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Recycling carbon tax revenue is a significant part of the design of a nation's carbon tax system. The impact of different recycling principles on the socio-economy and carbon emission reduction varies greatly. Under the background of China's goal of reaching peak carbon emissions, this paper designed three carbon tax recycling principles based on the goal of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), including recycling principles based on output ratio, export ratio, and carbon intensity. A recursively dynamic CGE model was developed in this study to evaluate the economic effects of these three carbon tax recycling principles based on tax neutrality under China's goal of reaching peak carbon emissions. Carbon tax recycling measures could mitigate the economic losses caused by carbon tax, and the results could be greatly affected according to different recycling principles. The results showed that: 1 The recycling principle based on output ratio could reduce economic losses and improve households' social welfare. 2 China's carbon intensity in 2030 could be reduced by more than 65% compared with that in 2005, and the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption could reach 25% using the recycling principle based on carbon intensity, but the economic loss mitigation effect of the recycling measures based on this principle was small. 3 Adopting the recycling principle based on export ratio would narrow the competitive gap between China and foreign countries, and the exports of high-carbon-intensity goods would not increase under this principle. 4 According to principles based on output ratio and export ratio, the NDC goal of non-fossil energy accounting for about 25% of primary energy consumption by 2030 could not be achieved, and only the NDC goal of reducing carbon emissions per unit of GDP by more than 65% compared with that of 2005 could be achieved. In brief, as an essential policy tool to achieve China's goal of reaching peak carbon emissions, the carbon tax should be implemented as soon as possible. At the same time, according to China's national conditions, a targeted choice of carbon tax recycling principle is needed. The role of the carbon tax in the process of achieving the goal of Nationally Determined Contributions should be fully utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has entered the stage of high-quality development, and the construction of new-type urbanization is an important approach for the realization of the country's high-quality economic development as well as reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. The existing literature has produced a number of fruitful research results on the economic and environmental effects of the transformation of urbanization. However, few studies have tested the effects of the new-type urbanization construction on energy efficiency and their mechanisms from the perspective of exogenous impact. Therefore, in the context of China's actual situation, this paper constructed a theoretical framework of 'technological progress－population agglomeration－urban expansion,' and then deeply explained how the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization affected energy efficiency. Based on the panel data of 285 cities in China, this paper made an innovative breakthrough from the existing empirical analyses by dividing energy efficiency into total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency, choosing the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization as a quasinatural experiment, and using the difference-in-differences method to examine the mechanisms and impact of new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. The results showed that: ① After a series of robustness tests, the impact of the comprehensive pilot policy for newtype urbanization on total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency was significantly negative, and the effect increased year by year. ② Mechanism analysis showed that new-type urbanization mainly hindered the improvement of energy efficiency by promoting technological progress, boosting population agglomeration, and stimulating urban expansion. ③ According to the analysis of the effect of the regional biased policy, the regionally biased policy leaning toward the central and western regions did not promote the energy-saving effect of new-type urbanization. ④ According to the analysis of the effect of urban agglomeration mode, joining an urban agglomeration helped enhance the effect of the new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. This study provides empirical evidence and policy implications for promoting China's new-type urbanization, avoiding unfavorable factors, and achieving a 'win-win' situation of the high-quality development of new-type urbanization and the improvement of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China mentioned that China is facing tightening resource and environmental constraints, environmental pollution, and other issues, and the energy-consuming right trading policy is a key measure to promote green, circular, and low-carbon development in China. Under the dual consideration of ecological benefits and economic benefits, this paper took the pilot launch of energy-consuming trading as a quasi-natural experiment and used panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 and the different-in-differences method to explore the impact of this policy on the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure. The study showed that: (J) The energy-consuming right trading policy could promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, and the promotion effect on the upgrading of the industrial structure outweighed its adverse impact on the rationalization of the industrial structure, as evidenced by a series of robustness tests. © The mechanism analysis showed that the realization paths of industrial structure upgrading were the upgrading of technological innovation and that of energy consumption structure, and the policy suppressed the adverse impact on the rationalization of industrial structure by improving the input structure and output structure of some industrial sectors. © In addition, the pilot policy of energy-consuming rights had obvious regional heterogeneity for the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, which significantly promoted the upgrading of industrial structure in the central and western regions and the rationalization of industrial structure in the eastern regions. This study provides some policy references for the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure from the perspective of improving the energy-consuming right trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to discuss how to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and basically realizing modernization together. Based on the statistical data of provincial carbon emissions and economic development characteristics from 1997 to 2019, this paper proposed an empirical model of systematic analysis using the improved Kaya‑GDIM model and the expanded economic growth model, with total energy consumption as the transmission variable. This paper also used the Mann Kendall trend test, the Tapiocarbon decoupling index, and other methods to study and judge provincial carbon emissions and economic development status. On this basis, we divided the provinces with similar characteristics into groups. Based on the comprehensive investigation of the characteristics of the driving factors of combined carbon emissions and economic growth among provinces, we proposed a matching coordinated realization scheme for the goals. The results showed that: ① According to the comprehensive judgment based on the multivariate index, 30 provinces could be divided into four categories. ② Provinces should choose the coordinated realization scheme according to the characteristics of their carbon emissions and economic development driving mechanisms. The leading demonstration group should focus on the deployment and R&D of high energy efficiency technology and the improvement of total factor productivity. The quality improvement group should focus on promoting the transformation of production factors from quantity to quality improvement. The quantity growth group should focus on improving the dilemma of insufficient quantities of physical and human capital. The structural transformation group should adhere to the energy transformation and ensure a fair transformation. ③ In recent years, the slowdown of economic growth has effectively alleviated the rapid increase of carbon emissions. However, there is still much room for improvement in relevant work. In the future, we must speed up the low carbon regulation capacity and promote the decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions, which are key to the smooth realization of the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and basically realizing modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the global efforts to respond to climate change and achieve 'carbon neutrality,' vehicle electrification in the automobile industry has become a trend. In recent years, the development of electric vehicles has been regarded by many governments as an important way to promote clean and low-carbon development of the transportation sector, and major developed countries have launched their own development strategies for electric vehicles. However, there is still much debate in China about whether the promotion of electric vehicles can help achieve real emission reductions, especially in the high coal power generation structure. Most existing studies on the carbon emissions of electric vehicles in their life cycle only used countries or regions as the research boundary, ignoring the provincial level and the measurement of future emission reduction potential. As a result, the differences in emission reduction effects of electric vehicles in different spatial and temporal dimensions have not been revealed completely. This paper constructed a life cycle assessment model based on multiple spatial and temporal dimensions and introduced the differences in emission reduction effects in different provinces and periods (2019 and 2035). The findings showed that: ① In 2019, all types of electric vehicles except plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could reduce carbon emissions at the national level. At the provincial level, the carbon emissions of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Anhui (a region with the highest carbon emissions in China) were 141 g/km (about 14 times) and 148 g/km (about 3.6 times) higher than those in Tibet (the region with the lowest emissions in China), respectively. ② By 2035, all types of electric vehicles would significantly reduce carbon emissions, with fuel cell vehicles being the most effective. In areas where renewable energy would be used in a high proportion (such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai), priority should be given to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles. Since there would be no need to build large-scale charging infrastructure for the developing hybrid electric vehicles, it is suggested to give priority to the development of hybrid electric vehicles in areas with a high proportion of fossil fuels in short- and medium-term planning. Considering that it takes time to adjust the power structure for each area, it is suggested that all regions and provinces take full account of the trend in advance and choose low-carbon transportation routes more suitable for their own development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has pledged to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. New energy decarbonization will be a major focus area for achieving the 'dual carbon' goals since it accounts for about 20 percent of China' s total energy consumption. The Xiong' an New Area' s geographical advantages and natural endowments have brought abundant wind and solar energy resources and have huge development potential in the field of new energy development. This paper summarizes the Xiong' an New Area' s resource endowment and achievements in developing new energy, and comprehensively analyzes the opportunities and challenges faced by this area in the process of building a national new energy demonstration zone in the context of achieving the 'dual carbon' goals. It sorts out the new energy development policy of the Xiong' an New Area and its history of new energy development and then points out that the current development of new energy in this area lies in power project construction, power grid construction, green energy consumption, energy storage development, and new energy equipment. This study believes that the Xiong' an New Area will experience three development stages of carbon neutrality: initial carbon neutrality, fluctuating carbon neutrality, and stable carbon neutrality, because this area has carried out green power planning simultaneously in the initial construction stage and has more green power supply. With the expansion of population and economic scale, the rapid increase in energy demand would lead to the decline in green power supply ratio, causing carbon neutrality to fluctuate and change over time. With the population and economic structure in a stable development stage, the proportion of high-value-added and high-tech industries would increase, and energy utilization technologies such as green electricity would make progress, resulting in the arrival of the stable carbon neutrality development stage. On the other hand, from the perspective of carbon sink potential corresponding to carbon sources, the planned proportion of the blue-green space and the construction land in the Xiong' an New Area would keep its carbon sink capacity in a relatively stable state for a long period of time. Therefore, in addition to the value-added of the natural carbon sink system, carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies and other means of artificial carbon sink can be used as adjustment tools under the carbon neutrality system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the goal of 'Net-zero Europe' by 2050, the European Union (EU) has set up detailed policies in the fields of energy and climate. This paper summarizes the main characteristics of relevant policies in the EU and UK and their implications for China by reviewing these policies in the achievement of the carbon neutrality goal and other goals in the energy and climate fields. The characteristics of these energy and climate policies include: ① Top-down and bottom-up approaches are adopted to distribute the EU' s overall emission reduction targets to member states in accordance with the principle of fairness, and each member state formulates and adjusts its own goals to ensure the realization of the overall goals. ② Detailed transition plans are formulated for the power, industry, transportation, and building sectors; importance is attached to the application of new and renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrogen energy; specific goals are set concerning coal power transition, nuclear energy development, energy efficiency improvement, carbon capture and storage, electrification, and building renovations; and the importance of energy security in transition planning is stressed. ③ A sound and mature emissions trading system and a fair transition mechanism are established to support the realization of the transition goals, and developing countries are helped to reduce emissions through technical dialogues and climate financing. To reach peak carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, China should develop relevant roadmaps at national, sectoral, and provincial levels and strengthen R&D of key decarbonization technologies. At the same time, China should enhance its regulatory regime, and improve the carbon emissions trading system, the green financial system, and the just transition mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world' s largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China faces a serious situation in energy conservation and emission reduction. However, China' s digital economy is still developing rapidly. In order to explore how the development of the digital economy affects energy consumption and CO2 emissions, this paper took the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 as a sample, used the entropy method to analyze the digital economy level of each province, and built a double fixed effect model to empirically analyze the 'positive U-shaped' or 'inverted U-shaped' relationship between the digital economy and energy or between the digital economy and CO2 emissions. The results showed that: (1) There were inter-provincial and regional differences in the level of digital economy in China. Guangdong Province and China' s eastern region had the highest level of digital economy, while Qinghai Province and the western region had the lowest level of digital economy. (2) Both the digital economy and ECSC and the digital economy and CESC had significant ' positive U-shaped' relationships, while the digital economy and ECST, the digital economy and ECEF, and the digital economy and CEEF all had significant 'inverted U-shaped' relationships. The energy-saving effect of the development of the digital economy was greater than the carbon emission reduction effect. (3) There was heterogeneity in the nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and ECSC, ECST, and ECEF, the digital economy and CESC, and CEEF in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions. (4) Digital infrastructure, digital innovation environment, digital user scale, and digital industry scale had different nonlinear effects on ECSC, ECST, and ECEF, as well as on CESC and CEEF. Accordingly, to provide empirical support and a theoretical basis for China's development of the digital economy while taking into account the effects of energy conservation and carbon emission reduction, this study puts forward relevant policy suggestions from three aspects: narrowing the gap in the level of digital economy, formulating digital economy development policies, and focusing on key points for the development of the digital economy. These suggestions are also conducive to boosting China's goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]