The rapid urbanization in China has been associated with a growing hunger for energy consumption and steadily-increasing COdos emissions. In this paper, an integrated system dynamics model composed of four sub-models is developed to simulate the urbanization and energy consumption in China from 1998 to 2050. Three scenarios are provided: accelerated economic development, emission reduction constraint, and low-carbon oriented. The result reveals that rapid economic growth and sufficient energy supply will foster China’s urbanization in all three scenarios. Under the low carbon transition scenario, China’s urbanization rate is expected to reach % in 2050, both reducing carbon emissions and promoting eco-friendly development. All three scenarios witness a dramatic growth of residential energy consumption and a steady increase of industrial energy consumption. China still has a long way to achieve the low-carbon transition goal. China should promote renewable resources and energy, pursue a low-carbon lifestyle, and reduce energy intensity over the next few decades.
Inclusion
There is a long and rich history of research exploring the association between energy demand and urbanization 1,2,3 . Energy consumption, and its socioeconomic and environmental impacts, have imposed a critical influence on urban sustainability 1 . At the same time, the effects of urbanization on energy consumption vary across scales and over countries 4,5,6 . China’s dramatic urbanization and the associated energy demand as well as the pressure of CO2 emitted by such energy consumption is a major global scientific issue since this century 7,8,9 . Previous research in China has often focused on a specific field or aspect, such as urbanization theory 10 , urbanization procedure 11 , energy policy 12 , energy growth 13 , CO2 emission 14 , climate change 15 , and public health 16 .
System figure modelling out of urbanization below opportunity constraints inside the Asia
In the event metropolitan expansion would speed opportunity practices 17,18,19 , new motor vehicle power fool around with can associate adversely to your urbanization top on account of economies out of size 20,21,twenty-two . Including, significantly more urbanized elements inside Canada consumed down per capita energy 23 . Additionally, overall time consumption of outlying domiciles is larger than compared to metropolitan house, as over 85% out-of rural households use inefficient solid-fuel twenty-four . Considering Customer Research Program, 275 locations international play with hydropower, 189 metropolises have fun squirt with snap strength, and you can 184 urban centers have fun with solar power photovoltaic power. At least a hundred towns and cities play with renewable power to attain 70% off electricity, such as Seattle, Oslo, Vancouver, and you may Nairobi. In america, 58 locations, along with Atlanta and you will Hillcrest, provides intentions to transition to 100% tidy and renewable power. Towards established tech and energy storage, it’s likely to achieve a hundred% renewable energy likewise have worldwide and achieve no carbon dioxide pollutants of the 2025. The global fuel age group design inside 2050 is expected once the lower than: solar photovoltaic (69%), snap energy (18%), hydropower (8%), and you will biomass (2%), which have energy shop electric batteries covering 31% regarding fuel demand. It’s indexed that most of the earth’s largest dams and you may fuel plants have been in China, while Yunnan Province and you may Guizhou Province contribute 29% regarding China’s hydropower. The Jinsha Lake by yourself enjoys an effective nine-level dam. The newest electricity from such hydropower is really transmitted so you’re able to Guangdong and you may Hong-kong from high-current grid. Due to the numerous hydropower tips available for air conditioning, Guizhou Province has recently feel China’s most significant data center base. For the 2018, Apple Agency dependent new iCloud study heart when you look at the Guizhou. Pretty much every highest They business out-of Asia enjoys install analysis facilities into the Guizhou, together with Alibaba, Huawei, and Asia Mobile.
Urbanization is a non-linear open complex system, with multiple subsystems dynamically interacting with each other 25,26,27 . Dramatic urbanization under energy constraints is challenging for China, which has topped all the countries in population, energy consumption (since 2010), and CO2 emissions (since 2008) 27 . To systematically examine the causality mechanism between energy consumption and urbanization, the SD (system dynamics) model has been widely used in the domains such as energy consumption 28 , energy policy 29,30 , energy efficiency 31 , carbon emission 32,33 , and energy industry 34,35 . The SD model, Monte Carlo simulation, and Hornberger-Spear-Young (HSY) algorithm were employed to analyze the urbanization patterns with the limit of energy and environmental resources 36 . In addition, the baseline scenario was simulated from 2005 to 2020 using the SD model of urbanization and the energy consumption complex system 28 . The SD model was also developed using the STELLA platform to model the energy consumption and CO2 emission trends 33 . To dynamically predict future urban development trends under various scenarios has very important scientific values for the policy formulation.