Search

As China puts forward its “carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality” goals, how to achieve carbon reductions has become a key for China’s goal. The manufacturing industry is a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions. For a manufacturing country such as China, adjustments in various aspects of the industry would have a huge impact on its carbon emissions. As an important reform of the contemporary production mode, the process of production automation in China will inevitably affect China’s carbon emissions; therefore, the analysis of the impact of that production automation on the carbon dioxide emissions is an important basis for judging the future carbon reductions in China. Referring to the traditional study of the carbon Kuznets curve, this paper analyzes the impact of an average wage on production automation and the role of production automation in the carbon Kuznets curve (CKC). This paper proposes that production automation plays a mediating role in the process of carbon emissions, and gives a verification model of that mediating role. By analyzing the relationship between average wages and the production automation process, the U-shaped curve relationship between them was verified. By examining the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions data and the production automation industry in China, we verified that production automation plays a partial mediating role in the change of the carbon Kuznets curve. Combined with the analysis of the two parts, this paper believes that with the continuous development of China’s intelligent manufacturing industry, China’s carbon reduction prospects are more optimistic, and that there is a good industrial foundation to achieve the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goals. Finally, this paper proposes policy suggestions so as to increase research investment in production automation, to help promote the application of production automation, encourage the research and application development of low-carbon technology, especially encouraging modular design, and to give full play to the role of production automation in the process of carbon neutrality in China.

This study analyzed the direct and indirect CO2 emissions of the energy-intensive basic metals industry, in particular steels, using the distributions of various energy sources, including coal/peat, oil, and electricity, from an input-output table. An analysis of five major steel producing countries indicated that direct CO2 emissions increased 1.4-fold and that indirect CO2 emissions increased by more than two-fold between 1995 and 2010. The elasticity of the CO2 emissions and the total energy costs indicated that Korea, Japan, and Germany are sensitive to energy sources from the electric power industry, whereas China and the US are more sensitive to energy sources pertaining to the coal and oil industry. Using the available forest area and photosynthesis, the potential neutralization ability of CO2 was estimated using the eco-CO2 index. The US yielded the highest CO2 neutralization ability of 66.1%, whereas Korea yielded a CO2 neutralization ability of 15%. Future trends of the 2030 eco-CO2 index revealed China and Korea will rapidly lose their neutralization ability resulting in a net negative neutralization ability if left unabated. The significant decline in the eco-CO2 index for the basic metals industry may be inhibited by utilizing bamboo wood charcoal for pulverized coal injection (PCI) in the steelmaking process.

Low-carbon tourism is an important way for the tourism industry to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In order to promote the development of Guilin as a world-class tourism city and ensure the sustainable development of the tourism industry in Guilin, this paper combines the concept of carbon footprint and the theory of life cycle to build a tourists’ carbon footprint life cycle analysis model of Guilin. Taking tourists in Guilin as an example, the composition and changes of tourists’ carbon footprint are dynamically analyzed. The research shows that: (1) The overall tourism carbon footprint of Guilin showed an upward trend during 2011–2019. From 2020 to 2022, due to the impact of COVID-19, Guilin’s tourism carbon footprint has decreased significantly. The per capita carbon footprint of tourism in Guilin showed a downward trend from 2011 to 2022; (2) The order of the size of Guilin’s tourism carbon footprint is tourism transportation > tourism catering > tourism accommodation > tourism activities; (3) From 2011 to 2022, the carbon footprint of tourism transportation in Guilin showed an obvious narrowing state, while the carbon footprint of tourism accommodation, tourism activities, and tourism catering showed an obvious expanding trend. Based on the characteristics of the carbon footprint of Guilin’s tourism and the current situation of the development of Guilin’s tourism, this paper puts forward suggestions on reducing carbon emissions, forms a new tool for evaluating and constructing low-carbon tourism, and provides a scientific basis and practical reference significance for the sustainable development of low-carbon tourism in Guilin.

This paper builds on research conducted and developed in the framework of the Joint Research Centre’s URBAN2030 and URBAN2030-II project. The URBAN2030-II Project aims at fostering the achievement of SDGs in European cities and regions. It focuses on providing methodological support and inspiration for the design and implementation of SDG voluntary local reviews. It builds on the knowledge and experience gained in the URBAN2030 project (2018–2020) developed with the support of the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy. [Abstract:] Madrid’s Roadmap to Climate Neutrality by 2050 is the city’s strategy to attain a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and decarbonisation in 2050. This paper analyses the Roadmap to extract a concept of neutrality, as defined from the perspective of a local or regional government (LRG). It then runs a semantic comparison between the Roadmap’s policy lines and indicators and the metrics used in a sample of other LRGs voluntary local reviews on the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It assesses the extent to which the roadmap’s policy priorities and goals fit with the idea of climate neutrality and decarbonisation that other LRGs are monitoring. The paper also links the Roadmap with the SDGs, studying to what extent certain goals resonate with the climate neutrality dimension monitored therein and the other reviews in the sample. The paper suggests that there is still significant diversity in the way LRGs approach climate neutrality, although carbon emissions and sustainable transport remain common priorities. A large majority of indicators monitoring climate neutrality still refer to key climate-related SDGs, such as SDG 7, 11, 12, and 13, even though there is growing evidence that LRGs are diversifying the concept of decarbonisation policy with which they are working.

It is important to explore the energy–economy–environment (3E) coupling mechanism for building a sustainable economy in the context of carbon-peaking and carbon-neutralization strategy. Based on the DPSIRM (driving force–pressure–state–influence–response–management) theoretical model, this paper constructs the evaluation system of 3E coupling-coordinated development, takes the carbon-neutral and sustainable-development strategy and spatiotemporal heterogeneity into account in the index system, and constitutes the energy–economy–environment and carbon-neutral strategy–sustainable development–space (3E3S) strategic-development model. This paper uses the coupling-coordination-degree model to measure the coordinated development of 3E in Jiangsu from 2010 to 2020 and analyzes the time-sequence evolution and spatial-difference evolution characteristics of the coupling-coordinated development. The results show that (1) when the coupling coefficient of 3E was in a stable and high-level coupling state and the correlation degree of each system was high, the coupling-coordination degree increased from 0.4 in 2010 to 0.7 in 2020; the level of coordination of 3E coupling transited from the initial maladjustment recession to the intermediate coordinated development and moved towards high-quality coordinated development. (2) In addition, at the beginning, the development level of southern and central Jiangsu was generally higher than that of northern Jiangsu; in the middle term, the overall development was in a stage of barely coordinated development. The urban difference between northern and central Jiangsu was relatively high, and the level in southern Jiangsu was generally high; in the later stage, the overall development was in a well-coordinated stage. The development of southern Jiangsu was relatively saturated, gradually approaching the stage of high-quality coordinated development. Roughly speaking, in 2010, the average level of coupling coordination degree of South Jiangsu, Central Jiangsu, and North Jiangsu was 0.5, 0.4, and 0.3, respectively; by 2020, it had developed to 0.9, 0.8, and 0.7, respectively, and the development level rose steadily despite regional differences. The level of coupling coordination generally increased from north to south. Therefore, strengthening the strategic-development awareness of 3E and establishing and improving the government consultation mechanism according to local conditions will help decision-makers to formulate effective regional sustainable-development and carbon-neutral strategies and form a coordinated-development strategy of 3E3S in Jiangsu.

With the advent of the post-epidemic era, the energy consumption characteristics of hotels have changed, which has an important impact on urban energy conservation. In order to contribute to the goal of carbon neutrality, this study discusses the energy-saving operation strategy of hotels considering the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Based on the energy consumption characteristics of large public buildings, this paper analyzes the energy consumption distribution and operation characteristics of hotel buildings in detail. By collecting energy consumption data from five typical large hotel buildings in a tourist city in southern China from 2018 to 2022, the impact of COVID-19 on hotel energy consumption and hotel business characteristics was discussed in detail. Combined with the economic development characteristic in the post-epidemic era, this paper explores the energy-saving strategies that hotels can adopt in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control and obtains the optimal path of low-carbon economic operation of hotel buildings. This study reveals the energy consumption characteristics and energy-saving potential of hotel buildings, and provides enlightenment for hotel management and low-carbon development in the post-epidemic era.

Exploring the mechanism and constraints of Green Finance on high-quality economic development is of great significance to achieve the strategic goal of carbon peak and carbon neutral. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019, this paper uses the epsilon-based measure model and entropy method to measure the total factor rate of green economy and the development level of green finance. It then brings green finance, technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, environmental supervision and high-quality economic development into a unified research framework for the first time. By constructing a panel two-way fixed effect model, regulatory intermediary effect model and threshold effect model, this paper empirically tests the action mechanism and constraints between green finance and high-quality economic development. The results show that: (1) The spatial evolution of green finance in China presents a gradient decreasing pattern from east to middle to west, coastal to inland, and the spatial evolution presents an obvious southwest-northeast pattern. (2) Green finance does have a significant role in promoting high-quality economic development, in which technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading play a part of the intermediary role. This conclusion is still valid under the robustness test of lagged explanatory variables and after the possible endogenous problems are alleviated by the difference-in-difference model (DID). (3) Environmental regulation plays a non-linear regulatory role in the relationship between green finance and high-quality economic development, and there is a single threshold value. Too high intensity of environmental regulation will weaken green finance, resulting in the innovation compensation effect being more diminutive than the circular cost effect. At this time, the high-quality economic development presents a state of diminishing marginal benefits.

This study selects the panel data of five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) from 1990 to 2019 to empirically explore the impact of technological innovation and economic growth on carbon emissions under the context of carbon neutrality. Granger causality test results signify that there exists a one-way causality from technology patent to carbon emission and from economic growth to carbon emission. We also constructed an improved Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The regression results manifest that technology patents contribute to the realization of carbon emission reduction and carbon neutralization, while the economic growth of emerging economies represented by BRICS countries significantly improves carbon emissions, but every single BRICS country shows differentiated carbon emissions conditions with their economic development stages. The impact of the interaction term on carbon emissions for the five BRICS countries also presents country-specific heterogeneity. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) test results show that only Russia and South Africa have an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions, whereas Brazil, India and China have a U-shaped curve relationship. There exists no EKC relationship when considering BRICS nations as a whole. Further robustness tests also verify that the conclusions obtained in this paper are consistent and stable. Finally, the paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions based on the research findings.

To respond to global climate change and achieve a “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” as soon as possible has become a common goal around the world. Economic growth relies heavily on financial development, indeed, low-carbon economic development is inseparable from financial support. This paper studies the impact of financial development on carbon emission intensity and its mechanism from both theoretical and empirical aspects. Based on the 2005–2018 data on Chinese cities and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) research results, this paper finds that: (1) Financial development has significantly reduced China’s carbon emission intensity overall. After considering spatial effects, financial development increases local carbon emission intensity, although it may lead to a more significant decrease in the surrounding area. (2) The analysis of heterogeneity shows that only the financial development in the eastern region has a substantial detrimental impact on total carbon emission intensity and the carbon emission intensity of neighboring cities. The financial development in the central and western regions has no significant effect on carbon emission intensity. (3) The mechanism test shows that financial development mainly reduces carbon emission intensity through technological innovation and structural optimization, with the effect of technological innovation being 9.5%, and the effect of structural optimization being 12.15%. The expansion of the consumption effects of financial development has no significant impact on carbon emission intensity. Accordingly, this article believes that it is necessary to further support financial development, build large-scale financial centers, continue to optimize the structure of financial products, and encourage the development of green finance.

The European goal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 has further put the focus on the construction sector, which is responsible for great impacts on the environment, and new sustainable solutions to renovate the existing building stock are currently under development. In this paper, the AdESA (Adeguamento Energetico Sismico ed Architettonico, in Italian) system, a holistic retrofit technique for the integrated renovation of the existing buildings, is presented. The system was developed by a consortium of enterprises and universities and was applied to a pilot building. The system consists of a dry, modular and flexible shell exoskeleton technique that implements different layers depending on the building retrofit needs (cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for the structural retrofit, thermal insulation panels for the energy efficiency amelioration, and claddings for the architectural restyling). In order to foster actual sustainability, the solution contextually targets eco-efficiency, safety and resilience. To this end, the system not only couples the structural and energy interventions to reduce the operating costs, but it is also conceived in compliance with life cycle thinking (LCT) principles to reduce impacts throughout the remaining building service life (from retrofit time to the end of its life). The system is designed to be easily mountable and demountable to allow for the reuse/recycling of its components at the end of life by adopting macro-prefabricated dry components and standardized connections, to reduce damage caused by earthquakes by reducing the allowed inter-story drift, and by amassing the possible damage into sacrificial replaceable elements. The paper describes the AdESA system from a multidisciplinary perspective and its effective application for the deep renovation of an existing gymnasium hall.

Climate change is one of the most urgent challenges facing the world. All countries should take joint actions to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, which include controlling global warming to within a 1.5 °C temperature rise, to mitigate the extreme harm caused by climate change. However, ways in which to achieve economically and environmentally sustainable carbon neutrality are yet to be established. Carbon neutrality appears frequently in international policy and the scientific literature, but there is little detailed literature. It is necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis of the development context of its research. This paper analyzed the literature on carbon neutrality using bibliometric methods. A total of 1383 research papers were collected from the “Web of Science core database” from 1995 to 2021. Descriptive statistical analysis and keyword co-occurrence and literature co-citation network analyses were utilized to sort the research hotspots, and the detected bursts, the top 30 keywords in terms of word frequency, and 12 clusters were selected. It was found that the existing carbon neutrality research literature mainly focuses on carbon neutrality energy transformation, carbon neutrality technology development, carbon neutrality effect evaluation, and carbon neutrality industry examples. The analysis process involved comprehensively reading the key articles and considering the co-citation, burstiness, centrality, and other indicators under clustering; the carbon neutrality research was then divided into three stages, and evolving themes were observed. Based on the burst detection, this paper holds that with the energy structure transformation, energy consumption assessment and carbon neutrality schemes of various industries, carbon dioxide capture technology, and biogas resource utilization, urban carbon neutrality policy will become a research hotspot in the future. This paper helps to provide a reference for scholars’ theoretical research and has important reference value for policymakers to formulate relevant policy measures. It is helpful for enterprises to make strategic decisions and determine the direction of technology, for R&D and investment, and it is of considerable significance to promote the research of carbon neutrality technology.

The low-carbon development of China’s iron and steel industry (ISI) is important but challenging work for the attainment of China’s carbon neutrality by 2060. However, most previous studies related to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI are fragmented from different views such as production-side mitigation, demand-side mitigation, or mitigation technologies. Additionally, there is still a lack of a comprehensive overview of the long-term pathway to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI. To respond to this gap and to contribute to better guide policymaking in China, this paper conducted a timely and comprehensive review following the technology roadmap framework covering the status quo, future vision, and key actions of the low-carbon development of the world and China’s ISI. First, this paper provides an overview of the technology roadmap of low-carbon development around the main steel production countries in the world. Second, the potential for key decarbonization actions available for China’s ISI are evaluated in detail. Third, policy and research recommendations are put forward for the future low-carbon development of China’s ISI. Through this comprehensive review, four key actions can be applied to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI: improving energy efficiency, shifting to Scrap/EAF route, promoting material efficiency strategy, and deploying radical innovation technologies.

This paper explores the recently announced “Green New Deal” policy of South Korea as a sustainability transition strategy. Originally proposed as a post-COVID-19 stimulus plan, the Green New Deal is a sustainability-centered strategy for building a low-carbon and climate-neutral economy. The Green New Deal sets out eight targets to be accomplished under three strategic areas: green urban development, low-carbon decentralized energy, and innovative green industry. The Deal also takes measures to protect the people and sectors at a higher risk of being left behind in the process of the economic transition. It is an upgraded version of the “Green Growth” national policy, with more emphasis on sustainability in addition to the growth aspect. This paper will examine the accomplishments and challenges during the Green Growth policy era and argue why the transition to the new Green New Deal is necessary for a sustainability transition.

With the onset of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world’s nations were to create economic development integrating environmental and social improvement. However, there is still much uncertainty in the world of politics and academia as to whether these integrated goals are achievable and how they can fit best with diverse national and local contexts. Thus, there is always a need to find nations that can show how it can be achieved in different settings shaped by local experiences, challenges, and opportunities. Bhutan could be one of these nations as it could be argued that it has, to an extent, simplified the task to fit its values and aspirations. Bhutan has three major goals that need to be integrated: Wealth (GDP) to align with their middle-income aspiration, thus providing opportunities for employment, Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) that are maintained at a carbon neutral level, which is beyond most national commitments, and Bhutan’s renowned Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, which covers their socio-economic goals. We show this integration and then synthesize some core findings from a literature review on the theory and practice of sustainable development through the lens of the three integrated goals of Bhutan, thereby placing the case of Bhutan into the wider literature. This paper seeks to show how one emerging nation can model an operational sustainability policy. The paper highlights some plausible synergies between the 17 SDGs and the domains and indicators of GNH that could help nations struggling with how they can create sensible sustainability outcomes from these new global agendas. Bhutan has framed the GNH as its contribution to sustainability. However, this paper suggests that it may be the integration of the GNH with GDP and GHG that is its real contribution. Furthermore, Bhutan’s 3G model of fully integrating GNH, GDP, and GHG suggests a way forward for achieving their imperatives of economic growth, whilst enabling the SDGs and achieving the difficult climate change goal. It may also suggest a model for other nations wanting to find a complementary way of framing economic growth, the 17 SDGs, and the Paris Agreement into a coherent set of policies.

Distributed-solar-photovoltaic (PV) generation is a key component of a new energy system aimed at carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This paper establishes a policy-analysis framework for distributed-solar-PV generation based on a technical- and economic-evaluation model. Given that the resource endowment is becoming lower and the raw material costs are becoming higher, the profitability of the deployment of distributed-solar-PV-generation projects in China is generally becoming much worse. Some distributed-PV-generation projects are even becoming unprofitable. This will not be helpful for the sustainable development of distributed-PV generation, which will play a vital role in attaining the goal of carbon neutrality. Based on the established model for techno-economic evaluation, a systematic policy analysis is performed to identify the effect of possible policy instruments such as financial policies on improving the economic profitability of distributed-PV-development in China. The results indicate that policy instruments related to preferential financing, green certificate, tax incentives and combinations thereof are available for priority measures aimed at optimizing incentive policies for enhancing the economic viability of distributed-PV deployment in China. Based on these findings, recommendations are proposed to optimize the currently available policy instruments for accelerating the sustainable development of the distributed-PV industry towards a carbon-neutral future.

The long-term dependence on fossil fuels has led to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Global warming poses a huge risk to the sustainable development of the world, and even threatens human survival. The arrival of the carbon neutral era means that urban development is facing serious restrictions on carbon emissions. Digitization has brought profound changes to the economic and social development model, and would also change the pattern of urban competition. The goal of carbon neutrality is to change the low-carbon development model and structure, supplement it with negative carbon emissions, and comprehensively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, achieving the goal of carbon neutrality still faces many challenges and problems. For this reason, this paper analyzed the significance of carbon neutralization and the challenges faced by sustainable development to study the advantages of carbon neutralization under Digital Transformation (abbreviated as DT), and finally proposed the implementation path of carbon neutralization and sustainable development based on the channel of computing resources from the east to the west. The carbon emission effect before DT increased with time, while the carbon emission effect after DT decreased with time, in which the carbon emission effect after DT decreased by 47.9% compared with that before DT. The post-DT industry digitalization degree and the carbon trading system perfection degree were better than those before DT. The post-DT industry digitalization degree was 10.4% higher than that before DT, and the carbon trading system perfection degree was 9.5% higher than that before DT. In a word, DT and channeling computing resources from the east to the west can promote the realization of carbon neutrality and sustainable development.

Globally, universities are evaluating and targeting to reduce their carbon emissions and operate on a sustainable basis. The overall aim of this study revolves in addressing the following three questions: (1) How to calculate carbon footprint, including indicators selection, criteria, and measurement, for higher education institutions? (2) How to evaluate impact and effectiveness of various mitigation strategies in context of a higher education institution? (3) What are the possible limitations of approach selected for carbon footprint calculation. This paper presents estimation of the carbon footprint of NED University using a carbon calculator along with the identification of sources with maximum contribution to its carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of the NED University main campus for 2017 was calculated to be approximately 21,500 metric tons of equivalent CO2 and carbon footprint per student was 1.79 metric tons of equivalent CO2. Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions each contributed nearly 7% of the carbon footprint, while Scope 3 emissions accounted for 85.6% of the carbon footprint. Major interventions such as switching to renewables, usage of energy efficient appliances, electric vehicles, and massive tree plantation inside and outside the campus were identified as the most effective mitigation strategies.

China’s economic development strategy is undergoing an evolution from foreign to domestic circulation mainly, and at the same time faces the rigid constraints of “carbon peak before 2030” and “carbon neutrality before 2060”. However, both domestic and foreign trade also have an important impact on carbon dioxide emissions. To this end, this paper uses China’s 2017 multi-regional Input-Output table to systematically simulate the impact of the new development pattern on carbon emissions from the comprehensive perspective of production and consumption. Our simulations find that when the foreign circulation disappears, the total economic output will be hit hard, and carbon emissions will be greatly reduced; when the foreign circulation orientation weakens and the intensity of the domestic circulation is increased, the total economic output will increase to varying degrees, but the total carbon emissions will also increase by a certain extent. Among them, the increase in carbon emissions at the living end accounts for a considerable proportion, while the carbon emissions of electricity, heat production and supply, transportation, warehousing and postal services, metal smelting and rolling processing industries at the production end increase more. From a policy perspective, the government should promote green production and green consumption to achieve a balance between economic growth and carbon emission reduction.

Modern civilization is heavily reliant on petroleum-based fuels to meet the energy demand of the transportation sector. However, burning fossil fuels in engines emits greenhouse gas emissions that harm the environment. Biofuels are commonly regarded as an alternative for sustainable transportation and economic development. Algal-based fuels, solar fuels, e-fuels, and CO2-to-fuels are marketed as next-generation sources that address the shortcomings of first-generation and second-generation biofuels. This article investigates the benefits, limitations, and trends in different generations of biofuels through a review of the literature. The study also addresses the newer generation of biofuels highlighting the social, economic, and environmental aspects, providing the reader with information on long-term sustainability. The use of nanoparticles in the commercialization of biofuel is also highlighted. Finally, the paper discusses the recent advancements that potentially enable a sustainable energy transition, green economy, and carbon neutrality in the biofuel sector.

This paper investigates the impact of life expectancy on carbon emission, in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, we examined the role of governance to achieve carbon neutrality status. We used the novel dynamic ARDL technique for estimations. This is one of the pioneer studies that analyze the role of life expectancy to control carbon emissions. The coefficients of life expectancy, education, and political stability are significantly negative. On contrary, governance effectiveness is an obstacle to achieving carbon neutrality. Empirical findings of life expectancy and governance effectiveness are quite surprising. In terms of Vision 2030 estimations, the coefficient of corruption control is significant and negative, indicating that the Saudi government has prioritized corruption control. While governance effectiveness remains positive, the Saudi government still requires governance reforms in order to achieve carbon neutrality goals.

Because container terminals are facing pressure to achieve carbon neutrality in China, saving energy has become an important objective of container terminals. This paper analyzed the movement path of containers between the quay carne and the yard, and found that paths in the vertical direction existed, requiring unnecessary energy consumption. To solve the unnecessary energy consumption problem, a completely new work mode called the high platform operation mode was proposed. In this new mode, a high platform is built above the yard and container trucks drive onto the high platform. By building an energy consumption model to compare the energy consumption of the traditional and new modes, we found that the new mode is able to save 1.478 kWh of electricity compared to the traditional mode when handling one container. A terminal company in Tianjin Port was taken as an example to examine and validate the efficiency of the proposed mode. The computational results indicate that the electricity saved in 12 years would be able to cover the cost of building the high platform, meaning that the new mode could reduce container terminals’ energy consumption and accelerate the achievement of carbon neutrality.

The development of digital technology provides new governance methods for achieving the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. Since 2013, the pilot construction of smart cities in China has strengthened the government’s digital governance capabilities and significantly influenced the reduction in carbon emissions. This paper provides empirical evidence for the driving effect of digitization on carbon emission reduction based on panel data from 353 cities in China. The results show that digital governance based on smart city construction pilots has significantly reduced regional carbon emissions, and the implementation of smart city construction pilots has reduced regional carbon emissions by an average of 6.6%, and this effect is sustainable over the long term. The increase in the level of digitalization has significantly promoted carbon emission reduction. From the perspective of the impact path, regional green patent innovation has played a significant partial intermediary effect in the process of digitization-driven carbon emission reduction. From a micro-mechanism standpoint, digitization plays a significant role in promoting the green innovation of high-polluting listed companies.

The European Union (EU) has adopted a new development strategy based on “green” growth and announced carbon neutrality by 2050. Still, the EU’s previous development path was mainly based on trade openness and globalization, with positive economic and negative climate impacts. The aim of this paper was to test the hypothesis of globalization-induced carbon emissions in order to evaluate a possible future development path. The Arellano–Bond estimator was employed for dynamic panel analysis in 26 EU countries over the period 2000–2018. A significant and positive relationship was found between economic globalization and passenger mobility and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while environmental taxes can correct the negative climate effect. On the other hand, social and political dimensions of globalization reduce negative climate impacts. To achieve net zero emissions, the EU needs to continue its global climate leadership, extend the use of environmental taxes, and stimulate economic growth based on low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, energy storage, and CCUS.

Now that China has outlined its goals of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, the development of clean energy will accelerate, the connection between different energy systems will be closer, and the development prospects of the integrated energy service industry will be broader. Integrated energy services are promoting energy transformation and services. “Carbon peaking, carbon neutrality” and other aspects will also have multiple values and far-reaching significance. Before implementing integrated energy services, the top-level design of integrated energy system planning must be carried out, and how to achieve the optimal allocation of capacity in the field of integrated energy systems is an urgent problem to be solved in integrated energy system planning. This paper combines practical engineering experience and the latest theoretical research results to creatively introduce, for the first time, a comprehensive evaluation into the initial planning stage, and proposes, also for the first time, a three-level multi-element comprehensive energy system planning optimization method which combines multi-element requirements to carry out comprehensive energy system planning and optimization. The three-tier planning and optimization solution results in the optimal planning scheme of the integrated energy system, thereby making the scheme more specific and reliable. According to the demand data of an industrial park, this method was applied to complete a case analysis of integrated energy system planning, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. This method is easy to popularize, and it will guide the planning of integrated energy systems, promote integrated energy services, promote energy transition, and make positive contributions to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible.

The earth’s average temperature has risen by approximately 1.2 °C since the 1900s. The COP26 resolution aimed to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, while China has committed a more aggressive timetable to actually achieve the goal. It requires either that activities must not release any greenhouse gases or the emitted greenhouse gases must be offset. The logistics and transport activities contribute a lot to global greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. There are a no. of challenges of the logistics industry that are discussed, then the paradigmatic solutions such as green procurement, green packaging, green transport, and green warehousing, are respectively discussed. The three contemporary concepts of green solutions (circular economy, carbon neutrality and green cocreation) for logistics and transportation are explored. Subsequently, a detailed case study of CN Logistics’ contemporary green solutions is used to illustrate how to tackle the problems and exemplify the best practices to the other 3PL players. There are expected changes on green directives from the HKSAR Government on logistics green compliances. Finally, this paper concludes with an appeal to the industry to start the green journey immediately.

Carbon neutral buildings are dependent on effective energy management systems and harvesting energy from unpredictable renewable sources. One strategy is to utilise the capacity from electric vehicles, while renewables are not available according to demand. Vehicle to grid (V2G) technology can only be expanded if there is funding and realisation that it works, so investment must be in place first, with charging stations and with the electric vehicles to begin with. The installer of the charging stations will achieve the financial benefit or have an incentive and vice versa for the owners of the electric vehicles. The paper presents an effective V2G strategy that was developed and implemented for an operational university campus. A machine learning algorithm has also been derived to predict energy consumption and energy costs for the investigated building. The accuracy of the developed algorithm in predicting energy consumption was found to be between 94% and 96%, with an average of less than 5% error in costs predictions. The achieved results show that energy consumption savings are in the range of 35%, with the potentials to achieve about 65% if the strategy was applied at all times. This has demonstrated the effectiveness of the machine learning algorithm in carbon print reductions.

The City of Ann Arbor has committed to a just and equitable transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. Our guiding plan, A2ZERO, outlines seven strategies and 44 actions that were chosen by the community to achieve this goal. One of the seven strategies is “Changing the Way We Use, Reuse, and Dispose of Materials”, including the action: “move toward a circular economy”. Many cities are trying to move towards a circular economy, tailoring policies, actions, and outreach towards their unique circumstances. Regardless of context, becoming circular requires an array of actions including collaboration and partnership, policy setting, program development, and education. This paper explores how the concept of the circular economy is discussed in the peer reviewed literature and in practitioner circles, exploring similarities and differences. Following this, we undertake a critical instance case study on the City of Ann Arbor’s materials management programs and efforts towards achieving a more circular local economy. We conclude by offering pathways that Ann Arbor and other cities across the U.S. can pursue to advance a circular economy.

The construction industry plays a crucial role in China’s fulfillment of the goal of achieving “carbon neutrality” in 2060. Based on the data of energy and building materials consumption of the construction industry in China and 30 provinces from 2008 to 2018, this paper constructs a model for measuring provincial CO2 emissions of China’s construction industry and establishes a Kuznets curve and elastic decoupling model of the industry’s CO2 emissions. The analysis based on the models shows that: (1) the CO2 emissions of China’s construction industry show a trend of increasing first and then decreasing, (2) in terms of the decoupling effects, most provinces are in a weak decoupling status of CO2 emissions, and (3) the Kuznets curve of the provincial construction industry shows an inverted “U” shape in recent years, and it is predicted that the CO2 emissions of the construction industry will reach the peak in 2034. It is possible for the construction industry to achieve “carbon neutrality”, but long-term efforts must be made for strategic planning, policies and regulations, industry standards, etc.

In-depth analysis of the decoupling state between cultivated land carbon emissions and cultivated land use factors can provide a basis for coordinating the relationship between food security and ecological environment. On the base of systematically calculating the carbon source of cultivated land, this paper calculated the carbon emission of cultivated land in China’s main agricultural production areas from 2000 to 2020, and explored its temporal and spatial pattern and evolution process. Then, using the LMDI decomposition method and the improved kaya identity, the factors affecting the carbon emissions of cultivated land are divided into five effects: structure, economy, technology, society and population, and then the Tapio decoupling theory is used to analyze the relationship between carbon emissions and these five effects. At the same time, to explore the further relationship between carbon emissions and cultivated land structure, we also studied the decoupling state between carbon emissions and the cultivated land area of 6 main crops. The results showed: during the study period, carbon emissions experienced three stages: fluctuating growth, accelerated growth and slow decline. In the most recent stage, structural, economic and population effects still have some impact on the carbon emissions of cultivated land, changes in cultivated land area where cotton, sugar and tobacco are planted will still affect its carbon emissions. To intervene, policy measures such as promoting the use of clean energy, increasing agricultural imports, and increasing carbon taxes for some industries can be considered.

Urban sustainability is a critical target under the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially considering the response of cities to most of the resource and carbon footprints of human beings. The circular economy (CE) strategy offers an innovative and important pathway for forwarding sustainable urban development in terms of resource saving and waste mitigation. A particularly important measure of the circular economy is the urban industrial symbiosis, which, as an imitation of the ecological system, is viewed as an effective way to achieve the sustainable and low-carbon transformation of industries and downtown areas. However, evidence of its comprehensive environmental benefit is less reported. With this circumstance, this paper aims at identifying the environmental benefits of urban industrial symbiosis, with a focus on urban carbon footprints (CFP). With this basis, we shall also discuss the promotion of urban industrial symbiosis as a critical component in support of the carbon neutrality strategy. A hybrid approach integrating a process-based inventory analysis and an input–output analysis (IOA) is developed to analyze urban CFPs. Results imply that considerable savings in resources and the reduction of CFPs could be achieved via the coal-aluminum-electricity-steel industrial symbiosis. In detail, the eight designed synergies, with the aluminum-electricity-steel plants as the hubs, could reduce CO2 by 1.09 Mt per year, which accounted for 3.63% of the total CFPs in the city in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario in 2012. This could partly offset the increase of CO2 emissions due to the economy’s expansion and realize a second mitigation effect apart from the efficiency change in technologies. A crucial understanding of the function of industrial symbiosis in accelerating the sustainable transformation of cities could then be reached. Finally, further implications on policy when tackling the gaps in regional eco-industrial development are proposed and discussed.

This paper addresses the path followed by two private higher education institutions (HEI) in Colombia towards achieving carbon neutrality. The methodology followed by these universities to achieve a carbon-neutral certification, based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, is first described. The process of developing the GHG inventory, projected towards the carbon neutrality of these organisations while using the standard ISO 14064:2006, involved a series of steps that were consolidated in three phases: (i) definition of the scope, collection of data and emissions quantification; (ii) analysis of results and mitigation actions; and (iii) verification and compensation strategies. Results for the HEIs are shown in terms of the organisational context, carbon footprint measurement, reduction, verification, and compensation. The case is presented for Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, a multi-campus university that became the first carbon-neutral university in Latin America in 2017, and Universidad Ean, a single-campus university that became the second carbon-neutral university in Colombia in 2021, as verified by the Colombian Institute of Technical Standards and Certification (ICONTEC). This work shows that universities can play a key role in regional and global agendas with their contribution through the incorporation of sustainability strategies, since HEIs can not only achieve carbon neutrality, but they can help other organisations by delivering graduates who are aware of sustainability and provide specific training towards building a sustainability culture, which is needed for regenerative development.

In the 21st century, the creation of built environments that are carbon neutral and water sensitive is critical for addressing sustainable urban development challenges. Both require transformative change: Decarbonisation to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and incorporation of green-blue water sensitive solutions to adapt to climate change impacts. Transition pathways in both arenas involve combinations of new technology, innovative urban design, enabling policies and regulations, new processes for planning and managing urban development, and demand-side changes in consumer attitudes and practices for urban living related to energy and water use. In this paper, we present new knowledge, concepts and frameworks developed for application in Australia, as well as internationally, through research by the national Cooperative Research Centres for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL) and Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC) between 2012 and 2020. These findings and outputs illustrate common features of the research strategies and initiatives that were central to the activities of the CRCs, and highlight promising directions for collaborative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research that drives urban sustainability transformations towards carbon neutral and blue-green cities.

Decarbonising the urban built environment for reaching carbon neutrality is high on the agenda for many cities undergoing rapid expansion and densification. As an important urban form, precincts have been increasingly focused on as the context for urban redevelopment planning and at the forefront for trialling carbon reduction measures. However, due to interplays between the built forms and the occupancy, the carbon performance of a precinct is significantly affected by morphological variations, demographical changes, and renewable energy system deployment. Despite much research on the development of low-carbon precincts, there is limited analysis on aggregated effects of population growth, building energy efficiency, renewable energy penetration, and carbon reduction targets in relation to precinct carbon signature and carbon neutral potential for precinct redevelopment and decarbonisation planning. In this paper, an integrated carbon assessment model, including overall precinct carbon emissions and carbon offset contributed by precinct-scale renewable energy harvesting, is developed and applied to examine the lifecycle carbon signature of urban precincts. Using a case study on a residential precinct redevelopment, scenario analysis is employed to explore opportunities for decarbonising densification development and the carbon neutral potential. Results from scenario analysis indicate that redevelopment of buildings with higher-rated energy efficiency and increase of renewable energy penetration can have a long term positive impact on the carbon performance of urban precincts. Meanwhile, demographical factors in precinct evolution also have a strong influence on a precinct&rsquo, s carbon neutral potential. Whilst population size exerts upward pressure on total carbon emissions, changes in family types and associated consumption behaviour, such as travelling, can make positive contributions to carbon reduction. The analysis also highlights the significance of embodied carbon to the total carbon signature and the carbon reduction potential of a precinct during densification, reinforcing the notion that &ldquo, develop with less&rdquo, is as important as carbon offsetting measures for decarbonising the precinct toward carbon neutrality.

China has been reforming its domestic natural gas market in recent years, while construction of storage systems is lagging behind. As natural gas accounts for an increasing proportion due to the goal of carbon neutrality, large-scale gas storage appears to be necessary to satisfy the needs for gas peak shaving and national strategic security. Additionally, the domestic gas production in China cannot meet consumption demands, and imports will play a significant role on the supply side. This paper developed a system dynamics (SD) model and applied it to simulate gas market behaviors and estimated China’s gas storage capabilities and import demands over the next 40 years. To achieve carbon neutrality, it is necessary for China to make great progress in its energy intensity and improve its energy structure, which have a great impact on natural gas consumption. Thus, alternative scenarios were defined to discuss the changes in the gas market with different gas storage goals and environmental constraints. The results show that under low and medium carbon price scenarios, natural gas demand will continue to grow in the next 40 years, but it will be difficult to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Under the high carbon price scenario, natural gas consumption will grow rapidly and reach a peak in approximately 2040, after which renewable energy will play a more important role to help achieve carbon neutrality. At the peak time, China’s gas storage demand will be 205.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) and import demand will reach 635.4 bcm, accounting for 72.8% of total consumption. We also identified the contradiction between the estimated storage capability, import demand and infrastructure planning. There will be a gap of 28.1–69.3 bcm between the planned storage capacity and simulated demand by 2030, while import facilities may partly strand assets. Finally, we provided some policy recommendations for constructing gas storage and import management and operation systems.

The aviation sector is one of the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition, airports have important local environmental impacts, mainly in the form of noise pollution and deterioration in air quality. Although noise nuisance in the vicinity of airports is recognized as an important problem of the urban environment which is often addressed by regulation, other environmental problems associated with aviation are less widely acknowledged. In the climate debate, the importance of which is rising, aviation has remained under the radar for decades. In the present paper, we use the case of Brussels Airport (Belgium) to demonstrate that the local perception of air travel-related environmental problems may be heavily influenced by the communication strategy of the airport company in question. Basing our analysis on publicly available data, communication initiatives, media reports, and policy documents, we find that (1) the noise impact of aviation is recognized and mainly described in an institutionalized format, (2) the impact of aviation on local air quality is ignored, and (3) the communication on climate impact shows little correspondence or concern with the actual effects. These findings are relevant for other airports and sectors, since the type of environmental communication produced by airport companies can also be observed elsewhere.

The world is fighting against the impacts of the climate crisis. Although the technical feasibility of 100% renewable energy systems was already verified by a variety of research studies, there were still more than 200 GW of unsustainable new coal power capacity under construction at a global level in 2018. To achieve the required carbon neutrality, current energy systems need to be transformed toward sustainable energy. The review of the literature has shown that several barriers for carbon-neutral technologies exist, which currently impede the sustainable transition. This paper focuses on the development of an enabling framework to overcome existing barriers to facilitate sustainable and carbon-neutral technologies at the national level. Additionally, it should support decision makers to consider all underlying criteria of this urgently needed energy transition. The criteria of such an enabling framework can be classified in 11 categories, which are (1) environmental and ecological protection, (2) society, culture, and behavior, (3) equity and justice, (4) knowledge, (5) energy markets, (6) energy policy, (7) legal requirements, (8) finance, (9) institutions, (10) infrastructure, and (11) clash of interests. Even though some criteria differ from country to country, a strong governmental support for the transition is always required to be successful.

It will be a huge challenge for China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. At present, China needs to understand its own carbon neutrality status and then scientifically plan a path to achieve carbon neutrality. In order to evaluate the carbon neutrality capacity of China’s provinces, this paper firstly constructs an evaluation indicator system, which includes 20 indicators at six levels. Then, a combination of subjective and objective weighting methods, as well as an improved technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) model, are used to calculate evaluation results. On this basis, the reasons for their different carbon neutrality capacities are analyzed. The results show that the use of renewable energy, maintaining ecological environmental quality, and low-carbon technology are important factors affecting China’s carbon neutrality capacity, and according to the evaluation results, China’s provinces are divided into three categories. Finally, corresponding suggestions for speeding up the pace of carbon neutrality are put forward.

The city of Turku is located in southwest Finland, in Northern Europe. Founded in 1229, it is the country&rsquo, s oldest city. It is situated around the Aura River, which flows into the Baltic Sea, making it an ideal location for its 184,000 inhabitants and 20,000 enterprises. In June 2018, the city unveiled an ambitious climate plan to be carbon neutral by 2029. This plan was prepared according to the common model of the European Union (EU) (SECAP, Sustainable energy and climate action plan) with key milestones for years 2021, 2025, and 2029. It focuses on both adaptation and mitigation strategies with six measures outlined as necessary to meet the targets, two of which directly target citizen outreach and engagement. These two measures focus on mobilizing communities as partners in the climate plan and on raising awareness of climate change. Given its significance to the plan, this paper examines stakeholder engagement in the City of Turku&rsquo, s climate policies from a governance perspective. It asks the question, how does stakeholder participation materialize in the City of Turku&rsquo, s carbon neutral planning process? It aims to give a snapshot of baseline stakeholder participation in the city&rsquo, s carbon neutral aspirations. It has found that whilst the plan contains ambitions for stakeholder participation, it is not fully implemented. It recommends a citizen facilitated public participation steering group that aims to inspire citizens towards taking action and engaging in the decision-making process for a carbon neutral 2029.