to an optimal policy.Approximate forms of these algorithms are also given,based on the use of policy and value neural networks.These PI algorithms,in both their exact and their approximate form are strictly off-line methods,but they can be used to provide a base policy for use in an on-line multiagent rollout scheme.

Understanding Policy Instruments as Rules of Interaction in Social-Ecological System Frameworks

Government interventions to manage and improve trade-offs in social and ecological systems are made through various policy instruments.The conditions of the social ecological system(SES)are a function of the cumulatively implemented policy instruments.Although both policy instruments and social ecological system frameworks have played important roles in theoretical developments in resource management,they have largely been considered in isolation from each other.By including policy instruments into the SES framework,the proposed conceptual model serves as a template to examine how governing takes place by deciphering:1)how the biophysical system has been understood in resource governance;2)how the social system has been set up in resource governance;and 3)how the trade-offbetween dynamic biophysical and social systems has been managed in the governance of SESs.This model can assist identifying any absent,overlapping or contradictory policy instruments in the governance of an SES.

Russian Foreign Policy in Putin Presidency

Valadimir Putin assumed office as President of Russia on 7th May. It is a signfor Russia to enter into a new era. Attention is called to how Russia will imple-ment its foreign policy during Putin presidency, and what is the prospect. I Mr. Putin has started readjusting Russian foreign policy early as Acting Presi-dent. According to the newest version of the "Concept of National Security" andthe "New Foreign Doctrine", it is obvious that Russia will carry on pragmatic for-

Role of Breastfeeding in Promoting Maternal &Child Health and Policy Implications in New Zealand

Worldwide researches over infant’s health have generally focused and aimed on understanding the complex factors (both positive and negative) affecting the infant’s health which further had ultimately helped them to frame policies nationally as well as internationally. Out of these factors, breastfeeding is one of the vital concerns for research related to infant mortality and morbidity. The World Health Organization recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed until first six months and receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods thereafter while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond. In New Zealand (NZ), only 12% of 6 months old children were exclusively breastfed in 2006. The Ministry of Health plays a leading role for the protection, promotion and supporting breastfeeding in NZ. There are a number of areas/implications that NZ need to focus at such as providing antenatal and postpartum education, training of health professionals, community and workplace support, policy frameworks, breast-feeding statistics and intersectoral approach. These measures mainly focus at the initiation but less has been done to continue and support breastfeeding in NZ. In order to achieve this, all of these areas should be given prime and equal consideration. Hence, there is a strong need to develop strategies that maintain and promote breastfeeding at 6 months or beyond in NZ taking into considerations of various barriers and enabling factors.

Perceived Injustices in Forest Policy Interventions are Causes of Forest Resources Degradation and Loss in Ghana: A Review

Forests provide diverse co-benefits, including livelihoods enhancement, poverty alleviation, and biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services such as climate mitigation. Consequently, Ghana has embraced several global, regional, national, and local forest policy interventions to safeguard its forest resources’ sustainable management. However, the forest policy interventions have not adequately addressed the co-benefits issues of forest resources leading to several forest illegalities that drive forest resources degradation and loss. These forest policies and interventions on the ground primarily favour carbon stocks enhancement and sequestration activities for carbon mitigation purposes compared to the benefits, access and rights that forest-dependent people and communities are supposed to derive from forest resources. These perceived injustices in the access and distribution of forest resources have culminated into all forms of forest illegalities driving Ghana’s forest resources into massive degradation and loss. Currently, Ghana is experiencing a 2% rate of annual deforestation and forest degradation, which translates into approximately 135,000 ha/year of forest cover loss due to anthropogenic causes. Our review is based on relevant and critical forest documents, and scientific peer-reviewed papers on Ghana’s forest policy interventions and dynamics recently published. The information gathered enabled us to highlight the perceived injustices in the forest policy interventions and their effects on forest resources. Unjust forest resources sharing and distribution are critical drivers of forest resources degradation and loss. We thus offer lessons for remedying the unfair distribution and injustices to promote equitable forest resources rights and benefit access to local forest-dependent people. It is expected that this review will offer and assist forest policy, intervention spatial and other planners and designers to find a possible way forward to avoid nature degradation, including biodiversity loss, to resolve perceived injustices in the forestry sector, to use adequate all ecosystem services provided by forests as well as to promote local livelihood and sustainability.

Alternative policy implementation: Theoretical explanation and case analysis of local government's action logic

Since the reform and opening up, the local government has played a key role in promoting the economic and social development of our country, and the effective implementation of the local government has become an important research topic. Therefore, based on the literature, the observation method of in-depth interviews, practice investigation and participation is adopted in this paper, which focuses on the implementation of special groups of social assistance policy. The theoretical framework of government' rational choice reveals the status of local government implementation policies and behavior behind the mechanism and organizational structure. The study found that:(1) the local government is easy to choose a quantifiable policy to implement;(2) there is a coexistence between the local government departments;(3) the local government selectively meets the needs of special personnel;(4) the local government's seeking political promotion and power leads to its behavior alienation.

AN ANALYSIS OF ANTONINUS PIUS’ FRONTIER POLICY IN NORTHERN BRITAIN AND ITS REPRESENTATION OF HIS PRINCIPATE

The accession of Antoninus Pius saw a distinct change in imperial frontier policy in Britain. Upon taking power, Antoninus’ representative in Britain, Q. Lollius Urbicus,1 undertook the systematic re-occupation of lowland Scotland and a new