Toward a more open and collaborative climate change policy framework in Hong Kong and Macao within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao enjoy a high degree of autonomy from the national policy system in devising their local policies,including measures related to climate change.Hong Kong and Macao each have their own climate change policies,some aspects of which are more advanced than policies in China's Mainland.While their high degree of policy autonomy has advantages,this has also isolated them from China's larger environmental management and practices that continue to advance at scale.This paper reviews the climate change policies of the two special administrative regions and analyzes their strengths and innovations,particularly in adaptation.It also identifies areas where there could be closer engagement,collaboration,and capacity-building with the China's Mainland,which has the potential for greater positive impacts,especially on a regional basis.

The Strategic Landscape of Global Digital Geopolitical Competition and Its Implications

The return of geostrategic thinking has brought about profound impact on major country relations in digital space,ac­celerating the advent of the era of global digital geopolitics.As humans created digital technologies and pro­posed digital sovereignty to regulate their development,global digital geopolitics has further elevated the competition on digital technology to a more strategic position.There is an intense interaction between global digital geopolitical dynamics,the digi­tal geostrategies of major countries and the adjustment of the interna­tional landscape,which will bring new changes to the international relations.

Sociodemographic characteristics, cultural biases, and environmental attitudes: An empirical application of grid-group cultural theory in Northwestern China

Natural resource-management studies have become increasingly attentive to the influences of human factors. Among these,cultural biases shape people’s responses to changes in natural resource systems. Several studies have applied grid-group cultural theory to assess the effects of multiple value biases among stakeholders on natural resource management. We developed and administered a questionnaire in the Heihe River Basin(n = 364) in northwestern China to investigate the appropriateness of applying this theory in the Chinese context of natural resource management. The results revealed various cultural biases among the respondents. In descending order of prevalence, these biases were hierarchism(46.98%), individualism(26.65%), egalitarianism(18.96%), and fatalism(2.78%), with the remaining respondents(4.67%) evidencing no obvious bias. Our empirical study revealed respondents’ worldviews and the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on cultural biases, as theoretically posited. Among the variables examined, age had a positive and significant effect across all biases except individualism. The correlation of income to all cultural biases was consistently negative. Only education had a negative and significant effect across all biases. Women were found to adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhered to individualism and hierarchism. Thus, grid-group cultural theory was found to be appropriate in the Chinese context, with gender, age, education, and income evidently accounting for cultural biases. Relationships between environmental attitudes and cultural biases conformed with the hypothesis advanced by grid-group cultural theory. This finding may be of value in explaining individuals’ environmental attitudes and facilitating the development and implementation of natural resource-management policies.

关于水域生态系统管理的跨学科研究

大约30年前,最早一项旨在改善水质从而达到'管理'水生生态系统的跨学科研究项目开始实施,即对美国特拉华州河口湾的研究计划。跨学科研究,同多学科研究一样,包括许多科学家对一个共同项目开展工作。此外,我们对跨学科研究的要求是它把不同领域的知识结合成为一系列按所研究问题确定的知识。

美国页岩气扩采的结果模拟

10年前人们的传统思想认为，美国将成为一个主要的液化天然气进口国。然而，受页岩气资源快速发展的影响，如今我们都认为美国已经成为潜力出口国之一。这不仅对美国，同时也对世界其他国家有着显著影响。特别是一些天然气出口国的观点已有了质的改变。也就是说，从能源安全的角度来看，俄罗斯、伊朗、委内瑞拉和卡塔尔已经看到他们预计财富的减少。页岩气的发展有效增加了能源全球供应的弹性，并且可以从根本上减少对这些能源出口国的依赖。

The policy-driven peak and reduction of China's carbon emissions

Pursuant to the Paris Agreement,China committed itself to peak its carbon emissions by around 2030 and to increase the non-fossil share ofprimary energy to 20%at the same time.The government has supported the international agreement by setting and strengthening the domesticpolicy targets for an earlier peak and faster reduction,aiming to contain the average global temperature increase to well below 2℃.We developa Kaya Inequality method to assess the time of peak and pace of reduction of China's energy-related CO2emissions based on the national energypolicy targets for 2030.We find that,despite the minor fluctuations,the current plateau essentially represents the peak emissions and should entera phase of steady decline by around 2025,given current trends in energy consumption and decarbonization.Such developments would beconsistent with the strengthened national policy target to achieve 50%of renewable power generation by 2030.However,the basic policy targetsea 20%share of non-fossil energy and 6 Gtce in total energy consumption by 2030ewould be insufficient to peak carbon emissions by around 2030.The synergy and interplay between domestic policy target setting and international climate commitments shed light on the need to elevatenational climate ambitions under the Paris Agreement and beyond.

Towards carbon neutrality and China's 14th Five-Year Plan: Clean energy transition, sustainable urban development, and investment priorities

China's 14th Five-Year Plan,for the period 2021e25,presents a real opportunity for China to link its longterm climate goals with its short-to medium-term social and economic development plans.China's recent commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 has set a clear direction for its economy,but requires ratcheting up ambition on its near-term climate policy.Against this background,this paper discusses major action areas for China's 14th Five-Year Plan after COVID-19,especially focusing on three aspects:the energy transition,a new type of sustainable urban development,and investment priorities.China's role in the world is now of a magnitude that makes its actions in the immediate future critical to how the world goes forward.This decade,2021e2030,is of fundamental importance to human history.If society locks in dirty and high-carbon capital,it raises profound risks of irreversible damage to the world's climate.It is crucial for China to peak its emissions in the 14th Five-Year Plan(by 2025),making the transition earlier and cheaper,enhancing its international competitiveness in growing new markets and setting a strong example for the world.The benefits for China and the world as a whole could be immense.

An integrated approach to evaluating the coupling coordination degree between low-carbon development and air quality in Chinese cities

Collaborative governance between ecological environment and climate change is a novel signature in China's policy agenda. However, such coordination remains understudied, especially at the local level. Using the principal component analysis, entropy evaluation methods, and the Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM), we evaluated the level of coordination between carbon and air quality mitigation from 34 low-carbon pilot cities in China. We also illustrated the mechanism and policy formation that leads to different coupling patterns at the local level using three case studies. We found that most pilot cities perform a medium level of coupling coordination between low carbon development and air quality. The result reveals that most low-carbon pilot cities score relatively well in low-carbon development. Further, there is a significant cleavage in air quality between cities in the North and those in the South, indicating pilot cities in the South coordinate better than those in the North. In particular, pilot programs in the Southwest and Southeast coastal region perform well in collaborative governance, while the Beijing−Tianjin−Hebei region is rated poorly because of the gap between air quality and low carbon development. Also, we found that the same low-carbon policy might have heterogeneous effects on different air pollutants and across different regions. The local government should adopt low-carbon development policies that address local level specific environmental and economic conditions to maximize their air pollution mitigation benefits.

Understanding systemic risk induced by climate change

The systemic risk induced by climate change represents one of the most prominent threats facing humanity and has attracted increasing attention since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019.The existing literature highlights the importance of systemic risk induced by climate change,but there are still deficiencies in understanding its dynamics and assessing the risk.Aiming to bridge this gap,this study develops a theoretical framework and employs two cases to illustrate the concept,origin,occurrence,propagation,evolution,and assessment framework of systemic risk induced by climate change.The key findings include:1)systemic risk induced by climate change derives from the rapid growth of greenhouse gas,emissions,increasingly complex connections among different socioeconomic systems,and continuous changes in exposure and vulnerability;2)systemic risk induced by climate change is a holistic risk generated by the interconnection,interaction,and dynamic evolution of different types of single risks,and its fundamental,defining feature is cascading effects.The extent of risk propagation and its duration depend on the characteristics of the various discrete risks that are connected to make up the systemic risk;3)impact domains,severity of impact,and probability of occurrences are three core indicators in systemic risk assessment,and the impact domains should include the economy,society,homeland security,human health,and living conditions.We propose to deepen systemic risk research from three aspects:to develop theories to understand the mechanism of systemic risk;to conduct empirical research to assess future risks;and to develop countermeasures to mitigate the risk.

China’s Economic Development in the New Era: Challenges and Paths

China’s economy has seen rapid development ever since its reform and opening-up strategy was launched in 1978.Strong economic expansion over the past four decades has taken China from low-income to upper-middle-income status.Looking back at the transformation that China has made,however,we must recognise that the old growth story is coming to an end.The phase of development driven by investment in physical capital will be increasingly supplanted by investment in assets such as knowledge and social capital as well as investment in preservation of natural capital.Recognising the challenges that China is facing,with this paper we aim to offer an approach to growth and development that could spell out a new development strategy for the country as the 21st century progresses.China will focus on the technologies with high-quality growth prospects:modern service sectors,including health,education,transport,communications and IT,artificial intelligence,finance,logistics,sustainable urban infrastructure and new food and land-use systems.With today’s technologies,China can help the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)countries embark on a much more sustainable,more efficient and greener form of development,avoiding historical problems of pollution and congestion,with China itself moving up the value chain at the same time.

Variability in total cost of vehicle ownership across vehicle and user profiles

Widespread adoption of electric vehicles(EVs)is a common and critical component of international strategies to mitigate environmental pollution,climate change and oil dependency.The ability of consumers to assess the total cost of ownership(TCO)of EVs relative to internal combustion engine vehicles(ICEVs)remains an important factor for EV uptake.The TCO of vehicles is not universal across different car segments and user profiles.We analyse and compare the TCO of ICEVs and EVs from 17 car segments across short-and long-term ownership periods,and further advance existing TCO approaches by integrating detailed activity-based driving profiles,taxation,grant structures and pricing.Results show that EV options in the most popular Irish car segments have existing battery EV options with a TCO averaging respectively 26% and 42% less than their equivalent petrol and diesel ICEV options over a 4-year ownership term when the current grant is included.This integrated method for granular TCO evaluation offers important insights for this market and affords scope to investigate how changes in travel patterns,car-segment pricing,taxation,grant policy,fuel costs,and carbon pricing and other transport policies can all affect TCO values over time across a broad range of market offerings.

AFRICA’S REGIONAL FOCUS

The African Union(AU) this year will mark its 50th anniversary since the founding of the Organization of African Unity(OAU),a precursor to the current organization,on May 25,1963.