Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 522-524

Abstract: In this paper, decoupling theory was employed to analyze the decoupling relation between carbon emissions and economic growth in china over 2000-2011,and energy consumption was introduced as intermediate variables to establish Tapio decoupling model based on growth elasticity. Research suggests that the decoupling relation between carbon emissions and economic growth is weak decoupling, which means the growth rate of carbon emissions is less than economic. Accordingly, several conclusions and suggestions are given at last.

Abstract: We employed catastrophe theory and entropy method to measure and compare the environmental performance and economic performance of 40 listed companies from the thermal power and steel industries in China, to explore their relationship. The results showed that the environmental performance of the steel industry was less than that of the thermal power industry, but their economic performance was similar. This means that steel industry has had lower resource use efficiency and more pollutant emission, and has a larger potential to saving resources, energy and environment pollution. Both the correlation analysis and regression analysis indicated that there existed a significant positive relationship between the environmental performance and economic performance of the steel industry and thermal power industry in China. This means that it is very possible to gain win-win situation of these two performances, if the listed companies tend to make advanced production and environment protection activities come into a benevolent cycle, by means of technology upgrading and transformation.

Abstract: As the most industrialized and urbanized region, Beijing plays as a demonstration role to show the impact of environmental policies on the economy development and GHG mitigation. In this paper, we constructed a dynamic input-output model introducing the different levels of environmental taxes. It not only can choose the optimal tax level, explore the relationships between economy and environment, but also can analyze the future trends of the economy and GHG intensity from 2010 to 2025. The objective function is the maximized GRP, subject to GHG emissions constraint and a series of subjective functions. The simulation results illustrated that with the GHG emissions constraint as 1.5 times of the 2010 level, carbon tax as 50 CNY/t CO2-e is effective to promote the economic development and GHG emissions mitigation. Annual growth rate of GRP can be up to 6.1%. The economic growth rate increases 0.3% compared with the condition when not introducing the policies. In 2025, the GHG intensity will be 43.5 t CO2-e/million CNY, 38.8% reduced compared with the 2010 level. This research proves that the proposed environmental tax is effective to promote the economic development and GHG mitigation.

Abstract: The iron and steel industry is a fundamental part of Chinas national economy. Steel production is a high pollution and high energy consumption industry. It is necessary to assess the sustainable development level of the steel industry to provide a scientific basis for the construction and development of modern steelworks. This article aims to evaluate the sustainability of a typical steelworks in China by using emergy theory. We have aimed to develop a number of suggestions for improvements at the enterprise level, which is based on input and output emergy analysis. Our results show that the sustainable level of this typical steelworks was low because of its immature recycling technology.