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The carbon emission trading market (carbon market) is an important policy tool for China to achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" through market mechanism. This paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019 to examine the emission reduction effect (ERE) of China's carbon market pilots using multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID)method, and then analyzes the factors influencing ERE and the economic impact of carbon market. According to the Bacon decomposition and a series of robustness tests, the results reveal that China's carbon market pilots have significant ERE. Both the expansion of the carbon market scale and the improvement of market activity level can significantly boost the carbon market's ERE. Meanwhile, the establishment of carbon market has no negative impact on the economic growth. Therefore, we propose to accelerate the construction of the national carbon market, incorporating more industries in a systematic manner, expand the scale of the carbon market, steadily promote the innovation of carbon financial instruments, improve the activity of the carbon market, so as to promote the transformation of China's green and low-carbon economy and achieve the emission reduction target as scheduled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green port construction has a profound impact on China's international climate commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. To examine the carbon emission reduction potential of 20 major ports in the Yangtze River Delta port cluster of China, this study takes the perspective of environmental efficiency and employs dynamic exogenous variable DEA in efficiency evaluation. The results show the increasing environmental efficiency of the ports in the Yangtze River Delta, rising from 0.5116 in 2013 to 0.7276 in 2019. Also, there are significant spatial differences in efficiency. After considering exogenous variable, the average efficiency has increased from 0.5537 to 0.6276, indicating that regional green development is a critical factor in port environmental efficiency evaluation. Finally, the overall efficiency of input and output have risen, the slackness of carbon emission shows a trend of decreasing, and there is great potential for reducing carbon emissions from the perspective of port environmental efficiency. The previous studies paid less attention to dynamic efficiency, exogenous variables, and carbon emission. Therefore, this paper is the first comprehensive examination on the carbon emission reduction potential of China's Yangtze River Delta port cluster from the perspective of dynamic environmental efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consolidating the results of poverty alleviation and achieving carbon neutrality are serious challenges for global sustainable development, and it is essential to explore the relationship between these goals, and then offer scientific responses. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019, this paper conducted the 2SLS model by compromising the merits of the Regression Discontinuity principle with the STIRPAT model to study the interaction between poverty alleviation and carbon reduction. The study found that: (1) the implementation of poverty alleviation aggravates the problem of carbon emissions, and the main mechanism is that poverty alleviation promotes consumption and production by increasing the wealth of farmers, thereby increasing carbon emissions. (2) Carbon reduction weakens the achievement of poverty alleviation significantly, but the mitigation effect presents an "inverted U"-shaped curve, which first increases and then wanes. (3) Farmers' income and the development of rural transportation play a role in acting on the negative effects of carbon reduction. By integrating poverty theory and energy management, this article reveals the complex relationship between two important policies in China and offers relevant policy recommendations, which will not only promote the advancement of rural revitalization but also promote global sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a sample of 1,867 firms that participate in the "Top-10,000 Energy- Consuming Enterprises Program" in China and aims to identify strategic traders in its pilot emissions trading scheme. Firms included in the ETS can exert their market power and manipulate allowance prices to achieve low compliance costs, which will consequently influence the effectiveness of this platform. This is of great importance to regulators or designers of this system in identifying these strategic traders and understanding their impact. We follow the basic principle proposed by Godal (2005) and develop a simple and implementable empirical procedure to study firm-level data from seven pilot programs in China. The results show that strategic traders exist with clear regional and sectoral differences. As a consequence of strategic trading by these firms, the overall volume of trading falls remarkably, with a clear increase in total compliance costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the instrumental variable method and the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2016, we explore the relationship between carbon emission, air pollution, and total factor productivity (TFP). The results show that: (1) Both carbon emission-induced and air pollution-induced environmental regulations positively promote TFP. For every 1% increase in the two indicators of the intensity of environmental regulation, carbon emission, and air pollution, TFP will increase by 1.7150 percentage points and 0.6366 percentage points respectively. (2) Carbon emission-induced and air pollution-induced environmental regulation have similar coefficients on TFP, indicating that the effects of the two are synergistic. Carbon emission has a greater impact on TFP, so enhancing environmental regulation on carbon emission can better promote the improvement of TFP. (3) Financial scale and government intervention have a significant intermediary effect between environmental regulation in both aspects and TFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 20 years, China's steel production has proliferated, leading to increased environmental damage by releasing 574,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 1,114,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx), and 897,000 tons of particulate matter (PM) in 2020; therefore, the country is now struggling to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change because of the conflicting demands of economic growth and environmental protection. Given the global emphasis on decarbonization and sustainable production, China has prioritized achieving peak carbon emissions of 30% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Likewise, China's steel industry is progressing toward attaining the maximum carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2025. This study reveals that despite a 321 Mt increase in global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022, CO2 emissions in China experienced a decline of 230 Mt during the same period. Notwithstanding enacting several pertinent statutes and directives, China's iron and steel sector has not advanced substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Although forecasting electric vehicles' growth in China was frequently reported in the literature, predicting electric vehicles market penetration as well as corresponding energy saving and carbon dioxide mitigation potential in a more suitable method is not well understood. Methods: This study chose the double species model to predict electric vehicles' growth trajectory under mutually competitive conditions between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles. For comparison, it set two scenarios: with 200 and 300 vehicles per thousand persons at 2050. To give details on energy saving and carbon dioxide mitigation potential induced by electric vehicles' market penetration, it further divided electric vehicles into five subgroups and internal combustion engine vehicles into seven subgroups, therein forming respective measurement formulas. Results: This paper solved the double species model and thus got its analytical formula. Then it employed the analytical formula to conduct an empirical study on electric vehicles market penetration in China from year 2010 to 2050. Under scenario 300, electric vehicles growth trajectory will emerge a quick growth stage during 2021–2035, thereafter keeping near invariant till 2050. Meanwhile, current internal combustion engine vehicles' quick growth will continue up to 2027, then holding constant during 2028–2040, afterwards following a 10-year slowdown period. Scenario 200 has similar features, but a 2-year delay for electric vehicles and a 5-year lead time for internal combustion engine vehicles were found. On average, scenario 300 will save 114.4 Mt oil and 111.5 Mt carbon dioxide emissions, and scenario 200 will save 77.1 Mt oil and 73.4 Mt carbon dioxide emissions each year. Beyond 2032, annual 50.0% of road transport consumed oil and 18.6% of carbon dioxide emissions from this sector will be saved under scenario 300. Discussion: Compared with scenario 200, scenario 300 was more suitable to predict electric vehicle market penetration in China. In the short-term electric vehicle penetration only brings about trivial effects, while in the long-term it will contribute a lot to both energy security and carbon dioxide mitigation. The contribution of this article provided a more suitable methodology for predicting electric vehicle market penetration, simulated two coupled trajectories of electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles, and discussed relative energy-saving and climate effects from 2010 to 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Although forecasting electric vehicles' growth in China was frequently reported in the literature, predicting electric vehicles market penetration as well as corresponding energy saving and carbon dioxide mitigation potential in a more suitable method is not well understood. Methods: This study chose the double species model to predict electric vehicles' growth trajectory under mutually competitive conditions between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles. For comparison, it set two scenarios: with 200 and 300 vehicles per thousand persons at 2050. To give details on energy saving and carbon dioxide mitigation potential induced by electric vehicles' market penetration, it further divided electric vehicles into five subgroups and internal combustion engine vehicles into seven subgroups, therein forming respective measurement formulas. Results: This paper solved the double species model and thus got its analytical formula. Then it employed the analytical formula to conduct an empirical study on electric vehicles market penetration in China from year 2010 to 2050. Under scenario 300, electric vehicles growth trajectory will emerge a quick growth stage during 2021-2035, thereafter keeping near invariant till 2050. Meanwhile, current internal combustion engine vehicles' quick growth will continue up to 2027, then holding constant during 2028-2040, afterwards following a 10-year slowdown period. Scenario 200 has similar features, but a 2-year delay for electric vehicles and a 5-year lead time for internal combustion engine vehicles were found. On average, scenario 300 will save 114.4 Mt oil and 111.5 Mt carbon dioxide emissions, and scenario 200 will save 77.1 Mt oil and 73.4 Mt carbon dioxide emissions each year. Beyond 2032, annual 50.0% of road transport consumed oil and 18.6% of carbon dioxide emissions from this sector will be saved under scenario 300. Discussion: Compared with scenario 200, scenario 300 was more suitable to predict electric vehicle market penetration in China. In the short-term electric vehicle penetration only brings about trivial effects, while in the long-term it will contribute a lot to both energy security and carbon dioxide mitigation. The contribution of this article provided a more suitable methodology for predicting electric vehicle market penetration, simulated two coupled trajectories of electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles, and discussed relative energy-saving and climate effects from 2010 to 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions have brought serious negative impacts on human beings and organisms, so energy saving and emission reduction have been recognized by more and more people. Traditional Milk-run model seldom considers the factors of energy saving and emission reduction, and its routing optimization cannot meet the current needs of low-carbon economic development. On the basis of traditional Vehicle Routing Problem research, considering the fixed cost, time penalty cost, energy consumption cost and carbon emission cost of vehicles, the Milk-run model of distribution routing considering carbon emissions under time window constraints is studied. Then the improved ant colony algorithm is used to solve the constructed model. Finally, the order and related data of a company are used to verify the validity and practicality of the model and algorithm. Compared to the scanning method, the results show that not only the total journey distance has been shortened but also the total cost and cost of carbon emissions have been reduced. The optimization of distribution routing considering carbon emissions can reduce the distribution cost of logistics enterprises, respond to the call of low-carbon development in China and help to achieve a win-win situation of social and economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]