Who uses the Clean Development Mechanism? An empirical analysis of projects in Chinese provinces

China is by far the largest host of projects implemented under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). However, earlier studies shed little light on the determinants of the distribution of CDM projects across Chinese provinces. Given China's large size and political-economic diversity, this dearth of research is troubling. We provide an empirical analysis of 2097 CDM projects in 30 Chinese provinces, 2004–2009. We find that high electricity consumption, low per capita income, and a lack of foreign direct investment are all associated with CDM project implementation. The findings are particularly strong for electricity and foreign direct investment. These findings are consistent with the economic theory of CDM project implementation. Project developers focus on minimizing the cost of carbon abatement. Moreover, they suggest that the CDM can, despite its limitations, contribute to reducing economic inequality and uneven development in China.     

Issues in Energy Economics Led by Emerging Linkages between the Natural Gas and Power Sectors

Fuel prices in 2006 continued at record levels, with uranium continuing upward unabated and coal, SO₂ emission allowances, and natural gas all softening. This softening did not continue for natural gas, however, whose prices rose, fell and rose again, first following weather influences and, by the second quarter of 2007, continuing at high levels without any support from fundamentals. This article reviews these trends and describes the remarkable increases in fuel expenses for power generation. By the end of 2005, natural gas claimed 55% of annual power sector fuel expenses, even though it was used for only 19% of electric generation. Although natural gas is enormously important to the power sector, the sector also is an important driver of the natural gas market—growing to over 28% of the market even as total use has declined. The article proceeds to discuss globalization, natural gas price risk, and technology developments. Forces of globalization are poised to affect the energy markets in new ways—new in not being only about oil. Of particular interest in the growth of intermodal traffic and its a little-understood impacts on rail traffic patterns and transportation costs, and expected rapidly expanding LNG imports toward the end of the decade. Two aspects of natural gas price risk are discussed: how understanding the use of gas in the power sector helps define price ceilings and floors for natural gas, and how the recent increase in the natural gas production after years of record drilling could alter the supply–demand balance for the better. The article cautions, however, that escalation in natural gas finding and development costs is countering the more positive developments that emerged during 2006. Regarding technology, the exploitation of unconventional natural gas was one highlight. So too was the queuing up of coal-fired power plants for the post-2010 period, a phenomenon that has come under great pressure with many consequences including increased pressures in the natural gas market. The most significant illustration of these forces was the early 2007 suspension of development plans by a large power company, well before the Supreme Court’s ruling on CO₂ as a tailpipe pollutant and President Bush’s call for global goals on CO₂ emissions.

Statistical Analysis of Nitrate Movement through the Soil in Central Kansas

An earlier investigation by the Kansas Geological Survey in central Kansas studied the movement of nitrate from fertilizer through soil into the groundwater. Nitrate concentrations in soil water were measured on samples collected at three locations during a three-year span, from sets of lysimeters buried at different depths. Although patterns seemed apparent in the resulting measurements, no statistical analyses were performed to test their significance; this re-study of the data uses analyses of variance to test for differences in nitrate concentration attributable to time and to depth in the soil. The mean nitrate concentration of samples collected in the first year of the experiment was significantly higher than the means of second and third year samples at all three locations, perhaps reflecting the confounding influence of a previous flooding experiment. ANOVAs of depth across years determined few significant differences in nitrate concentration with depth. The wintertime gap in measurements and unequal sampling through time precludes formal time-series analyses, but graphs of concentration versus time show that peak concentration occurs at later times with increasing depth, and that maximum concentration decreases with depth. These statistical analyses support the conclusions from the original investigation.     

GGR Biennial Review: Advances in Laser Ablation and Solution ICP-MS from 2008 to 2009 with Particular Emphasis on Sensitivity Enhancements,Mitigation of Fractionation Effects and Exploration of New Applications

Recent developments from 2008 to 2009 in ICP-MS engineering, methods and applications are reviewed here. Of particular emphasis are advances in: (a) maximising sensitivity and reducing elemental/isotopic fractionation during laser ablation processing; (b) developing new analytical techniques to measure major, minor and trace element abundances without depending on matrix-matched calibrating materials, pre-determined internal standard concentrations and/or multiple analytical methods; (c) applying in situ and solution-based ICP-MS techniques to the analysis of forensic materials for criminal and/or nuclear investigations; and (d) improving precision and limits of detection of laser ablation multi-collector ICP-MS measurements of (ultra) trace elemental and isotopic abundances.     

Strong hydrographic controls on spatial and seasonal variability of dissolved organic carbon in the Chukchi Sea

A detailed analysis of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) distribution in the Western Arctic Ocean was performed during the spring and summer of 2002 and the summer of 2003. DOC concentrations were compared between the three cruises and with previously reported Arctic work. Concentrations of DOC were highest in the surface water where they also showed the highest degree of variability spatially, seasonally, and annually. Over the Canada Basin, DOC concentrations in the main water masses were: (1) surface layer (71±4 μM, ranging from 50 to 90 μM); (2) Bering Sea winter water (66±2 μM, ranging from 58 to 75 μM); (3) halocline layer (63±3 μM, ranging from 59 to 68 μM), (4) Atlantic layer (53±2 μM, ranging from 48 to 57 μM), and (5) deep Arctic layer (47±1 μM, ranging from 45 to 50 μM). In the upper 200 m, DOC concentrations were correlated with salinity, with higher DOC concentrations present in less-saline waters. This correlation indicates the strong influence that fluvial input from the Mackenzie and Yukon Rivers had on the DOC system in the upper layer of the Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait. Over the deep basin, there appeared to be a relationship between DOC in the upper 10 m and the degree of sea-ice melt water present. We found that sea-ice melt water dilutes the DOC signal in the surface waters, which is contrary to studies conducted in the central Arctic Ocean.     

Metamorphic reactions in mesosiderites: origin of abundant phosphate and silica

The high modal abundances of merrillite [Ca₃(PO₄)₂] and tridymite in most mesosiderites are not the result of igneous fractionation but are attributed to redox reactions between silicates and P-bearing Fe-Ni metal within a limited T-fO₂ range at low pressure. The Emery mesosiderite is the most tridymite- and merrillite-rich mesosiderite so it is used as the model for this study. Examination of reactions in the system CaO-SiO₂-MgSiO₃-Fe-P-O indicate that essentially all of the present phosphorus in Emery should have been dissolved in the metallic portion (calculated to have contained 0.65 wt% P originally), and that it largely reacted to form phosphate. The thermodynamic calculations predict that the reactions would have occurred between 970°C, log fO₂ = ?16.5 and 1030°C, log fO₂ = ?15.0 for the range of phase compositions in Emery. A narrower range of conditions is expected for other mesosiderites. Phosphide (schreibersite) formed only later at temperatures < 600°C during slow cooling. The recalculated amounts of dissolved P and S in the metallic portion of Emery reduce the temperature of the metal liquidus to < 1350°C and the solidus to < 800°C. Thus mixing of liquid metal with cold silicates near the parent body's surface would not have resulted in substantial melting of the silicates but would have resulted in their metamorphism, which is consistent with the textural relationships observed in Emery. This scenario of redox reactions and redistributions of components between metal and silicates represents a new insight into the complexities of mesosiderite processing that helps unravel the mesosiderite history and recalculate their original components.     

Generating Surface Models of Population Using Dasymetric Mapping*

Aggregated demographic datasets are associated with analytical and cartographic problems due to the arbitrary nature of areal unit partitioning. This article describes a methodology for generating a surface‐based representation of population that mitigates these problems. This methodology uses dasymetric mapping and incorporates areal weighting and empirical sampling techniques to assess the relationship between categorical ancillary data and population distribution. As a demonstration, a 100‐meter‐resolution population surface is generated from U.S. Census block group data for the southeast Pennsylvania region. Remote‐sensing‐derived urban land‐cover data serve as ancillary data in the dasymetric mapping.