Global methane footprints growth and drivers 1990-2023.

Methane has been identified as the second-largest contributor to climate change, accounting for approximately 30% of global warming. Countries have established targets and are implementing various measures to curb methane emissions. However, our understanding of the trends in methane emissions and their drivers remains limited, particularly from a consumption perspective (i.

Transboundary conflict from surface water scarcity under climate change.

Transboundary river basins (TRBs) are at risk of water scarcity-induced conflicts, especially given the rising water demand and impacts of climate change. Despite extensive efforts and some progress, the mechanisms linking water scarcity to conflicts in TRBs remain insufficiently understood, and identifying effective mitigation and adaptation strategies remains a challenge. In this study, we introduce a framework for predicting TRBs vulnerable to water scarcity-induced conflicts, based on the concept of water dependency, defined by monthly water scarcity.

A global inventory of methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells and possible mitigation pathways.

Methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas (AOG) wells are significant but poorly quantified, contributing to uncertainties in global greenhouse gas inventories and hindering progress toward net-zero emission targets. In fact, the actual level of methane emissions from AOG wells worldwide and the geological characteristics of the wells remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a resource-type-specific, comprehensive inventory of methane emissions from 4.

An inter-city input-output database distinguishing firm ownership in the Greater China area during 2002-2017.

Most multi-region input-output (MRIO) tables in China focus on provinces or urban agglomerations and ignore the tremendous geographical heterogeneities of economic activities across Chinese prefectural cities, where regional economic centres are usually located for domestic and global production. This paper constructs an inter-city input-output (IO) database with 42 sectors in the Greater China area. Compared with previous MRIO tables, it has three important features: (1) A complete coverage of Chinese cities, including 335 prefectural cities, four municipalities, and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan; (2) Distinguishes three types of firm ownership for every city and sector for four benchmark years; (3) A novel data completion approach to reconcile all accessible micro-level data with city and provincial-level aggregate statistics, and effectively combining the bottom-up and top-down methods commonly used in the MRIO compilation literature.

Global Soil Methane Uptake Estimated by Scaling Up Local Measurements.

Aerobic soils remove methane from the atmosphere, but global soil methane uptake (SMU) estimates remain highly uncertain due to challenges in scaling local data. We develop a data-driven approach to refine this global estimate by incorporating local data of 79,800 flux measurements from 198 sites. This novel approach links the global SMU budget to local SMU fluxes by varying its parameters with soil properties.

Embodied CO emissions of equity portfolios for Chinese asset managers.

The 2015 Paris Agreement has set out the climate change target of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, which poses a serious challenge to countries to reduce emissions. As the world's largest carbon emitter, promoting the realization of the "dual-carbon" goal is the key to realizing China's green transformation and high-quality development.

Decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Municipal Solid Waste Sector in Chinese Cites.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems play a crucial role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China. Although the government has implemented many policies to improve the MSW management system, the impact of these improvements on city-level GHG emission reduction remains largely unexplored. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis of both direct and downstream GHG emissions from the MSW sector, encompassing sanitary landfill, dump, incineration, and biological treatment, across 352 Chinese cities from 2001 to 2021 by adopting inventory methods recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

City level water withdrawal and scarcity accounts of China.

In the context of China's freshwater crisis high-resolution data are critical for sustainable water management and economic growth. Yet there is a dearth of data on water withdrawal and scarcity regardless of whether total or subsector amount, for prefectural cities. In administrative and territorial scope, we accounted for water withdrawal of all 63 economic-socio-environmental sectors for all 343 prefectural cities in China, based on a general framework and 2015 data.

Global supply chains amplify economic costs of future extreme heat risk.

Evidence shows a continuing increase in the frequency and severity of global heatwaves, raising concerns about the future impacts of climate change and the associated socioeconomic costs. Here we develop a disaster footprint analytical framework by integrating climate, epidemiological and hybrid input-output and computable general equilibrium global trade models to estimate the midcentury socioeconomic impacts of heat stress. We consider health costs related to heat exposure, the value of heat-induced labour productivity loss and indirect losses due to economic disruptions cascading through supply chains.

The carbon footprint of fast fashion consumption and mitigation strategies-a case study of jeans.

Fast fashion is driving the continued growth of the fashion industry's carbon emissions. Understanding how fast fashion consumption exacerbates carbon emissions is critical to guide mitigation strategies for the fashion industry. Taking jeans, a typical fast fashion product as an example, this study developed an LCA model to assess the carbon footprint of fast fashion consumption at global and national levels, and mitigation potentials of product service systems-related scenarios were then explored.

Health-environment efficiency of diets shows nonlinear trends over 1990-2011.

Understanding the impacts of diets on health and the environment, as well as their association with socio-economic development, is key to operationalize and monitor food systems shifts. Here we propose a health-environment efficiency indicator defined as a ratio of health benefits and four key food-related environmental impacts (greenhouse gas emissions, scarcity-weighted water withdrawal, acidifying and eutrophying emissions) to assess how diets have performed in supporting healthy lives in relation to environmental pollution and resource consumption across 195 countries from 1990 to 2011. We find that the health-environment efficiency of each environmental input follows a nonlinear path along the Socio-Demographic Index gradient representing different development levels.

Projecting future carbon emissions from cement production in developing countries.

Achieving low-carbon development of the cement industry in the developing countries is fundamental to global emissions abatement, considering the local construction industry's rapid growth. However, there is currently a lack of systematic and accurate accounting and projection of cement emissions in developing countries, which are characterized with lower basic economic country condition. Here, we provide bottom-up quantifications of emissions from global cement production and reveal a regional shift in the main contributors to global cement CO emissions.

Iron and Steel Industry Emissions: A Global Analysis of Trends and Drivers.

The iron and steel industry (ISI) is important for socio-economic progress but emits greenhouse gases and air pollutants detrimental to climate and human health. Understanding its historical emission trends and drivers is crucial for future warming and pollution interventions. Here, we offer an exhaustive analysis of global ISI emissions over the past 60 years, forecasting up to 2050.

Achieving decent living standards in emerging economies challenges national mitigation goals for CO emissions.

Emerging economies, low- and middle-income countries experiencing rapid population and GDP growth, face the challenge of improving their living standards while stabilizing CO emissions to meet net-zero goals. In this study, we quantify the CO emissions required for achieving decent living standards (DLS) in emerging economies. The results show that, compared to other regions, achieving DLS in emerging Asian and African economies will result in more additional CO emissions, particularly in the DLS indicators of Mobility and Electricity.

Global iron and steel plant CO emissions and carbon-neutrality pathways.

The highly energy-intensive iron and steel industry contributed about 25% (ref. ) of global industrial CO emissions in 2019 and is therefore critical for climate-change mitigation. Despite discussions of decarbonization potentials at national and global levels, plant-specific mitigation potentials and technologically driven pathways remain unclear, which cumulatively determines the progress of net-zero transition of the global iron and steel sector.

Leveraging opportunity of low carbon transition by super-emitter cities in China.

Chinese cities are core in the national carbon mitigation and largely affect global decarbonisation initiatives, yet disparities between cities challenge country-wide progress. Low-carbon transition should preferably lead to a convergence of both equity and mitigation targets among cities. Inter-city supply chains that link the production and consumption of cities are a factor in shaping inequality and mitigation but less considered aggregately.

The heterogeneous driving forces behind carbon emissions change in 30 selective emerging economies.

Emerging economies are predicted to be future emission hotspots due to expected levels of urbanization and industrialization, and their CO emissions are receiving more scrutiny. However, the driving forces underlying dynamic change in emissions are poorly understood, despite their crucial role in developing targeted mitigating pathways. We firstly compile energy-related emissions of 30 selective emerging economies from 2010 to 2018.

Aging Population, Balanced Diet and China's Grain Demand.

The need to make more accurate grain demand (GD) forecasting has become a major topic in the current international grain security discussion. Our research aims to improve short-term GD prediction by establishing a multi-factor model that integrates the key factors: shifts in dietary structures, population size and age structure, urbanization, food waste, and the impact of COVID-19. These factors were not considered simultaneously in previous research.

The narrowing gap in developed and developing country emission intensities reduces global trade's carbon leakage.

International trade affects CO emissions by redistributing production activities to places where the emission intensities are different from the place of consumption. This study focuses on the net emission change as the result of the narrowing gap in emission intensities between the exporter and importer. Here we show that the relocation of production activities from the global North (developed countries) to the global South (developing countries) in the early 2000s leads to an increase in global emissions due to the higher emission intensities in China and India.