The relationship between woody biomass consumption and economic growth: Nonlinear ARDL and causality

In this paper, the structure of the relationship between woody biomass energy consumption and real per Capita GDP was analyzed in the period of 1980–2012 for the selected African countries by ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag), nonlinear ARDL, Granger causality and forecast error variance decomposition methods. After a symmetric relationship between woody biomass energy consumption and economic growth was determined by the nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model, ARDL and Granger Causality methods were applied. According to results of the Granger Causality method, there is a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to woody biomass energy consumption for Botswana, Cameroon, Uganda, and Zambia and from woody biomass energy consumption to economic growth for Burkina Faso, Malawi, Central African Republic, Namibia, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon and Zimbabwe. The bidirectional causality was supported for Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Togo. Lastly, forecast error variance decomposition method was applied to support the results obtained from Granger Causality method. The forecast error variance decomposition results of real per Capita GDP and woody biomass energy consumption showed that woody biomass energy and real per Capita GDP made the important contribution to the forecast error variance of itself and each other.     

Forest fragmentation reduced carbon storage in a moist tropical forest in Bangladesh: Implications for policy development

Forest fragmentation is continued to be widespread in the tropics resulting in reduced ecosystem services including carbon storage. However, the effect of forest fragmentation is not considered in the current carbon policy. We investigated the effect of forest fragmentation on tree biomass carbon and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in a moist tropical forest in Bangladesh. Above and below-ground tree biomass carbon were calculated by using widely accepted allometric equations and SOC was measured by sampling soils up to 10 cm depth and analyzing them in a soil laboratory. Results showed that carbon storage in tree biomass was significantly lower in fragmented forests (16.3 ± 1.37 t C ha⁻¹) than in contiguous forests (31.21 ± 2.75 t C ha⁻¹) (p < 0.001). Likewise, a significantly lower SOC was contained in the soils of fragmented forests (17.26 ± 0.83 t C ha⁻¹) than in contiguous forests (21.62 ± 0.78 t C ha⁻¹) (p < 0.001). Thus a total of 36% less carbon retained in tree biomass and soils in fragmented forests than in contiguous forests. Backward multiple linear regression analysis revealed tree density, tree height, tree DBH, height-diameter ratio (H/D) and tree species richness as influential factors of carbon variation in fragmented forests. All these structural parameters except tree species richness were significantly lower in fragmented forests, were positively associated with carbon storage and explained together 69% of the carbon storage variation. These findings suggest that the altered stand structure and tree allometry likely caused reduced carbon storage in fragmented forests and highlight the importance of landscape scale management intervention in the tropics. Here, we provided with the evidence of strong negative impact of forest fragmentation on carbon storage and argue that this effect should be in consideration which is currently overlooked in existing carbon accounting systems for tropical forests.     

广西非粮生物质能源发展现状和建议

文章介绍了广西非粮生物质能源的资源状况、产业发展概况,重点分析了广西非粮生物质能源的科技发展现状,包括技术状况、科研情况和研发平台建设情况3个方面,提出推动广西非粮生物质能源产业发展的建议。     

深圳市绿色住区园林景观设计的现状与问题分析

2006年9月,针对深圳市规划局提出的"推进绿色城市建设、促进循环经济发展"研究课题中的"绿色住区规划设计"部分,对深圳市部分生态住区展开调研工作。本文主要探讨深圳绿色住区园林景观设计的现状与问题,并提出绿色住区园林景观的设计的几点建议。     

秦皇岛市新能源开发现状及发展对策研究

开发利用新能源是未来能源产业发展的主流方向。分析了秦皇岛市发展风能、生物质能、太阳能的基础条件,提出了依托秦皇岛市的地质、地理、生态资源条件,通过对新能源产业的规划与引导,制定扶持政策等措施,促进秦皇岛市新能源产业的快速、健康发展的思路。     

生物质能对化石能源的替代性——基于中国工业部门的实证分析

选取1987—2009年中国工业部门能源需求的时间序列数据,利用修正的AES模型和MES模型,实证研究了中国工业部门中生物质能对化石能源的内部替代问题。结果显示:中国对生物质能的需求量会随其自价格弹性的降低而增加;传统化石能源(石油、煤炭)的价格和需求量的同向变化表明,不能依靠价格诱导降低其需求,但价格诱导可促进生物质能对石油和煤炭等传统化石能源的替代。据此得出:中国的石油和煤炭两类化石能源呈现出"吉芬物品"或"低档物品"的特性,作为可再生能源之一的生物质能则表现出"正常物品"的特性;生物质能是传统化石能源的有效替代品。     

生物质能开发利用研究进展

生物质能技术的研究与开发已成为世界重大热门课题之一,受到世界各国政府与科学家的关注。通过生物质在沼气发酵技术,生物质制燃料乙醇、乙二醇、生物柴油,生物质固体成型燃料,生物质发电及能源生物等方面的应用,对生物质的研究现状进行了分析。     

生物质能源开发利用对"三农"的影响分析

对农业而言,生物质能开发利用能够促进我国农业结构升级、改善农业经济管理模型、发展林业经济。对农村而言,生物质能开发利用能够改善农村能源结构,优化农村生态环境和生活环境,促进农村工业发展。对农民而言,生物质能开发利用能够增加就业机会,增加农民收入,提高农民生活质量。然而,开发生物质能有可能增加对生产资料的竞争,增加相关农林产品价格的波动以及由于大面积种植单一作物而降低生物多样性,因此开发利用生物质能要合理规划。     

促进我国农村生物质能源发展的财税政策研究

发展农村生物质能源是社会主义新农村建设的重要举措,有助于缓解能源危机、改善环境,有利于扩大农村就业、增加农民收入,但目前我国农村生物质能源的发展受制于信息与认知不足、经济效益不高、技术水平有限等因素。由于农村生物质能源产业的发展具有的外部性、不确定性等因素,财税政策应该发挥主要的作用。文章总结了国外发展能源产业的经验与启示,提出了促进我国农村生物质能源发展的财税政策。这些政策包括发挥政府采购的作用、加大各级政府预算投入的力度、具体的税收优惠政策及财政与政策性金融的配合。     

加强生物资源循环利用 实现农业可持续发展

有机肥的足额使用是农业生产高效、高质且持续发展的重要举措。但是目前有机肥的使用量严重不足与大量生物质白白浪费的现象同时并存。如何能探讨一种模式,在不增加目前的工作成本甚至降低成本的基础上,尽可能"网尽"生物质。生产有机肥,促进农业可持续发展。