[en] Highlights: • Virtual energy transferred from energy-scarce to energy-abundant provinces in China increased. • Changes in flow pattern of China’s virtual energy network since the financial crisis were revealed. • Most provinces had more distant virtual energy trade than nearby virtual energy trade. • Virtual energy flowing from west China to east China was greater than physical energy through the WTEETP. -- Abstract: Energy is one of the most fundamental resources for humans and nature. Virtual energy transfer is considered one potential mechanism to alleviate energy shortages and support socioeconomic development in energy-scarce regions. However, little research has explored the change in flow pattern of national virtual energy trade since the 2008 global financial crisis. To fill this knowledge gap, we choose China’s interprovincial virtual energy transfer network as a demonstration, since China is the world's biggest energy consumer and features a starkly uneven spatial distribution of energy resources. Surprisingly, the total virtual energy transferred from energy-scarce to energy-abundant provinces increased from 43.2% to 47.5% from 2007 to 2012. In particular, the virtual oil which transferred from energy-scarce to energy-abundant provinces grew from 51.5% in 2007 to 54.0% in 2012. The percentage of provinces that transferred a greater amount of total virtual energy than was consumed internally increased from 23.3% in 2007 to 36.7% in 2012. Unexpectedly, the total virtual energy flowing from west China to east China was much greater than physical energy transferred through the West-To-East Electricity Transmission Project (WTEETP). This study suggests that it would be interesting to study patterns of interactions of virtual energy networks in other countries.

[en] Highlights: • The global dioxin emissions were evaluated to be 97.0 kg TEQ/year. • The countries with high emissions were mainly concentrated in Asia. • Dioxin emissions were around 9 kg TEQ and there is 30–70% of reduction scope in China. • Scenarios simulation of dioxin reduction in China will reduce global dioxin by 3–7%. The global status of dioxin emissions across 150 countries/regions were compiled in this study. China, the major emitter of dioxin and the largest developing country, was chosen as an example to illustrate its emission reductions. The global dioxin emissions were about 97.0 kg TEQ/year, Asia and Africa emitted the most dioxins among the continents. Globally, open burning processes were the most important sources of dioxins. Dioxin emissions in developed countries have remained at low and stable level, while those in developing countries have remained at relatively high level or have continued to increase in recent years. It can be speculated that the global dioxin emissions will increase first and then decrease in the future. Chinese dioxin emissions were stable around 9 kg toxic equivalent (TEQ) in recent years, while 17 subcategories are the key sources of dioxin control in the future. Moreover, according to analysis toward China’s dioxin emission trend and sources, there is a large space for dioxins reduction in industries such as metal production, waste incineration and disposal. The results indicated that there is at least 30–70% of reduction scope in China based on three scenarios, and this will reduce the world's annual dioxin emissions by 2.7–6.8%.