Water security implications of coal-fired power plants financed through China's Belt and Road Initiative

Alkon, Meir; He, Xiao-Gang; Paris, Aubrey R.; Liao, Wenying; Hodson, Thomas; Wanders, Niko; Wang, Yaoping

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2019.06.044

Cited by 60 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…We aim to clarify the impact of economic and social development on industrial water use in this paper, which is why we neglect to analyze the influence of climate change on industrial water use. In fact, climate change has direct and indirect effects on industrial water use [54,55]. On the one hand, cooling water is a major part of industry water use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Empirical Research on Influence Factors of Industrial Water Use

Wang

Zhang

2019

Water

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The contradiction between increasing demand and current supply has affected the healthy development of industry. Investigating the key influence factors of industrial water use change has important practical significance for water resource management. In this study, the authors propose the vector autoregression model to analyze the dynamic influences of industrial development, technological progress, and environmental protection on industrial water use change, and take Jiangsu Province, China as a case study. Results show that each of the factors had different effects during 2001–2015, in which industrial development was the greatest contributor to the change of industrial water use and showed a positive effect in the forecast period; technological progress played a major role in reducing industrial water use, but the negative effect weakened periodically over time; environmental protection also had a positive influence in the early forecast period, and then showed a marginal effect with time. Results of this study could assist the relevant authorities to formulate appropriate industrial development planning and water saving policies, and to reasonably control the industrial water demand.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Empirical Research on Influence Factors of Industrial Water Use

Wang

Zhang

2019

Water

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“…Although it is presently the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, China is also one of the biggest sources of low-carbon initiatives, as its major cities suffer from very high air pollution (Guan, Zheng, Chung, & Zhong and Bazilian, 2016 ), and it recently pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060. At the same time, Chinese energy policy continues to rely on traditional fuel sources (Alkon et al, 2019 ), and its fracking industry continues to push ahead, even in the face of local concerns and visible downstream environmental costs (Tan et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Varieties Of Sustainable Development: Institutional Sectoramentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term energy transitions and international business: Concepts, theory, methods, and a research agenda

2021

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International business and management (IB/IM) scholars are increasingly calling for more research attention to subject matter that incorporates global-scale issues (Buckley, Doh, & Benischke, 2017). These calls have frequently focused on societal “grand challenges” that transcend discrete geographical locations and well-defined (typically short) time periods. The present long-term energy transition (LTE), characterized by a shift away from hydrocarbons and towards renewables, represents an important example of a multi-level, multi-actor global challenge that unfolds at the interface of business and society, and requires employing multiple conceptual lenses to process and understand. Researchers addressing such multi-faceted complex problems face a range of challenges related to theorizing, framing, modeling, and ultimately conducting empirical studies. Based on our collective work as IB scholars and journal editors, in this Perspective article we identify some of the challenges long-term energy transitions pose, reflect on how those challenges can be conceptualized, offer potential responses, and propose a future research agenda.

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“…WC accounts for freshwater consumption for irrigation, domestic uses, and coal- Environmental flow is here defined as the minimum freshwater flow that is required to sustain ecosystem functions. Environmental flow requirements were accounted for in our water scarcity analysis 20,39,40,44 , assuming that 80% of the monthly blue water flows should be preserved for environmental flows protection (i.e., remain unavailable to human consumption) to maintain ecosystem functions 38 .…”

Section: Water Scarcity Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1), leading to a boom in the construction of CFPP 2 . Given that each new coal plant is at least a billion-dollar investment with a 30-to 50-year lifetime 5 , currently operating CFPP commit the energy sector to emissions above the levels compatible with 1.5-2º C climate change scenarios 6 and commit fresh water consumption to levels that potentially compete with natural ecosystems and other human uses [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . These commitments ostensibly address the increasing concerns for global water scarcity 22 and humankind's ability to meet its burgeoning food and energy needs 23 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Hydrological limits to carbon capture and storage

et al. 2020

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Post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important technology to reduce CO2 emissions from the electricity and industrial sectors. Despite the mounting concerns about global water scarcity and its impact on energy production, the potential hydrological consequences of large-scale CCS have not yet been explored. Here we simulate the impacts on water resources that would result from retrofitting global coal-fired power plants (CFPP) with four different CCS technologies. We find that 43% of global CFPP capacity currently experience water scarcity at least one month per year and 32% experience scarcity for five or more months during the year. Addition of CCS does increase water scarcity, and the extent to which it does so depends on the technology. We show that the choice of what CFPP to retrofit and what CCS technologies to deploy will be essential in preventing additional water scarcity. If CCS were to be pursed, facilities not affected by water scarcity should be selected. Globally coal-fired plants account for 38% of electricity generation 1 and 19% (8.9 Gt CO2 y-1) of total CO2 emissions 2. Coal generation is also a primary source of toxic airborne emissions globally 3. Despite the growing reliance on renewable energy and the recent policy efforts aimed at reducing the use of coal 4 , today the global coal dependence for power generation is the same as twenty years ago 1. Since the turn of the 21 st century, population growth, increasing affluence, and industrialization in developing countries have demanded an unprecedented growth in coal Deleted: use a global biophysical monthly hydrological 31 analysis to … 32 Deleted: existing 33 Deleted: By retrofitting global CFPP with CCS, water 34 consumption and withdrawals from CFPP would more 35 than nearly double.

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Water security implications of coal-fired power plants financed through China's Belt and Road Initiative

Cited by 60 publications

References 44 publications

An Empirical Research on Influence Factors of Industrial Water Use

An Empirical Research on Influence Factors of Industrial Water Use

Long-term energy transitions and international business: Concepts, theory, methods, and a research agenda

Hydrological limits to carbon capture and storage

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