China, as the biggest GHG emitter and the largest developing country, has been urged by international society to take responsibilities for reducing GHG, especially in the post-Kyoto commitment period. Currently, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) assigns the responsibility to parties who produce the pollution, using the production-based GHG emissions inventories. In this article, we analyze the difference between China's production- and consumption-based emission inventories and conclude that consumption-based GHG emission inventories are preferred; as it is fair that whoever consumes the emission should pay for their consumption. In addition, in order to consider environmental justice, policy-makers should take both economic and administrative measures to support poor provinces for reducing CO₂ emissions.

Economic policy and energy policy are two major factors of energy consumption and carbon emissions. The economic factor is external and energy supply structure and efficiency are intrinsic factors. Based on a carbon emissions completely decomposed analysis model, the logarithmic mean Divisia Index (LMDI) system analyzes the impact of carbon emission changes and the contribution rate in China from 1995 to 2010. The decomposition factors include four parts: economies of scale, structure effect, energy intensity effect and carbon intensity effects. Model results show that the contribution rate of the four effects is different and from 1995 to 2010 the greatest factors impacting increases in carbon emissions were economic development (contribution rate of 155%) and industrial structure change (contribution rate of 10.6%). The reduction in carbon emissions was mainly the result of a decline in energy intensity (contribution rate of -63.7%). The increase in carbon emissions in recent years is the result of changes in major economies of scale with 168.2% contribution rate, changes in carbon intensity (contribution rate of 4%) and industrial restructuring (contribution rate of 1.3%) have also contributed to increasing carbon emissions. Energy intensity declined only played a role in reducing carbon emissions (contribution rate -73.5%). These results suggest that China needs to rethink industrial policy and energy development measures, strengthen future energy saving and emission mitigation policies and strengthen investment in low—carbon energy technologies and policy support.

Here we utilize input-output tables for 2005 and 2010 to calculate the change in carbon dioxide emission intensity. Results show that total carbon dioxide emissions were 6.79 and 9.30 billion tons, and carbon dioxide emission intensity was 0.37 and 0.33 ton per thousand CNY in 2005 and 2010, respectively. Carbon dioxide emission intensity declined 11% over these five years. We used structural decomposition analysis modeling to measure the effect of four factors on this reduction in intensity. We found that the contribution values of energy structure, energy efficiency, economic growth mode and economic structure were -0.001, -0.102, 0.050, and 0.013 ton per thousand CNY, respectively. Changes in energy efficiency and energy structure are major factors promoting decreases in carbon dioxide emission intensity; the effect of the former is more distinct than the latter. Economic growth mode and economic structure are major factors that increase carbon dioxide emission intensity, whereby the effect of the former is more distinct than the latter.

Vegetation phenology is an important parameter in models of global vegetation and land surfaces, as the accuracy of these simulations depends strongly on the description of the canopy status. Temperate forests represent one of the major types of vegetation at mid-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and act as a globally important carbon sink. Thus, a better understanding of the phenological variables of temperate forests will improve the accuracy of vegetation models and estimates of regional carbon fluxes. In this work, we explored the possibility of using digital camera images to monitor phenology at species and community scales of a temperate forest in northeastern China, and used the greenness index derived from these digital images to optimize phenological model parameters. The results show that at the species scale, the onset dates of phenological phases (Korean pine, Mongolian oak) derived from the images are close to those from field observations (error < 3d). At the community scale the time series data accurately reflected the observed canopy status (R²=0.9) simulated using the phenological model, especially in autumn. The phenological model was derived from simple meteorological data and environmental factors optimized using the greenness index. These simulations provide a powerful means of analyzing environmental factors that control the phenology of temperate forests. The results indicate that digital images can be used to obtain accurate phenological data and provide reference data to validate remote-sensing phenological data. In addition, we propose a new method to accurately track phenological phases in land-surface models and reduce uncertainty in spatial carbon flux simulations.

Drought may impact the net ecosystem exchange of CO₂ (NEE) between grassland ecosystems and the atmosphere during growth seasons. Here, carbon dioxide exchange and controlling factors in alpine grassland under drought stress in the hinterland of Tibetan Plateau (Damxung, Tibet, China) were investigated. Data were obtained using the covariance eddy technique in 2009. Severe drought stress appeared in the early growing season (May to early July) and September. Drought conditions during the early growing season limited grass production and the green leaf area index (GLAI) increased slowly, with an obvious decline in June. When encountering severe water stress, diurnal patterns of NEE in the growth season altered with a peak carbon release around 16:00 h or a second carbon uptake period before sunset. NEE variations in daytime related most closely with θ other than PAR when daily averaged θ<0.1 m³ m^-3 . Seasonal patterns of gross primary production (GPP) and NEE were also influenced by drought: the maximum and minimum of daily-integrated NEE were 0.9 g C m^-2 d^-1 on 3 July 2009, and -1.3 g C m^-2 d^-1 on 12 August 2009 with a GPP peak (-2.3 g C m^-2 d^-1) on the same day, respectively. Monthly NEE from May to July remained as carbon release and increased gradually; peak values of monthly NEE and GPP both appeared in August, but that of ecosystem respiration (R_eco) was reached in July. Annual NEE, GPP and R_eco of the alpine grassland ecosystem were 52.4, -158.1 and 210.5 g C m^-2, respectively. Therefore, the grassland was a moderate source of CO₂ to the atmosphere in this dry year. Interannual variation in NEE was likely related to different water conditions in the growing season. The three greatest contributors to seasonal variation in NEE, GPP and R_eco respectively were GLAI>T_a>θ, GLAI>θ>PPT, and T_a>GLAI>PAR. Seasonality of GLAI explained 60.7% and 76.1% of seasonal variation in NEE and GPP, respectively. GPP or NEE was more sensitive than R_eco to variation in GLAI, and ecosystem water conditions.

There is growing global concern over food waste and its impacts on resources, environmental issues and food security, especially in developing countries. However, knowledge of food waste, in particular, the food wasted by consumers in restaurants, is entirely inadequate in China. Here, based on media reports and documents about food waste we provide an overview of food wasted by consumers in restaurants in China. We roughly estimated total food waste in order to uncover the seriousness of this large issue. We collected international literature referring to food waste and provided a detailed explanation of the resources and environmental costs associated with food waste. Ultimately we propose a conceptual diagram on research into catering food waste by consumers to evaluate resources and environmental costs based on life cycle assessment in China. This work will stimulate interdisciplinary research in this field.

Here, we describe research on farmland fragmentation using the summary and comparison analysis approaches. The definition of farmland fragmentation, main research fields and measurement methods are reviewed. The connotation of farmland fragmentation is clear and has been widely recognized, but methods for determining fragmentation require further work. Farmland fragmentation research in China mainly focuses on the causes and its effect on agricultural production, particularly the negative impacts. The relationship between farmland fragmentation and land consolidation has received increasing attention; the relationship between farmland fragmentation and land transfer less so. Research in this area mainly draws on economic research methods, and geographical spatial analyses are absent. Several suggestions are made, including additional comparative studies across different areas based on different economic and social backgrounds; strengthening research on the relationship between farmland fragmentation and the comprehensive regulation of rural land; and adoption of RS and GIS methods.

Based on an analysis of the status of biomass energy sources worldwide including China, this paper concludes that the development of the biomass energy industry in China is limited by factors asfollows:food security; lack of understanding of domestic sources; the deficiency of the policy environment; and environmental protection. There are also other challenges such as: low overall level of industry development; not having yet established a complete biomass energy industry system; high production costs; weak market competition; lack of investment in research and technology; low level of market admittance threshold; and disorder of industry development. Therefore, proposed policies aimed at promoting the healthy and rapid development of the biomass energy industry are as follows improving the policy and regulatory system to enable the biomass energy industry to develop; greater evaluation of biomass energy material resources; accelerating the development of biomass energy conversion and use technologies; establishing the demonstration bases of biomass energy industry.

Southwestern China contains rich hydropower resources and a high concentration of impoverished people. The acceleration of hydropower development is an important way for promoting the development of impoverished areas and improving the livelihood assets of rural households. Taking Nujiang Prefecture as our focal area we conducted enterprise interviews and government discussions to arrive at a benefit—sharing mechanism for hydropower development. We found that heavy tax burdens on enterprises, low compensation standards, unreasonable electricity prices and weak development conditions are the main reasons that hydropower development is not accompanied by local economic development and improvement in the livelihoods of rural people. Based on a specific factor model and the theory of persistent income, a theoretical model is proposed and used to assess the scenario before relocation and the scenario after relocation. On this basis, policy recommendations for benefit—sharing mechanisms of hydropower development are proposed.

Hydropower, next to coal, is the second most important source of electric power supply in China. It amounted to 20.4% of the nation's total installed capacity of electricity generation in 2011. To provide a comprehensive picture of the development of hydropower in China and its potential environmental impacts, this study calculates the ecological footprint and greenhouse gas emission reduction of hydropower development in China over the past 60 years. The ecological footprints include the energy ecological footprint and arable land occupation footprint. The energy ecological footprint is calculated in terms of the area of the land which would be used for reforestation in order to assimilate CO₂ emissions from fossil energy consumption for hydropower development. The arable land occupation footprint is calculated in terms of the area of the land to be inundated by hydropower development. The calculated energy ecological footprint was 502 422 ha in 2010 or about 0.3% of total arable land in China and the calculated inundated land was about 1.42×10⁶ ha or about 1.2% of total arable land in China. The regional power grid baseline method was used to calculate the greenhouse gas emission reduction. Results indicated that CO₂ emission reduction from hydropower development was increasing rapidly since 1949 and reached 5.02×10⁸ tons of CO₂ emission in 2010, with an accumulative total of 6.221×10⁹ tons of CO₂ emission during the period 1949–2010.

Resource tax reform will be done during China's 12^th Five—Year Plan, but related research is still lacking. Here, we build a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) comprising the functional equations of production, consumption, income/expenditure and resources to analyze the resource tax rate. The model uses the valorem tax levy to simulate the impact of economic and resource systems with different resource tax rates, by referencing the expected rate ranges of China and developed countries. The results show that the impact is different for social, economic and resources of varying degrees. In the relatively stable period of economic development, we can select a tax rate of 5% to 7%; during higher economic development we can select an optional high level of resource tax; and in a fluctuating economy we can choose a lower tax level.