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The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) on a large scale is crucial for meeting the desired climate commitments, where affordability plays a vital role. However, the expected surge in prices of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, four critical materials in EV batteries, could hinder EV uptake. To explore these impacts in the context of China, the world’s largest EV market, we expand and enrich an integrated assessment model. We find that under a high material cost surge scenario, EVs would account for 35% (2030) and 51% (2060) of the total number of vehicles in China, significantly lower than 49% (2030) and 67% (2060) share in the base-line, leading to a 28% increase in cumulative carbon emissions (2020-2060) from road transportation. While material recycling and technical battery innovation are effective long-term countermeasures, securing the supply chains of critical materials through international cooperation is highly recommended, given geopolitical and environmental fragilities. Under a high-cost scenario for battery critical materials, the uptake of electric vehicles in China may be greatly reduced, leading to increased cumulative carbon emissions. This may jeopardize both China’s electric vehicle and climate targets.

Economic globalization and concomitant growth in international trade since the late 1990s have profoundly reorganized global production activities and related CO 2 emissions. Here we show trade among developing nations (i.e., South–South trade) has more than doubled between 2004 and 2011, which reflects a new phase of globalization. Some production activities are relocating from China and India to other developing countries, particularly raw materials and intermediate goods production in energy-intensive sectors. In turn, the growth of CO 2 emissions embodied in Chinese exports has slowed or reversed, while the emissions embodied in exports from less-developed regions such as Vietnam and Bangladesh have surged. Although China’s emissions may be peaking, ever more complex supply chains are distributing energy-intensive industries and their CO 2 emissions throughout the global South. This trend may seriously undermine international efforts to reduce global emissions that increasingly rely on rallying voluntary contributions of more, smaller, and less-developed nations. The rapid growth of South–South trade reflects a new phase of globalization. Here the authors show that some energy-intensive production activities, particularly raw materials and intermediate goods, and related CO 2 emissions are relocating from China and India to other developing countries.

The low-carbon power transition, which is key to combatting climate change, has far-reaching effects on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of issues such as resource use, environmental emissions, employment, and many more. Here, we assess the potential impacts of the power transition on progress toward achieving multiple SDGs (covering 18 targets across the 17 goals) across 49 economies under nine socioeconomic and climate scenarios. We find that the low-carbon power transition under the representative concentration pathway (RCP)2.6 scenarios could lead to an approximately 11% improvement in the global SDG index score from 54.70 in 2015 to 59.89-61.33 in 2100. However, the improvement would be significantly decreased to 4.42%-7.40% and 7.55%-8.93% under the RCP6.0 and RCP4.5 scenarios, respectively. The power transition could improve the overall SDG index in most developed economies under all scenarios while undermining their resource-related SDG scores. Power transition-induced changes in international trade would improve the SDG progress of developed economies but jeopardize that of developing economies, which usually serve as resource hubs for meeting the demand for low-carbon power transition in developed economies. The low-carbon power transition could enhance global sustainable development goal (SDG) progress, but hinder that of developing economies under fossil fuel-based scenarios. Meanwhile, SDG synergies and trade-offs exist within and between economies.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by progressive memory decline and cognitive dysfunctions. Although the causes of AD have not yet been established, many mechanisms have been proposed. Axon-guidance molecules play the roles in the occurrence and development of AD by participating in different mechanisms. Therefore, what roles do axon-guidance molecules play in AD? This study aimed at elucidating how axon-guidance molecules Netrins, Slits, Semaphorins, and Ephrins regulate the levels of Aβ, hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, Reelin, and other ways through different signaling pathways, in order to show the roles of axon-guidance molecules in the occurrence and development of AD. And it is hoped that this study can provide a theoretical basis and new perspectives in the search for new therapeutic targets for AD.

The globally booming renewable power industry has stimulated an unprecedented interest in metals as key infrastructure components. Many economies with different endowments and levels of technology participate in various production stages and cultivate value in global renewable power industry production networks, known as global renewable power value chains (RPVCs), complicating the identification of metal supply for the subsequent low-carbon power generation and demand. Here, we use a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) combined with a value chain decomposition model to trace the metal footprints (MFs) and value-added of major global economies’ renewable power sectors. We find that the MFs of the global renewable power demand increased by 97% during 2005—2015. Developed economies occupy the high-end segments of RPVCs while allocating metal-intensive (but low value-added) production activities to developing economies. The fast-growing demand for renewable power in developed economies or developing economies with upper middle income, particularly China, is a major contributor to the embodied metal transfer increment within RPVCs, which is partly offset by the declining metal intensities in developing economies. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a metal-efficient and green supply chain for upstream suppliers as well as downstream renewable power installers for just transition in the power sector across the globe. In this study, the authors report that, developed economies allocate metal-intensive-low value-added production activities to developing economies in global renewable power value chains. It necessitates building metal-efficient and green supply chains for just transition of power sector.

Animal interphase chromosomes are organized into topologically associating domains (TADs). How TADs are formed is not fully understood. Here, we combined high-throughput chromosome conformation capture and gene silencing to obtain insights into TAD dynamics in Xenopus tropicalis embryos. First, TAD establishment in X. tropicalis is similar to that in mice and flies and does not depend on zygotic genome transcriptional activation. This process is followed by further refinements in active and repressive chromatin compartments and the appearance of loops and stripes. Second, within TADs, higher self-interaction frequencies at one end of the boundary are associated with higher DNA occupancy of the architectural proteins CTCF and Rad21. Third, the chromatin remodeling factor ISWI is required for de novo TAD formation. Finally, TAD structures are variable in different tissues. Our work shows that X. tropicalis is a powerful model for chromosome architecture analysis and suggests that chromatin remodeling plays an essential role in de novo TAD establishment. Hi-C and single-molecule sequencing analysis provide an improved assembly of the Xenopus tropicalis genome and insights into three-dimensional genome dynamics throughout embryogenesis.

China’s power sector, as the major CO 2 emitter, has experienced significant restructuring that has had profound impacts on employment in both power and its upstream sectors. Combining input–output and structural path analysis, we quantified the direct and indirect impacts of power transformation on employment in China between 2012 and 2017. Direct employment in the power generation sector witnessed a net growth of 0.12 million, while over 10 times that number of jobs (1.40 million) have been lost in the upstream sectors, mainly in coal mining and washing, finance, oil and gas extraction and transportation. Among the top 10 critical paths, the share of employment driven by solar and wind power increased to 12.31% in 2017, more than nine times that in 2012. Furthermore, three scenarios have been set up to evaluate the employment patterns in 2030 and 2050. Under the 1.5 °C scenario, projection shows that the power sector could support over 5 million jobs in 2050, with more than 80% of these being related to renewable energy. Policy suggestions for a just transition, such as resettlement of laid-off workers and job transfer in upstream industries, are comprehensively discussed.

To avoid catastrophic climate change, the world is promoting a fast and unprecedented transition from fuels to renewables. However, the infrastructures of renewables, such as wind turbines and solar cells, rely heavily on critical minerals like rare earths, indium, etc. Such interactions between climate targets, energy transitions, and critical minerals were widely overlooked in the present climate scenario analysis. This study aims to fill this gap through an introduction of metal–energy–climate nexus framework with its application on global energy transition towards a carbon-neutral (or below 1.5 °C) target, in which six state-of-the-art integrated assessment models (IAMs) under different shared socioeconomic pathways were applied. Our analysis revealed that climate mitigation is expected to boost significantly the critical mineral demand by 2.6–267-fold, which varies greatly by IAM models. Solar power development may be constrained by tellurium (Te) and selenium (Se) shortage, while wind power will be jeopardized by the limited scalability of rare earth production. Moreover, a more sustainable pathway may come at higher demand for critical minerals along with higher renewable ratios. Consequently, a holistic investigation of the interaction of mineral, energy, and climate systems is highly recommended for future scenario designing.

China has long been committing to green transition of energy system to alleviate the heavy pollution; however, a quantitative analysis for its impact on air pollution has been lacking. To fill the knowledge gap, this study makes an initial attempt to reveal how green transition of energy system influences China's energy‐related mercury emissions from both individual sector and supply chain perspectives, by using input‐output (IO)‐structural decomposition analysis and structural path analysis. Moreover, the aggregated power sector in the original IO tables are further disaggregated into seven types of power sectors to avoid the inherent huge uncertainty related to the aggregation. The results show that green transition in terms of emission factor control and energy mix adjustment has substantially benefited mercury reduction, while energy efficiency improvement has a much weaker effect. The largest consumption‐based mercury reduction brought about by energy green transition happens in sector Construction, with an amount of 49.6 t. This study also finds that the green transition generally makes the production layers less mercury intensive, and the energy‐related mercury emissions are more concentrated in the production layers. Policy suggestions for further enhancing energy green transition's mitigation effects for mercury emissions are comprehensively discussed. Plain Language Summary China is undergoing an unprecedented green transition towards a more renewable, more efficient, and less polluted energy system. An important question arises on how to quantify the impact of green transition on mercury emissions, a toxic global pollutant to both human health and ecosystem. To this end, an environment‐economy integrated model is developed to link the mercury emissions with the production chain network in China. We find that green transition in terms of “less polluted” and “more renewable” has substantially benefited mercury reduction, while the effect of “more efficient” is much weaker. The green transition brings the largest mercury emission reduction along the upstream supply chains in sector Construction. This study also finds that the green transition generally makes the production layers less mercury intensive. By understanding the green transition's mitigation effects for mercury emissions, more targeted policies could be adopted for China to fulfill the commitment under Minamata Convention. Key Points We investigate how green transition of energy system impacts China's mercury emissions by using structural decomposition/path analysis Green transition as emission factors and energy mix change have substantial benefits, while energy efficiency change has a weaker effect Green transition makes production layers less mercury intensive, and mercury emissions are more concentrated in the production layers

The spatial mismatch of energy resources and electricity demand in China drives the large-scale construction of power transmission infrastructure, which consumes a large amount of carbon-intensive products. However, a systematic accounting framework for the carbon emissions of power transmission infrastructure has not yet been established. This study for the first time compiles an embodied carbon emissions inventory covering 191 typical power transmission infrastructure projects in China in 2015, including 145 types of alternating current (AC) transmission line projects, 37 typical AC substation projects, 8 typical direct current (DC) transmission line projects and 1 typical DC converter station project. The inventory also shows the detailed inputs of all the projects. These data not only enable a quantitative assessment of the embodied carbon emissions of power transmission infrastructure in China but also provide essential information for climate mitigation policy design in the power sector.Measurement(s)carbon atom • EmissionTechnology Type(s)digital curationFactor Type(s)terrain type • voltage classSample Characteristic - Environmentelectric power systemSample Characteristic - LocationChinaMachine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12911645