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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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

As the largest energy consumer, China's control of carbon emissions from energy consumption plays a pivotal role in world climate governance. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the emission reduction pathways that promote a high level of synergy between China's economic growth and the " carbon peaking and carbon neutrality " goal from the perspective of energy consumption. Based on the measurement of energy consumption carbon emissions, this paper reveals the spatial and temporal distribution and evolution trends of carbon emissions in China at the national-provincial level. The multi-dimensional socio-economic factors such as R&D and urbanization are taken into account, and the LMDI model is used to decompose the driving effects of energy consumption carbon emissions at the national-provincial levels. Further, this paper combines the Tapio decoupling index with the LMDI model to decompose the decoupling states of China year by year and at the provincial level in four periods to explore the reasons for the change of carbon decoupling states. The results show that: (1) China's energy consumption carbon emissions grew at a high rate before 2013, and slowed down after that. There are significant differences in the scale and growth rate of carbon emissions among provinces, which can be classified into four types accordingly. (2) The R&D scale effect, urbanization effect, and population scale effect are the factors driving the growth of China's carbon emissions; while the energy structure effect, energy consumption industry structure effect, energy intensity effect, and R&D efficiency effect inhibit the growth of China's carbon emissions. (3) Weak decoupling is the most dominant decoupling state in China from 2003 to 2020, and the decoupling state varies significantly among provinces. According to the conclusions, this paper proposes targeted policy recommendations based on China's energy endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renewable energy+energy storage model has an important role to play in achieving China's proposal of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal. In order to study the development mechanism of renewable energy+storage cooperation with government participation, this paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model among government, renewable energy generators, and energy storage service suppliers, based on the data of a renewable energy+storage project in a Chinese province. In this paper, we analyze the game process and the factors affecting the behavioral strategies of the three parties through numerical simulation. The study shows that the government regulation has a positive effect on the cooperative development of renewable energy+energy storage, and it can effectively restrain the wasteful phenomenon of renewable energy generation by means of punishment and improve the operating income of cooperative projects by means of subsidies, which can help the enterprises to broaden the application scenarios of energy storage. The government can effectively promote the improvement of renewable energy+energy storage cooperation mechanism by formulating regulatory mechanism, controlling the cost of supervision, and dynamically adjusting the intensity of supervision. Therefore, the research in this paper not only enriches the research related to renewable energy+energy storage mode but also provides valuable reference for the government to formulate regulatory policies related to renewable energy+energy storage. [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]

Guiding individuals to adopt pro-environmental behaviors is critical to achieving carbon neutrality goals. Public policy targeted at a small number of people may be amplified by interpersonal interaction, making peer effect a potentially useful tool for accelerating problem solving. However, previous studies have paid insufficient attention to the influence of peers on university students' energy-saving behaviors. This paper attempts to examine the effect using a large-scale survey dataset conducted on students from Xiamen University in China and the classical linear-in-means model. The result shows that peers' pro-environmental behaviors have positive effect on individuals. The heterogeneity of the influence and the potential mechanisms are also explored. This paper contributes to very important and still growing literature dealing with contagion processes in pro-environmental behaviors. The policy implication is that the government should make full use of the peer effect to maximize the benefits of energy-conservation campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, this paper critically assesses the potential distortions and efficacy of various revenue-neutral carbon emission trading schemes (ETSs) in China, through government subsidies and value-added tax (VAT) relief strategies aimed at achieving peak carbon emissions before 2030. The analysis reveals that reallocating market revenues to the production sector, either through government subsidies or VAT reductions, can feasibly attain carbon peaking before 2030, with minimal impact on GDP. Notably, both government subsidies and VAT cuts foster output growth in the oil, gas, and ETS-covered sectors. Moreover, directing carbon market revenue toward ETS-covered industries via VAT relief emerges as the most effective approach to reducing income disparities. In contrast, redistributing carbon market revenue to non-ETS-covered industries via VAT relief is found to be the least effective in promoting social equity. The study emphasizes that the reallocation of carbon market revenues to ETS-covered sectors is paramount. This strategy not only regulates the overall energy consumption effectively but also steers the nation towards a more sustainable and optimized energy consumption pattern. In light of these findings, this paper offers detailed insights and tailored policy recommendations, aiming to assist policymakers in striking a balance between environmental goals and economic and social imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Dual Carbon" initiative is a two-stage carbon reduction goal proposed by China, with significant implications for global climate change mitigation. This article examines the impact of the "Dual Carbon" strategy on China's forestry development and explores how to leverage this strategy to facilitate the transformation and advancement of the forestry sector. Current review indicated that forestry has the advantage of achieving higher emission reduction targets at a low cost. Starting with an overview of the "Dual Carbon" strategy, this paper analyzes the carbon sequestration potential of plants and soil, and the challenges and opportunities faced by forestry development under this framework. Furthermore, we outline implementation pathways for forestry development, aiming to provide insights for the progress of China's forestry sector. Overall, it should be noted that the priority is to vigorously develop timber resources, and we also need to vigorously develop and protect forestry talent with the support of China's policies. By trapping into the carbon storage capabilities and leveraging carbon trading mechanisms of forests, a favorable ecological environment can be created, thus achieving the goal of carbon neutrality. Highlights: • Forest development and its carbon sinks, attributed to plant and soil have the potential in carbon sequestration process, thus helping China achieve carbon neutrality. • The supply of forest products and the balance of economic growth and environmental protection are the key difficulties under the "Dual Carbon" strategy. • Trading forest carbon sinks can boost China's sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global climate change becomes increasingly severe, energy technology innovation has become a key means of coping with the climate crisis and realizing green and low-carbon development. However, existing literature rarely examines the effects of carbon emission reduction policies based on the perspective of energy technology progress for both short-term economic fluctuations and long-term equilibrium. This paper introduces the fossil energy technology sector and the renewable energy technology sector into the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model, and compares the effectiveness of the carbon emission cap policy, the fossil energy technology subsidy policy, and the renewable energy technology subsidy policy under the framework of China's carbon trading market in promoting macroeconomic growth and controlling pollutant emissions. We found that in long-term, the emission reduction effect of the carbon emission cap policy falls short of the other two policies, and subsidizing fossil fuel technologies is more cost-efficient comparatively. The government expenditure shock can all stimulate macroeconomic growth with crowding out of private investment and household consumption, whereas the energy technology research productivity shock leads to a decline in total output and an increase in renewable energy technology demand. In addition, pollutant emissions are pro-cyclical under the impact of total carbon policies and counter-cyclical under the impact of energy technology subsidy policies. This article constructs a multi-technology sectoral dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, expanding the research perspective and theoretical framework for evaluating carbon emission reduction policies. At the same time, it proves the importance of the government to implement the phased energy technology subsidy policy while implementing the carbon emission cap policy, which provides important enlightenment for the implementation and adjustment of carbon emission reduction policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current studies do not provide a consensus on whether digital technology innovation can reduce enterprise carbon intensity despite the rise of the digital economy. This paper examines the role and influence pathway of digital technology innovation on enterprise carbon intensity using data from A-share listed enterprises in China's manufacturing industry from 2012 to 2021. The findings indicate that (1) digital technology innovation has been found to significantly reduce enterprise carbon intensity, as confirmed by numerous robustness and endogeneity tests. However, its inhibitory effect on carbon intensity shows a marginal decreasing trend. (2) In the heterogeneity analysis, it was found that digital technology innovation significantly reduces the carbon intensity of consuming coal, coke, kerosene, and diesel. From various perspectives, including enterprise, industry, and external environment, there are significant differences in the carbon reduction effects of digital technology innovation. (3) The analysis of impact paths reveals that digital technology innovation can affect enterprise carbon intensity through three paths: improving productivity, enhancing green innovation efficiency, and adjusting energy consumption. (4) Upon further analysis, it was discovered that the spillover effect of digital technology innovation is more pronounced in the industry cohort of enterprises. Additionally, digital technology innovation plays a positive role in enhancing enterprise ESG performance. The paper's findings offer empirical evidence and decision-making references for the government to develop reasonable policies for reducing carbon emissions, promoting green and low-carbon enterprise transformation, and actively and steadily achieving the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public institutions, emblematic of public infrastructure, exhibit extensive reach and operational scope, positioning them as vanguards in China's dual carbon initiatives and serving as exemplars. Electricity and natural gas predominantly fuel the operations of public institutions. Notably, the fixed commute routes and consistent procurement patterns of office personnel yield a standardized energy consumption profile within these entities. Researching carbon emissions related to commuting and evaluating procurement strategies for reducing carbon footprints in public institutions demonstrate a precision-tailored approach. This paper, through an analysis of the energy consumption characteristics, utilization structure of public institutions, and the commuting behaviors and procurement practices of office personnel, establishes a bespoke carbon accounting model specifically designed for public institutions, seamlessly embedded within a comprehensive platform. By providing fundamental methodological frameworks and advanced technological foundations for carbon accounting in public institutions across China, this work propels the nation's efforts towards carbon peak and ultimately carbon neutrality. [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]

In recent years, excessive emissions of carbon dioxide have further intensified global warming, which poses a great threat to human society. The best way to reverse this situation is to take action to equalize the "carbon emissions" with the "carbon absorption," i.e., carbon neutrality (CN). To better understand the evolution and display a broad panorama of CN research, this paper provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications in the field of CN from 2006 to 2021. We use the Web of Science Core Collection as the data source, and a total of 633 publications have been retrieved. In the paper, we measure the productivity and influence of publications through recognized bibliometric metrics, and visually analyze publications using VOS Viewer and CiteSpace. The analysis results show that China is the most productive country/region. The study illustrates that in order to reach the goal of CN, it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions such as full using renewable energy. Simultaneously, it is also essential to enhance the "negative emissions" of carbon such as taking advantage of carbon sink and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. This paper provides some references for scholars who are interested or research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the "peak carbon dioxide emissions" and "carbon neutrality" strategic goals, how green finance can prompt private enterprises to achieve green upgrading has become an important issue to be solved. This paper empirically examines the effect mechanism of green credit policy on private enterprises' green innovation by using the difference-in-differences model based on the manually collected green patent data and matching financial data of Chinese listed private enterprises from 2009 to 2019. It is found that the implementation of green credit policy has a significant negative impact on the quality of green innovation of heavy-polluting private firms relative to non-heavy-polluting private firms, and this conclusion is still valid after replacing the explanatory variables, expanding the sample range, changing the model setting, and excluding the interference of other policies during the sample period. The results of the mechanism suggest that green credit policy negatively affects the quality of green innovation of heavy-polluting private firms by limiting their access to financing for loans and the capital market. Further study finds that commercial banks can reduce their non-performing loan ratio and increase their revenue growth rate by extending green credit funds to improve their business performance. It provides insights for better implementation of green credit policy and promotion of green economy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both "dual cycle" and "carbon neutral" policies have been implemented as national strategies in China. But will "dual cycle" policy help carbon neutral policy and how do "dual cycle" policy affect carbon neutral policy? This paper investigates whether unbalanced bidirectional foreign direct investment (FDI) hinders electricity efficiency. To do so, it uses the super slack-based version of the global Malmquist–Luenberger index to measure electricity efficiency in 30 provinces from 2001 to 2020. This paper uses panel threshold regression model, finds out that bidirectional FDI below 1.7174 will positively impact electricity efficiency, but the positive effects disappear when bidirectional FDI exceeds 1.7174. Thus, balanced bidirectional FDI in province is required to enhance electricity efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the green belt and road is an inevitable choice to conform to and lead the green and low-carbon cycle development and an inherent requirement for sustainable development. Therefore, we establish an evaluation system of green development oriented to carbon neutrality, and calculate the green development level (GDL) of the provinces along the belt and road in China from 2003 to 2018 by using a three-dimensional evaluation model. In addition, this paper employs the Obstacle Degree Model to identify the main obstacle factors that affect GDL, and provides targeted and differentiated countermeasures and suggestions for improving the regional GDL. Our results suggested that the overall GDL has improved, but not obvious, with a low level. The GDL and coordination degree between different regions exist certain differences, and its spatial pattern is characterized by "high in southeast and northeast, low in southwest and northwest". From a regional perspective, innovation capacity is the key factor that affects the green development of the region in southeast, northeast, northwest and southwest China. Driving economic green transformation and promoting industrial energy conservation and emission reduction through technological innovation are the internal driving forces to achieve regional green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proposal of the carbon neutrality target, China's attention to carbon emissions has been further enhanced. Effective prediction of future carbon emissions is important for the formulation of carbon neutralization target and action plans in the region. Many factors affecting carbon emissions, cause their development trends may be nonlinear. To forecast the carbon emissions of coal and natural gas in the industrial sector more accurately, a new MGM(1,m,N|γ) model considering nonlinear characteristics is proposed in this paper. The new model introduces power function γ as nonlinear parameter, and the γ value is solved by nonlinear constraint function. We further deduce the simulation and prediction formula and then apply the improved model to the carbon emission forecast. The comparisons show that the nonlinear parameters can modify the trend of sequences and improve the prediction accuracy, which verifies the validity of the model. Finally, according to the influencing factors and forecast results, this paper analyzes the causes of high carbon emissions and puts forward reasonable suggestions for China's carbon 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]

Evaluating the effects of China's carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) is crucial for the coordinated development of Chinese cities. Therefore, based on the panel data of 242 cities in China from 2008 to 2019, this paper uses the multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model to comprehensively evaluate the impact of carbon market on the coordinated development of cities from the perspectives of carbon market policy and carbon market efficiency, and then analyzes the mechanism and heterogeneity of the effect of carbon market efficiency. The results show that both carbon market policy and carbon market efficiency can promote the coordinated development of cities. Science and education expenditure plays a significant intermediary role in the impact of carbon market efficiency on the coordinated development of cities. The heterogeneity test finds that the stricter the performance penalty system, the higher the level of urban coordinated development, and the stronger the effect of carbon market efficiency. The findings of this paper provide policy recommendations for further improving the construction of China's pilot and national ETS and enhancing the coordinated development of Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have launched the carbon emission trading scheme (ETS), attempting to limit carbon emissions through total amount control, and thus accelerating the improvement of emission reduction technology. However, the role of the ETS in emission reduction technical change (ERTC) is still controversial. To clarify the role of the ETS in ERTC, this paper firstly proposes an endogenous growth equilibrium model to theoretically analyze how the ETS induces ERTC, and extracts the corresponding influencing factors. Then, the emission reduction technology is further decomposed into the source, process and end-of-pipe emission reduction technologies by the whole process decomposition method. Last, taking China's carbon pilot market as a sample, we use the time-varying difference-in-difference method to empirically estimate the impacts of the ETS on ERTC. Results show that: (1) the ETS is conducive to ERTC, but whether the effect is significant is depends on the technology accumulation in the early stage, research efforts, success probability of technology research, and carbon trading effect; (2) China's ETS significantly improved the process emission reduction technology, but has no obvious effects on the source and end-of-pipe emission reduction technology. (3) China's ETS has heterogeneous impacts on technical change concerning different regions. Accordingly, three suggestions are provided, including laying out new technologies for energy conservation and emission reduction, expanding the industry coverage of the ETS, and correcting the distortion of carbon trading price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission trading policy (CETP) is an important tool for energy savings and emission reduction. However, the effect of CETP on carbon emission reduction in power industry is still unknown. This paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the intermediary effect model to test the impact and mechanism of CETP on power industry carbon emissions. In addition, a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model is established to analyze the spatial spillover effect. The results show that CETP has a significant inhibitory effect on power industry carbon emissions and the results are still valid after endogenous and robust tests. The improvement of technology level and power conversion efficiency plays an intermediary role for CETP to reduce power industry carbon emissions. The optimization of power generation structure is likely to become another important way for CETP to play its role in the future. The spatial spillover effect test shows that CETP not only has a significant inhibitory effect on power industry carbon emissions in the pilot areas but also has a negative spatial spillover effect on power industry carbon emissions in the surrounding non-pilot areas. The heterogeneity tests show that CETP has the most significant reduction effect in the central region of China and the strongest spatial spillover inhibiting effect in the eastern region. The purpose of this study is to provide decision-making references for government to achieve China's dual-carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, as well as the driving factors, of carbon emissions in the prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin (YB). The paper's findings will aid in promoting ecological conservation and high-quality development in the region. The initiatives undertaken in the YB are a significant national strategy towards achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. To fully investigate the spatiotemporal evolution process, as well as the typical characteristics of their carbon emissions, conventional, and spatial Markov transition probability matrices were developed utilizing YB's panel data for 55 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019. The generalized Divisia index decomposition method (GDIM) cleverly uses this data to conduct a complete analysis of the dynamics and driving processes influencing the change in carbon emissions in these cities. However, the evolution of carbon emissions in prefecture-level cities has reached a point of stability that maintains the original state, making it challenging to make meaningful short-term progress. The data indicates that prefecture-level cities in the YB are emitting more carbon dioxide on average. Neighborhood types in these cities significantly influence the transformation of carbon emissions. Low-emission areas can encourage a reduction in carbon emissions, whereas high-emission areas can encourage an increase. The spatial organisation of carbon emissions exhibits a "high-high convergence, low-low convergence, high-pulling low, low-inhibiting high" club convergence phenomenon. Carbon emissions rise with per capita carbon emissions, energy consumed, technology, and output scale, whereas it falls with carbon technology intensity and output carbon intensity. Hence, instead of enhancing the role of increase-oriented variables, prefecture-level cities in the YB should actively engage these reduction-oriented forces. The YB's key pathways for lowering carbon emissions include boosting research and development, promoting and applying carbon emission reduction technologies, lowering output carbon intensity and energy intensity, and improving energy use effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of the farm biogas project is a perfect measure to deal with the increasingly nervous global climate problem and energy crisis and can support the accomplishment of urgently needed carbon peaking and carbon neutrality effectively. But the poor economic benefits hinder its better development. Thus, this paper aims to enhance the economics of farm biogas projects and explore a win–win model for economic and environmental benefits by studying the economic impact of participation in carbon trading on three types of farm biogas projects. First, economic analysis of farm biogas projects based on life cycle cost is carried out using case analysis. Second, the greenhouse gas emission reductions are calculated and benefits from carbon trading are considered. Then, the economic robustness was tested. Specifically, the economics of all three types of farm biogas projects is improved after carbon trading. The ecological farm biogas project has the best economic performance, with a net present value of $551,689.11, internal rate of return of 49%, and payback period of 2.39 years. In addition, the emission reductions of 5045.79 t CO2e, 7420.28 t CO2e, and 148.41 t CO2e are very significant. Based on these, suggestions for developing farm biogas projects and introducing biogas projects to carbon trading are put forward for the reference of governments and investors when making investments and reforms. According to the result, participation of farm biogas projects in carbon trading can effectively enhance economic benefits and accelerate the achievement of the greenhouse gas emission reduction target which is of great significance to the urgent goal of global green and low-carbon transformation. [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]

Industry is a core area to achieve the carbon neutrality target for most developing countries including China. Hence, it is of great practical significance to study the spatio-temporal characteristics of China's industrial carbon intensity and its evolution. The exploratory spatial data analysis methods were adopted to conduct global and local spatial correlation analysis in this paper. The result shows that (1) the industrial carbon emission intensity decreases year by year, with high industrial carbon emission intensity in the West and low in the East. (2) There is a correlation in the spatial distribution of industrial carbon intensity, with the Moran index experiencing the stage of descending first and then ascending. (3) The local spatial clustering of industrial carbon intensity is obvious. (4) Half of the provinces have experienced a leap, with the majority located in the western part of China. Based on these findings, it is concluded that industrial emission reduction policy synergy between provinces is particularly important, such as low-carbon industrial production policy and green industry development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce industrial carbon emissions, various industries have been seeking ways to reduce their own emissions. Implementing carbon trading system measures is one way to effectively control industrial carbon emissions. However, in different industrial sectors, carbon trading systems have different impact. The 14-year provincial panel data (2005–2019) were analyzed by using the propensity score matching and the difference-in-difference model to evaluate the role of the emission trading system (ETS) in reducing emissions from different industries. According to the study, ETS has reduced carbon emissions from the agricultural production sector by 1.6876%. Secondly, it also had a significant inhibitory effect on the manufacturing sector, about 24.0489. Mining, electricity production, wholesale and other industrial sectors are insignificant disincentives, and construction and transportation are insignificant facilitators. China's ETS, therefore, mainly acts as an inhibitory force for different industries, which can effectively reduce their carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The realisation of global carbon neutrality is crucial for combating climate change. As the largest emitter, China declared to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. However, substantial changes in the energy structure are far from being achieved. Using time series data from 2001 to 2019 and the ARDL-ECM method, this paper explored the effectiveness of climate policies in controlling China's carbon emissions. The results show that economic and technical factors such as economic growth and energy structure are the determinants of carbon emissions. A green paradox is shown since increasing climate policy density does not significantly reduce carbon emissions. The main regulatory gaps in China's climate governance include weaknesses in the rule of law, lack of accountability, and insufficient arrangements for equitable energy transitions. A binding legal system is necessary to realise absolute reduction and secure carbon neutrality, especially one including specific climate change legislation, binding reduction targets, and combining energy justice with regulatory efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays environmental issues have been of great concern to the world, among which the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is particularly prominent. All countries in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have committed to control greenhouse gas emissions, and China, as the largest carbon emitter, has assumed a heavier burden. China has been striving to develop low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, nuclear, wind, and solar energy, but the most attention should be paid to CCUS, which many scholars have high expectations that CCUS can help China reduce emissions to some extent. Therefore, this paper presents a prediction that CCUS can reduce 3.8% of carbon emissions for China in 2040 when CCUS emission reductions increase at a rate of 30%. The power and chemical industries could reduce carbon emissions by 2.3% and 17.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions have risen in line with China's economic expansion. The key to sustainable development is finding a way to strike a balance between economic expansion and environmental protection, so improving carbon emission efficiency is vital. This paper uses provincial data from 2010 to 2020 to account for total carbon emissions using the emission factor method and obtains carbon emission efficiency data on this basis. A dynamic spatial Durbin model is then used to empirically test the possible influencing factors. The results show that, firstly, the growth rate of total carbon emissions is generally in line with the growth rate of GDP, indicating that there is no 'decoupling' in the economic system. Second, regional carbon emissions and carbon emission efficiency are not necessarily related. Thirdly, there is a clear spatial effect on carbon emission efficiency. The eastern region has the highest carbon emission efficiency, the western region has the lowest, and the northeastern and central regions have little difference in carbon emission efficiency. Further spatial and temporal migration analysis reveals that five provinces have made the migration between 2010 and 2020. Fourthly, in the short term, the direct and indirect effects of the factors affecting carbon emission efficiency are insignificant, but in the long term, most of the factors have significant direct and indirect effects on carbon emission efficiency. Finally, based on the above research findings, this paper makes policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine the spatial spillover effects of renewable energy on carbon emissions in China's less-developed areas. However, few studies have considered this issue from the perspective of less-developed areas. Based on panel data of 21 provinces in China from 2000 to 2017, this paper analyzes the spatial spillover effects of renewable energy on carbon emissions using Moran's I and Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). The results suggest that, first, Moran's I ranges from 0.378 to 0.519, Moran scatter plot presents that provinces are located in the high–high (HH) and low-low (LL) quadrants, indicating provincial carbon emissions in the study area have a significant spatial correlation and agglomeration. Second, under the three matrices, the direct effect coefficients of renewable energy are -0.2522, -0.2639 and -0.2601, this shows that renewable energy is beneficial to local carbon emissions reduction. In contrast, the indirect effect coefficients of renewable energy are 0.0605, 0.1012 and 0.1125, which means higher renewable energy consumption in a single area is conducive to the improvement of carbon emissions to neighbouring areas. Third, urbanization, industrialization, physical capital and other variables have different impacts on local and nearby carbon emissions. This study provides empirical evidence to achieve carbon emission reduction targets by government policymakers. [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]

China's power sector must cut its carbon emissions by 90% by 2060 to become carbon neutral. Green finance, as a crucial link in sustainable development, is garnering attention for its role as a mechanism for the green transformation of power enterprises. The process of green transformation development is highly challenging and requires a lot of financial support. This paper discusses the design of schemes for fiscal and financial support mechanisms for the green transformation of power enterprises, financing mechanisms to strengthen green finance, and financial support mechanisms to promote carbon trading. The utilization of green finance by power enterprises is assessed after defining the impact routes of green finance on clean energy power firms and highly polluting power firms. Using the SBM-GML model with variable returns to scale, the dynamic change of the use efficiency of green finance in power enterprises is calculated. At the same time, the enterprises are classified by power generation methods, and the changes in the power generation structure of power enterprises are analyzed. Compared with 2014, the total power generation in 2021 increased by 59.14%, wind power generation increased by 170.78%, and photovoltaic power generation increased by 974.31%. Hydropower, by contrast, grew by 94.14% and thermal power by only 45.09%. The results show that the evolution of total factor productivity and green total factor productivity of the 24 listed electric power enterprises is "M" shaped, that the main cause of the fluctuation is the serious phenomenon of "Triple Abandonments" of wind, light, and water in China's power industry, and that the main means to improve total factor productivity and green total factor productivity of the power industry is to improve green power production technology. Classified by power generation mode, it is found that hybrid power generation enterprises have the highest average efficiency value, followed by wind power generation. China's power enterprises are still dominated by thermal power generation; before the "Double Carbon" target, green power generation enterprises have not significantly improved the efficiency of green finance. The series of green finance mechanisms of action described in this study have a beneficial impact on the green transition of energy, according to a predictive analysis that combines existing policy objectives and practical mechanisms. Even without green financial support, the composition of China's major clean energy sources will account for 86.85% of total electricity generation by 2060, while with green financial support, coal generation will fall to 0% around 2056, with hydroelectric, wind, and photovoltaic generation accounting for 11.81%, 50.00%, and 38.19% of electricity sources, respectively, and green finance will drive important technological changes, and the "Triple Abandonments" phenomenon will be fundamentally corrected. Finally, countermeasures and suggestions for the healthy development of green finance in power enterprises are proposed based on the findings of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a noteworthy initiative of financial supply-side reform to precisely support the green development system, can green finance (GF) help achieve the dual goals of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality"? Using data from China's provincial panel between 2007 and 2019, this paper measured the green finance index by the entropy method and the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) with carbon emission as the non-desired output by the Super-SBM model. Then, the influence of GF on CEE was empirically investigated by the dynamic panel model and the spatial Durbin model. The findings show that GF can significantly improve CEE and has a positive spillover impact on CEE in provinces with close economic ties; the upgrading of the industrial structure is a key mediator in the transmission of GF to CEE; and regional heterogeneity analysis finds that GF notably improves CEE in eastern, high development levels of economic and GF regions. The research can offer some theoretical and empirical references for green finance to contribute to low-carbon economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect mechanism of population aging on carbon dioxide emissions using provincial panel data in China from 2005 to 2019 and examines how aging affects carbon dioxide emissions through stepwise regression test and Sobel test respectively by constructing a multiple mediating effect model. The following conclusions have been drawn: (1) the results of the baseline regression show that population aging has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions. (2) The results of intermediary effect test show that the intermediary effect of population aging through technological progress, industrial structure, consumption level, and consumption structure is significant. (3) The results of heterogeneity test show that the mediating effect of technological progress is not significant in the eastern region, central region, and western region, and the mediating effect of industrial structure and consumption structure is significant in the eastern region and central region, and the mediating effect of consumption level is significant in the eastern region and western region. (4) The results of the robustness test also verify the mediating effect conclusion once again and prove the robustness of the results. Overall, as an aging society country, China should take the impact of aging into consideration more in the process of achieving emission peak and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial structure low-carbon restructuring is an essential channel to accelerate China's economic growth and fulfilling carbon emission reduction goals. Whether carbon emission trading pilot policy, as an influential carbon reduction instrument, fosters industrial structure low-carbon restructuring is of major significance to green economic development. This paper empirically investigates the shock of the carbon emission trading pilot policy on industrial structure low-carbon restructuring using the differences-in-differences (DID) and synthetic control method (SCM). Statistics reveal that sectors with low carbon productivity, such as electricity, steam, and hot water production and supply, ferrous metal smelting and pressing, etc., and sectors with high carbon productivity, such as electrical equipment and machinery, electronics and telecommunication equipment, etc. The industrial structure did not develop a stable trend of change before the 12th Five-Year Plan, but a stable trend of low-carbon restructuring emerged after such a period. Carbon emission trading pilot policy significantly facilitates industrial structural low-carbon restructuring. Carbon emission trading pilot policy inhibits energy-intensive industries in the industrial sector significantly, which promotes industrial structure low-carbon restructuring. Therefore, policymakers need to develop a nationwide carbon emission trading market that includes more industries to guide production factors to industrial sectors with high carbon productivity for industrial restructuring and dual carbon goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]