Transport emissions in Beijing: A scenario planning approach

This paper explores and analyses how to reduce smog-related air pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions generated by passenger transport systems in Beijing. In-depth surveys with experts and practitioners in China are used to examine the current business-as-usual projection for emissions in Beijing, the drivers and trends affecting current projections, and to develop alternative scenarios that might help reduce projected emissions significantly. These are based around different variants of population and migration growth and environmental stewardship. Current levels of smog caused by transport emissions are much higher in Beijing than internationally accepted safety standards, partly because of high levels of motorised traffic. Carbon dioxide emissions always tend to be overlooked because economic growth is prioritised. The sustainable model represents one of the best models for Beijing to follow; however, Beijing faces major challenges in becoming more environmentally sustainable over the next few years, mainly due to population growth and increased migration, even if there is powerful top-down government environmental stewardship. The aspiration to reduce smog-related air pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions in Beijing by implementing sustainable transport mitigation measures seems very ambitious; however, it is perhaps in this context that the real innovations in transport planning will emerge

Residential redevelopment and entrepreneurial local state: the implications of Beijing's shifting emphasis on urban redevelopment policies

The entrepreneurial nature of local government activities has significantly influenced socioeconomic and spatial changes in urban China. It is against this backdrop that property-led redevelopment projects were implemented in Beijing after 1990, guided by a programme whose very success depended on the participation of real estate capital for financial contributions. In 2000, however, a new policy was put in practice, which aimed at supplying affordable housing on government-provided land to increase the rehousing rate. This paper analyses the implications of this shifting emphasis on Beijing’s redevelopment policy and examines whether the local government has become less entrepreneurial and more socially inclusive in its redevelopment approach. Based on the case study of two redevelopment projects, the paper argues that the local state’s entrepreneurial nature has persisted and that this is largely due to its power to dispose of urban land use rights, effectively making local governments de facto landlords

Reduction and reallocation of water use of products in Beijing

The virtual water concept has received significant attention through manifesting the role of human activities such as consumption and international trade on water resources. However, few studies have focused on how the interactions of local supply chain exert impact on local water resources associated with virtual water flows. In this study, we introduce an indicator which is attached to the virtual water concept, termed the “internal water use of products” (IWUP), to examine the direct and indirect water use from local water supply for goods and services in Beijing for the years 1997, 2000, 2002, 2007, and 2010. This indicator links the pressure on local water resources to the final products with sectoral details, highlighting the importance of economic analysis in local water resource management. A structural decomposition analysis revealed that the increase in economic water productivity would have caused Beijing’s IWUP to decrease by 196% from 1997 to 2010, if other determining factors remained constant. Such great efficiency improvements have allowed Beijing to fulfill its objectives of economic growth, whilst in the meantime reducing the water used in production. However, we also found that production structure adjustment would increase the IWUP, mainly due to a shift from agricultural and industrial sectors to service sectors