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Paper mill sludge (PMS) is featured with a high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, and using its characteristics to make paperboard can achieve a high-value utilization of PMS, which has attracted growing interest. In this study, currently prevalent landfill, incineration technologies (generating heat and electricity by incineration), and three paperboard technologies (medium density fiberboard, pulp board, and corrugated paper) were evaluated and compared via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods. LCA results show that the PMS-to-pulp board outperforms others with an energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) value of − 2.86 × 10−8, while the landfill exhibits the highest overall environmental impact with an ECER value of 4.80 × 10−9. LCC results reveal that the PMS-to-pulp board delivers the highest economic profit with $257.357, while the landfill is the lowest with $ − 35.63. The PMS paperboard technologies are more economically friendly than the incineration technologies due to additional electricity/steam consumption during the PMS pre-drying process in incineration. In addition, different scenarios were set up to explore national GHG emission reduction potential by increasing paperboard technologies application rate and reducing the proportion of landfill and incineration. The scenario analysis suggests that replacing 90% of landfill and incineration ratio with PMS paperboard technologies could tremendously improve the overall emission reduction performance with − 9.08 × 1010 kg CO2 eq. This result indicates that the PMS treatment technology transformation has a significant favorable impact on the achievement of the "carbon neutrality" target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been the world's largest producer and consumer of paper products. In the context of the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals", China's papermaking industry which is traditionally a high energy-consuming and high-emissions industry, desperately needs a nationally appropriate low-carbon development path. From the consumption-side perspective, this paper calculates the CO2 emissions of China's papermaking industry from 2000 to 2019 by using carbon emission nuclear algorithm, grain-straw ratio, first-order attenuation method, and STIRFDT decomposition model, etc., to further explore the core stages and basic patterns affecting the industry's carbon peaking. The results show that the total CO2 emissions of China's papermaking industry showed an upward trend from 2000–2013, stable from 2013–2017, and a steady but slight decline from 2017–2019. Meanwhile, the total CO2 emissions of the full life cycle of paper products in China have decreased to a certain extent in the raw material acquisition, pulp, and paper making and shipping stages, with only the waste paper disposal stage showing a particular upward trend. We find that from 2000 to 2019, China's CO2 emissions in the pulping and papermaking stage of paper products accounted for 68% of the total emissions in the whole life cycle, of which 59% was caused by coal consumption. Moreover, the scenario prediction shows that improving the energy structure and increasing the waste paper recovery rate can reduce the CO2 emissions of the industry, and it is more significant when both work. Based on this and the four core stages of CO2 emissions of the papermaking industry we proposed ways to promote CO2 emissions peaking of China's paper products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper industry is a high-carbon emission and energy-intensive industry. From the perspective of low-carbon trade and carbon neutrality, its energy conservation and emission reduction are worthy of attention. This study used the input-output model to calculate the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States from 2006 to 2020 and used the logarithmic mean division index (LMDI) method to analyze influencing factors of the change of embodied carbon emissions. The study found that the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States generally shows a stable downward trend after reaching the peak with the increase of export trade scale; scale effect is the main factor that causes the embodied carbon emissions, while technological progress, policy support, and environmental regulations are important driving forces to promote carbon emission reduction. The research results of this paper not only can test and guide China’s paper industry trade policies and industrial policies, but they can also provide decision-making reference for China and the United States to promote the carbon emission reduction of the paper industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving carbon emission efficiency is crucial for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. This paper analyzes the carbon emission efficiency of Chinese cities using panel data from 275 prefecture-level cities between 2006 and 2020. The super-efficiency SBM (undesirable slacks-based measurement) model of undesired output, combined with kernel density estimation and exploratory data analysis, is employed. This study finds, firstly, from 2006 to 2020, the average efficiency of carbon emissions in Chinese cities declined from 0.53 to 0.48, indicating a downward trend. Secondly, from a temporal perspective, the level of dispersion in urban carbon emission efficiency has become increasingly distinct over time, coupled with a decrease in polarization. Thirdly, in terms of spatial analysis, urban carbon emission efficiency in China shows a positive correlation in a global context. In terms of local spatial correlation, it primarily exhibits high-high and low-low clusters, with a few instances of low–high and high-low clusters. Finally, based on the research findings, this paper proposes suggestions to improve urban carbon emission efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to explain the economic significance of “pursuing green development and promoting harmony between humanity and nature” in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from the following eight aspects. First, it explains how to respect, adapt to, and protect nature through the confirmation of ownership, valuation classification and incentive. Second, it analyzes why China should work actively toward the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality from the new security concept, new challenges, new situations, and new tasks brought by the urgency and severity of climate change risks. Third, it expounds on the difficulty and complexity of addressing climate change from multiple aspects, such as the ratchet effect, Giddens’s paradox, prisoner’s dilemma, lock-in effect, asset stranding, intergenerational equity, and the Wandering Earth scenario. Fourth, it recognizes the importance of stability, overall planning, and coordination based on the overall planned and coordinated triangle of high-quality development, carbon neutrality, and energy security. Fifth, it emphasizes the importance of green and low-carbon technological innovation by means of the IPAS equation. Sixth, it explains the essence of carbon neutrality as the industrial transition based on the energy transition, which is an economic logic. Seventh, taking the carbon market as an example, it explains the economic principle that the market mechanism plays an important role. Eighth, it explains how finance empowers the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality as well as high-quality development. Finally, this paper is of guiding significance for economics, finance, international trade, and policy research, and in the meantime, provides new research tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, being the world's largest exporter, has now certain environmental commitments such as to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. These commitments of China has raised a reasonable concern regarding the expected reduction in the production and export of pollution intensive goods in the future. Besides China, the most efficient countries in the region to produce these goods are most of the member countries from ASEAN. The current study therefore aims to analyze if in the future, China reduces the production and export of these goods, whether the selected ASEAN countries can be the next choice for the export of pollution intensive goods. Based on the data availability for the period 1990–2019, this study considers five selected ASEAN countries (ASEAN-5). The results are based on the Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration and Error Correction Modeling (ECM). The aggregate analysis of five pollution intensive goods (pulp and paper (341), industrial chemicals (351), non-metallic minerals products (369), iron and steel (371) and non-ferrous metals (372)) suggests that Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow can significantly increase the export of pollution intensive goods only in case of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. However, there is no significant effect of FDI on the export of pollution intensive goods in case of Philippines and Singapore. The disaggregate analyses of the five pollution intensive goods suggest that in each of the ASEAN-5 countries, FDI inflow can significantly increase the export of pollution intensive goods in some of these industries rather than in all of them. In nutshell, it is concluded that ASEAN-5 countries can be a potential choice for the export of pollution intensive goods in some of the pollution intensive industries but not in all of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has always tried to maintain multilateralism and advocated working together to deal with global climate change through multilateral mechanisms. Although China’s announcement to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 comes as no surprise, its commitment to carbon neutrality does. As the period between its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is far shorter than that in the developed countries, China’s economic and energy structures need to be adjusted toward the low-carbon and carbon-free end with unprecedented efforts. To that end, China should define the responsibilities of local authorities and industrial entities to promote the orderly accomplishment of carbon peaking in all regions and industries. To supply the huge investments needed to achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China has an urgent need to accelerate the development of green finance and a national carbon emissions trading market, guide the rational allocation of resources, and channel resources to eco-friendly projects for green and low-carbon development. At the same time, China and the international community should strengthen dialogue and coordination, promote international cooperation on the way to carbon neutrality, formulate widely acceptable policy guidelines as soon as possible, and avoid unilateral measures that may cause conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the double constraints of the "double carbon" target and high-quality economic development, carbon trading policy is an important tool for realizing the emission reduction commitment; based on the perspective of microenterprises, the specific mechanism and spatial effect of carbon trading policy still need to be evaluated. Taking China's carbon emissions trading pilot as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper empirically investigates the impact of carbon trading policy on the carbon emission intensity of pilot enterprises and its mechanism of action, and its impact on the carbon emission intensity of neighboring enterprises, based on the multi-temporal double-difference model, moderating effect model, and spatial Durbin model with the A-sharelisted enterprises in the period of 2009-2019 as the samples. It is found that: 1) Carbon trading policy will reduce the carbon emission intensity of enterprises to different degrees, and there are significant differences under different ownership types, degrees of marketization and the level of digitization. 2) Under the influence of environmental uncertainty, ESG disclosure will weaken the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction in the pre-pilot stage of the policy; with the gradual improvement of the carbon trading policy and ESG disclosure mechanism, ESG ratings will positively regulate the inhibitory effect of the carbon trading policy on the carbon emission intensity of enterprises through multiple paths. 3) Carbon trading policy effectively reduces multiple negative spillovers through the demonstration effect and competition effect of neighboring enterprises, driving the carbon emission reduction behavior of non-pilot enterprise. The research in this paper enriches the research paradigm of carbon emission intensity influencing factors, provides reference suggestions for the government to improve its policies, and better contributes to the realization of the "dual-carbon" vision in China as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power sector is one of the major CO2-emitting industries in China. It is also the first key emissions control industry included in China's national carbon trading market established in 2021. Therefore, based on the data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2015 to 2022, this study analyzes the impact of the national carbon market policy on the carbon emissions of the power industry based on the generalized Difference-in-Difference (DID) model. Based on the method of text analysis, this paper constructs the carbon market policy intensity index of each region and incorporates it into the DID model. Empirical analysis finds that the national carbon market policy can significantly inhibit the carbon emissions of the power industry. However, the heterogeneity analysis of 30 provinces and cities shows that the national carbon market policy has a significant impact on the regions that already have a carbon pilot, but not on the non-pilot regions. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the national carbon market policy in the power industry emissions control, and also exposes the heterogeneity between regions, providing an important empirical basis for the inclusion of other energy-intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the goal of "achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060", how to select the type of fresh air system has become a key area of energy conservation. The method of outdoor design PM2.5 concentration is one of the important factors affecting the selection of fresh air filtration system. This paper first analyzed the PM2.5 concentration values of 31 cities in China from 2017 to 2020 based on mathematical induction, and next gave the recommended coefficient K under six urban economic regions methods in combination with the actual situation. Finally, the selection of air filters in five typical cities was taken as an example, the differences in recommended coefficient K and selection of outdoor design PM2.5 concentration under different recommended methods were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the recommended coefficient K under the six economic regions could meet the required K value needs of the region. The recommended coefficient K by the six economic regions methods based on per capita GDP is the best. Under that conditions, the recommended coefficient K of the five typical cities under strict and normal conditions differs from the average K values of the six methods by 0.06 and 0.04. This paper will provide a new method for the correct selection of outdoor design PM2.5 concentration in fresh air systems to achieve the dual carbon energy-saving goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of carbon neutrality does have economic costs; however, few studies have measured the cost and the economic neutral opportunities. This paper uses a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate China's carbon neutrality path from 2020 to 2060 and analyzes its economic impact. This paper innovatively adjusts the CGE modeling technology and simulates the boundary of the Porter hypothesis on the premise of economic neutrality. The results show that the carbon neutrality target may reduce the annual GDP growth rate by about 0.8% in 2020–2060. To make the carbon pricing method under the carbon neutrality framework meet the strong version of the Porter hypothesis (or economic neutrality), China must increase its annual total factor productivity by 0.56–0.57% in 2020–2060; this is hard to achieve. In addition, the study finds that China's 2030 carbon target has little impact on the economy, but the achievement of the 2060 carbon neutrality target will have a significant effect. Therefore, the paper believes that the key to carbon neutrality lies in the coexistence of technological innovation and carbon pricing to ensure that we can cope with global warming with the lowest cost and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green and low carbon reflect the high-quality development, while income distribution is an indicator of the balance of development. Is there a lack of fairness in the process of green and low carbon transition of enterprises? Using data from A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2016, this paper constructs a DID identification framework for controlling the endogeneity problem using the 2013 carbon trading policy pilot as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically test the impact of corporate low-carbon transformation on corporate labor income share in the context of carbon trading policy. The findings indicate that carbon trading policy decreases the labor income share of firms. In addition, we demonstrate that the low-carbon transition promotes labor productivity, suggesting that the Porter's hypothesis is confirmed in China, but the increase in labor wages is not in tandem with productivity growth, resulting in reduced labor income share. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of carbon trading policy on labor income share is mainly pronounced in larger firms, high technology firms and persistent incumbent firms. Collectively, these results are expected to accurately improve our understanding on the impact of low-carbon transformation of enterprises on income distribution and provide reference for the government to formulate industrial policies and distribution mechanisms under low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The research objective of this paper is to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of green finance on agricultural carbon total factor productivity (ACTFP) within the framework of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (dual carbon) goals, while also identifying the driving factors through an exponential decomposition of ACTFP, aiming to provide policy recommendations to enhance financial support for low-carbon agricultural development. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the Global Malmquist Luenberger (GML) Index method was employed to analyze and decompose the ACTFP, while the direct and spillover effects of China's green finance pilot policy (GFPP) on ACTFP were assessed using the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the spatial differences-in-differences (SDID) method, respectively. Findings: After the implementation of the GFPP, the ACTFP in the pilot area has experienced significant improvement, with the enhancement of technical efficiency serving as the main driving force. In addition, the GFPP exhibits a positive low-carbon spatial spillover effect, indicating it benefits ACTFP in both the pilot and adjacent areas. Originality/value: Within the framework of the dual carbon goals, the paper highlights agriculture as a significant carbon emitter. ACTFP is assessed by considering the agricultural carbon emission factor as the sole non-desired output, and the impact of the GFPP on ACTFP is investigated through the DID method, thereby providing substantial validation of the hypotheses inferred from the mathematical model. Subsequently, the spillover effects of GFPP on ACTFP are analyzed in conjunction with the spatial econometric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, as a source and a sink of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is critical for achieving carbon neutrality. Many academic journals have published papers on land use carbon emission or sink (LUCES), but LUCES reviews are relatively rare, which poses great challenges in accurately understanding the research progress and future prospects. This work analyzes the research characteristics, hotspots and future perspectives of LUCES research by using a bibliometric analysis (such as DDA, VOSviewer, CiteSpace software) and a review based on the data (6115 scientific papers) during 1991–2023 from the Web of Science (WoS) platform. We found that (1) over the past 33 years, it first presented a steady growth, then fluctuating growth, and finally a rapid growth trend in the yearly number of publications in LUCES research. The USA (17.31%), China (14.96%), and the UK (7.37%) occupy a dominant position in this research field. (2) The related LUCES research is interdisciplinary, which mainly cover science and technology, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, geology, and environmental sciences and ecology disciplines. (3) The research hotspot analysis on LUCES shows that these articles mostly covered the follow three aspects: ecosystem services, climate change, and carbon neutrality. (4) A review of the past LUCES literature suggests that it is mainly focused on exploring the forefront issues in terms of the definition and boundaries, evaluation method and influencing factors, etc. This work suggests that further research could explore the main scientific problems on quantification of land-based carbon neutrality, quantitative analysis of the impact mechanisms, as well as interdisciplinary research and collaborative governance needed for carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy saving and emissions reduction of the construction industry are crucial for China to achieve the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goals. In order to promote the green development of the life cycle of the construction industry and improve the efficiency of emissions reduction. This paper examines the spatial-temporal distribution of life cycle carbon emissions in China's construction industry (LCCECI) from 2004 to 2018. It uses the SBM-Malmquist total factor productivity (TFP) index to measure technological progress and establishes the spatial econometric model based on the STIRPAT model. The study investigates the driving factors of the LCCECI at the provincial and regional levels, aiming to provide suggestions for low-carbon development in the construction industry. The research results are as follows. © The growth in the SBM-Malmquist TFP index of the construction industry distinctly curbs the LCCECI. © Total population and urbanization level are not the primary driving factors for the LCCECI. The growth of per capita GDP significantly induces the LCCECI, while concurrently exhibiting a notable inhibitory effect on the LCCECI of neighboring regions. © The improvement of the SBM-Malmquist TFP index is conducive to the reduction of the LCCECI in the three major regions. The per capita GDP has the largest positive driving effect of the LCCECI in the eastern region, and the urbanization level the urbanization rate only significantly inhibits the growth of the LCCECI in the central region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper firstly uses the DEA-based Range Directional Model (RDM) and the Global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to calculate the Green Efficiency Index (GEI) of China's cities under the constraints of pollution emissions, energy consumption, and natural resource occupancy. The GEI shows that the average green efficiency of the 285 sample cities achieved a total improvement of 10.1% from 2003 to 2019. The average cumulative improvement rate of green efficiency in the 110 cities in Pollutants Emission Trading Pilot Scheme (PETPS) from 2003 to 2019 was 14.9%, which was higher than the average of non-pilot cities (8.6%). Subsequently, this paper constructs a spatial difference-in-differences model (Spatial-DID) to empirically test the green efficiency promotion effect of PETPS from two aspects: local and spatial spillover. It is found that PETPS can promote the progress of local green efficiency in pilot cities, but there is a spatial spillover effect that is not conducive to the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that the launch of PETPS will significantly reduce the clustering of industrial production activities in the pilot cities, thereby accelerating the green efficiency progress. However, PETPS can also promote clustering of industrial production activities in surrounding areas, thereby inhibiting the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. These analysis results can fully explain the cause of the negative spatial spillover effect of PETPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and adopts static panel models and dynamic panel specifications to explore the correlation between clean energy and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, this paper employs the interaction term of pilot areas and pilot time as the proxy of emission trading policy to examine the effect of China's emission trading pilot on clean energy. Then, this paper conducts quasi-natural experiments on CO2 emissions. Our findings show a negative correlation between CO2 emissions and clean energy. We also find that China's emission trading pilot has a significant impact on promoting clean energy. In addition, empirical results affirm that emission trading market pilots can help decrease CO2 emissions. Finally, we put forwards relevant policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blue Carbon is increasingly popular worldwide, and it also belongs to circular economy field which would last a long period in academy. To further understand the development and characteristics of Blue Carbon, this study uses CiteSpace software to perform quantitative analysis on literature published on Web of Science and Chinese CNKI database with the main topic of "Blue Carbon." The results show that: (1) Since 2009, increasing attention has been paid to Blue Carbon research, among which the United States, Australia and China are the leading countries. (2) Keywords such as "Blue Carbon," "mangrove," "carbon sequestration" and "carbon neutrality" are the high-frequency keywords appearing both in China and the World in recent years. (3) Spartina alterniflora, soil organic carbon, livestock, trophic cascade, biodiversity and seagrass ecosystem clustering are hot topics related to international Blue Carbon research, while organic carbon, seagrass-conservation, methodology, sustainable development, climate change, carbon neutralization, coastal zone and carbon storage are hot topics related to Chinese Blue Carbon research. In addition, based on the research trends of Blue Carbon, this paper attempts to sort out the research framework from three levels: core characteristics, theoretical basis and research methods, respectively. Facing a series of challenges brought by climate change, Blue Carbon research should strengthen the accurate estimations of Blue Carbon sink and its market potential, and explore the reasonable market mechanism and protection mechanism, to respond to realistic demands, solve major concerns and promote new progress in Blue Carbon theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of "Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutral" goals, carbon sequestration projects are increasing in China. The integrity of cement sheaths, as an important factor affecting carbon sequestration projects, has also received more attention and research. When CO2 is injected into the subsurface from sequestration wells, the cement sheath may mechanically fail due to the pressure accumulated inside the casing, which leads to the sealing of the cement sheath failing. The elasticity and strength parameters of the cement sheath are considered in this paper. The critical bottom-hole injection pressures of inclined well sections under anisotropic formation stresses at different depths were calculated for actual carbon-sealing wells in the X block—the CO2 sequestration target block. The sensitivity factors of the critical bottom-hole injection pressure were also analyzed. It was found that the cement sheath damage criterion was tensile damage. The Young's modulus and tensile strength of the cement sheath are the main factors affecting the mechanical failure of the cement sheath, with Poisson's ratio having the second highest influence. An increase in the Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and tensile strength of the cement sheath can help to improve the mechanical stability of cement sheaths in CO2 sequestration wells. This model can be used for the design and evaluation of cement in carbon sequestration wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accountability audit of natural resources (AANR) is a major institutional arrangement for advancing the construction of an ecological civilization in China. Based on the panel data of 271 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this paper investigates the relationship between the AANR and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. The results show that AANR significantly increases the CO2 emission reduction rate by 0.009 units at the 5% significance level. The results still hold after a series of robustness tests. Given all else being equal, this significant effect is 0.001. Further analyses show that AANR improves pilot cities' CO2 emission reduction rates mainly by enhancing their green innovation capability. The mediating effect of cities' green technology innovation capability accounts for 96.00%, while the AANR's direct effect only accounts for 4.00%. The AANR has significantly positive effects of 0.017% and 0.029% for western cities and cities with high fiscal pressure at the 5% and 1% significance levels, respectively. Therefore, strengthening AANR implementation by enhancing the mediating efficiency of cities' green technology innovations and implementing dynamically differentiated AANR policies in Chinese meso-cities will contribute to the achievement of China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the severity of global climate change escalates, carbon peak and carbon neutrality have emerged as international imperatives. Green taxation, a crucial fiscal strategy promoting the transition to a green low-carbon economy, demands thorough investigation regarding its efficacy and operational mechanisms. Predominantly, existing research has concentrated on the macroeconomic implications of green taxes, while their influence on regional green growth and innovation remains underexplored. This paper delineates green taxation in both a broad and narrow sense, elucidating its essence and potential in stimulating regional green progress and innovation. Utilizing panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning 2004 to 2021, a bidirectional fixed-effects model was developed for empirical analysis. Moreover, an impact mechanism model was constructed to delve into how green taxation specifically affects regional green development and innovation. Findings reveal that green taxation significantly fosters regional green growth and markedly enhances green innovation. Nonetheless, due to the resource crowding-out effect, it adversely impacts the comprehensive innovation capabilities of regional enterprises. This insight offers a fresh perspective on the paradoxical effects of green taxation, underscoring the necessity for a balanced approach in policy design and implementation. Drawing on these conclusions, the paper presents tailored policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through extensive data research and analysis, this paper comprehensively summarizes the status and key insights of global carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) development. It aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the relevant policies, technologies, and security measures adopted by major countries in their CCS development processes. Furthermore, it explores the existing status and limitations of China's offshore development efforts, while providing valuable recommendations for enhancing China's offshore CCS initiatives, as well as serving as a reference for other nations worldwide. Offshore CCS plays a crucial role for China to achieve the development target of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, due to its energy structure and industrial distribution. While China possesses significant offshore CCS potential, achieving commercialization still requires substantial efforts. To facilitate the process and draw insights from successful experiences in other countries, this paper illustrates the characteristics and generalizes the experience of offshore CCS industry practices in America, Europe and Japan, respectively. Furthermore, it is recommended that a new round of investigation into offshore CCS potential be conducted, while promoting integrated collaboration between geological surveying and marine scientific research. Additionally, further research on industrial policies and green financial strategies should be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The electric power sector is the primary contributor to carbon emissions in China. Considering the context of dual carbon goals, this paper examines carbon emissions within China's electricity sector. The research utilizes the LMDI approach for methodological rigor. The results show that the cumulative contribution of economies scale, power consumption factors and energy structure are 114.91%, 85.17% and 0.94%, which contribute to the increase of carbon emissions, the cumulative contribution of power generation efficiency and ratio of power dissipation to generation factor are -19.15% and -0.01%, which promotes the carbon reduction. The decomposition analysis highlights the significant influence of economic scale on carbon emissions in the electricity industry, among the seven factors investigated. Meanwhile, STIRPAT model, Logistic model and GM(1,1) model are used to predict carbon emissions, the average relative error between actual carbon emissions and the predicted values are 0.23%, 8.72% and 7.05%, which indicates that STIRPAT model is more suitable for medium- to long-term predictions. Based on these findings, the paper proposes practical suggestions to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the dual carbon goals of the power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical public institutions such as government offices, hospitals, and schools play important leading and exemplary roles in the green and low-carbon development of the whole society. This paper analyzes the business and energy consumption characteristics of public institutions, as well as the characteristics of personnel travel, and constructs a carbon accounting model for public institutions. It innovatively proposes a methodology for carbon accounting of personnel travel related to public institutions and validates and analyzes it using a comprehensive hospital as an example. The paper analyzes the carbon emission characteristics of various energy types, systems, and types of travelers in hospitals, provides schemes for the transformation of main energy systems, and corresponding emission reduction effects, thereby providing technical support for the full-chain carbon accounting of public institutions. Additionally, this paper explores the carbon reduction pathways for hospitals to support the peak carbon and carbon neutrality goals of public institutions, and promote the high-quality development of public institutions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated energy system is crucial in realizing China's "dual carbon" targets. Considering the carbon capture based electricity to gas and the interaction of multiple markets, this paper proposes a low-carbon operation optimization method of integrated energy system. In terms of market policy, a coupling trading mechanism for carbon trade and green certificates is established. This approach is intended to delve into the profound significance of utilizing green certificates in carbon emission reduction. In terms of equipment models, the coupling model of carbon capture equipment with coal-fired cogeneration unit, as well as power-to-gas equipment with renewable energy, is constructed. In addition, this equipment model is introduced into the operation optimization scheduling of the comprehensive energy systems. A low-carbon economic operational strategy is further proposed to minimize the daily operational costs, by which the integrated energy system is eco-nomically, environmental protection optimized. To verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model, this paper sets up several comparison scenarios and conducts the simulations using GUROBI solver. The results show that the proposed strategy can effectively improve the uptake rate of renewable energy, reduce the carbon emission, improve the operation economy, and realize the complementary incentive effect between markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the goal of " carbon peaking and carbon neutrality," how to create a low-carbon and green development path for cities is an urgent problem in China. One of the effective ways to solve this problem is through industrial collaborative agglomeration. In this paper, panel data of 276 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2020 was selected to investigate the relationship between the collaborative agglomeration of manufacturing and producer service and carbon emission intensity by using a fixed-effects model, intermediary model, and SDM in multiple dimensions. The study found that the collaborative agglomeration of manufacturing and producer service industries significantly influences carbon emission intensity with an inverted U-shaped curve, and the agglomeration of manufacturing and producer service industries can influence carbon emission intensity through technological progress. In addition, the inverted U-shaped impact of collaborative agglomeration of manufacturing and producer services on carbon emission intensity has a spatial spillover effect, and the spatial spillover effect generated is stronger than the impact on the local area. Moreover, from the perspective of industry heterogeneity, compared with low-end producer services, the agglomeration of manufacturing and high-end producer services can play a better role in carbon emission reduction. Regarding regional heterogeneity, compared with the central and western regions, the impact of manufacturing and production services agglomeration on carbon intensity is far more obvious in the more economically developed eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of listed companies in China's iron and steel industry from 2007 to 2020, the article investigates the impact mechanism and the path of action of China's carbon emissions trading pilot on the green total factor productivity of iron and steel enterprises by constructing a multi-period difference-in-difference model difference-in-differences. The study finds that: 1) China's iron and steel enterprises significantly improve their green total factor productivity driven by the carbon trading pilot, and the findings pass the corresponding robustness tests. 2) the mechanism analysis indicates that the carbon trading pilot promotes the green total factor productivity of iron and steel enterprises by forcing the technological progress of enterprises. 3) The heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect is more significant for large iron and steel enterprises with high social responsibility rating and high local government competition intensity, but not for small enterprises with low social responsibility rating and low local government competition intensity. 4) the dynamic effect shows that there is a certain lag in the promotion effect of the carbon emission trading pilot on the green total factor productivity of iron and steel enterprises, but its long-term effect is more obvious. This paper puts forward corresponding suggestions for accelerating the construction of a national unified green and low-carbon market system and actively promoting the deepening of the "dual-carbon" goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric power is the basic industry of a modern country. The rapid development of the power industry has promoted economic development and social progress. With the establishment of the carbon neutrality target of carbon peak, China's power industry is also facing new situations and new challenges. This paper innovatively introduces the concept of allometric growth in biology, and uses the data of provincial electricity consumption and economic development from 1972 to 2017, to study the allometric growth relationship between electricity consumption and economics in China at multiple scales. Combined with the spatial autocorrelation analysis method, the temporal and spatial characteristics of allometric growth between electricity consumption and economic development were researched based on the analysis of spatial correlation of GDP electricity consumption intensity. The results show that: (1) The provincial GDP electricity consumption intensity shows an aggregate distribution, and the local aggregate pattern changed significantly from 1972 to 2017. (2) The High-High Cluster gradually disappeared, and the Low-Low Cluster moved southward, appearing in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. (3) The differential growth coefficient of electricity consumption and economic development increased initially and decreased from 1972 to 2017. (4) GDP would increase by 7.4%, 20.1%, and 15.6% in the simulation of electricity consumption, increasing 10% at the three stages of China's economic development. (5) The allometric growth coefficients of electricity consumption and economic development are very different in the three economic belts, eight economic zones, and provinces with different characteristics at the different stages of economic development. Formulating differentiated regulation policies for regional economic development and electricity consumption will be conducive to the coordinated development of electric power production and the national economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging farmers to adopt greener and cleaner energy is crucial for reducing energy pollution and achieving carbon neutrality goals. In rural China, the decision making of farmers is often closely related to the whole family. At different stages of the family life cycle, the family has different characteristics, which leads to heterogeneity in the focus and final decision of farmers in adopting living clean energy. Therefore, this paper studies the farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior from the perspective of the family life cycle. It is helpful to identify the different policy needs and the evolution of farmers in different stages in order to provide a reference and inspiration for encouraging the adoption of living clean energy by farmers and for promoting the development of clean energy in rural areas. Based on the survey data of 1382 farmers in Jiangxi Province, this paper uses a multiple linear regression model to explore the impact of the family life cycle on farmers' clean energy adoption behavior. The results show the following: (1) The family life cycle has a significant impact on farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior, which is reflected in four aspects: energy demand, livelihood strategy, health demand and support burden; (2) Awareness of environmental ecology and frequency of government promotion have significant positive effects on farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior, while gender has significant negative effects on farmers' clean energy adoption behavior; (3) There are also differences in the influencing factors of farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior at different stages of the family life cycle. Therefore, when promoting clean energy in rural areas, a precise clean energy incentive mechanism should be adopted to treat families in different family life cycle stages differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the 75th United Nations General Assembly, China formally proposed the goals of achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, which is referred to as the "double carbon" strategic goal. And energy revolution is the key to achieve this goal. More and more energy enterprises seek to promote the "double carbon" goal through the digital platformization. However, the mechanism of digital platformization promoting the realization of "double carbon" goal is still unclear. Based on the perspective of platform ecosystem and organization structure, this paper deeply analyzes the key intermediary role of energy production mode change and energy trading mode change in energy transformation. This paper also studies the regulatory effect of policy environment, digital platform characteristics, platform leverage, value chain changes, and the ability of digital technology practice and innovatively puts forward the theoretical model. This model reveals the transmission path and internal mechanism of digital platformization of energy companies to promote the realization of dual-carbon goal. Through the established model, this paper analyzes a case that present the commercial digital platformization process developed by Chinese energy company. Such an innovative process in China context has been developed in order to contribute to achieve "double carbon" goals for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the transformation of trade patterns affects carbon emissions is an important topic in the field of trade and the environment. Based on the panel data of Chinese cities from 2000 to 2016, this paper uses fixed effect model, instrumental variable model and threshold estimation model to investigate the impact of the transformation of export trade patterns on carbon emissions and its internal mechanism. We find that during the investigation period, the transformation of export trade pattern has a significant "U"-shaped nonlinear impact on carbon emissions, and the research results still hold after a series of robustness checks and instrumental variable estimation; through the mechanism analysis of the threshold effect, it is found that in the process of the impact of trade patterns transformation on carbon emissions, there are double thresholds for energy structure transition; the nonlinear impact of export trade pattern transformation on carbon emissions has significant heterogeneity in different regions, city categories, and different periods; the mechanism analysis results show that industrial structure upgrading, industrial co-agglomeration, and green technology innovation are the main paths that the transformation of export trade patterns affects carbon emissions. Under the dual goals of fulfilling China's commitment to "carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060" and implementing corporate social governance to promote green and sustainable development, this paper will provide suggestions for realizing the goal of low-carbon emission reduction from the perspective of the transformation of export trade patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is planning to introduce carbon tax policy to control the carbon emissions of the country better and achieve the "3060 goals", but there is still widespread discussion about how to introduce it and how to combine it with cap and trade. China has already established a national carbon emission trading market; however, there is also disagreement on whether to impose the carbon tax on companies and projects that have been included in scope of cap and trade. This paper adopts the research method of experimental economics to study the effect on social economy and social emission reduction under cap and trade, carbon tax, and carbon tax-carbon trading policies, and analyzes average prices of carbon market under cap and trade and carbon tax-carbon trading policies. The study finds that under the carbon tax-carbon trading policy, carbon emissions cannot be reduced significantly; but the profits of manufacturers will be reduced significantly; meanwhile, this reduction effect is even more severe for high consumption manufacturers; and it will be resulting in a lower average carbon market price under the carbon tax-carbon trading policies than under the cap and trade policy. This paper will provide theoretical suggestions for introducing carbon tax policy into China in the future and make policy recommendations for the better development of China's carbon market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major environmental concern today is the carbon emissions caused by rapid urbanization. As the largest developing country and carbon emitter, China has controlled the urban growth boundary (UGB) as a quasi-experimental policy to achieve carbon neutrality. Therefore, this paper employs the difference in differences (DID) method, for panel data from 2000 to 2019 in China to shed light on the effects on carbon emissions. Results show that the UGB can reduce carbon emissions considerably. After the implementation of the policy, the carbon emissions of the pilot cities decreased by 23.91%. Additionally, a series of robustness tests such as PSM-DID and Placebo tests support the conclusions. Moreover, the greater influence is reflected in the scope of the whole city and the intensity of the permanent plan. The UGB is more susceptible to cities in the central and western areas and cities with weak environmental regulations. Through the mechanism tests, the emission reduction effect of the UGB will be greater in cities with larger vegetation coverage and advanced industry structure. Furthermore, our analysis suggests the UGB needs to be adequately promoted as a policy to achieve carbon neutrality in cities. To make the policy more effective, vegetation cover and industrial structure ought to be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the carbon emission trading system (ETS) on firms' market competitiveness has been a controversial issue with no consistent theoretical conclusions. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of the carbon emission trading system on firms' markups using the latest robust staggered difference-in-difference estimation method. The results show that China's carbon emission trading system greatly contributes to the enhancement of firms' market power, as evidenced by a series of robustness tests. In addition, the analysis of the impact mechanism shows that the carbon emission trading system enhances the market power of firms through the low-carbon innovation effect and the market integration effect, while the impact of the environmental cost effect is not obvious. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of China's carbon trading system policy on firms' market power is more pronounced, especially for those firms that are actively involved in low-carbon transformation and upgrading, have a stronger cost-shifting capacity, and are more efficient in production. This study provides empirical evidence on how environmental regulations affect firms' market power and offers theoretical guidance for the construction of China's carbon market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant industrial transformation in China's tourism sector is currently taking place in response to carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets. This paper applies the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to calculate the efficiency of the tourism industry under carbon emission constraints and further investigates its influencing factors through the Tobit regression. The results are as follows: (1) The tourism efficiency under carbon emission constraints of China from 2000 to 2019 showed a trend of first rising and then declining, and there were obvious regional differences; (2) from 2000 to 2019, the total factor productivity of tourism in China increased significantly, while the contributions of technical progress, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency decreased sequentially; (3) the factors of industrial structure, transportation convenience, economic development level, degree of opening to the outside world, and the level of scientific and technological development have varying degrees of influence on tourism efficiency. Based on the analysis results, this paper puts forward several policy suggestions on tourism efficiency and low-carbon development. The findings of this paper have some bearing on developing nations' efforts to boost tourism efficiency and realize high-quality industry growth within the framework of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The double-carbon goal proposal has made it imperative for China's power industry to address the urgent issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and promoting their clean and efficient use. A new approach to achieving peak-shaving and improving grid stability is the combination of carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities with coal-fired power plants, which offers a strategic solution for mitigating climate change. Nonetheless, the viability of CCS retrofitting for coal-fired power plants in China hinges on its economic feasibility. The technical characteristics, economic analysis, and policy implications of clean coal-fired power plant equipped with CCS (CCP-CCS) technologies are evaluated in the paper. A comparison of the characteristics of different clean coal power generation technologies, including capacity, efficiency, coal consumption, and environmental performance, is conducted. The paper analyzes the economic feasibility of four typical clean coal power generation technologies, namely Supercritical (SC), Ultra-supercritical (USC), Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), and Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB), both with and without CCS, using the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) model. Financial parameters, investment parameters, operation and maintenance parameters, tax parameters, and capacity parameters are all considered in the LCOE model. The results indicate: (1) If CCS is not installed, the LCOE of USC power plants is the lowest at 0.37 yuan/kWh, while the LCOE of IGCC power plants is the highest at 0.44 yuan/kWh. (2) If CCS is installed, the LCOE of CFB units is the highest at 0.74 yuan/kWh, while the LCOE of USC units is the lowest at 0.60 yuan/kWh. (3) In sensitivity analysis, coal prices have the most significant impact on LCOE, followed by expected annual operating hours, while the cost of carbon capture equipment is the least sensitive. (4) The cost of retrofitting CCS on clean coal-fired power plants (CCP) is currently high, with an LCOE increase of around 40 to 70%, which is comparable to that of renewable energy electricity. This paper presents policy recommendations, including preferential loans, tax incentives, and R&D funding, to promote the development of CCP in China based on the economic analysis results and challenges faced by CCP. Additionally, the paper proposes relevant policy implications such as preferential loan policies, a diversified financing system, R&D and innovation, and the establishment of a carbon trading market for CCS in China to provide practical guidance for the promotion of CCP-CCS technologies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shadow price of carbon emissions can measure the marginal output effect under the carbon emission regulation and is also one of the key indicators to construct a low-carbon development path for production units. Currently, international research on shadow price is focused on the industrial and energy sectors. However, in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets in China, the use of shadow price to study the cost of reducing emissions from agricultural production, especially forestry fruit industries, is significant. In this paper, we use a parametric approach to construct the quadratic ambient directional distance function. Using the input–output data of peach, we then calculate the environmental technical efficiency and shadow price of carbon emissions from peach production in Guangxi, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Sichuan provinces, and further estimate the values of green output in each province. The results show that (i) the environmental technology efficiency of peach production in Jiangsu province, located in the coastal plain area of eastern China, is the highest among the four provinces, while that in Guangxi province, located in the hilly area of southeast China, is the lowest. (ii) Guangxi province has the smallest carbon shadow price of peach production among the four provinces, while Sichuan province, located in the mountainous area of southwest China, has the largest. (iii) The green output value of the peach production in Jiangsu province is the highest among the four provinces, and that in Guangxi province is the lowest. In order to effectively reduce carbon emissions in peach production without affecting economic benefits, the paper puts forward the following suggestions: for peach-producing areas in the southeast hills of China, it is necessary to increase the application of green environmental technology while reducing the input of production factors in peach production. For peach-producing areas in the northern plains of China, the input of production factors should be reduced. It is not easy for peach-producing areas in the southwest mountains of China to reduce the input of production factors while increasing the application of green technologies. Finally, for peach-producing areas in China's eastern coastal plain, the implementation of environmental regulations for peach production should be gradual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid-state hydrogen storage technology has emerged as a disruptive solution to the "last mile" challenge in large-scale hydrogen energy applications, garnering significant global research attention. This paper systematically reviews the Chinese research progress in solid-state hydrogen storage material systems, thermodynamic mechanisms, and system integration. It also quantitatively assesses the market potential of solid-state hydrogen storage across four major application scenarios: on-board hydrogen storage, hydrogen refueling stations, backup power supplies, and power grid peak shaving. Furthermore, it analyzes the bottlenecks and challenges in industrialization related to key materials, testing standards, and innovation platforms. While acknowledging that the cost and performance of solid-state hydrogen storage are not yet fully competitive, the paper highlights its unique advantages of high safety, energy density, and potentially lower costs, showing promise in new energy vehicles and distributed energy fields. Breakthroughs in new hydrogen storage materials like magnesium-based and vanadium-based materials, coupled with improved standards, specifications, and innovation mechanisms, are expected to propel solid-state hydrogen storage into a mainstream technology within 10–15 years, with a market scale exceeding USD 14.3 billion. To accelerate the leapfrog development of China's solid-state hydrogen storage industry, increased investment in basic research, focused efforts on key core technologies, and streamlining the industry chain from materials to systems are recommended. This includes addressing challenges in passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and hydrogen refueling stations, and building a collaborative innovation ecosystem involving government, industry, academia, research, finance, and intermediary entities to support the achievement of carbon peak and neutrality goals and foster a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient modern energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the impact of carbon neutral announcements on "stock market value" of publicly listed companies in China. Design/methodology/approach: The event study approach is adopted. Market, market-adjusted, Carhart four-factor model and a cross-sectional regression model are employed to examine the impacts of carbon neutral announcements on "stock market value" of Chinese companies based on data from 188 carbon neutral announcements. Findings: Carbon neutral announcements positively impact Chinese shareholder value. Carbon neutral announcements at the strategic level have a more positive and significant impact on Chinese stock market value. Innovative carbon neutral announcements do not significantly cause Chinese stock market reactions. Companies have more positive and significant stock market reactions when the companies make carbon neutral announcements that reflect high supply chain network resilience and heterogeneity and strong supply chain network relationships. Practical implications: The findings uncover the business value of carbon neutral activities and provide operations managers in developing countries insights into how to improve enterprises' market value by actively implementing carbon neutral activities. Originality/value: This paper is the first trial to apply an event study to examine the relationship between carbon neutral announcements and Chinese stock market value from the perspective of announcement level and type and supply chain networks. This paper introduces corporate reputation theory and enriches the application of corporate reputation theory in the field of low-carbon environmental protections and supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinating policies is an essential guarantee for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Based on the theoretical framework of the policy paradigm, we quantitatively analyze 266 policy documents on promoting carbon emission trading and green financial policies from 2011 to 2022 using the content analysis research method. Based on the matching network of "policy objectives-policy tools," we analyze the synergistic characteristics of carbon emission trading policies and green financial policies in promoting carbon emission reduction targets and reveal the matching mode of "objectives-tools" of green financial policies by using social network analysis. It is found that, first, from the perspective of policy objectives, the main policy objectives of carbon emissions trading are to promote green innovation of enterprises, and the main policy objectives of green finance are to promote green development, which reflects the consistency and endogenous motivation of policy objectives. Secondly, command-control and market incentive policy tools are the main policy tools in the structure of policy tools. The proportion of public participation policy tools is small, and there is a structural asymmetry. Third, carbon emissions trading tools focus on supervision, adjustment, and platform construction. The green financial policy tools have the characteristics of guidance, public welfare, and externality. The two constitute a complementary, embedded, and integrated ' double synergy ' carbon emission reduction policy. Based on this, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote policy coordination and provides a reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon policies are essential for facilitating manufacturing industries' low-carbon transformation and achieving carbon neutrality in China. However, recent studies usually apply proxy variables to quantify policies, while composite indices of policy intensity measured by objectives and instruments focus more on the national level. It is deficient in direct and comprehensive quantification for low-carbon policies. Hence, having extended the meaning of policy intensity, this paper constructs a low-carbon policy intensity index quantified by policy level, objective and instrument via phrase-oriented NLP algorithm and text-based prompt learning. This process is based on the low-carbon policy inventory we built for China's manufacturing industries containing 7282 national-, provincial- and prefecture-level policies over 2007–2022. Lastly, we organize the dataset in two formats (.dta and.xlsx) for multidiscipline researchers. Apart from the inventory and intensity for each policy, the policy intensity is also aggregated to national-, provincial- and prefecture-level with sub-intensity for four objectives and three instruments. This dataset has potential uses for future studies by merging with macro and micro data related to low-carbon performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve the ambitious goal of "carbon neutrality", countries around the world are striving to develop clean energy. Against this background, this paper takes China and Italy as representatives of developing and developed countries to summarize the energy structure composition and development overview of the two countries. The paper analyzes the serious challenges facing the future energy development of both countries and investigates the possibilities of energy cooperation between the two countries, taking into account their respective advantages in energy development. By comparing the policies issued by the two governments to encourage clean energy development, this paper analyzes the severe challenges faced by the two countries' energy development in the future and combines their respective energy development advantages to look forward to the possibility of energy cooperation between the two countries in the future. This lays the foundation for China and Italy to build an "Energy Road" after the "Silk Road". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving tourism carbon neutrality is essential for sustainable tourism development. This paper uses the coupled coordination distance model, modified gravity model and social network analysis to attempt to construct a nationwide tourism carbon neutral spatial network to clarify the role of each province in the process of achieving China's tourism carbon neutrality. The results show that: (1) only seven provinces will achieve tourism carbon neutrality in the target year of carbon neutrality in China (2060). (2) From 2001 to 2060, most provinces are at the stage of coordinated development of tourism carbon emissions and tourism carbon sinks, but the degree of coordinated development is low. (3) The structure of China's tourism carbon-neutral spatial network tends to be looser from 2001 to 2060. As the time series progresses, the role of each province in the spatial network will be gradually clarified. (4) In the process of achieving the goal of China's tourism carbon neutrality, the number of tourism carbon sink input areas is much larger than that of tourism carbon sink output areas. Accordingly, this paper proposes countermeasures from three aspects: government-led, market system and voluntary mechanisms, in order to promote the achievement of China's tourism carbon neutrality goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission trading has been actively applied in many countries, and its operational effect has received widespread attention. However, previous studies mostly focused on single environmental effect, and the investigation of the comprehensive environmental effect needs to be further supplemented. Based on this, this paper explores the comprehensive environmental effect of carbon emission trading with eco-efficiency as the starting point. First, this paper measures eco-efficiency using the super-efficient minimum distance to strong efficient frontier (MinDS) model with undesirable outputs. Second, this paper uses the propensity score matching difference in difference (PSM-DID) model to quantify the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. Finally, this paper examines the mediating mechanism of the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency based on the mediating effect model. The results show that carbon emission trading can improve the level of urban eco-efficiency. Energy savings and increased efficiency effectively mediate the promoting effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. The mediating push effect of R&D innovation and industrial structure restructuring has not yet appeared. This paper can not only provide policy basis for the improvement of carbon emission trading market but also provide reference for the construction of carbon emission trading market in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and collects firm-level green innovation data that matches it with provinces and cities. Then, this paper executes quasi-natural experiments on green innovation to examine the effects of China's emission trading policy on green innovation. Further, this paper introduces the interactive terms of the pilot time and pilot area dummy variables into the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and spatial dynamic panel model (SDPM) to construct quasi-natural experiments to examine the spatial effect. The findings confirm a negative association between the 'policy treatment effect' and green innovation. The results also indicate a significant negative association between the emissions trading policy and clean energy. Besides, the empirical results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and green innovation; clean energy promotes green innovation in the region and the surrounding areas. This paper complements existing research and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for developing clean energy, promoting green innovation, and improving the emission trading policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is the only way for green low-carbon development. Technological progress is an important starting point for improving energy efficiency. Through scientific and technological innovation, improving energy efficiency is a practical way to achieve the goal of carbon neutralization. Due to the limitation of data and index selection, there is no qualitative analysis of carbon neutrality in this paper. Compared with previous studies, the paper has the following contributions: Firstly, the energy efficiency score of China's provincial level is measured with the DEA method and it is found that the average energy efficiency score of the eastern region is the highest, followed by the western region, and finally the central region. The results also show that the energy efficiency is not in accordance with the economic growth. The regions with higher energy efficiency scores are not always economically developed because of huge energy consumption supporting the economic development. Secondly, the Tobit method is used to study the impact of the reverse technology spillover effect of OFDI on China's energy efficiency. The results show that the spillover effect has a significant positive effect on the improvement of China's energy efficiency, and has a positive impact on the eastern and western regions, but has no significant impact on the western region. Finally, we put forward some policy recommendations to increase energy efficiency to approach carbon neutrality and thus promote green economic development. This paper enriches the content of energy economy, the research method is innovative, and the conclusion is more scientific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial impact effects and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the digital economy on urban carbon emissions (CO2). Specifically, firstly, the Digital Economy Index (DEI) system of 285 cities in China was constructed and the Global Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) was applied to evaluate the digital economy level of Chinese cities. Based on spatial correlation and spatial heterogeneity, the paper explores the global spatial impact and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the impact of digital economy on CO2 using spatial Durbin model (SDM) and geographic time-weighted regression (GTWR), respectively. And the mechanism variables are used to further demonstrate the mechanism effect and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of digital economy on CO2. The findings indicate that (1) the advancement of the digital economy is beneficial for achieving carbon abatement goals, and the impact of the digital economy on CO2 mitigation remains stable across several robustness tests. (2) The spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the impact of carbon reduction is not significant. And there is significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions. (3) According to the mechanism analysis, the digital economy reduces carbon emissions by encouraging the development of green technologies and promoting the modernization of industrial structures. And there are non-linear characteristics of this effect. This study concludes that the digital economy can support China's goal of achieving "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." However, it is important to consider the differences in urban development over time and space. Leveraging the city's strengths to develop a digital economy in a unique way that will help achieve China's carbon reduction goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing electric vehicle (EV) energy storage technology is a strategic position from which the automotive industry can achieve low-carbon growth, thereby promoting the green transformation of the energy industry in China. This paper will reveal the opportunities, challenges, and strategies in relation to developing EV energy storage. First, this paper clarifies the strategic value and potential of developing EV energy storage under the carbon neutrality goal. Second, this paper demonstrates strategic opportunities and challenges during the development. Third, this paper proposes methods for creating a good market environment and business models. Finally, this paper suggests that relevant policies and regulations should be formulated and charts the course of technology development. The results show that EV energy storage technology has potential in terms of technology, the scale of development, and the user economy. The proposal of the carbon neutrality goal, the increasing market share of EVs, lower-cost and higher-efficiency batteries, etc., have all further accelerated the development of EV energy storage. The EV energy storage field should focus on developing battery technology, make advancements toward delivering longer cycle lives and improving the safety and availability of battery materials, and ramp up the R&D efforts with respect to developing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) management technologies. Simultaneously, it is necessary to create a business ecosystem centered on V2G operating platforms, constituting a process to which various players can contribute and achieve mutually beneficial results. It is also essential to formulate top-level strategic plans across industries and organizations, develop an electricity-trading mechanism as soon as possible, and promote the implementation of technical standards related to EV energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the background of carbon neutrality targets, panel data of 30 Chinese provinces during 2000–2019 were selected in this paper to explore the nonlinear correlation mechanism among transportation, tourism development, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Firstly, by employing a fixed effects model as the base model, we confirmed the existence of correlations among these variables. And the nonlinear moderating effects were also verified by setting interaction terms in the model. Secondly, we further discussed the characteristics of the nonlinear relationship among the variables by employing a threshold effects model. Our results demonstrated that the effect of transportation on economic growth is positive and significant if and only if renewable energy consumption surpasses a certain threshold. Meanwhile, we also found that the effect of tourism development on economic growth is positive when non-renewable energy consumption is under a certain threshold. Finally, our study indicated that transportation maintains a positive and significant effect on economic growth within any threshold of tourism development, and the positive effect gradually increases as the threshold rises. The findings of this paper suggested that for China, the contribution of transportation and tourism to economic growth can be expanded by further expanding the substitution of renewable energy for non-renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]