Domestic regulatory institutions are essential components of emissions trading systems (ETS). Not only do they shape the ways that markets operate, they also condition the environmental value of the carbon credits they produce. However, the literature on global carbon politics has paid little attention to local ETS regulators. In a decentralized system increasingly based on a noodle bowl of diversified environmental markets, the study of carbon markets must integrate the institutions in which they operate. This article focuses on China, which, due to its size, is both keen to and expected to have a significant impact on the global system of market-based instruments. We examine how China’s regulatory institutions have worked to implement the seven ETS pilots launched since 2012, and tease out some implications regarding how China’s national ETS may contribute to global climate change governance. In this study, we analyze both formal and informal regulatory institutions, through the practice of local actors. The main finding is that the tension between the state and markets in China’s ETS implementation has resulted in a reinforcement of state domination rather than the emergence of robust regulatory institutions. The contribution that the ETS makes to China’s emissions reduction is also limited by more pressing environmental and industrial policies that local regulators must prioritize. Local nonregulatory implementation practices could undermine the long-term objective to integrate China’s ETS with others under article 6 of the UNFCCC.
Decarbonisation of energy systems requires deep structural change. The purpose of this research was to analyse the rates of change taking place in the energy systems of each Member State of the European Union (EU), and the EU in aggregate, in the light of the EU's climate change mitigation objectives. Trends on indicators such as sectoral activity levels and composition, energy intensity, and carbon intensity of energy were compared with decadal benchmarks derived from deep decarbonisation scenarios. The methodology applied provides a useful and informative approach to tracking decarbonisation of energy systems. The results show that while the EU has made significant progress in decarbonising its energy system. On a number of indicators assessed the results show that a significant acceleration from historical levels is required in order to reach the rates of change seen on the future benchmarks for deep decarbonisation. The methodology applied provides an example of how the research community and international organisations could complement the transparency mechanism developed by the Paris Agreement on climate change, to improve understanding of progress toward low-carbon energy systems.
Satellite observations are currently of major importance in geosciences. Remote sensing is a strong tool to study atmospheric and earth phenomena. In this work, we propose a new motion estimation approach with application to dust storm tracking from remote sensing images. Dynamic natural phenomena in the atmosphere are generally turbulent due to a high Reynolds number. Meteorological images are still poor in time and space resolution compared to the turbulence characteristics of the flow. To tackle this problem, we define a new formulation of the flow equation based on a filtered scalar transport equation. Using Large Eddy Simulation theory, we propose a sub-grid model which incorporates small scale effects as missing (ie non-observed) information of remote sensing images. For day light changes, a uniform brightness variation term is incorporated to the model. We validated our approach on synthetic Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of scalar propagation. Promising results are obtained on real MTSAT-1R visible images of a dust storm event over Australia.
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