“Supply push” or “demand pull?”: Strategic recommendations for the responsible development of biofuel in China

Description

This paper is the first piece of joint research outcome led by Dr. Jingzheng REN and Dr. Liang DONG, with members from the research team of “Urban Planning and Sustainable Development”, newly established by Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (led by Prof. Zhiqiu Gao and Assistant Prof. Hanwei Liang), as well as the research team of Low-carbon Development and Climate Change Adaption in University of Southern Denmark (led by the chief scientist of Climate Change Adaptation, Prof. Michael Evan Goodsite and Low-carbon energy strategy expert, Assistant Professor Jingzheng Ren). The author team also includes the top Energy Policy expert, Prof. Benjamin K. Sovacool from Aarhus University, Prof. Lichun Dong from Chongqing University, Dr. Xiao Luo from Tongji University, Mr. Lu Sun from National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. The Urban Planning and Sustainable Development research team is formed by Prof. Zhiqiu Gao, the dean of School of Geography and Remote Sensing, NUIST, the core members includes Jingzheng Ren, Liang Dong, and Assistant Professor Hanwei Liang. This study integrated SWOT analysis and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to analyze the status of biofuel industry in China, prioritized the factors affecting its development, and innovatively proposed a variety of strategic recommendations, falling across both “supply push” and “demand pull” approaches, to encourage its sustainable growth—to make it lean and green. According to SWOT analysis, four types of strategic recommendations were presented: SO strategies, WO strategies, ST strategies and WT strategies. Subsequently, FAHP was used to prioritize these factors in terms of their relative importance. Finally, critical implications and recommendations for Chinese stakeholders and practical players were proposed. The results of this study are helpful for those who seek to have a better understanding of the current status of China’s biofuel industry, make more informed decisions, draw potential technological roadmaps, and draft development plans. Additionally, the process of using SWOT-FAHP itself allows researchers to vary and monitor the affecting factors according to the linguistic preferences of stakeholders and the actual social and economic conditions within a country. Therefore, our approach is able to generalize to other regions beyond China. The Urban Planning and Sustainable Development research team of NUIST aims to carry out international cooperation to address emerging regional sustainability challenges, focusing on sustainable urban planning, complex energy and environmental systems by applying the multi-disciplinary knowledge, and further advancing the development of smart city, eco-industrial development, and circular economy in China.