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Accelerating the energy transition of rural households in mountainous areas is an important step to improve energy poverty and mountain ecosystems and to help achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This paper explores the transformation of rural cooking energy in mountainous areas based on field investigation data from six villages in Chongqing. It systematically reveals the transformation process, driving factors and carbon emission changes in household cooking energy consumption in mountainous areas in the past 20 years by using mathematical statistics, multinomial logit models and the emission coefficient method. The results are as follows. (1) There has been a significant transition in the consumption of rural household cooking energy in mountainous areas. There has been a significant change in the proportion of different energy sources, including fuelwood (59.2%–1.9%), coal (16.5%–0%), gas (12.6%–15.5%), natural gas (6.8%–51.5%) and electricity (4.9%–31.1%). (2) The main driving factors of the household cooking energy transition in mountainous areas are income per capita, householder age, and householder education level. (3) The average annual household carbon emissions from rural household cooking energy decreased remarkably. The average annual household carbon emissions decreased from 6.80 t to 2.62 t in fuelwood (5.40–0.91 t), electricity (0.19–1.28 t) and natural gas (0.03–0.25 t) emissions during the study period. The contribution of this study is to investigate how the household cooking energy transition contributes to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality from a micro perspective. At the same time, this paper explores the mechanisms between the cooking energy transition and the ecological dividend of urbanization and proposes future reform initiatives for rural energy in mountainous areas to help achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's largest source of carbon emissions, the power sector's transition to lower levels of carbon emission intensity is critical to achieving China's carbon emission (CE) reduction commitments. In this paper, the CE intensity of electricity generation (CEIE) in 30 provinces from 2000 to 2019 is calculated, and the temporal evolution and spatial distribution characteristics of CEIE are discussed. Then, the spatial spillover effect of each driving factor on CEIE is calculated using the spatial Durbin model. The CEIE reveals a first increasing and then decreasing trend, and the regional differences gradually decrease. Simultaneously, the CEIE has a significant positive spatial correlation, and the overall spatial distribution pattern is high in the northeast and low in the southwest of the country. Economic development and foreign trade both inhibit CEIE, while electricity consumption, research and development, unit operation level, and power structure all promote CEIE. Each driving factor's influence on regional CEIE exerts a spatial spillover effect. Among them, the spatial positive spillover effects of industrial structure and environmental protection investment are the most obvious, while the spatial spillover effects of other driving factors are not apparent. Furthermore, these findings provide practical insights into policy adjustments and the coordinated interregional development of low-carbon electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfill the goals of sustainable development and emission reduction, China has established the consumption side renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and domestic nationwide carbon emission trading (CET) scheme. However, there are intricate interrelationships between the two mechanisms as they overlap in policy goals and implementation measures, which might lead to policy synergy or policy ineffectiveness. Therefore, investigating the coupling effects in the context of policy coexistence is imperative for policy optimization and realization of the policy objectives. In this study, a simulation model cooperating the electricity market, the excess consumption trading market, the tradeable green certificates (TGC) market and the CET market, based on the system dynamics (SD) methodology is proposed. The paper comprehensively investigated the complex relationship between the four markets and conducted experiments with different scenario settings in RPS quota goal and carbon quota goal. The results illustrate that: (1) Both mechanisms can facilitate the expansion of renewable electricity and improve the power supply structure. (2) The quota goals of the two policies should be reasonably set as they contain both the abovementioned overlapping effects, as well as conflicts in the effects on the total electricity supply and electricity price. (3) The consumption side RPS is conductive for market absorption of renewable electricity with a proper higher RPS quota goal. (4) The TGC market is oversupplied, and the price keep decreasing under the consumption side RPS, more demand incentive mechanisms are required for TGC market. • Implementation mechanism and effects of the consumption side RPS are investigated. • Policy coordination between the consumption side RPS and CET in China are examined. • The effects of consumption side RPS and CET have both overlaps and conflicts. • Ratio of renewable electricity consumption is positively correlated with RPS quota goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's largest developing country, China has set the target of "reaching carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060". China's power sector faces many challenges in reducing carbon emissions. This article forecasts electricity consumption from 2021 to 2060 by selecting five influential elements on power demand. Furthermore, the system dynamics model simulates the carbon emission system on the supply and demand side of the power industry. This paper innovatively incorporates the technology factor of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) into the supply-side model. In this study, the process of carbon neutrality is separated into three stages, including carbon peak stage (2020–2030), deep low-carbon stage (2030–2050) and zero-carbon stage (2050–2060). The factors of energy storage technology and CCUS technology make significant contributions in the latter two stages. Based on the different development levels of the variables, three scenarios are set as business-as-usual scenario (BAU), low carbon scenario(LC) and ultra-low carbon scenario (ULC). Then scenario analysis is employed to simulate the carbon emission in the future. The scheme under the ULC scenario is the optimal solution to achieve carbon neutrality. Improving flexible transition of thermal power units and promoting the growth of renewable energy are China's primary strategies of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. • System dynamics model is applied to simulate scenarios on carbon emission. • The carbon emission models of the power supply and demand sides are constructed. • Three scenarios for achieving the dual-carbon target are proposed. • The electric energy substitution and CCUS are investigated in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfill the goals of sustainable development and emission reduction, China has established the consumption side renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and domestic nationwide carbon emission trading (CET) scheme. However, there are intricate interrelationships between the two mechanisms as they overlap in policy goals and implementation measures, which might lead to policy synergy or policy ineffectiveness. Therefore, investigating the coupling effects in the context of policy coexistence is imperative for policy optimization and realization of the policy objectives. In this study, a simulation model cooperating the electricity market, the excess consumption trading market, the tradeable green certificates (TGC) market and the CET market, based on the system dynamics (SD) methodology is proposed. The paper comprehensively investigated the complex relationship between the four markets and conducted experiments with different scenario settings in RPS quota goal and carbon quota goal. The results illustrate that: (1) Both mechanisms can facilitate the expansion of renewable electricity and improve the power supply structure. (2) The quota goals of the two policies should be reasonably set as they contain both the abovementioned overlapping effects, as well as conflicts in the effects on the total electricity supply and electricity price. (3) The consumption side RPS is conductive for market absorption of renewable electricity with a proper higher RPS quota goal. (4) The TGC market is oversupplied, and the price keep decreasing under the consumption side RPS, more demand incentive mechanisms are required for TGC market. • Implementation mechanism and effects of the consumption side RPS are investigated. • Policy coordination between the consumption side RPS and CET in China are examined. • The effects of consumption side RPS and CET have both overlaps and conflicts. • Ratio of renewable electricity consumption is positively correlated with RPS quota goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's largest developing country, China has set the target of "reaching carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060". China's power sector faces many challenges in reducing carbon emissions. This article forecasts electricity consumption from 2021 to 2060 by selecting five influential elements on power demand. Furthermore, the system dynamics model simulates the carbon emission system on the supply and demand side of the power industry. This paper innovatively incorporates the technology factor of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) into the supply-side model. In this study, the process of carbon neutrality is separated into three stages, including carbon peak stage (2020–2030), deep low-carbon stage (2030–2050) and zero-carbon stage (2050–2060). The factors of energy storage technology and CCUS technology make significant contributions in the latter two stages. Based on the different development levels of the variables, three scenarios are set as business-as-usual scenario (BAU), low carbon scenario(LC) and ultra-low carbon scenario (ULC). Then scenario analysis is employed to simulate the carbon emission in the future. The scheme under the ULC scenario is the optimal solution to achieve carbon neutrality. Improving flexible transition of thermal power units and promoting the growth of renewable energy are China's primary strategies of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. • System dynamics model is applied to simulate scenarios on carbon emission. • The carbon emission models of the power supply and demand sides are constructed. • Three scenarios for achieving the dual-carbon target are proposed. • The electric energy substitution and CCUS are investigated in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]