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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]

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 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]

This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of "carbon peaking and carbon neutral," this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening the synergistic management of carbon and haze is an important means to realize China's "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals" and green development. In this paper, the entropy method is used to measure the key core technology innovation level of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, and the fixed-effect model is used to empirically test the impact of key core technology innovation on carbon haze synergistic governance and the internal mechanism. The study found that (1) key core technological innovation helps to promote carbon haze synergistic governance. (2) The mechanism test shows that key core technology innovation promotes the synergistic management of carbon haze by improving the clean energy structure. (3) The moderating effect shows that both market incentives and government environmental regulations will strengthen the positive relationship between key core technology innovation and carbon haze synergistic governance. The main contribution of this paper is to reveal the influence mechanism of key core technology innovation on carbon haze synergistic governance, and also to provide theoretical basis for the mechanism and law of carbon haze synergistic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China needs to achieve its carbon peaking target with minimal economic costs. This paper proposes a framework for achieving the carbon peaking target that emphasizes economic effects. Based on the prediction, the parametric directional distance function (DDF) is adopted to calculate the total factor carbon emission efficiency and marginal carbon abatement cost in each region of China before 2030, and the allocation scheme of the abatement tasks necessary for carbon peaking is optimized from the perspective of least cost. The empirical results show the following: (1) The predicted rapid growth of China's economy from 2020 to 2030 will lead to a rapid increase in marginal abatement costs, with the average marginal carbon abatement cost increasing from 8,833 yuan/ton to 15,077 yuan/ton. The cost of carbon emission reduction in the future is very expensive. (2) The measured marginal abatement costs in China are positively correlated with carbon emission efficiency. In order to ensure economic development, developed regions should try to maintain the development trend, while the central and western regions take on more emission reduction tasks. (3) The emission efficiency is improved by optimizing the allocation scheme of the abatement tasks required to reach the peak, and the scientific and orderly path to reach the peak of each province and the corresponding lowest economic cost are obtained. This paper are of great theoretical and practical significance for the initial quota allocation in carbon trading market and ensuring the achievement of carbon peaking target under economic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual increase of international willingness to reach the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this paper decomposes the influencing factors of China's carbon emission changes from 2008 to 2019 using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index model (LMDI), and analyzes the contribution amount and rate of each influencing factor. The results found that: for the whole country, the cumulative growth of carbon emissions during the study period is about 416,484.47 (104 tons), among which the economic growth effect plays a major role in promoting, with a cumulative contribution rate of 284.16%; The increase in regulation intensity and the optimization of industrial structure, however, suppress carbon emissions well, with a cumulative contribution rate of about – 199.21% and − 64.75%, respectively, during the study period. For economic regions, the cumulative influence direction of each driver is the same as that of the whole country, while the population size effect in the northeast economic region and the regulation input effect in the eastern coastal economic region act in the opposite direction from other economic regions, and the carbon emission reduction direction of the energy intensity effect varies from one economic region to another. Accordingly, this paper proposes policy recommendations to enhance regulatory intensity, optimize industrial and energy consumption structure, implement localized emission reduction strategies, and promote synergistic emission reduction in economic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It will contribute to ameliorating the national carbon trading system and further benefit the realization of China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals through in-depth study and summarize the effectiveness of carbon trading policy implementation in pilot areas. Based on the multi-phase difference-in-differences approach and synthetic control method, this paper utilizes China's provincial panel data from 2006 to 2020 to comprehensively assess the Porter effect (including the economic and green innovation effects) and carbon mitigation effect of carbon trading policy from the overall and local perspectives. Then the robustness test and mechanism analysis are carried out. The findings show that: (1) from the overall effect, the carbon trading policy brings a noticeable carbon mitigation effect and Porter effect, and the intensity of the impact keeps changing over time; (2) there is significant heterogeneity in the local effects of this policy on the eight pilot provinces and cities, with only Chongqing obtaining both the Porter effect and the carbon mitigation effect, while the rest of the regions do not yield the triple dividend of economic, environmental, and green innovation simultaneously; (3) there are much more prominent environment and green innovation effects in the developed regions, while the underdeveloped ones have better economic development and no green innovation effect; (4) the policy can bring environmental and economic dividends through energy structure optimization. However, due to the carbon rebound effect, stimulating green innovation pathways can only boost the economy while carbon emissions increase instead. The research conclusions can provide the decision support and policy direction for policies related to China's carbon market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clean and low-carbon transition of China's power sector is of great importance to the achievement of dual carbon targets and the control of global warming. This paper first estimates the remaining carbon budget of the power sector under a 1.5 °C temperature control target and on this basis constructs 1.5 °C and 2 °C power transition scenarios, examining key boundary conditions such as economic development and changes in the cost of power generation technologies. Second, the Genetic Algorithm-Extreme Learning Machine (GA-ELM) model is used to forecast the electricity demand for the next forty years. Finally, with the objective of minimising the total planning cost, a pathway optimisation model of the power system is constructed to explore the optimal transition path for the power system using the dual carbon target, carbon budget and electricity demand as the main constraints. The results of the study show that the carbon budget of the Chinese power sector is approximately 7.1 × 1010 t CO2 for a 1.5 °C temperature control target. The electricity demand tends to saturate after 2050 and reaches 1.58 × 1013 kWh in 2060. The time of the carbon peak and carbon neutralisation in the power sector is 5 years ahead of the double carbon target. By 2060, the power system will be dominated by new energy sources, with the proportion of installed non-fossil energy capacity at over 90% and the proportion of non-fossil energy generation at over 85%. Compared to that under the 2 °C temperature control target, the power sector under the 1.5 °C temperature control target needs to accelerate the pace of the low-carbon transition of electricity and deal with key issues such as the orderly withdrawal of coal power, the construction of a diversified clean energy system and the application of carbon capture devices. This study recommends that the process of building a zero-emissions power sector requires a good pace of the construction of new power systems at a suitable pace, increased efforts to tackle key technologies and improved relevant market mechanisms. China's carbon–neutral pathway in the power sector also has implications for other countries' clean, low-carbon transitions of their power systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a powerful engine for economic reform and curbing carbon emissions, digital inclusive finance provides solid support for achieving the goal of digital carbon neutrality. This study reveals the positive effect of digital inclusive finance on carbon emission reduction and the deeper reasons behind it by digging deeper into the panel data of 213 cities in China. The study adopts advanced empirical analysis methods to rigorously test the association between digital inclusive finance and carbon emissions. The results show that there is a strong positive correlation between the booming development of digital inclusive finance and the significant decline in carbon emissions. This finding remains solid after several rounds of robustness tests, which fully proves the reliability of the research results. Further mechanism analysis reveals the multiple paths of digital financial inclusion on carbon emission reduction. First, it promotes the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure by optimizing the allocation of financial resources, thus reducing the proportion of high-carbon emission industries. Second, digital inclusive finance attracts more foreign capital inflows and introduces advanced low-carbon technologies and management experience, further promoting the development of low-carbon economy. In addition, the study also found that the differences between different cities in terms of geographic location and city size have a significant impact on the carbon emission reduction effect of digital inclusive finance. In particular, the carbon emission reduction effect of digital inclusive finance is particularly significant in western regions, central cities, and first-tier cities. In response to these findings, this paper proposes a series of targeted policy recommendations. First, the financial service system should be further optimized to increase the coverage and penetration of digital inclusive finance, especially in less developed regions and small- and medium-sized cities. Second, regional policy synergies should be strengthened to form a strong synergy to promote the development of a low-carbon economy. In addition, it should guide capital flows to low-carbon industries and encourage enterprises to increase green technology research and development and application, while actively promoting low-carbon consumption concepts and guiding consumers to form green consumption habits. Through the implementation of these measures, it is expected that the potential of digital inclusive finance in the development of a low-carbon economy will be further stimulated, making a greater contribution to the realization of the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses green innovation and environmental pollution as the mediating variables to construct a mediating effect model to investigate whether China's carbon emission trading policy can improve regional eco-efficiency by reducing regional environmental pollution and stimulating green innovation. This study is based on panel data from 30 provinces and municipalities directly under China's central government and autonomous regions from 2003 to 2019. The eco-efficiency of these provinces is measured using the super-efficiency DEA model and the difference-in-difference method (DID). The results show that (1) China's emission trading policy significantly improves regional ecological efficiency and the per capita GDP. The improvement can effectively improve regional ecological efficiency. (2) The mediating effect of green innovation and environmental pollution is significant. That is, China's carbon emission trading policy further improves regional ecological efficiency by stimulating more green innovation and reducing the synergy brought by environmental pollution. (3) There are differences in the feedback of this impact mechanism between different regions: It shows the characteristics of the western region being more significant than the eastern region. The central region has no significant effect. The research conclusion can provide a policy reference for the subsequent unified promotion of the construction of a carbon emission trading market nationwide and a theoretical basis for helping to achieve the "dual carbon" goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitter in the world. Industrial ecologicalization (IE) as an effective way to reduce carbon emission and achieve green growth is vital for China to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Thus, it is necessary and urgent to evaluate the industrial ecologicalization level (IEL) in China. Based on the connotation and characteristics of IE and PSR model, this paper first establishes a comprehensive evaluation index system of the IEL and then uses the global entropy method (OEM) and spatial data analysis (ESDA) to analyze the dynamic evaluation, regional disparity, and spatial correlation of IEL in China. The results show that: (1) The innovation support and the structure optimization are the main stimulus in improving the IEL in China, whose weights of indexes have reached 0.263 and 0.268. (2) The overall IEL has improved steadily in China but differs significantly among provinces during the research period. (3) The regional disparity of IEL presents the Eastern region is leading, whereas the Middle and Western regions are lagging from a geographical perspective; the Northern Coast and Eastern Coast have ranked the top two compared with other six economic regions. (4) The five provinces, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, constitute the main agglomeration areas of IEL in China based on the spatial correlation features. The findings of this paper cannot only provide a theoretical basis and practice reference for IEL evaluation but also benefit more focused policy-making of the sustainable development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy and the pursuit of carbon peak and carbon neutrality have emerged as crucial focal points for China's future development. However, the intricate relationship between the digital economy and carbon intensity remains uncertain. Based on the construction of the digital economy evaluation index system, using panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019, this study estimates the impact of the digital economy development on carbon intensity by adopting the system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) technique. The results show that the digital economy can effectively reduce the carbon intensity. This conclusion was supported by robustness tests. However, the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy exhibits heterogeneity with respect to the digital economy dimensions and regions. In addition to digital industrialization and industrial digitization reducing the carbon intensity, the digital economy development carrier has an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship with carbon intensity. Additionally, the digital economy has a more obvious inhibitory effect on carbon intensity in the eastern region. Most importantly, besides the mediating effects of technological progress and financial development, this paper finds that the digital economy can increase carbon intensity through human capital accumulation. These conclusions provide a certain scientific basis for the effective implementation of China's digital economy and carbon peak and carbon–neutral development strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon transition is a systemic economic and social change that will inevitably have an impact on many areas of the urban system. Has China's ongoing low-carbon transition impacted urban resilience (UR) systems while achieving urban energy saving and carbon emission reduction goals? This paper uses the implementation of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy (CETPP) as a "quasi-natural experiment." It evaluates the impact of the policy on UR using a difference-in-differences model based on the data of prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2020. The study shows that pilot carbon trading policies favor UR, and the market mechanism of carbon emissions has a heterogeneous cause influence on UR. The impact of pilot carbon trading policies on UR varies according to the respective moderating effects of institutional factors, green technology innovation, industrial structure rationalization, and output effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality," an urgent practical problem is how green finance decreases carbon emissions. This paper uses the dynamic spatial Durbin model and China's provincial panel data to empirically test the impact of green credit on carbon emissions. The results show that green credit effectively curbs carbon emissions, and has significant spatial spillover effects on the carbon emissions. In the short run, the spillover effects of green credit on carbon emissions are greater than the direct effects, but in the long run, the direct effects of green credit on carbon emissions are greater than the spillover effects. The mechanism test finds that upgrading industrial structure is an important transmission channel for green credit to affect carbon emissions, and energy consumption only plays a part of the intermediary role in the direct impact of green credit on carbon emissions. However, green credit has not achieved the goal of carbon emission reduction by promoting low-carbon technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on mainland China's provincial OFDI and carbon emissions data from 2003 to 2018, this paper applied a panel fixed-effects model and spatial econometric model to empirically test whether China's OFDI can be a powerful tool to achieve the "carbon neutrality" target. The empirical results indicate that China's OFDI significantly increases carbon emissions, but this effect has temporal and spatial differences. After incorporating spatial factors into the analysis, the impact of OFDI on carbon emissions differs when modelled by different spatial weight matrices. The green effect of OFDI has the problem of poor channels. It is impossible to achieve energy savings and emission reduction by promoting green technology innovation, improving the rationalization of the industrial structure or reducing energy consumption. The test results of the moderating effect indicate that the development of green finance can weaken the positive effect of OFDI on emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emissions trading scheme (CETS) in China is an important market-based environmental policy mechanism for decreasing carbon emissions. This paper calculates the total factor carbon productivity (TFCP) based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2020 using the DEA method and investigates the impact of the CETS on regional TFCP using the differences-in-differences (DID) method, all against the backdrop of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. The research findings reveal that CETS has consistently improved TFCP in pilot cities, and this conclusion has held up following a number of robustness tests. Temporal heterogeneity experiments demonstrate that as implementation time increases, the enhancing effect takes on an inverted "U-shaped" structure with a 7-year effective lifetime. Spatial heterogeneity studies reveal that as one moves away from the pilot cities, the policy effect on surrounding cities' TFCP is inhibited, followed by facilitation. CETS policies can influence regional TFCP through the effects of green innovation and industry upgrading, according to mediation mechanism testing. We present policy recommendations based on the research findings for meeting the "dual" carbon goals and strengthening the carbon trading mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural carbon emission reduction is an important issue in environmental protection and development in China and the world. The farmland spatial transition is an important path for agricultural modernization in developing countries such as China. How can farmland spatial transition promote agricultural carbon emission reduction? This paper aims to explore the mechanisms and spatial-temporal effects of farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emission density. To study the mechanisms and effects, we establish the random effect model, the threshold model, and the GTWR model with 2018 counties in China from 2000 to 2020. The research shows the farmland spatial transition mainly promotes agricultural carbon emission reduction through the interaction mechanism of large-scale production and specialized production, intermediary, and threshold mechanisms of agricultural technology. The result also shows that specialized farmland management is the main driving force of agricultural carbon emission reduction for farmland spatial transition. Moreover, the impact of farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emission reduction has significant spatial and temporal differences. The most significant regions are located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain, while the least are the north and southwest. Besides, the impact of the farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emissions reduction has a "V" shape over time, indicating China's agricultural carbon emission reduction is facing enormous economic and social development challenges. Our research reveals the various mechanisms and spatial-temporal effects of the transition of farmland spatial morphology on agricultural carbon emission with an evaluation framework, which is crucial to low-carbon agriculture with proper farmland use. [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]

Green technological innovation has gained in importance in regional policy making towards gaining competitive advantage and sustainable development. This paper used the data envelopment analysis method to calculate regional green innovation efficiency in China, and empirically tested the effect of fiscal decentralization through Tobit model. The regression results show that the local governments with higher fiscal autonomy would prefer to strengthen environmental protection; thus, the regional green innovation efficiency was improved. After the guidance of relevant national development strategies, these effects became more apparent. Our research provided theoretical support and practical guidance for promoting regional led green innovation, improving environmental quality, achieving carbon neutrality, and promoting the high-quality and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of green economy development, efforts and measurements aimed to balance the relationship between the economy and environment have been vigorously promoted. Among these regulations, the policy of China's carbon emissions trading (CET) pilot, one of the market-based environmental regulations, is favorable for China to take a path that can trigger both improvement of environmental quality and optimization of economic structure. In this paper, we adopt the slacks-based measure and data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model considering the undesired output and the Luenberger function to measure and decompose the green total factor productivity (GTFP) and verify the policy effect of CET on environment, economy and productivity through difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The results showed are as follows: (1) the policy of CET has promoted the reduction of carbon emission, whereas its impact on the industrial output is not significant. (2) We show that in the short turn, the CET policy does not immediately contribute to improvement of GTFP, whereas its effect on technological progress decomposed of GTFP is positive. The results indicate that CET regulation has produced environmental dividend and improved the technological progress, but there is no Porter effect. Overall, our results provide actual evidence for deepening the nationwide carbon emission trading system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of internal circulation, domestic trade is widely encouraged in China. However, the growth of inter-provincial trade may aggravate inter-regional embodied carbon emissions transfer. The knowledge about the causes of changes in embodied carbon emissions from an industry transfer perspective is limited, which is significant for achieving the regional carbon emission reduction fairly and reasonably. Therefore, this paper utilizes the provincial energy consumption data and the multi-region input–output tables in 2002 and 2012 to calculate the embodied carbon transfer among different regions. Furthermore, the inter-regional embodied carbon emissions transfer trends are analyzed and discussed by the quantitative measurement of industries transfer. The results indicated that nearly 58% of carbon emissions were transferred out from the southeast coastal areas to the central and western areas by importing carbon-intensive productions, reaching 516 million tons. In addition, the carbon intensity in the eastern areas decreased by about 30%, while that increased by 11% in the central and western areas. Energy inequality among regions was getting worse. To promote inter-regional development equity, the emission reduction targets of different regions should be heterogeneous. Specifically, the southeast coastal areas are suggeted to compensate for the transfer-out emissions. The central and western areas are suggested to develop markets for renewable energy topromote the economy and adjust energy structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower is the most economically developed renewable energy source in China. In the twenty-first century, the era of clean and low-carbon development, hydropower can meet the continuous growth of energy consumption and help China achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. In 2019, China's installed hydropower capacity was 358.04 GW, and hydropower consumption was 1.132 × 1016 kJ, with a growth rate of 5.5%, well above the global average of 0.8%. Although China's hydropower achievements are renowned worldwide, hydropower development in China still faces challenges in relation to environmental, technological, economic and social issues. In this paper, we first review the history, achievements and current situation of China's hydropower development and summarize the specific challenges mentioned above. Then, we take the Dadu River Hydropower Base as a case study. This project ranks fifth among China's 13 largest hydropower bases, and the construction of 14 cascade hydropower stations was completed in December 2020, accounting for 61.3% of the total planned installed capacity of 28 cascades, with 3 more still under construction (accounting for another 16.3%). We comprehensively describe the background, tasks and exploitation of hydropower development in the Dadu River basin and highlight current practices, including exploration of environmental protection and ecological restoration, technical innovation, supporting facility construction, economic promotion and resettlement. Finally, based on the identified practices and lessons, we propose feasible suggestions for China's future hydropower development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture, carbon utilization and storage (CCUS) technology is an important potential technical support for coal power plants to maintain existing production structure while simultaneously achieving near-zero carbon emissions with the current energy structure in China being dominated by coal. However, CCUS technology is still at the early demonstration stage, and there are many uncertainties in the carbon trading market, technology and policy incentives that the traditional method is no longer able to handle. Based on the binomial tree real option model, this paper establishes a CCUS technology investment evaluation model that incorporates the uncertainties with carbon price, government subsidy, technological progress and carbon dioxide utilization ratios into the model, and investigates the influence of government incentive on CCUS technology investment in two scenarios in China. The numerical results in case study show that (1) If the subsidy is too low, no matter how high the lower limit of carbon price is set, enterprises will not invest. (2) When the proportion of government subsidy exceeds 0.33, a specific and accurate minimum carbon price is given to promote coal-fired plants immediate investment in CCUS technology based on the model. (3) Only the government subsidies cannot stimulate CCUS investment at this demonstration stage. These findings provide a reference for public policy decision-making and promotes the development and large-scale deployment of CCUS technology in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is an inherent requirement for countries to promote green recovery and transformation of the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. As "a smoke-free industry," producer services agglomeration (PSA) may have significant impacts on CO2 emission reduction. Therefore, based on the nightlight data to calculate the CO2 emissions of 268 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this study deeply explores the impact and transmission mechanism of PSA on CO2 emissions by constructing dynamic spatial Durbin model and intermediary effect model. Furthermore, the dynamic threshold model is used to analyze the nonlinear characteristics between PSA and CO2 emissions under different degrees of government intervention. The results reveal that: (1) Generally, China's CO2 emissions are path-dependent in the time dimension, showing a "snowball effect." PSA significantly inhibits CO2 emissions, but heterogeneous influences exist in different regions, time nodes, and sub-industries; (2) PSA can indirectly curb CO2 emissions through economies of scale, technological innovation, and industrial structure upgrading. (3) The impact of PSA on China's CO2 emissions has an obvious double threshold effect under different degree of government intervention. Accordingly, the Chinese government should increase the support for producer services, dynamically adjust industrial policies, take a moderate intervention, and strengthen market-oriented reform to reduce CO2 emissions. This study opens up a new path for the low-carbon economic development and environmental sustainability, and also fills in the theoretical gaps on these issues. The findings and implications will offer instructive guideline for early achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data for Chinese prefecture-level and above cities from 2003 to 2017, we employed the difference-in-differences (DID) method to explore whether innovative city constructions reduced carbon emissions. The results show that innovative city constructions significantly curb carbon emissions in Chinese cities, which is supported by a series of robustness tests. Specifically, we found that innovative city constructions could reduce carbon emissions by 5.21%, which is equivalent to a total of about 5.46 million tons. In addition, we provided evidence that innovative city constructions curb carbon emissions by promoting technological innovation, industrial upgrading and industrial green development, ecological improvement, and government intervention. Furthermore, heterogeneous results indicate that the carbon reduction effect of innovative city constructions is mainly found in eastern cities and cities with better industrial development and human capital base. Our findings further enrich the study on the environmental benefits of national innovation incentives and public policies and provide important insights in carbon neutrality and achieving sustainable development, especially for developing and emerging market countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental decentralization is an important prerequisite and institutional foundation for China's carbon and haze co-control. Prior research has answered the influence of environmental decentralization on carbon mitigation or haze control. Few studies have analyzed the influence of innovation efficiency on carbon and haze co-control in the context of environmental decentralization. Research on how to achieve the optimal allocation of environmental decentralization is rare. Based on an analysis of the dynamic evolution trends in China's carbon emissions, haze pollution, environmental decentralization, and innovation efficiency from 2006 to 2018 by exploiting kernel density estimation, this study examines the environmental decentralization threshold effect of innovation efficiency on carbon and haze co-control by employing dynamic threshold model and investigates reasonable allocation of environmental decentralization. The results revealed that, first, China's provincial carbon emissions and environmental decentralization performed an increasing trend. Haze pollution and innovation efficiency demonstrated a downward trend. Second, when environmental decentralization increases, the influence of innovation efficiency on carbon emissions presents a W-shape, whereas the influence of innovation efficiency on haze pollution follows an inverted N-shape. Third, there are remarkable heterogeneous environmental decentralization threshold effects on the influence of innovation efficiency on carbon and haze co-control. Fourth, appropriate environmental decentralization can enhance carbon and haze co-control effects of innovation efficiency. The central government entails appropriate empowerment of local governments in environmental administration and supervision authority but decreases the environmental monitoring authority of local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address climate change and promote green development, the Chinese government has implemented low-carbon city pilot policy since 2010, and continued to expand the scope of pilots. Accurately assessing the policy effects of pilot city construction is of great significance for the further promotion of low-carbon policy. Carbon emissions are included in the evaluation framework of China's low-carbon city pilot policy, and used the panel data of 272 cities in 2000–2018 to evaluate the effectiveness of low-carbon city pilot policy based on the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. Empirical findings that (1) low-carbon pilot policy could not only directly reduce carbon emissions, but also indirectly reduce carbon emissions through upgrading industrial structure and promoting technological innovation. (2) Given that there is remarkable gap in economic and social development across different regions, the policy effect is reexamined for nature resource and region location. The results indicate that carbon emissions reduction effect of low-carbon city pilot policy is more significant in resource-based cities and eastern cities. (3) Carbon emissions have significant spatial correlation, that is to say, low-carbon pilot policy has positive spillover effect on reducing carbon emissions in surrounding cities. The study provides empirical evidence for further expanding the scope of the pilot projects, as well as scientific basis for making environmental policies for carbon emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European energy crisis, triggered by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, has again drawn attention to the decarbonization of fossil energy sources. However, few studies have objectively considered coal from an integrated life cycle and its position in the energy system. In the present study, we used the integrated life cycle analysis and fixed-effect panel threshold model to reveal that (1) power generation and heating and iron and steel smelting are the highest CO2 emission sectors. In addition, the coal chemical industry and power generation and heating are the two sectors with the highest contribution rate of CO2 emissions. (2) Based on these, underground coal gasification (UCG) and underground coal gasification-integrated gasification combined cycle (UCG-IGCC) technologies were introduced to innovate the coal life cycle (the process cycle of coal production and utilization). The panel threshold model has proved that when the energy intensity falls in the interval 0.363–2.599, UCG-IGCC technology could be the complement in mitigating CO2 emissions. (3) Finally, for the same amount of emission mitigations, the social cost of innovating coal production and utilization processes using UCG-IGCC technology will be lower than phasing out coal-fired power plants using carbon prices. For China, UCG-IGCC and renewable energy should be developed simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of the technological revolution and industrial transformation, environmental governance supported by digital finance has become an important engine for achieving carbon neutrality. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China, this study discusses the spatial spillover effect and transmission mechanism between digital finance and environmental pollution. Our research results confirm that the inhibitory effect of digital finance on local environmental pollution gradually increases with the improvement of digital finance. Interestingly, digital finance has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on environmental pollution in surrounding areas. The mediating effect shows that digital finance can alleviate environmental pollution by improving technological innovation, industrial upgrading and industrial structure rationalization. A higher degree of marketization and governmental support can increase the positive influences of digital finance on pollution reduction. This research proves the effectiveness of digital finance in improving environmental governance, and it encourages policy-makers around the world to rely on digital finance to promote ecological governance and achieve high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has emerged as one of the most important environmental issues worldwide. As the world's biggest developing country, China is participating in combating climate change by promoting a low carbon economy within the context of global warming. This paper summarizes the pathways of China's low carbon economy including the aspects of energy, industry, low carbon cities, circular economy and low carbon technology, afforestation and carbon sink, the carbon emission trading market and carbon emission reduction targets. There are many achievements in the implementation of low carbon policies. For example, carbon emission intensity has been reduced drastically along with the optimizing of energy and industry structure and a nationwide carbon trading market for electricity industry has been established. However, some problems remain, such as the weakness of public participation, the ineffectiveness of unified policies for certain regions and the absence of long-term planning for low carbon cities development. Therefore, we propose some policy recommendations for the future low carbon economy development in China. Firstly, comprehensive and long-term planning should be involved in all the low carbon economy pathways. Secondly, to coordinate the relationship between central and local governments and narrow the gap between poor and rich regions, different strategies of carbon emission performance assessment should be applied for different regions. Thirdly, enterprises should cooperate with scientific research institutions to explored low carbon technologies. Finally, relevant institutions should be regulated to realize comprehensive low carbon transition through reasonable and feasible low carbon pathways in China. These policy recommendations will provide new perspectives for China's future low carbon economy development and guide practices for combating climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to analyze the impact of population, property, technology, energy factors, and spatial agglomeration in the logistics industry on carbon emissions. To achieve the goal of peak carbon and carbon neutrality, the relationship between influencing factors and carbon emissions was analyzed based on panel data from the logistics industry for 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2017 using an improved STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) model and a spatial lag model (SLM). The results show that population, property, technology, and energy factors in the logistics industry all have different degrees of influence on carbon emissions, wherein population, energy, and property have a greater influence, which implies that carbon emission reduction policies can be carried out considering the relevant aspects. In addition, under the influence of spatial agglomeration, the degree of influence of freight mileage (FM), total fixed-asset investment (TFAI), and industry population (IPOP) on carbon emissions decreases, and the degree of influence of energy intensity (EI) and industry per capita GDP (IPCG) increases. This suggests that corresponding emission reduction policies should be formulated for large urban areas based on technological innovation, infrastructure, and talent training, while smaller urban areas can focus on developing new energy and industrial economies. These findings help to complement the existing literature and provide policymakers with some insights related to urban logistics development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom argues that environmental regulation can trigger both structural adjustments and enhanced innovation. We test this conjecture by using a difference-in-differences approach to analyze the impacts of China's carbon emission trading (CET) pilot policy on energy consumption. We find that compliance with the CET regulation has triggered statistically significant adjustments in energy structure, industrial structure, and technological innovation. Adjustments in industrial structure also contribute to enhanced total factor energy efficiency, whereas increased technological innovation has mixed effects on energy efficiency. We show that in the short run, government-led innovation does not immediately contribute to improvement in energy efficiency, whereas enterprise-led innovation has a negative impact. It indicates that CET regulation can affect energy efficiency through industrial structure and technological innovation. Overall, our results provide new evidence for the strong version of the Porter hypothesis. Our results also provide strong scientific support for China's recent transition towards market-based carbon mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]