Based on the apparent energy consumption data, a systematic and comprehensive city-level total carbon accounting approach was established and applied in Guangzhou, China. A newly extended LMDI method based on the Kaya identity was adopted to examine the main drivers for the carbon emissions increments both at the industrial sector and the residential sector. Research results are listed as follow: (1) Carbon emissions embodied in the imported electricity played a significant important role in emissions mitigation in Guangzhou. (2) The influences and impacts of various driving factors on industrial and residential carbon emissions are different in the three different development periods, namely, the 10th five-year plan period (2003–2005), the 11th five-year plan period (2005–2010), and the 12th five-year plan period (2010–2013). The main reasons underlying these influencing mechanisms were different policy measures announced by the central and local government during the different five-year plan periods. (3) The affluence effect (g-effect) was the dominant positive effect in driving emissions increase, while the energy intensity effect of production (e-effect-Production), the economic structure effect (s-effect) and the carbon intensity effect of production (f-effect-Production) were the main contributing factors suppressing emissions growth at the industrial sector. (4) The affluence effect of urban (g-effect-AUI) was the most dominant positive driving factor on emissions increment, while the energy intensity effect of urban (e-effect-Urban) played the most important role in curbing emissions growth at the residential sector.

To achieve emission reduction targets in China, it is necessary to analyze the factors driving energyrelated carbon emissions from a regional perspective. We used extended STIRPAT model (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology) based on the classical IPAT identity (where I = impact representing carbon emissions, P = population, A = affluence, and T = emission intensity) to determine the main factors driving energy-related carbon emissions in Xinjiang from 1952 to 2014, an important Chinese energy base in northwestern China. Total carbon emissions in Xinjiang were found to increase from 28.51 × 10 4 t in 1952 to 9,446.61 × 10 4 t in 2014, representing a 331.34-fold increase over a period of 63 years. Results show that the impacts and influences of various factors on carbon emissions varied among three stages of development: "Before Reform and Opening up" , "After Reform and Opening up" , and "Western Development" (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014). In the first stage, emission intensity and population size were the dominant contributors to increments in carbon emissions, while the energy consumption structure played an important role in curbing carbon emissions. In the second stage, economic growth and population size were the dominant contributors to increments in carbon emissions, while emission intensity had a significant negative effect on carbon emissions. In the third stage, fixed asset investment and economic growth were the dominant contributors to increments in carbon emissions, while emission intensity had a significant negative effect on carbon emissions.

Understanding drivers for energy consumption is important for economic and environmentally sustainable development. To explore this issue, the SDA (structural decomposition analysis) method based on input-output theory was used to analyze the influencing mechanism of energy consumption in one of the top energy consumers, Guangdong Province in China, during 2002 to 2012. We divided the process into 2 stages: before and after the global financial crisis. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Economic activity and population size are the main driving factors for the increase in energy consumption, while energy consumption intensity is the main factor restraining the increment, and the effects of final demand structure on energy consumption transformed from positive before the global financial crisis to negative after the global financial crisis. 2) Analysis of allocation of energy consumption changes caused by final demands shows that international and domestic trade had significant effects on changes in energy consumption. Although energy consumption embodied in international exports decreased after the global financial crisis, it is still the most significant important driver for the increments. Guangdong is a net exporter of embodied

Light-harvesting of single nanowires is very crucial to enhance conversion efficency of solar cells. Here, we systematically examined light-harvesting of single rectangular nanowires and found that light-harvesting of rectangular nanowires is increased contrasted with that of square nanowires, which is because decreasing the horizontal side can strengthen the leaky mode resonances and increasing the vertical side can increase the length of the light path. Numerical results showed that the photocurrent of single rectangular silicon nanowires is dramatically enhanced by 82.9% or 276.5% in comparison with that of square nanowires with the same vertical side (1000 nm) or horizontal side (100 nm), respectively. This work indicates that light-harvesting of single nanowires can be improved by decreasing the symmetry from the square to rectangular nanowires.