Effectiveness of pilot carbon emissions trading systems in China

<p>China is in the process of establishing a national emissions trading system (ETS). Evaluating the implementation effectiveness of the seven pilot ETSs in China is critical for designing this national system. This study administered a questionnaire survey to assess the behaviour of enterprises covered by the seven ETS pilots from the perspective of: the strictness of compliance measures; rules for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV); the mitigation pressure felt by enterprises; and actual mitigation and trading activities. The results show that the pilot MRV and compliance rules have not yet been fully implemented. The main factors involved are the lack of compulsory force of the regulations and the lack of policy awareness within the affected enterprises. Most enterprises have a shortage of free allowances and thus believe that the ETSs have increased their production costs. Most enterprises have already established mitigation targets. Some of the covered enterprises are aware of their own internal emission reduction costs and most of these have used this as an important reference in trading. Many enterprises have accounted for carbon prices in their long-term investment. The proportion of enterprises that have participated in trading is fairly high; however, reluctance to sell is quite pervasive in the market, and enterprises are mostly motivated to trade simply in order to achieve compliance. Few enterprises are willing to manage their allowances in a market-oriented manner. Different free allowance allocation methods directly affect the pathways enterprises take to control emissions.</p> <p><b>Key policy insights</b></p><p>In the national ETS, the compulsory force of ETS provisions should be strengthened.</p><p>A reasonable level of free allowance shortage should be ensured to promote emission reduction by enterprises.</p><p>Sufficient information should be provided to guide enterprises in their allowance management to activate the market.</p><p>To promote the implementation of mitigation technologies by enterprises, actual output-based allocation methods should be used.</p><p>The government should use market adjustment mechanisms, such as a price floor and ceiling, to ensure that carbon prices are reasonable and stable, so as to guide long-term low carbon investment.</p><p></p> <p>In the national ETS, the compulsory force of ETS provisions should be strengthened.</p> <p>A reasonable level of free allowance shortage should be ensured to promote emission reduction by enterprises.</p> <p>Sufficient information should be provided to guide enterprises in their allowance management to activate the market.</p> <p>To promote the implementation of mitigation technologies by enterprises, actual output-based allocation methods should be used.</p> <p>The government should use market adjustment mechanisms, such as a price floor and ceiling, to ensure that carbon prices are reasonable and stable, so as to guide long-term low carbon investment.</p

The influence of different allowance allocation methods on China's economic and sectoral development

<p>China launched its national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2017. The choice of allowance allocation methods can strongly influence the political acceptance of an ETS by enterprises/sectors that are covered by it. This article builds a computable general equilibrium model to conduct a quantitative analysis of the effects of nine common allowance allocation methods on both the macro-economy and the industries covered by the ETS. The results of the model show that national gross domestic product (GDP) decreases by 0.37–0.44% during the 13th Five-Year Plan period against a backdrop of a 2% annual reduction in carbon emissions from the sectors covered by the ETS compared with the business-as-usual scenario. China's total emissions drop by 1.71–1.76%. When auctioning and allocation approaches without ex-post adjustment are used, the allowance price is 40–45 yuan/tCO₂. When the dynamic allocation methods are used, the allowance price increases to 70–75 yuan/tCO₂. Auctioning and allocation approaches without ex-post adjustment exert the same influence on macroscopic indicators (such as GDP and total emissions) and industry indicators (such as output and price). The dynamic allocation methods have a subsidy effect, which can significantly reduce the effect of the ETS on GDP and industry output while significantly increasing the allowance price and decreasing the economic efficiency of the ETS. The cement and steel industries are the most sensitive to the output subsidy effect of the dynamic allocation methods. This article suggests a limit on the use of dynamic allocation approaches to avoid excessively high allowance prices and excessive subsidies for overcapacity industries.</p> <p><b>Key policy insights</b></p><p>Auctioning and one-off allocation purely based on historical data are most economically efficient; dynamic allocation based on updated or actual output data could reduce the impact of the ETS on enterprises’ output, but will increase the allowance price and thus reduce the economic efficiency of the ETS.</p><p>Implementing a national ETS will have limited impact on China's GDP, but could promote emissions abatement of the whole economy in an efficient way.</p><p>Different allocation methods have almost the same impact on GDP, but the impacts on different sectors are significantly different.</p><p></p> <p>Auctioning and one-off allocation purely based on historical data are most economically efficient; dynamic allocation based on updated or actual output data could reduce the impact of the ETS on enterprises’ output, but will increase the allowance price and thus reduce the economic efficiency of the ETS.</p> <p>Implementing a national ETS will have limited impact on China's GDP, but could promote emissions abatement of the whole economy in an efficient way.</p> <p>Different allocation methods have almost the same impact on GDP, but the impacts on different sectors are significantly different.</p

Additional file 1 of xWAS analysis in neuropsychiatric disorders by integrating multi-molecular phenotype quantitative trait loci and GWAS summary data

Additional file 1: Table S1. Basic information and used frequency of GWAS summary datasets of five diseases. Table S2. Basic information and used frequency of xQTL weight of five diseases for FUSION-like analyses. Table S3. Basic information and used frequency of xQTL sources of five diseases for SMR analyses. Table S4. Included literature information for SCZ. Table S5. Included literature information for BP. Table S6. Included literature information for ADHD. Table S7. Included literature information for ASD. Table S8. Included literature information for MDD. Table S9. Overview of novel genes in SCZ. Table S10. Overview of novel genes in BP. Table S11. Overview of novel genes in ADHD. Table S12. Overview of novel genes in ASD. Table S13. Overview of novel genes in MDD. Table S14. GO biological process (BP) functional enrichment results for the novel genes of five diseases with gProfiler. Table S15. Function enrichment of all reliable genes (novel reliable genes and non-novel reliable genes) of five diseases on GO-BP, GWAS Catalog, and KEGG using FUMA

FDCA Attenuates Neuroinflammation and Brain Injury after Cerebral Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke is a deleterious cerebrovascular disease with few therapeutic options, and its functional recovery is highly associated with the integrity of the blood-brain barrier and neuroinflammation. The Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor fasudil (F) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor dichloroacetate (DCA) have been demonstrated to exhibit neuroprotection in a series of neurological disorders. Hence, we synthesized and biologically examined the new salt fasudil dichloroacetate (FDCA) and validated that FDCA was eligible for attenuating ischemic volume and neurological deficits in the rat transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) model. Additionally, FDCA exerted superior effects than fasudil and dichloroacetate alone or in combination in reducing cerebral ischemic injury. Particularly, FDCA could maintain the blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity by inhibiting matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) protein expression and the degradation of zonula occludens (ZO-1) and Occludin protein. Meanwhile, FDCA could mitigate the neuroinflammation induced by microglia. The in vivo and in vitro experiments further demonstrated that FDCA disrupted the phosphorylations of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, including p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and limited excessive lactic acid metabolites, resulting in inhibition of BBB disruption and neuroinflammation. In addition, FDCA potently mitigated inflammatory response in human monocytes isolated from ischemic stroke patients, which provides the possibilities of a clinical translation perspective. Overall, these findings provided a therapeutic potential for FDCA as a candidate agent for ischemic stroke and other neurological diseases associated with BBB disruption and neuroinflammation

Correlation plot of the ratio of λ_Hu between radiologist A and radiologist B in lymph nodes.

<p>There is a significant strong correlation in the ratio of λ_Hu between radiologist A and radiologist B (<i>r</i> = 0.934). n: number of lymph nodes, <i>r</i>: pearson correlation coefficient.</p

Enhanced axial images in venous phase from a 58-year-old patient with supraglottic SCC, for objective evaluation of image quality.

<p>A, B and C are the optimal CNR curve, 55(A) Demonstrating the GSI Viewer calculation of the CNR curve, optimal monochromatic energy of 55 keV achieved the best CNR for the primary lesion, and the locations of the background ipsilateral sternocleidomastoideus (RIO_background) and primary lesion (RIO₁) to generate the curve on (B). The air region (RIO₃) is evaluated as the index of image noise. (C) The size, shape and position of the ROIs are kept consistent with image (B), and the primary lesion is less visible than that on the monochromatic image at 55 keV (arrow). On image (B), contrast: 32.16, noise: 7.83, CNR: 4.11; on image (C), contrast: 16.23, noise: 7.02, CNR: 2.31.</p

Evaluation of lymph node.

<p>λ_Hu = (CT_40keV-CT_100keV)/60; Ratio of λ_Hu: λ_Huln/λ_Hulesion(λ_Huln and λ_Hulesion is the λ_Hu of target lymph node and the primary lesion respectively); Numbers in parentheses are standard deviations. A and B represented the two radiologists.</p

Transverse (A) monochromatic image at 55-keV energy level and (B) polychromatic images with the same window width/level obtained from spectral CT acquisition (section thickness, 0.625 mm) in 57-year-old man with glottic laryngeal SCC.

<p>The edge of the primary lesion is more clearly displayed and the image contrast is better on 55-keV monochromatic image than the polychromatic image with acceptable image noise through visual observation (arrow).</p

Patient Characteristics and Scanning Parameters.

<p>NA _ Not applicable.</p><p>Data are means _ standard deviations.</p><p>Data are numbers of lymph nodes.</p

Contrast, CNR and image noise for the laryngeal and hypopharyngeal SCC with the monochromatic 55

<p>Numbers in parentheses are standard deviations. Contrast: CT value difference between the primary lesion and the sternocleidomastoideus; Noise: the standard deviation of the pixel values from the air region; CNR: contrast-to-noise ratio.</p