The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC)relationship between China’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) per capita and GDP per capita in the period of 1980-2008. The timing of the turning point of China’s CO₂ per capitais to be further estimated if an EKC relationship exists. In regression results, anatural logarithm-quadratic relationship is found between CO₂ per capita and GDP per capita which supports EKC hypothesis.In addition, the results also show energy consumption has a significant impact whereas trade openness ratio has an insignificant impact on CO₂ emissions in China.The turning point of CO₂ per capita suggested by the EKC relationshipappears before 2020 which seems earlier than the practicaltrajectory of China’s CO₂ emissionsbecause of China’s wealth gap and its role in the international trade. Therefore, further efforts could concern reducing domestic income inequality in China and negotiating on making clear responsibilitiesbetween China and developed countries for corresponding CO₂ emissions from China’s products exports.

Furnas Volcano is a dormant central volcano located in the eastern part of São Miguel Island (Azores archipelago, Portugal). At present secondary manifestations of volcanism comprise fumarolic fields, thermal and CO₂ cold springs and soil diffuse degassing areas. More than two thousands soil CO₂ flux measurements, based on the accumulation chamber method, were carried out at Furnas Volcano between 2005 and 2009 in order to produce CO₂ degassing maps that show the spatial distribution of soil gas anomalies. CO₂ flux values oscillated from non detectable to values higher than 25000 g m^-2 d^-1. On the basis of sequential Gaussian simulations, a mean CO₂ emission of ~ 1110 t d^-1 was estimated to be released from Furnas Volcano (area ~ 6.2 km²). From this total CO₂ emitted, more than 80 % is of hydrothermal origin. This estimation represents only the diffusive contribution of the CO₂ flux and do not account for other contributions from fumaroles, bubbling pools or Furnas lake, suggesting that the total CO₂ emitted from Furnas Volcano is larger than our estimate.

The efforts of the world research activities involved in clean coal technologies development focus to a considerable extend on the development of integrated hydrogen and power generation technologies based on the process of gasification with CO₂ capture. Further improvement in terms of process sustainability may be sought in partial replacement of coal with “green” energy source - biomass. In the paper a study of steam co-gasification of biomass and hard coal, in a laboratory scale fixed bed reactor at the temperature if 900^oC are presented. The effectiveness of steam co-gasification of biomass and hard coal blends, in terms of flows and composition of product gas and carbon conversion were studied. Based on the experimental results a conclusion was drawn that the co-gasification of coal and biomass might be considered to be one of the promising ways for hydrogen-rich gas production. Co-gasification of coal and biomass may be considered as contributing to CO₂ emission reduction, when compared to fossil fuel gasification, since biomass is claimed to be carbon neutral (CO₂ emitted from gasification process is balanced by the amount captured from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis).