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In the context of achieving the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, mandatory corporate environmental information disclosure has begun to be implemented. According to the theory of geographical economics, the closer the geographical distance between enterprises and ecological environmental regulatory authorities, the more likely it is to form a 'deterrence' (the 'distance attenuation effect' of supervision costs) or a 'reliance' (the 'distance attenuation effect' of rent-seeking costs) for enterprises. Based on the data of listed companies with major pollutants from 2015 to 2020, this study empirically tested the directions and paths of the impact of the geographical distance between enterprises and ecological environmental regulatory authorities on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure using fixed effects model and mediating effects model. The study showed that: 1 The closer the geographical distance between enterprises and ecological environmental regulatory authorities, the higher the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, which supported the 'distance attenuation effect' hypothesis of supervision costs. 2 The impact of geographical distance on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure was realized through the intensity of supervision and monitoring at the provincial level and the intensity of law enforcement at the prefecture level. 3 The strengthening of environmental governance intensity, the improvement of regional digitalization level, and the increase in media attention suppressed the 'distance attenuation effect' of supervision costs. It is concluded that in order to achieve a balanced development of the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure in the whole region, it is necessary to strengthen environmental governance intensity, improve regional digitalization level, and increase media attention. From the perspective of geographical economics, this paper expands the influencing factors of corporate environmental information disclosure quality, enriches the theoretical practice of the 'distance attenuation effect' in geographical economics, and provides solutions and theoretical bases for promoting the balanced development of corporate environmental information disclosure quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of low-carbon development lies in reducing carbon sources and increasing carbon sinks, and the construction of free trade zones (FTZs), as an experimental field for China' s comprehensively deepening reforms, is of great significance to urban lowcarbon development. Based on the panel data from 288 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper first comprehensively evaluated the carbon neutrality levels of cities from two aspects: carbon emission and sequestration. Then, it used the multi-period difference-indifferences method and the spatial Durbin model to explore the 'low carbon effect' of the establishment of FTZs. The results showed that: the establishment of FTZs had a significant impact on the low-carbon development of the cities where they were located. Specifically, the establishment of FTZs could drive urban low-carbon development from within the cities by improving their digitization and resource allocation efficiency. At the same time, increased government attention to green development enhanced the carbon emission disincentive and boosted carbon uptake facilitation, fostering a more robust urban low-carbon development. Moreover, the carbon emission suppression effect, carbon absorption promotion effect, and carbon neutral effect of establishing the FTZs varied according to the batches of the establishment, city location, and city characteristics. The 'low-carbon effect' of the first two batches of FTZs, the region south of the Qinling-Huaihe River, and the cities with a higher degree of openness were more pronounced overall. Furthermore, the establishment of the FTZs also had a certain spatial spillover effect on urban low-carbon development. Based on these findings, the paper suggests prioritizing top-level design, exerting comparative advantages, and promoting the low-carbon development benchmark area in a gradient manner. Acceleration of trade facilitation and digital financial reform, promotion of the digital transformation of traditional industries with advantages, and encouragement of digital and low-carbon deep integration are also recommended. The introduction of highquality foreign investment should be combined with the improvement of the effectiveness of supervision and services to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. The study proposes leveraging digital platforms and free trade alliances to maximize the FTZs' catalytic effects. Overall, this study offers significant theoretical and practical insights for enhancing the construction of the FTZs, promoting urban low-carbon development, and advancing towards the goal of carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New urbanization plays an important role in China's regional economic growth and green transformation. In this stage of high-quality economic development, the effect of the government-led new urbanization policy on reducing pollution and carbon emissions needs to be verified. Based on the data of 180 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2020, this paper built a difference-indifferences model from the two dimensions of ' pollution' and ' carbon emission' to empirically test the effect of the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions in new urbanization and its influencing mechanisms. The results showed that: (J) The new urbanization construction had a significant effect of reducing pollution and carbon emissions, which was characterized by its annual increase. The conclusion was still robust after validity and robustness tests. © Based on the ' location-feature-scale' dimensional urban heterogeneity, the effect of the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions was more significant in the samples of eastern cities, non-resource-based cities, cities with high human capital, and larger cities. Quantile estimation results showed that this effect in the new urbanization construction was increasing marginally. © Mechanism analysis showed that the new urbanization construction could not only directly promote the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions, but also effectively promote this reduction by fostering the overall upgrading of industrial structure, service structure, and performance-based technological innovation. However, the impact of input-based technological innovation on this reduction was not obvious. This article offers new ideas for the next stage of regional pollution control in China. It is suggested that the government should promote the synergy between the new urbanization and the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions and release the dividends of the new urbanization in regional green development in a more effective way with the help of industrial structure upgrading and performance-based technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology is a vital technical path to realize the low-carbon transformation of the coal power industry as well as a key means to ensure the safe and stable operation of the future power system. However, the current development path of coupling coal power and CCUS technology is not clear, and there is room for the optimization of the corresponding policy mechanism. This paper quantitatively estimates the contribution of CCUS application in the coal power industry to China's low-carbon energy transition strategy, describes the future development path of coal power's CCUS industrialization from the spatio-temporal dimension, and further constructs a comprehensive supporting policy system framework. The results show that the development of coupling coal power and CCUS technology is technically and economically feasible, which can not only achieve deep decarbon-ization of the power system and bring significant output and employment dividends in the coal power industry, but also effectively control the average carbon price level of society. In terms of the temporal dimension, the development path of coal power's CCUS industrialization in the future should be divided into three stages: technology research, development, and demonstration (2021--2030), large-scale application (2030--2040), and commercial development (2040--2060). In terms of the spatial dimension, the technically and economically feasible regions for cluster development are the Ordos Basin, the Junggar Basin, the Bohai Bay Basin, etc. Constructing a comprehensive policy support system framework incorporating ' macro support, fiscal and tax finance, market mechanism, technology research, development, and demonstration, as well as management system' is conducive to realizing a large-scale CCUS application in the coal power industry. In the stage of technology research, development, and demonstration of coal power's CCUS application, more definitive incentive policies such as storage subsidies, compensation for power generation hours, and feed-in tariff subsidies should be implemented. When the project cost drops to a certain extent, there should be a gradual transition to market-based policy tools such as carbon trading and green electricity trading mechanisms, and green finance should also be promoted. Based on the relevant conclusions, some targeted policy suggestions are put forward to provide references for promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of China's coal power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assuming responsibility for emission reduction is an important part of participating in the global governance of climate change. Countries with a carbon neutrality target now cover about 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Carrying out fairness evaluations of their carbon neutrality targets provide a strong basis for the global carbon inventory. In this paper, the target years of carbon neutrality for major countries and regions under the global target of 2 °C and 1.5 °C are studied using the burden sharing model. On this basis, this paper simulates the possible pathways of carbon neutrality and evaluates the ambition of emission reduction targets in terms of annual emission reduction, per capita emission, and cumulative per capita emission. The results show that, from the perspective of equity, most of the developing countries cannot meet the global goal of 1.5 °C. The United States and the European Union nations could achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by continuing their annual emission reductions under their existing NDC targets. However, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China's annual emission reduction rate from 2030 to 2050 will be 6.7%, and the annual amount of emission reduction accounts for 51% of the global amount under the 1.5 °C target. Meanwhile, China would become the main force behind global cumulative emissions in the following decades. Thus, the emission reduction pathways China chooses will have an important impact on global climate mitigation progress. Based on the above research conclusions, this paper proposes that developed countries and developing countries should explore bilateral or multilateral cooperation in technology and finance in the field of climate change. Under the great pressure to achieve carbon neutrality, China needs to carry out research on the overall emission reduction pathways as soon as possible and clarify the paths at the scale of sectors, industries, provinces, and time stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has entered the stage of high-quality development, and the construction of new-type urbanization is an important approach for the realization of the country's high-quality economic development as well as reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. The existing literature has produced a number of fruitful research results on the economic and environmental effects of the transformation of urbanization. However, few studies have tested the effects of the new-type urbanization construction on energy efficiency and their mechanisms from the perspective of exogenous impact. Therefore, in the context of China's actual situation, this paper constructed a theoretical framework of 'technological progress－population agglomeration－urban expansion,' and then deeply explained how the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization affected energy efficiency. Based on the panel data of 285 cities in China, this paper made an innovative breakthrough from the existing empirical analyses by dividing energy efficiency into total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency, choosing the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization as a quasinatural experiment, and using the difference-in-differences method to examine the mechanisms and impact of new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. The results showed that: ① After a series of robustness tests, the impact of the comprehensive pilot policy for newtype urbanization on total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency was significantly negative, and the effect increased year by year. ② Mechanism analysis showed that new-type urbanization mainly hindered the improvement of energy efficiency by promoting technological progress, boosting population agglomeration, and stimulating urban expansion. ③ According to the analysis of the effect of the regional biased policy, the regionally biased policy leaning toward the central and western regions did not promote the energy-saving effect of new-type urbanization. ④ According to the analysis of the effect of urban agglomeration mode, joining an urban agglomeration helped enhance the effect of the new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. This study provides empirical evidence and policy implications for promoting China's new-type urbanization, avoiding unfavorable factors, and achieving a 'win-win' situation of the high-quality development of new-type urbanization and the improvement of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon city pilot policy is an important way to promote corporate green innovation, and it is also an inevitable choice to achieve the goals of achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. However, existing research on the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on green innovation lacks depth, and literature focusing on micro-corporate level is insufficient. Therefore, it is difficult to provide an effective reference for corporate green transformation. Based on the panel data of 936 A-share listed companies in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment. The multistage dynamic difference-in-differences model and difference-in-difference-in-differences model were used to explore the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on corporate green innovation and its heterogeneity in terms of enterprise size, property rights, and carbon emission industry. Furthermore, from the perspective of environmental responsibility and talent agglomeration, this paper discussed the transmission mechanism of this policy to promote corporate green innovation and determined the optimal path for the low-carbon city pilot policy to take. The research results showed that: ① The low-carbon city pilot policy effectively promoted corporate green innovation in the pilot areas. Compared with the green utility model patent innovation, the pilot policy had a more significant impact on green invention patent innovation. A series of robustness tests such as PSM-DID and the placebo test found that the conclusion was still valid. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on green innovation presented heterogeneity in terms of enterprise size, property rights, and carbon emission industry. This policy had a more significant policy impact on large-scale enterprises, and only had a positive impact on the utility model patent of state-owned enterprises but had a significant positive impact on the green innovation of non-state-owned enterprises to varying degrees. The low-carbon city pilot policy had a significant positive impact on the green innovation of enterprises in high-carbon industries but had a certain inhibitory effect on the green innovation of enterprises in low-carbon industries. ③ The main transmission mechanism of the low-carbon city pilot policy on the promotion of corporate green innovation was that the pilot policy enhanced the awareness of the environmental responsibility of enterprises by strengthening their management of environmental information disclosure, improving the level of their environmental protection investment, providing government support for their environmental protection, and inducing the effect of talent agglomeration by attracting talented people seeking employment and those who graduated from local universities as well as high-tech talents from enterprises. From the perspective of the transmission path effect, environmental responsibility played a greater role, followed by talent agglomeration. Therefore, the government should keep on expanding the scope of the lowcarbon pilot policy, give more financial and policy support to small and medium-sized technological private enterprises and green environmental protection enterprises, promote the shareholding system reform, mergers, and reorganization of state-owned enterprises, and provide sustainable environmental regulation and assistance to high-carbon emission enterprises. They should also continuously enhance enterprises' environmental responsibility awareness and promote the effect of talent agglomeration to improve the level of green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The material flow analysis (MFA) method is widely used in the fields of resource management, environmental governance, and sustainable development evaluation, but the progress of its international research and the paths to support carbon neutrality are still unclear. Therefore, following the logic of ' sorting-integration - expansion,' this study first analyzed 2 148 documents included in the core database of Web of Science from 2000 to 2022 by using CiteSpace bibliometric tools, captured the key knowledge base and topic evolution of the international MFA research, and conducted a detailed review and comprehensive analysis of the MFA frontier application research. Second, by integrating the current status of international MFA research and the paths to carbon neutrality, this study constructed an integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality. Finally, this paper summarized the support paths of MFA application research for the four important carbon reduction sectors and proposed current research deficiencies and future development directions. The main findings include: (J) The key studies in the fields of ' resource management,' ' environmental accounting,' and ' indicators ' could serve as a methodological and theoretical basis for MFA to perform its management, accounting, and evaluation functions. © With the support of the basic research topics of 'industrial ecology,' 'material flow analysis,' and 'material flow management, ' the application research topics of MFA had gradually evolved from the outdated topics of ' nitrogen,' ' Tarragona province,' ' heavy metals,' and ' alloying elements' to the frontier topics of ' municipal solid wastes,' ' iron,' ' circular economy,' ' exposure,' and ' renewable energy,' and the integrated application of MFA with the methodologies of scenario analysis, life-cycle assessment, and input-output modeling had become a mainstream trend. © The integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality consisted of three modules, i.e., theoretical and methodological basis, application research paradigm, and supporting pathway for carbon neutrality, of which the structure of the application research paradigm reflected the core functions of the MFA, i.e., accounting material stocks and flows, assessing material demand and recycling potential, and developing the material management system. The elements of the application research paradigm covered the metabolic object, spatial scale, application triggers, main content, and application purpose of MFA research. ® The studies of MFA application supported the four important carbon reduction sectors in heterogeneous ways, and their relevance to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality needed to be further improved. In future research, MFA can be applied to account for the resource demand and waste generation of specific zero-carbon technologies in the energy production sector, to assess the resource and environmental impacts of end-use electrification, efficiency, and cleaner technologies in the energy consumption sector, to measure the environmental exposures and economic feasibility of the technologies for decarbonization and solid-waste utilization in the industrial and commercial sectors, and to evaluate the metabolic efficiency of nutrients and the performance of biological carbon fixation in the agriculture and forestry sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential factor of production in economic development, land is an important tool for local governments to boost economic growth. The goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality will push local governments to change the extensive mode of attracting high energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises by transferring industrial land at low prices. The lowcarbon city pilot policy is important for China to achieve green and low-carbon economic transformation and sustainable development. This policy will inevitably influence the land transfer behavior of local governments in heavily polluting industries. Based on the panel data of 286 cities from 2007 to 2019, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and used the time-varying difference-in-differences method to empirically study the relationship between the pilot policy and the land transfer behavior of local governments. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy significantly reduced the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. The above conclusions still held after a series of robustness tests. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on land transfer in heavily polluting industries was affected by the intensity of environmental regulation of local governments and the tenure of officials. The stronger the intensity of environmental regulation in the pilot city became, the more the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were reduced. When the tenure of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee in the pilot city was less than or equal to 3 years, the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were significantly reduced. However, the age of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee had no significant impact on the land transfer in heavily polluting industries. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that non-resource-based cities, cities with high levels of economic development, and large cities displayed a higher reduction in the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. Based on these, this paper puts forward suggestions from three aspects: we should further promote the low-carbon city pilot policy, add environmental objectives to the assessment system of officials to increase the constraints of environmental objectives, and formulate and implement environmental policies in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate warming on world agricultural production and food security has become increasingly obvious. As an important source of carbon emissions and the carbon sink system, the green development of agriculture is one of the important ways to alleviate the crisis and achieve China' s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Exploiting the potential of agricultural carbon sinks and accurately calculating agricultural net carbon emissions are of great significance to promoting the green development of agriculture meeting the ' dual carbon' goals. Based on the dual characteristics of the agricultural carbon cycle, this paper sorted out the logical relationship between agricultural green development and the agricultural carbon cycle, incorporated the role of agricultural carbon sinks into the calculation framework of agricultural carbon emissions, and measured China' s agricultural net carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019 by time and region. The decoupling model of agricultural net carbon emissions from agricultural economic growth was constructed. The results of the study found that the total amount of carbon emissions from agricultural sources increased from 277.899 million t in 2000 to 308.383 1 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 0.52%, but the agricultural carbon emission intensity showed a trend of continuous decline; the agricultural carbon sink increased from 99.539 9 million t in 2000 to 133.039 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 1.46%, and the agricultural carbon sink resources were considerable. The intensity of agricultural carbon source emissions was higher in the west than in other regions and there was a clear gap with the eastern region. The total amount of agricultural carbon source emissions, carbon sinks, and net carbon emissions all showed a medium-high pattern. The decoupling relationship between agricultural economic growth and agricultural net carbon emissions was mainly manifested in two decoupling states: strong decoupling and weak decoupling. Nearly 50% of the provinces achieved the ideal strong decoupling state in terms of agricultural green development, while the remaining provinces were in a weak decoupling state, and the decoupling state was generally ideal. Finally, this paper puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions to promote the green development of agriculture and help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals: we should accurately locate the carbon source; ensure the ' double bottom line' of food security and pig production capacity under low-carbon agriculture; resolve the resource endowment differences between regions; explore the potential of the agricultural carbon trading market; create a new path for farmers to increase their income, maintain the strong and improve the weak; and strive to achieve the ' package' of strong decoupling in agriculture to help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual implementation of strategies to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, the heterogeneous performance of low-carbon technological progress driving carbon emission reduction in different situations has become an important basis for targeted technological carbon reduction. As an important special subject of national energy resource security and carbon emission reduction, whether resource-based cities can reach peak carbon emissions simultaneously is a key to the achievement of the ' dual carbon' goals. This paper reviewed the theoretical literature on low-carbon technology progress and carbon emissions in resource-based cities, and extracted the their driving mechanisms. Based on the panel data of 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities in China from 2005 to 2019, this paper innovatively considered six undesirable outputs with resource-based city characteristics to define the low-carbon technological progress of such cities, and used the DEA-Malmquist index model, STIRPAT model, and threshold model to clarify the current situation of low-carbon technological progress and carbon emissions in resource-based cities. The study also carried out a deep analysis of the driving relationship and threshold effect between low-carbon technological progress and carbon emission reduction, and compared and analyzed their multiple heterogeneity. The study found that during the sample period, the low-carbon technology progress of these 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities showed a phased upward trend, and that carbon emissions had obvious regional heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. The progress of low-carbon technology in resource-based cities had a certain inhibitory effect on carbon emissions and presented type heterogeneity, regional heterogeneity, and a double threshold effect. In different threshold ranges, the driving effects of low-carbon technology on carbon emission reduction effect and carbon emission reduction rebound effect were different. The driving effects of other seven control variables, such as gross domestic product, command-based environmental regulation, market-based environmental regulation, voluntary environmental regulation, industrial structure, energy consumption structure, and foreign direct investment, on carbon emissions were also different. Finally, based on the research conclusions, regarding different regional resource-based cities, different types of resource-based cities, and different levels of low-carbon technology progress in resource-based cities, policy recommendations related to low-carbon technology progress and carbon emission reduction are proposed in a targeted manner, aiming to promote the improvement of low-carbon technology progress in resource-based cities and the simultaneous achievement of carbon emission reduction targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the global value chain (GVC) crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, using methods of risk analysis of input-output table and geopolitical deduction, and based on the latest datasets of carbon dioxide emissions and the world energy trade, this paper analyzes the global value chain risks and energy security issues from three dimensions: climate governance dilemma, the global value chain crisis, and energy security and energy transition. It then presumes changes in world energy trade and geopolitical evolution and assesses their impact on China. The main findings and viewpoints of this paper are as follows: (1) The brokage, fragmentation, cutoff, and even production stoppage of the global value chain have done huge damage to the world economy, and it is urgent to rebuild a safe, stable, resilient, and green global value chain in the post-COVID-19 era. (2) Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the flow direction and volume of the world' s energy trade have changed greatly, and the energy supply chain has gradually formulated into five formulas: the ' Europe-U.S. supply chain,' the ' Eurasian supply chain,' the ' U.S., Japan, Australia, and India supply chain,' the ' OPEC supply chain,' and a ' new Europe supply chain.' Among them, the United States has increased rapidly its LNG exports to Europe, and Russia has significantly increased its energy exports to Asian countries, inducing a new ' Eurasian energy supply chain.' (3) The world' s energy geopolitics is evolving in such a way that the United States is strengthening its grip on Europe to jointly restrain Russia' s power and initiating a Asia-Pacific ' four-sided mechanism' to counter China' s rise. Consequently, energy security has been bound to geopolitics. (4) China should act as a geopolitical ' power of equilibrium' to avoid the increasing risk of a new Cold War or a ' quasi-Cold War' to ensure its own energy security, to promote its dual goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality actively and gradually, and to steadily follow the path of peaceful development. We conclude that: the ' dual carbon' goals set up a timetable for China' s transitions in terms of energy, economy, and development mode. At the same time, the strategy of 'decoupling with China' promoted by some countries gives China an opportunity instead and forces China to accelerate its industrial transition, trade upgrading, and optimization of economic structure, in order to build an upgraded version of the ' world factory' and fully realize a high-quality, green, sustainable development with a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep decarbonization aims to achieve the profound transformation of energy systems through steeply reducing carbon intensity in all sectors of the economy, which is the only way to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. It is of great practical significance for China to clarify the research themes and identify the research evolution trend of deep decarbonization. We first analyzed the connotation and characteristics of deep decarbonization, based on which we deeply read the related academic literature and the frontier reports issued by international organizations and research institutions to make a systematic review of relevant research themes. Moreover, based on the identification results of research hotspots and research frontiers of deep decarbonization obtained by bibliometric analysis, we analyzed the evolution trend of deep decarbonization research. The research found that: ① Deep decarbonization is essentially to promote the deployment of carbon reduction, zero carbon, and negative carbon technologies to achieve the transition of the entire energy system from a high carbon emission type to a net-zero emission type through technological, social, and economic policy paths. Compared with normal decarbonization, the characteristics of coverage and path planning determine that deep decarbonization is a more advanced decarbonizing process. ② The research themes of deep decarbonization mainly fall into four categories: challenges faced by deep decarbonization, technological paths of deep decarbonization, policy research oriented to deep decarbonization, and cost and benefit evaluation of deep decarbonization. ③ The evolutionary trend of deep decarbonization research can be divided into two stages. In the initial stage (2015-2018), the framework, including subdivided research fields and research frontiers of deep decarbonization research, was initially formed. In the rapid development stage (2019-2021), more detailed emerging research topics were emerging in the field of deep decarbonization research, and scholars began to turn to new research perspectives. Finally, the implications of deep decarbonization research for China were proposed: In terms of research perspective, deep decarbonization research should be expanded to the micro-subject level and to research on issues such as decarbonization of the corporate value chain and corporate decarbonization potential assessment with an interdisciplinary perspective. In terms of research methods and paradigms, multidisciplinary research methods should be used to better develop comprehensive models supporting accurate decision-making. New paradigms such as big data, machine learning, and simulation can be explored in deep decarbonization research. In terms of research content, this paper suggests the expansion of the current research boundary of deep decarbonization through studying the incentive mechanisms, investment and financing mechanisms, identification of emerging technologies, construction of technology systems, and establishment of cost-benefit evaluation frameworks, models and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become a critical issue for ensuring the sustainable development of human society. In the future, countries with greater potential for carbon reduction and advanced carbon technologies will enjoy a more favorable position in global development. The struggle for leadership and influence in the global climate change arena will intensify between developed countries such as the United States and those in Europe, the main promoter of climate change policies, and developing countries such as China. The Chinese government' s climate strategies, including goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, are currently focused on finding ways to break the impasse in this climate game between major powers. Carbon tariff policies promoted by Europe and the United States have emerged as a powerful tool in this game. This paper employs a global multi-regional computable general equilibrium model to assess the economic and ecological impacts of the post-carbon tariff era on China. We consider eight possible scenarios based on the assumption that the European Union and the United States will impose carbon tariffs on imported products to meet global carbon reduction targets. The study finds that: ① The carbon tariff policies implemented by the United States and Europe have significant adverse effects on China' s GDP and welfare. Furthermore, these policies have a considerable detrimental impact on exports that are highly carbon-intensive, while their overall effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions remains limited. ② The carbon border tax policy, as applied by developed economies such as the United States and the European Union, does not have a clear effect on reducing carbon emissions and is a typical example of a 'harmful to others, unhelpful to oneself' behavior. ③ The Export Tax Rebate policy of China can to some extent alleviate the adverse impacts of the European and the United States Carbon Border Tax policies on the Chinese economy, while also potentially reducing China' s carbon emissions. ④ The Chinese government needs to be cautious in responding to the retaliatory measures of imposing carbon border taxes on Chinese imports, as they could cause more severe economic losses to China. The article proposes that China should take proactive measures to mitigate the negative impacts of carbon tariffs by implementing an export tax rebate policy. It also suggests guiding carbon-intensive export-oriented enterprises to proactively develop emission reduction plans and carbon footprint inventories, as well as enhancing clean energy technologies. In addition, China should actively achieve its 'dual carbon' goals, thereby avoiding economic suppression by developed economies such as Europe and the United States, who may use carbon tariffs as an excuse. The country should increase its R&D investment to improve its green image, while strengthening international cooperation on climate change governance and seeking a fair and just path towards reducing emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saving energy resources and reducing energy intensity are crucial to promoting China' s major strategic goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, and are hence key to the promotion of green transformation and development in the new development stage. As an important practice, the policy of establishing pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations in China aims to promote green finance reform in depth, construct ecological civilization, and realize green economic transformation. Can the policy reduce energy intensity and contribute to energy conservation? What is its impact mechanism? There is a shortage of systematic analysis in academia on these issues. With panel data from Chinese cities from 2007 to 2020 and a generalized synthetic control method, this paper evaluated how the establishment of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations affected energy intensity and analyzed its impact mechanisms. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the policy significantly reduced the energy intensity of the pilot zones, and the energy-saving effect exhibited 'policy first' and timeliness characteristics. ② The policy-induced energysaving effect was achieved by improving green innovation, easing financing constraints, optimizing industrial structure, and strengthening environmental governance. ③ The policy' s energy-saving effect was more remarkable in areas with better marketization and a higher education level. The findings suggest that the government should fully consider the differences in aspects such as institutional environment and resource endowment among varying regions, design distinct measures to attract more market players to participate in the green finance system oriented by energy efficiency improvement, energy structure transformation, and environmental governance, and create a much better market-oriented environment for green innovation and corporate financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clarifies the major development goal of accelerating the transition to a model of green development. Improving carbon emission efficiency is undoubtedly a necessary way to achieve this goal. At present, with the pressing goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality and the tendency of the financial industry to be diverted out of the real economy, the high-quality development of the financial industry has become an objective need to improve carbon emission efficiency and promote the realization of the 'dual carbon' goals as scheduled. However, there are obvious differences in carbon emission efficiency and financial industry high-quality development between different regions, which makes it urgent to realize efficient collaboration between inter-regional carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry. This paper used the coupling coordination degree model, the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method, and the spatial Kernel density estimation method to measure the coupling coordination degree between China' s carbon emission efficiency and the high-quality development in the financial industry and to fully reveal its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics. The results showed that: ① The coupling coordination degree between carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry basically stabilized at the intermediate coordination level. The key to advancing this coupling coordination degree to a high-quality coordination level was to improve the level of high-quality development in the financial industry. The eastern region rose to a good coordination level. The western and central regions were stable at the intermediate coordination level. The northeastern region was mainly at the primary coordination level. ② The coupling coordination of carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry had a problem of spatial distribution imbalance. Inter-regional differences were the main source of spatial differences. The contribution rates of intra-regional differences and the intensity of transvariation to spatial differences were relatively low. ③ There was a multipolar differentiation phenomenon in the coupling coordination between carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry in the central region. The coupling coordination in both the western and northeast regions showed a polarization trend. ④ Under the condition of considering spatial factors and time span, most provinces and their neighboring provinces had a spatial connection between the coupling coordination of carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development of the financial industry. These findings are conducive to the promotion of the construction of a collaborative linkage pattern between inter-regional carbon emission efficiency and the high-quality development in the financial industry. They can serve as an important decision-making reference for realizing the overall transition to a model of green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment is the foundation of people ’s livelihoods, and a low-carbon transition is a key development theme for China in the future. The impact of reducing CO2 emissions as a hard macroeconomic constraint on the labor market is an important economic issue. This paper used China’s low-carbon city pilot policy as a representative policy to study the low-carbon transition. Firstly, based on the analysis of typical economic facts and policy texts, it was found that there might exist two distinct low-carbon transition approaches in China. The study then examined the differences in the policy impact on labor employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities, analyzed the underlying mechanisms, and finally constructed a general equilibrium model based on the empirical findings to further elaborate the heterogeneous impact pathways from a theoretical perspective. The study showed that: ① There was a difference in the policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. The policy increased employment in secondary and tertiary industries and total employment in the first batch of pilot cities, but it increased employment in tertiary industries and decreased employment in secondary industries in the second batch of pilot cities. ② There was a difference in the mechanisms of policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. Under the influence of the policy, the first batch of pilot cities adopted the low-carbon transition approach of focusing resources on the secondary industry, while the second batch of pilot cities adopted the lowcarbon transition approach of focusing resources on the tertiary industry. ③ The low-carbon transition approaches of the two batches of pilot cities had their own advantages and disadvantages. The approach of the first batch of pilot cities achieved a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in the number of jobs, with the disadvantage of increasing the intensity of CO2 emissions and reducing the disposable income of workers, failing to improve the quality of employment. However, the approach of the second batch of pilot cities reduced the intensity of CO2 emissions, increased employment in the tertiary industry, and increased the disposable income of workers, effectively improving the quality of employment but failing to achieve a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in total employment. Accordingly, China’s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality can be achieved either by industrial transformation and upgrading or by enhancing the development of the tertiary industry, but the best way is to develop the tertiary industry on the basis of industrial transformation and upgrading without blindly adopting the de-industrialization approach to achieve the peak carbon emission goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data, a vital driving force of high-quality economic development in China, improves both the speed and efficiency of information exchange and knowledge dissemination. Existing studies have conducted a series of discussions on the dividend effect of big data development, but few have analyzed it from the perspective of corporate green development. Based on the theoretical analysis of the impact of big data development on the internal mechanisms of corporate green technology innovation and on the regulatory role of intellectual property protection, in light of the exogenous policy shock from the ‘National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones,’ this paper studied the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen by adopting the difference-in-differences model (DID) to evaluate the impact of big data development on corporate green technology innovation and the moderating effect of intellectual property protection between them. The research results showed that the development of big data significantly promoted corporate green technology innovation, and that the conclusion still held after a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity tests showed that the promoting effect of big data development on corporate green technology innovation was more observable in large-scale enterprises, state-owned businesses, and companies with high-level access to data from local governments. The mechanism test indicated that the development of big data could promote corporate green technology innovation by improving the intensity of regional environmental regulation, easing the financing constraints of enterprises, and improving their human capital level. The moderating effect test showed that intellectual property protection played a significant positive moderating role between big data development and corporate green technology innovation. Accordingly, the government should improve the big data development policies to promote deep integration of big data and the real economy in a consistent manner, reinforce the system design concerning corporate green technology innovation guided by policies of big data development, and combine big data development with green development goals such as achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Meanwhile, policies should be refined based on different types of enterprises in different regions so that a long-term mechanism can be established to support corporate green innovation development. It is also necessary to strengthen the construction of an intellectual property protection system so as to accelerate corporate green technology innovation and green development more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the launch of a unified national carbon market in China, its synergistic effects on promoting carbon emission reduction in the power industry with renewable energy subsidies are noteworthy. The traditional view is that the total amount of carbon emissions is fixed under the carbon trading policy and the renewable energy subsidy policy under the total amount control will no longer play an additional role in reducing emissions, and would even lead to excessive carbon market quotas, distorting carbon market prices. This paper establishes a general equilibrium analysis framework for national carbon trading and examines the parallel emission reduction effects of renewable energy subsidies in the power industry and the national carbon market and their policy synergy paths. The results show that: ① The national carbon market and renewable energy subsidy policy for the power industry would both bring about CO2 emission reduction in the whole industry. ② The carbon market that only covers the power industry would produce a ‘carbon leakage’ effect, which would lead to an increase in carbon emissions in non-power industries. On this basis, continuing the renewable energy subsidies may alleviate the ‘carbon leakage’ by means of the transfer of production factors among industries or lead to excessive carbon market quotas by ‘greening’ the power production structure. ③ Considering two sources of renewable energy subsidies: the one-time tax on residents (resident income tax) and the renewable energy electricity price surcharge (electricity consumption tax), the emission reduction effect of the former resource is better than that of the latter resource, and the latter may even cause ‘cross-border damage.’ ④ The renewable energy subsidies would lead to a decrease in the carbon market transaction price. The FIT is better than the FIP, and it is necessary to increase the total amount of constraints to effectively restrain the decline of carbon trade prices. As the carbon market expands and improves, renewable energy subsidies can be gradually reduced or even eliminated to avoid their impact on the carbon market price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global climate governance has become a global concern, equilibrium and competition among countries have entered a new stage. Developed countries have tried to hedge emissions reduction investment through policy design. The United States and European countries are simultaneously working on the formulation of carbon tariff policies, with the intention of competing for the leading role in global climate governance. The Biden administration in the United States has frequently acted on climate policies, trying to avoid the restriction of a nationally unified carbon pricing and introducing a more subjective collection standard at the level of environmental bill formulation. The implementation of carbon tariff policies may cause changes in international political and economic patterns and stimulate confrontations between countries of the Global North and those of the Global South. In the meantime, these policies may deteriorate the terms of trade of developing countries and reduce the scale of international trade. Furthermore, they may affect the current pattern of global climate governance and intensify the game between countries of the Global North and those of the Global South. Finally, they may undermine the foundation of international cooperation and the external environment in China's climate field, reduce the scale of China's foreign trade and corporate competitiveness, and have a negative impact on China's industrial development and lowcarbon transformation. Active response is an important starting point for protecting China's domestic interests. This paper suggests that attention should be paid to: ① the consolidation of the South-South cooperation and competition for the voice of international climate rules based on the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities' (CDR); ② the strengthening of trade response, the formulation of carbon tariff response plans in advance, the intensification of policy tracking, research, and judgment, and the exploration of policy tools of carbon tariff countermeasures; ③ the optimization of the industrial layout, the deepening of the supply-side reform, the abandonment of the development mode of high energy consumption and high pollution, and the acceleration of green transformation and lowcarbon development; ④ the improvement of the carbon market system and mechanism by establishing a complete carbon emission accounting standard system, the optimization of the domestic carbon tax legal system as well as the collection and management mechanisms, and the improvement of China's carbon trading market system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has pledged to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. New energy decarbonization will be a major focus area for achieving the 'dual carbon' goals since it accounts for about 20 percent of China' s total energy consumption. The Xiong' an New Area' s geographical advantages and natural endowments have brought abundant wind and solar energy resources and have huge development potential in the field of new energy development. This paper summarizes the Xiong' an New Area' s resource endowment and achievements in developing new energy, and comprehensively analyzes the opportunities and challenges faced by this area in the process of building a national new energy demonstration zone in the context of achieving the 'dual carbon' goals. It sorts out the new energy development policy of the Xiong' an New Area and its history of new energy development and then points out that the current development of new energy in this area lies in power project construction, power grid construction, green energy consumption, energy storage development, and new energy equipment. This study believes that the Xiong' an New Area will experience three development stages of carbon neutrality: initial carbon neutrality, fluctuating carbon neutrality, and stable carbon neutrality, because this area has carried out green power planning simultaneously in the initial construction stage and has more green power supply. With the expansion of population and economic scale, the rapid increase in energy demand would lead to the decline in green power supply ratio, causing carbon neutrality to fluctuate and change over time. With the population and economic structure in a stable development stage, the proportion of high-value-added and high-tech industries would increase, and energy utilization technologies such as green electricity would make progress, resulting in the arrival of the stable carbon neutrality development stage. On the other hand, from the perspective of carbon sink potential corresponding to carbon sources, the planned proportion of the blue-green space and the construction land in the Xiong' an New Area would keep its carbon sink capacity in a relatively stable state for a long period of time. Therefore, in addition to the value-added of the natural carbon sink system, carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies and other means of artificial carbon sink can be used as adjustment tools under the carbon neutrality system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural carbon productivity has the dual attributes of 'guaranteeing growth' and 'promoting emission reduction.' It is the core content of green agriculture development in the new era, and also an important aspect of achieving China' s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Based on new geographic economics, this paper established a spatial panel model and used panel data from 31 provinces (excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao) and municipalities in China from 2005 to 2019 to empiri⁃ cally study the agglomeration effects of agricultural industries on agricultural carbon productivity and investigated the moderating effect of fiscal decentralization on the above effects. The main findings were as follows: ① The agricultural carbon productivity of China as a whole and that of the four major regions were increasing year by year, and there was a certain spatial correlation. ② When the control variables were not considered, the agglomeration of agricultural industries had a significant U-shaped effect on the carbon productivity of local agriculture, but it was not conducive to the agricultural carbon productivity of surrounding areas. When the control variables were considered, the agglomeration of agricultural industries had no significant effect on the carbon productivity of local agriculture. However, it had a significant inverted U-shaped effect on agricultural carbon productivity in surrounding areas. ③ The effects of agricul⁃ tural industry agglomeration on agricultural carbon productivity were significant in the four major regions, regions of different agricultur⁃ al development levels, and regions with different agricultural industry agglomeration levels, and heterogeneity existed in these places. ④ Fiscal decentralization would weaken the impact of agricultural industrial agglomeration on agricultural carbon productivity at the national level and would have a heterogeneous moderating effect in low agricultural industrial agglomeration regions (eastern and cen⁃ tral regions) and high agricultural industrial agglomeration regions (western and northeastern regions). Therefore, it is necessary to pro⁃ mote the transformation of agricultural industrial agglomeration from 'quantity increase' to 'quality improvement,' and to give full play to the role of agricultural industrial agglomeration in promoting agricultural carbon productivity. At the same time, we should: establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for central and local fiscal revenues and expenditures; appropriately increase the proportion of fiscal support to agriculture; use financial resources and means to promote the rational agglomeration of the agricultural industry; and improve agricultural carbon productivity to achieve high-quality agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the goal of 'Net-zero Europe' by 2050, the European Union (EU) has set up detailed policies in the fields of energy and climate. This paper summarizes the main characteristics of relevant policies in the EU and UK and their implications for China by reviewing these policies in the achievement of the carbon neutrality goal and other goals in the energy and climate fields. The characteristics of these energy and climate policies include: ① Top-down and bottom-up approaches are adopted to distribute the EU' s overall emission reduction targets to member states in accordance with the principle of fairness, and each member state formulates and adjusts its own goals to ensure the realization of the overall goals. ② Detailed transition plans are formulated for the power, industry, transportation, and building sectors; importance is attached to the application of new and renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrogen energy; specific goals are set concerning coal power transition, nuclear energy development, energy efficiency improvement, carbon capture and storage, electrification, and building renovations; and the importance of energy security in transition planning is stressed. ③ A sound and mature emissions trading system and a fair transition mechanism are established to support the realization of the transition goals, and developing countries are helped to reduce emissions through technical dialogues and climate financing. To reach peak carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, China should develop relevant roadmaps at national, sectoral, and provincial levels and strengthen R&D of key decarbonization technologies. At the same time, China should enhance its regulatory regime, and improve the carbon emissions trading system, the green financial system, and the just transition mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is evolving into a crisis affecting the future of humanity. As the world' s second largest economy, China is actively involved in global climate governance, proposing to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and has successively introduced the corresponding ' 1+N' policy system. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze 23 policy texts relevant to the achievement of the goals with over 160 000 characters from the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant ministries and provinces through two typical qualitative research methods-ground theory and institutional grammar tool, to outline the elemental structure and functional profile of the pathways of China' s carbon peak and carbon neutrality policies, and to clarify the group structure and regulation intensity of different policy pathways. Based on grounded theory, it is found that these pathways are already very comprehensive and complete. Among them, the policy pathways under the administrative mechanism include: high energy consumption and high emission industrial control; regulations and standards systems; carbon reduction governance in key industries; control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption; and carbon absorption capacity of ecosystems. The policy pathways under the market mechanism include circular economy development; energy transformation development; cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions; green finance development; and green transformation development. The results of institutional grammar tool research show that relevant policy pathways are dominated by ADIC normative condition statements (177, accounting for 52%), followed by AIC strategy statements (130, accounting for 38%), while ADICO rule-based statements are the least, with only 33, accounting for 10%. Given the pressure of time constraints and heavy tasks to achieve the goals, ADICO' s institutional grammar structure is the most desirable policy statement paradigm because it is more intense in its policy regulation, and it is easier to achieve its governance effectiveness. Undoubtedly, policy regulation is an important tool to effectively alleviate the pressure of the governance of the goals and to ensure the effectiveness of such governance. Policy regulation mainly focuses on the industrial sector with high energy consumption and high emissions, relying on top-down hierarchical organization and using political mobilization and administrative decrees as means to promote governance in the high carbon emission sector. By further constructing a theoretical framework of regulation mechanisms, relevant governance paradigms are classified as ' mandatory governance' and ' flexible governance' according to the intensity of regulation. It is found that the underlying logic behind these two paradigms is precisely the mobilization of the administrative mechanism and the allocation of resources under the market mechanism. Simultaneously, with the gradual achievement of the goals and the gradual decoupling of carbon emissions from economic development, the governance logic should gradually shift from ' mandatory governance' to ' flexible governance,' and from ' administrative hierarchical mobilization' to ' balanced allocation of market resources.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world' s largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China faces a serious situation in energy conservation and emission reduction. However, China' s digital economy is still developing rapidly. In order to explore how the development of the digital economy affects energy consumption and CO2 emissions, this paper took the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 as a sample, used the entropy method to analyze the digital economy level of each province, and built a double fixed effect model to empirically analyze the 'positive U-shaped' or 'inverted U-shaped' relationship between the digital economy and energy or between the digital economy and CO2 emissions. The results showed that: (1) There were inter-provincial and regional differences in the level of digital economy in China. Guangdong Province and China' s eastern region had the highest level of digital economy, while Qinghai Province and the western region had the lowest level of digital economy. (2) Both the digital economy and ECSC and the digital economy and CESC had significant ' positive U-shaped' relationships, while the digital economy and ECST, the digital economy and ECEF, and the digital economy and CEEF all had significant 'inverted U-shaped' relationships. The energy-saving effect of the development of the digital economy was greater than the carbon emission reduction effect. (3) There was heterogeneity in the nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and ECSC, ECST, and ECEF, the digital economy and CESC, and CEEF in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions. (4) Digital infrastructure, digital innovation environment, digital user scale, and digital industry scale had different nonlinear effects on ECSC, ECST, and ECEF, as well as on CESC and CEEF. Accordingly, to provide empirical support and a theoretical basis for China's development of the digital economy while taking into account the effects of energy conservation and carbon emission reduction, this study puts forward relevant policy suggestions from three aspects: narrowing the gap in the level of digital economy, formulating digital economy development policies, and focusing on key points for the development of the digital economy. These suggestions are also conducive to boosting China's goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability transitions of latecomer cities are of great significance for achieving the carbon neutrality goal in China and globally, but it remains an underexplored research topic. Latecomer cities have economic rationales and latecomer advantages to ad⁃ vance sustainability transitions, but they usually lack endogenous capacities to realise green path creation. The green shift of the global tech-economic paradigm is opening green institutional, market, and technological windows of opportunity (GWOs) for sustainability tran⁃ sitions in latecomer cities. This paper proposes a 'GWO-Industry Characteristics-Actor Strategies' analytical framework to depict the key elements, actors, and processes of sustainability transitions in latecomer cities and suggests future research avenues. Due to late⁃ comer advantages and lower regime lock-in, latecomer cities may bypass high-carbon development pathways by responding positively to GWOs. Different green industries have different spatial characteristics in technological innovation and value realization, and latecomer cities should adopt suitable resource coupling strategies to endogenize GWOs. Local governments and enterprises can also act as institu⁃ tional entrepreneurs to create a suitable institutional environment to promote green industries. Therefore, the main contribution of this study is to apply the theory of industrial catch-up to the sustainability transitions at the city level and to unravel the impact of GWOs and local actors on the basis of considering the characteristics of industrial innovation systems, highlighting the spatial attributes of GWOs and the role of local governments and green firms in coupling innovation resources and shaping the institutional environment in emerging green industries. This research thus makes up for the insufficiency of economic geography research which overemphasizes structure and ignores human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a speech at the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that China would peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. China has issued a series of documents on the carbon peaking and neutrality goals, which have become hot issues in society. The concept of carbon peaking is relatively easy to understand, but for that of carbon neutrality, there are some misunderstandings, such as mixed use of different terms and ambiguous scope, classification, and relationships between related concepts, which not only directly affect the implementation of the 'dual carbon' goals in China, but also impede China􀆳s participation in global climate governance and international climate cooperation towards the goal of carbon neutrality. This paper attempts to trace the origin and evolution of the concept of carbon neutrality. It sorts out the different expressions of the carbon neutrality goal, compares the differences and correlations between related concepts, and discusses the key elements and implications of the concept of carbon neutrality. The discussion leads to the following conclusions: ① The concept of carbon neutrality was introduced to the field of global climate governance after carbon trading and carbon offsetting had been proposed in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. ② The concept of carbon neutrality has both narrow and broad senses. Narrowly speaking, it refers to carbon dioxide neutrality, while in a broad sense, it is a collective term for related concepts such as carbon dioxide neutrality, greenhouse gas neutrality, climate neutrality, net zero carbon dioxide emissions, and net zero greenhouse gas emissions. In the international community, the expression 'net zero' is more widely used. ③ To understand the concept of carbon neutrality, four elements need to be grasped: the balance between the source and removal of anthropogenic emissions; multiple implementation entities and their carbon accounting boundaries; the scope of emissions (covering merely carbon dioxide or all greenhouse gases); and carbon neutralization paths including carbon emission reduction, carbon removal, carbon offsets, etc. ④ Clarifying the concept of carbon neutrality is the basis for efficiently implementing the 'dual carbon' goals and promoting international cooperation. The terms used in the legal documents and IPCC guidelines and reports approved in the UNFCCC negotiations are internationally accepted concepts and norms. They are recognized by various governments and serve as an important foundation for scientific research as well as the cognitive basis for international negotiations and actions. The definition and interpretation of the concept of carbon neutrality should be consistent with the international community as much as possible to form a unified understanding that is not only conducive to promoting international cooperation towards carbon neutrality, but also to China' s implementation of the Paris Agreement and advancement of work towards the 'dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China put forward its carbon neutrality goal, the issue of environmental governance has attracted increasing attention. When strengthening the supervision of enterprise pollution sources, environmental regulators often ignore the impact of zombie enterprises on environmental investment by normal enterprises. Taking China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 as research samples, this paper collected and analyzed the data of their environmental investment, and used the fixed effect model to explore the impact of the proportion of zombie companies in the industry on the environmental investment of normal companies and such impact's heterogeneity and mechanism. The results of this study showed that the proportion of zombie enterprises in the industry delivered a significant negative impact on the environmental investment of normal enterprises in the same industry by the following internal mechanism: Firstly, a higher proportion of zombie enterprises would exacerbate the financing constraints faced by normal enterprises and result in difficulties with their fund-raising, finally leading to the decline in environmental investment. The mediating effect of financing constraints was 13.97%. Secondly, the existence of zombie enterprises would distort the fair competition in the market, lead to vicious price competition and lower the profitability of normal enterprises, thus thwarting the environmental protection investment by normal enterprises. The mediating effect of profitability was 14.26%. Further research demonstrated that in the sample of non-state-owned enterprises, low-social-responsibility enterprises and heavily polluting enterprises, the negative effects of zombie enterprises on normal corporate environmental investment were more obvious. In the robustness test, the regression results were proved to be robust by different levels, different zombie enterprise identification methods and the measurement methods of enterprise environmental protection investment. Among them, the proportion of zombie enterprises in an individual province had a significant negative effect on the environmental investment of normal enterprises in the same province, showing that such negative impact existed not only at the industrial level, but also at the provincial level. Therefore, governments should pay attention to the negative impact of the existence of zombie enterprises on the environmental investment of normal enterprises, adhere to the principle of environmental regulation neutrality and establish a multi-level and diversified financial system. This approach can eliminate the policy environment on which zombie enterprises rely in their survival and gradually form a new pattern for steady economic growth and an increasingly perfect environment. From the perspective of dealing with zombie enterprises, this study provides some policy suggestions on improving environmental protection investment by normal enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]