Prof. Ren-Qing Wang's group at the School of Life Sciences, Shandong university has made new breakthrough in the fields of sustainable development and industrial ecology. Two research papers were published in the top environmental journal "Applied Energy" (5-yr IF: 8.558),entitled“Study of the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and the economic growth of Russia based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve” and “Exploring the environmental pressures in urban sectors: An energy-water-carbon nexus perspective”. The first author is Xue-Chun Yang and the corresponding author is Prof. Ren-Qing Wang.
Rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to severe environmental issues in China. Energy, water, and CO2 are among the most important factors that influence urban sustainability. The latest paper published online in July, 2018 investigated the energy–water–carbon nexus of urban sectors in a city scale, and proposed sustainable development recommendations for different sectors with various energy-water-carbon characteristics. It was the latest research on the energy-water-carbon nexus of Chinese industrial sectors on a city scale. This achievement was estimated by applying the environmental input-output model. It explored the energy-water-carbon nexus of Beijing and Shanghai urban industrial sectors in 2012 from a consumption-based perspective. The energy consumption, water use, and CO2 emissions of the upstream production sectors driven by final consumption in various industrial sectors in Beijing and Shanghai were calculated, and the composition of each consumption (emissions) was analyzed. By calculating the energy-water-carbon pressure caused by unit output of various industrial sectors, the characteristics of energy-water-carbon nexus in similar industrial sectors in two cities were compared. It is found that various industrial sectors in Shanghai is facing greater environmental challenges in the process of urban sustainability than Beijing. The achievements in this study may offer new perspectives to tackle the environmental challenges during the achievement of urban sustainability.
Another paper published in February 2017 is a research concerning the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and the economic growth of Russia based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve. As a typical extensive economic development model, Russia was selected as the research object. An accurate list of the economy-related greenhouse gas emissions was built, accordingly, the inverted U-shaped relationship between the GDP per capita and economy-related greenhouse gas emissions per capita was tested, and the results supported the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis under a business-as-usual scenario. Our estimation indicated that Russia will reach its turning point in 10 years if its economic growth rate remains stable. This study analyzed the impact of the economic development on greenhouse gas emissions in Russia and will serve as a reference for countries and regions that are at the same stage of the economic transformation process.
Prof. Ren-Qing Wang's group began to research in the field of sustainable development and industrial ecology from 2010. In collaboration with researcher from the University of Tennessee and Lund University in Sweden, Prof. Wang’s group has made a series of new progress in recent years, especially in the evaluation of regional complex ecosystem sustainability, eco-systemic metabolism, green university and household solid waste recycling. Approximately 10 papers were published in top environmental engineering journals, such as Journal of Cleaner Production (5-yr IF: 7.051) and Applied Energy (5-yr IF: 8.558). These achievements have been highly approved by peer experts.
Papers Links:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917301587
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918311267
