A Bite of China: Food consumption and carbon emission from 1992 to 2007

In conjunction with the rapid rise in household food expenditures per capita, China's food consumption has increased greatly. At the same time, dietary patterns have changed dramatically, as between 1992 and 2007 China underwent a transition to a more animal-based westernized diet. This rise in food consumption and shift in dietary structure may contribute substantially to climate change. In this paper, an input-output model is used to explore the food-related carbon emissions of Chinese urban households in 1992 and 2007. The results indicate that the physical volume of and economic expenditures on food consumption have increased by 20.7% and 35.9%, respectively. However, food-related carbon emissions per capita in 2007 had decreased nearly 21% compared to emissions in 1992. Based on parametric estimates of environmental Engel Curves and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, the variation in household income may lead to a hypothetical carbon emissions increase of 1.694 tons. However, the improvement in energy use efficiency had offset the impact from income growth and dietary transition and led to the drop in China's food-related carbon emissions from 1992 to 2007.     

低碳时代农村生产生活方式的转变

农业既是温室气体排放来源产业,又是最易遭受气候变化影响的产业。我国作为一个发展中农业大国,农业可持续发展和粮食安全面临着气候变化的严峻挑战。要从根本上解决碳排放问题,只靠改变城市的生产结构,推动低碳生活方式是远远不够的,还必须切实解决农村的环境污染和生态破坏问题,倡导低碳经济,积极引导农民生产以及生活方式的转变。     

Quality of life in Chinese cities

The Rosen-Roback spatial equilibrium theory states that cross-city variations in wages and housing prices reflect urban residents' willingness to pay for urban amenities or quality of life. This paper is the first to quantify and rank the quality of life in Chinese cities based on the Rosen-Roback model. Using the 2005 1% Population Intercensus Survey data, we estimate the wage and housing hedonic models. The coefficients of urban amenity variables in both hedonic models are considered the implicit prices of amenities and are used as the weights to compute the quality of life for each prefecture-level city in China. In general, provincial capital cities and cities with nice weather, good air quality, and accessible public transit have high quality of life. We also find that urban quality of life is positively associated with the subjective well-being of urban residents.     

Is Decoupling Possible? Association between Affluence and Household Carbon Emissions in the Philippines

This paper investigates whether or not affluence is associated with carbon emissions at the household level in the Philippines. While there is abundant literature on this issue, limited studies are available for developing countries. We estimate household carbon emissions by combining input–output analysis with household expenditure. The results suggest that household carbon emissions are increasing non‐monotonically with a non‐existent turning point as households accumulate more assets. This is further supported by quintile estimates showing huge disparity in emissions between poor and rich households. Although household carbon emissions in the Philippines are not alarming, evidence suggests that it is likely households will lead a carbon‐intensive lifestyle as they become more affluent.     

Demographic Transition in China and its Implications

The aim of this paper is to chart the demographic transition in China, identify its proximate causes and analyze its socioeconomic implications with reference to, first, the proportion and composition of the dependent population, second, the age structure of the labor force and, third, the size and composition of households. Defined as a steady deceleration in population growth to a nonrising total, the onset of the demographic transition in 1970 predates the one-child policy. Thus far the transition has had its largest impact on the proportion of children in the population, which has fallen. Next in magnitude is a rise of in the share of working-age adults. These two changes dwarf the rise in the share of the elderly on which much of the discussion in China tends to be focused. The crude dependency ratio has been falling and will continue to do so for another two decades or so. It is pointed out that the change in the age structure has significant distributive implications. The last 20 or so years have seen a substantial change the size distribution of households. The average household has shrunk in size from 4.5 in 1982 to 3.5. This is important because the distribution of the population into households has a significant impact on the household expenditure pattern. In particular, controlling for per capita expenditure, smaller households spend more on food per capita than do larger households.     

Home value misestimation and household behavior: Evidence from China

Households often make errors when self-assessing their housing wealth. By using the Chinese Households Finance Survey, we show that Chinese urban households systematically overestimate their home value. This bias is significantly related to household consumption: a one standard deviation increase in the extent of estimation bias is associated with a 10% increase in household consumption. Our main results are robust against a variety of robustness checks, e.g., taking into account the expectations of future home price, using the interviewee's estimation as the instrumental variable for the household self-estimation, implementing the hedonic model on an external data source to assess real homevalue, etc.. Further, we show that overestimated households are more likely to take risk in financial market, and have a larger amount of immediate and conspicuous consumption. These findings have policy implications for the recent debate about property tax, indicating the unintended consequences of property tax through providing more precise information about home value.     

基于MRIO模型的中国对外贸易隐含碳及排放责任研究

国际贸易中的隐含碳对全球碳排放责任的界定和气候政策的制定有重要的影响。由于生产技术差异对国际贸易模式有很大影响,在经济全球化背景下,对外贸易隐含碳的测算需要考虑贸易伙伴生产技术水平和能源结构之间的差异。本文建立多区域投入产出模型测算中国对外贸易隐含碳并比较其生产和消费排放责任后发现,中国对外贸易隐含碳净出口占中国碳排放的11.77%～19.93%,中国的生产碳排放从1995年的29.2亿吨增加到2009年的70.8亿吨,而消费碳排放在1995年和2009年分别只有24.7亿吨和61.8亿吨。文章进而采用结构分解分析和碳排放贸易条件解释这一现象,并将其具体到主要贸易伙伴,从而证明目前的国际碳排放核算体系引起了消费和全球生产系统的分离。经过贸易调整后的基于消费的碳排放核算体系不仅可为减排责任的分担提供一个新途径,而且可为利用贸易政策实现减排提供新的思路。     

欧盟在国际气候谈判中的政策立场分析

欧盟是国际气候谈判的最初发起者,是事实上的京都进程国际气候谈判的领导者,也是京都模式的坚定支持者。国际体系结构是欧盟采取这种立场的最根本动因。冷战后的国际体系结构在一超多强的总体结构下是一种单极与多极并存的双重复合型结构,而应对全球气候变化的温室气体减排行动最终会深刻影响未来国家(集团)在国际体系中的实力地位并最终决定国际体系的权力分配。对未来影响的考量以及争取成为未来世界重要一极的战略意图是欧盟采取积极主动的减排立场并担当国际气候谈判领导者角色的根本动因。     

城市湖景对房地产价格影响的享乐价格研究

通过建立享乐价格模型,估算和检验城市生态景观对周边住宅价格的影响程度.以合肥市天鹅湖为研究对象,选取了区位因素、建筑因素、邻里因素三大类变量,建立住宅享乐价格模型,对不同属性变量进行分析,重点研究了距离天鹅湖的距离对于房屋价格的影响.结果表明:住宅价格受到的周边湖景的影响,到湖的距离越近,住宅价格越高.基于此,政府在进行城市规划和建设时,应当考虑环境和配套设施的影响;政府在制定税收政策时应当充分考虑公共支出给私人物品带来的增值效应.     

The U.S. proposed carbon tariffs, WTO scrutiny and China’s responses

With governments from around the world trying to hammer out a post-2012 climate change agreement, no one would disagree that a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions is essential to such a global pact. However, despite U.S. president Obama’s announcement to push for a commitment to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020, in reality it is questionable whether U.S. Congress will agree to specific emissions cuts, although they are not ambitious at all from the perspectives of both the EU and developing countries, without the imposition of carbon tariffs on Chinese products to the U.S. market, even given China’s own announcement to voluntarily seek to reduce its carbon intensity by 40–45% over the same period. This dilemma is partly attributed to flaws in current international climate negotiations, which have been focused on commitments on the two targeted dates of 2020 and 2050. However, if the international climate change negotiations continue on their current course without extending the commitment period to 2030, which would really open the possibility for the U.S. and China to make the commitments that each wants from the other, the inclusion of border carbon adjustment measures seems essential to secure passage of any U.S. legislation capping its own greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the joint WTO-UNEP report indicates that border carbon adjustment measures might be allowed under the existing WTO rules, depending on their specific design features and the specific conditions for implementing them. Against this background, this paper argues that, on the U.S. side, there is a need to minimize the potential conflicts with WTO provisions in designing such border carbon adjustment measures. The U.S. also needs to explore, with its trading partners, ccooperative sectoral approaches to advancing low-carbon technologies and/or concerted mitigation efforts in a given sector at the international level. Moreover, to increase the prospects for a successful WTO defence of the Waxman-Markey type of border adjustment provision, there should be: 1) a period of good faith efforts to reach agreements among the countries concerned before imposing such trade measures; 2) consideration of alternatives to trade provisions that could reasonably be expected to fulfill the same function but are not inconsistent or less inconsistent with the relevant WTO provisions; and 3) trade provisions that should allow importers to submit equivalent emission reduction units that are recognized by international treaties to cover the carbon contents of imported products. Meanwhile, being targeted by such border carbon adjustment measures, China needs to, at the right time, indicate a serious commitment to address climate change issues to challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. imposing carbon tariffs by signaling well ahead that it will take on binding absolute emission caps around the year 2030, and needs the three transitional periods of increasing climate obligations before taking on absolute emissions caps. This paper argues that there is a clear need within a climate regime to define comparable efforts towards climate mitigation and adaptation to discipline the use of unilateral trade measures at the international level. As exemplified by export tariffs that China applied on its own during 2006–08, the paper shows that defining the comparability of climate efforts can be to China’s advantage. Furthermore, given the fact that, in volume terms, energy-intensive manufacturing in China values 7 to 8 times that of India, and thus carbon tariffs have a greater impact on China than on India, the paper questions whether China should hold the same stance on this issue as India as it does now, although the two largest developing countries should continue to take a common position on other key issues in international climate change negotiations.     

Estimation and Determinants of the Philippines' Household Carbon Footprint

Estimation of a household carbon footprint in developed countries is abundant in the literature but there are few studies from developing countries. This paper presents an estimation of household carbon emission from the consumption of various goods and services in the Philippines. We estimate household emissions by combining input–output analysis with household expenditure for 2000 and 2006. After controlling for household characteristics, the analyses reveal that income has a significant nonlinear relationship with emissions, depicting an inverted U‐shaped with a turning point beyond the current income distribution. Unless consumption patterns change, it is likely that there will be further increases in emissions as households become more affluent.     

Green luxury goods? The economics of eco-labels in the Japanese housing market

Using a unique transaction database of condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area and a hedonic analytical framework, we find that eco-labelled buildings command a small but significant premium on both the asking and transaction prices. This finding is consistent with results from other countries but in contrast to these studies, the present analysis also incorporates buyer characteristics which provide further information on the sources of demand for eco-labelled real estate. A separate estimation by subgroups reveals that the price premium is primarily driven by wealthier households that exhibit a higher willingness-to-pay for eco-labelled condominiums, both as a total amount and as a fraction of the total sales price. Less affluent households are also shown to pay higher prices for the eco label but the effect is less pronounced. The results indicate that capitalised utility bill savings are likely to account for a large proportion of the observed premium but the higher premium paid by affluent households suggests that more intangible benefits of living in a green building may also play a role.     

Political economy of the Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in December 1997, is the firstinternational treaty to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.But Kyoto does not mark the conclusion to international cooperationon climate change. It is really just a beginning. This papershows that, in the aggregate, the benefits of undertaking theKyoto reductions should exceed the corresponding costs providedthese are achieved cost-effectively. But, although Kyoto seeksto promote cost-effectiveness, it may yet prove very costly.Moreover, the agreement may not even achieve the reductionsthat it promises, either because emissions will relocate tothe countries that are not required to stay within Kyoto-prescribedceilings or because 'paper' trades will be promoted by the protocol'smechanisms. More fundamentally, Kyoto does not deter non-compliance,and it only weakly deters non-participation. These flaws needto be mended, but the nature of the problem makes that an especiallydifficult task.     

Climate change,urban settlements and quality of life: The case of the Southern African Development Community region

Climate change has become a major national, regional and international problem cutting across developed and developing countries alike. Within the developing world, the effects of climate change have been devastating; this has caused enormous human suffering. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional economic block of 15 countries, has been badly ravaged by the vagaries of climate change. The urban areas in particular appear to have been very badly impacted as flooding, drought, pollution and deforestation have become endemic. The impacts of climate change have triggered human suffering of immense magnitude, especially in areas occupied by the marginalised. This article is based on desk research and, using qualitative analysis, examines the impact of climate change on SADC countries, considers initiatives that the regional block has in place in efforts to mitigate the human suffering experienced as a consequence of the negative impact of climate change and, finally, considers a way forward.     

碳排放权交易政府监管的必要性与可行性分析

碳排放权交易作为一种碳减排经济刺激手段,具有双重功效。既有利于减缓气候变化,又有利于保障能源安全。然而,完全自由放任的碳排放权交易会因为市场固有的缺陷而引发金融风险,如碳排放权的社会分配不公和碳排放权交易的不完全竞争。因此,政府监管应贯穿于碳排放权交易的始终。碳排放权交易市场发育尚未成熟时,政府需要培育市场良性运行的外部条件;市场逐步成熟时,市场将取代政府起基础调节作用;市场失灵时,政府能纠正这一失灵。     

欧盟排放交易机制及其成效评析

欧盟的排放交易机制是其为履行《京都议定书》承诺、应对气候变化而设计的温室气体减排机制,主要包括分配、交易、注册、报告、监测、惩罚等环节。从其试验阶段的运行情况来看,这种基于市场的制度设计取得了初步成效,主要表现在两个方面:一是确实有助于减排温室气体,二是为其他地区同类机制的创建积累了经验。它在运行过程中出现的一些不足也可望在未来得到纠正。     

The Impact of Social Safety Net Programs on Household Savings in Colombia

This paper seeks to understand and quantify how social safety net programs impact household savings in developing countries, considering the case of Colombia using two complementary approaches. The first approach explores how the health regime affects savings in the country. The second evaluates the impact on savings of familias en acción, a major antipoverty conditional cash transfer program. The results suggest that the savings of informal households are higher than those of formal households, because, with little incentive to enter the formal job market, informal households need to cover slightly greater non‐covered risks. The results also show that familias en acción recipients save more than non‐recipients because recipients favorably adjust their expenditure patterns.     

Individuals' and households' climate adaptation and mitigation behaviors: A systematic review

There is increasing recognition that individuals have larger roles to play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As such, we conduct a systematic literature review to consolidate existing evidence, and examine which factors are most important in driving individuals' and households' climate adaptation and mitigation behaviors in developing countries. A comprehensive literature search yields 58 empirical studies, and 158 usable analyses with which we conduct a vote-counting exercise. We first find evidence of climate inequality as adoption of adaptation behaviors are strongly driven by income. Furthermore, this inequality is likely to exacerbate as most adaptation behaviors (e.g., air-conditioners) emit high levels of GHG. A second major observation is that education and environmental knowledge (rather than income) are more important drivers for climate mitigation behaviors. The two findings mean that in order to reduce climate inequality, policymakers should target and assist vulnerable population according to their ability to adapt, and also implement more intensive educational outreach and information campaigns to encourage individuals and households to adopt GHG mitigation activities.     

A Ricardian analysis of the economic impact of climate change on agriculture: Evidence from the farms in the central highlands of Afghanistan

This paper provides evidence on the economic impact of climate change on agriculture in the Central Highlands of Afghanistan by exploring the climate sensitivity of crop net revenue per unit of land. A Ricardian model and a novel 2017 dataset for 1502 farmers in three central provinces along with 34 years of weather information are used to study the impact of variations in seasonal precipitation and annual temperature. The findings suggest a significant and nonlinear effect of climate factors on crop net revenue. The impact of seasonal precipitation is found to vary across space and time. The effect of increased annual temperature is found to be generally positive and significant—both statistically and economically. The predicted impact of future climate change is largely beneficial, mainly due to warming.