Articles

China is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting for one-quarter of the global total in 2013. Although the country has successfully lowered the rate of emissions from industry in some cities through improved technology and energy-efficiency measures, rapid economic growth means that more emissions are being added than removed. Without mitigation, China's CO2 emissions will rise by more than 50% in the next 15 years.

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses China’s new concept of nuclear security with four “equal emphasis” at the third Nuclear Security Summit, and makes four commitments to strengthen nuclear security in the future. To convert President Xi’s political commitments into practical, sustainable reality, China should take further steps to install a complete, reliable, and effective security system to ensure that all its nuclear materials and nuclear facilities are effectively protected against the full spectrum of plausible terrorist and criminal threats. This paper suggests the following measures be taken to improve China’s existing nuclear security system, including updating and clarifying the requirements for a national level DBT; updating and enforcing existing regulations; further promoting nuclear security culture; balancing the costs of nuclear security, and further strengthening international cooperation on nuclear security.

Understanding the role of government policies in promoting the introduction of renewable technologies can help to catalyze the transition toward a more sustainable energy system. The literature on technological transitions using a multi-level perspective suggests that the co-evolution of the niche market (the new technology) and the complementary regime may have an important role to play in shaping this transition. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the interactions between different types of solar photovoltaic (PV) networks at the niche level, the complementary semiconductor sector at the complementary regime level, and the solar PV policies in 14 different countries.

Since 1978, when China launched its "opening up" reform, a range of large-scale national science and technology programs have been implemented to spur economic development. Energy has received significant attention and has become a growing priority in the past years. This article analyzes the goals, management, and impact over time of China's three largest national programs: Gong Guan, 863, and 973 Programs. Using quantitative metrics to describe the input and output, by conducting semi-structured interviews with officials, scientists, and other decision makers, and by reviewing available documents as well as a case study on the coal sector, the authors examined the changes in the decision making process, particularly in regard to the role of scientists.

By analyzing the institutions that have been created to stimulate energy technology innovation in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China—three countries with very different sizes, political systems and cultures, natural resources, and histories of involvement in the energy sector—this article highlights how variations in national objectives and industrial and political environments have translated into variations in policy.

This paper attempts to present a full picture of the current status and future trends of China's oil development through system analysis. The authors design three scenarios of China's oil demand in 2030 and analyze policy implications for oil conservation, automotive energy development, and energy security. From their analysis, they draw some conclusions for policy decisions, such as controlling total oil consumption to avoid energy security risks, enhancing oil conservation in all sectors with the emphasis on road transportation, and increasing investment in oil production and refining to secure oil supply and reduce emissions.

Using the bidding prices of participants in China's national wind project concession programs from 2003 to 2007, this paper built up a learning curve model to estimate the joint learning from learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching, with a novel knowledge stock metric based on technology adoption in China through both domestic technology development and international technology transfer. The paper describes, for the first time, the evolution of the price of wind power in China, and provides estimates of how technology adoption, experience building wind farm projects, wind turbine manufacturing localization, and wind farm economies of scale have influenced the price of wind power.

China's approach to civil nuclear power reactor development will determine the overall tenor of its nuclear power programme long into the future. Its approach, both domestically and through imports, is analyzed, with a focus on the next decade of deployment.

The market scale of China's wind turbine manufacturing industry has grown immensely. Despite China still having a limited capacity in terms of technology innovation, the institutional support has promoted the technology capability development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry. This paper explores the driving forces underlying this development by reviewing the transition of the innovation modes and the dynamic interactions among the technology capability, innovation modes, market formation, and wind energy policy. The innovation mode in China began with imitative innovation, then transitioned to cooperative innovation, and has more recently set its sights on attaining truly indigenous innovation. Public policy serves as a key driving force for the evolution of innovation modes, as well as the development of the market.

The Advanced Small Pressurized Water Reactor (ASPWR) can be used in remote power grids and replaces mid/small size fossil-fuel plants economically. Current ASPWR deeply adopts modular and integrated pressure vessel design—and a passive safety system—which effectively improves plant safety and economy. This paper performs the comparative study of safety and economy features in ASPWR and large PWRs. The authors suggest that China should start R&D programs in ASPWR.