Carbon Budget for Basic Needs:Implications of International Equity and Sustainability

The fundamental way of satisfying the basic needs of human development is to secure the basic needs,limit luxurious and wasteful emissions,and ensure the fulfillment of climate targets,so as to achieve intra-and intergenerational equity.In this paper,the author discusses and analyzes a series of challenges that the development has to face,such as poverty elimination,urbanization,and industrialization,and the problems of increased consumption that is brought about by the improvement of living standards;the author distinguishes the stock emission,which does not need annual updating,and the flow emission of regular consumption;the author also defines the standards of energy consumption and carbon emissions that can meet the basic needs.On this basis,the author proposes the concept and method of carbon budget,compares this method with other means,and in particular,studies and analyzes the implications of international equity and sustainability of carbon budget as part of the international climate regime design.

Enlightenment of Brownfield Development Practices in China and Abroad on Urban Development of China

This study proposed obstacles in the brownfield development and analyzed 3 classical cases of brownfield development:German Ruhr Industrial Area,the American Automobile City and 798 Art Zone in China.Based on the comprehensive elaboration and evaluation of the driving factors,patterns,rehabilitation benefits,costs and prospects of brownfield development,its enlightenment on urban development of China was summarized from 4 perspectives:inhibiting urban sprawl,improving environmental quality of brownfield,promoting urban renewal and reserving cultural heritage.

Impacts, risks, and governance of climate engineering

Climate engineering is a potential alternative method to curb global warming, and this discipline has garnered considerable attention from the intemational scientific community including the Chinese scientists. This manuscript provides an overview of several aspects of climate engi- neering, including its definition, its potential impacts and risk, and its governance status. The overall conclusion is that China is not yet ready to implement climate engineering. However, it is important for China to continue conducting research on climate engineering, particularly with respect to its feasible application within China, its potential social, economic, and environmental impacts, and possible international governance structures and governing principles, with regard to both experimentatio~ and implementation.

Implications of geoengineering under the 1.5 ℃ target： Analysis and policy suggestions

The Paris Agreement introduced a 1.5 ℃ target to control the rise in global temperature, but clear arrangements for feasible implementation pathways were not made. Achieving the 1.5 ℃ target imposes high requirements on global emission reduction. Nationally Determined Con- tributions of all Parties are far from the 1.5 ℃ target, and conventional emission reduction technologies and policies will also have difficulty in fulfilling this task. In this context, geoengineering is gaining interest in the international arena. The Paris Agreement includes afforestation, carbon capture, utilization and storage, and negative emission technologies such as bio-energy with carbon capture and store. All of these techniques are CO2 removal technologies that belong to geoengineering. Solar radiation management, which is highly controversial, has also attracted increased attention in recent years. Although the outline of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 ℃ does not include a specific section on geoengineering issues yet, geoengineering is an unconventional technical option that cannot be avoided in research and discussions on impact assessment, technical options, ethics, and international governance under the 1.5 ℃ target. On the basis of analyzing and discussing abovementioned issues, this paper proposes several policy suggestions for China to strengthen research on and response to geoengineering.

Technology advance and discounting of the historical emission responsibilities

Solving the dispute over historical greenhouse gases emission responsibility is critical for the future climate agreement.This article borrows the methodology from the carbon budget proposal,but further develops this approach by proposing discount of the historical responsibility due to the technology advance.Firstly,it studies the Annex I countries'mitigation and financial responsibilities of the historical emission in the carbon budget proposal;furthermore,it analyzes the results and implications of the discount approach.Results show that the discount method significantly reduces the burden of the mitigation and financial responsibilities of the Annex I countries.Thus,we claim that the discount approach is a systematic,pragmatic,and fair approach to solve the historical responsibility dispute and financial problems for the post-2020international climate institutions.

Flexibility Required to Meet China's Mandatory Green Targets Set in the 12th Five-Year Plan

1 Introduction During the past five years known as the period of the llth Five-Year （2006-2010） Plan, China made great efforts on energy saving and emission reduction, and obtained great achievements, including a 19.06% drop of per unit GDP energy consumption. One of the major targets of China＇s development during the period of the 12th Five-Year （2011-2015） Plan or the next five years, is to lead China＇s economy on to the path of sustainable development,

Climate capacity:the measurement for adaptation to climate change

This article proposed the concept of"climate capacity"as a way of measuring human's adaptiveness to climate change.This article also focused on the related concepts like ecological carrying capacity,water resources carrying capacity,land carrying capacity as well as population carrying capacity.The concept of climate capacity was articulated against a background of global climate and environmental change.Essentially,China's efforts to adapt to climate change was a matter of improving climate capacity,which is the ecosystem as well as the frequency,the intensity and the scale of human's social activities that the climatic resources of a particular geographic area were supposed to support.The climate capacity has two components.One is the natural climate capacity,which includes temperature,sunlight,precipitation,extreme climatic events,etc.The other is the derived climate capacity,which includes water resources,land resources,ecological systems,climatic risks,etc.The climate capacity can be developed or be transferred between regions by taking engineering,technology or regime-based adaptive measures.However,these adaptive measures must be implemented under the principle of economic rationalism,ecological integrity,climate protection,and social justice.It is expected that by combining the climate capacity and its threshold value with the assessment of climate change risks,we are able to predict the optimal population carrying capacity and the scale of socioeconomic development,and furthermore,provide policy support for the socioeconomic development strategy and adaptive planning.In the regions with high climate capacity,there is a symbiotic relationship between adaptation and socioeconomic development.But,in the regions with limited climate capacity,irrational development may further damage the environment.Taking the Yangtze River delta,a region with high climate capacity,and a region of Ningxia,a region with limited climate capacity,as illustrative examples,the authors of this article analyzed the policy implications of climate capacity and further made suggestions on the problems of capacitylimited adaptation and development-driven adaptation.This article argued that the concept of climate capacity can not only be used as an analytical instrument of climate change economics,but also it can provide research support for planning regional adaptation and development with climate change impact and risk assessments.

China＇s Regional Policy Scenarios for 2011-2015 Period

In pursuit of more balanced regional development, China should base its regional policy during the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan on the principle of fairness, and tailor it to the specific characteristics of needy areas and development priority zones. The country ＂s master plan of developing the western region, revitalizing the northeast, supporting the rise of central China, and upgrading the east should continue.

Ecological Civilization Spearheads High-quality Development in China

ECOLOGICAL civilization is a new form of civilization that is based on industrial civilization and capitalizes on its strengths. It represents the material and spiritual achievements humankind has made by following the principles of maintaining harmony between man, nature, and society. It also reflects the civility and progress of a society. China has incorporated the building of ecological civilization into a five-sphere integrated plan to promote coordinated economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement.

The process and approach for the“citizenization”of Chinese rural migrant populations

China has a large rural migrant population,the country’s urbanization rate is low,and the cost of urbanization is high.These factors make the promotion of urbanization in China a long,arduous,and expensive task.By identifying and defining key elements of China’s urbanization transformation,this paper calculates the degree of China’s current transformation and proposes an approach based on systemic data to facilitate the continued process of transforming rural populations into citizens with full urban residential rights,herein referred to as“citizenization.”This paper finds that only about 40%of rural migrants had transformed into urban residents in 2011,and this share remained stagnant in 2012.Meanwhile,according to the sixth demographic census,the incomplete urbanization rate-calculated based on the difference between the share of the registered non-agriculture population as a percentage of the total population and the share of permanent urban residents-reached 23 percentage points.This thesis argues that it is necessary to advance the transformation process in a steady,stage-by-stage manner,including by carrying out multi-pronged efforts in various fields at various levels,and establishing a diversified cost-sharing mechanism,so as to achieve higher-quality,rational urbanization in China.

Urban traffic congestion in China:causes and countermeasures

Based on the analysis of the current situation and causes of urban traffic congestion in China,this paper points out that the rapidly rising gap between demand and supply in transportation,inappropriate urban space arrangement,and inefficient traffic management are the underlying causes of traffic congestion.Drawing on the advanced experience of foreign countries,this paper also offers suggestions for countermeasures against urban traffic congestion in China.

Protecting Mother Earth

WHEN Beijing has a day with pristine blue skies,it trends immediately on Wechat(China’s premier social media app).The rare occurrence of“Beijing Blue”and media chatter about such rare weather is indicative of the Chinese capital’s ongoing battle with polluted air and is symbolic of the severe pressure the country faces in the feld of environmental protection.

China＇s provincial CO2 emissions embodied in trade with implications for regional climate policy

CO2 emissions embodied in trade have an important and far-reaching impact on CO2 emissions reduction obligations. Based on a multi-regional inputoutput analysis, this paper calculates China＇s provincial CO2 emissions embodied in trade and analyzes CO2 emissions embodied in trade per unit of value of trade in 30 Chinese provinces. Several climate policy options that potentially reduce the impact of trade on individual provinces are discussed. One finding from this study is that provincial CO2 emissions embodied in trade accounted for approximately 60.02% of China＇s CO2 emissions in 2007. The CO2 emissions embodied in imports and exports for 30 Chinese provinces differ widely, and remarkable differences in the CO2 emissions embodied in trade per unit of value of trade exist. Another important finding, is that if provinces take binding commitments as a part of a coalition, instead of as individual provinces, then the impacts of trade can be reduced. Notably, however, the extent of reduction in a coalition varies in different provinces.

Competition of spatial service hinterlands between high-speed rail and air transport in China： Present and future trends

The rapid development of high-speed rail （HSR） and air transport in China has encouraged research on the spatial effects and safety of these two modes of transport, and on the competition between them. We report here an investigation of the effects of competi- tion between HSR and air transport in China from a geographical perspective. The spatial service hinterlands for HSR and air transport accessible within one and two hours by road transport were investigated using a method based on a geographical information system and the overlapping service hinterlands of HSR and air transport were established. A city with both HSR stations and airports, or that was accessible to HSR stations and airports within a certain travel time by road transport, was defined as the overlapping market. The spatial effects of competition between HSR and air transport at present and in the future were then studied with respect to the planned HSR network and airports. The results showed that both HSR and air transport tend to serve areas with high population densities and well-developed econo- mies and in 2012 most of the population and GDP in China were accessible within two hours by road transport to an HSR station or airport. -the different technical and economic charac- teristics of HSR and air transport determine the advantage markets. Spatially, the service hinterland of HSR mainly focuses on urban agglomerations and economic corridors in the eastern and central regions, whereas air transport has a competitive advantage in the more inaccessible western region of China. The overlapping market of HSR and air transport will become increasingly large in the future and cities with a population of over one million and cities within 30 km to both airports and HSR stations will become the major competitive markets. Considering the cost of construction and the number of passengers required for economic operation, as well as the competition with air transport, it is suggested that the construction of some HSR projects in the western region of China should be canceled or slowed down.

Analysis of the costs and benefits of citizenization in China

Rapid industrialization in the wake of reform and opening up has transferred a large rural population to the cities,yet the vast majority of these people are not entitled to the same urban social services as are urban residents,including education and healthcare.This poses unique problems for the urbanization of the migrant agricultural population.Many analysts hold that the biggest barrier to making these migrant rural citizens into compleu urban citizens is the high cost.Pan Jiahua,through a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and costs of the agricultural population transfer,maintains that the benefits far outweigh the costs,and the problem lies in the asymmetry of real interests and the limited expenditure on basic urban social services for the transferring agricultural population.The key to resolving the conundrum of cost in the urbanization of the transferring agricultural population lies in scientifically understanding benefits,breaking pattern of real interests,and accelerating the process of urbanization of the transferring agricultural population.

Evolution of regional transport dominance in China 1910-2012

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping the configuration of spatial socio-economic structures and influencing regional accessibility. Although China＇s transport infrastructure has been experiencing a rapid development in the last 100 years, there lacks a systematic examination of the complete evolution history of China＇s transport development, particularly with all kinds of transport modes. This paper first aims to clarify the history of China＇s transportation from 1910 to 2012, and divides its evolution process into five periods （1911, 1935, 1953, 1981 and 2012） whereby each period represents the preliminary development time for each transport mode. Second, the paper calculates the transport dominance and analyses its spatial distribution in each period, with county as the basic analysis unit. Transport dominance here is defined as an integrated indicator for evaluating regional transport conditions. The results demonstrate the following： （1） areas with relative good transport dominance have expanded from scattered dots such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou in 1911 to extensive areas with each provincial city as cores in 2012; （2） transport development is improved by advances in transportation technology. The construction of modern transport infrastructures such as seaports, airports, high-speed rails （HSRs）, and freeways lead the expansion of national territorial areas with good and excellent transport dominance and the increase of the value of transport dominance over time; （3） transport dominance is spatially unevenly distributed and exhibits resemblance with the expansion of transport network, which is closely related to China＇s socio-economic development and policles.

Ensuring Ecological Security by Adapting to Carrying Capacity

To build a beautiful China and enhance ecological security, we should maintain a balance between ecosystem supply and demand. In terms of supply, we should allow natural ecosystem productivity to achieve an optimal state, thus maintaining the maximum carrying capacity of the ecosystem. In terms of demand, we should change our consumption behavior and reduce our ecological footprint so that they are compatible with the ecosystem production and carrying capacity.