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Carbon neutrality is an important policy in the current global response to climate change and has been widely recognized by various industries. In the process of promoting carbon neutrality, new energy plays a pivotal role. In this study, the definition and connotation of new energy and its role and specific operation in the energy transition of carbon neutrality are firstly explained. Promoting new energy development requires significant green and low-carbon investments. Taking China as an example, this paper analyzes the opportunities brought by the carbon neutral process to the field of green finance and analyzes the main features and development trends of green finance in China at present. Then this paper proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the development of green finance in China in terms of improving the green financial policy system, enhancing the supply capacity of green financial services, and optimizing the supporting environment for green financial development. Finally, this paper analyzes the measures and experiences of the United States in promoting low-carbon development and proposes countermeasures for China's low-carbon development on the basis of the five major relationships that need attention in China's carbon-neutral process. That is, strengthen the top-level design and improve the regulatory policy system; optimize the energy structure and increase the proportion of clean energy; optimize the industrial structure and reduce energy consumption in key industries; build a complete low-carbon technology system and promote low-carbon technology research and development and demonstration applications, and encourage local conditions to explore low-carbon development paths. The development of green finance can contribute to the advancement of new energy technologies, thus contributing to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive carbon emissions not only intensify the global climate change, but also seriously restrict the sustainable development of social economy. However, improving industrial carbon emissions efficiency is the most directly effective way to reduce emissions. Therefore, accurate measurement and analysis of carbon emissions efficiency and evolution characteristics of China's industrial system is the basis for China to improve carbon emissions efficiency. Based on this, we adopted energy consumption method and input-output method to calculate and analyze the industrial carbon emissions efficiency and evolution characteristics of China from 2002 to 2015. The results show that (1) If carbon emissions from cement production are ignored and only energy-related carbon emissions are considered, the calculation results of carbon emissions efficiency of heavy industry will be overestimated about 30%. (2) Compared with 2002, China's industrial carbon emissions efficiency increased by about twice in 2015. Specifically, the optimization of carbon emissions efficiency in agriculture, construction, light industry and service industry is very obvious, which has increased by 5.65, 5.00, 4.69 and 4.68 times respectively; The optimization of carbon emissions efficiency in power sector, heavy industry, transportation and chemical industry was obvious, which increased by 2.55, 2.01, 1.86 and 1.47 times respectively; The carbon emissions efficiency of the fossil energy sector has decreased by 0.36 times. (3) The carbon emissions efficiency of various industries has significant differences. Among them, agriculture, service industry, light industry and construction industry are generally industries with higher carbon emissions efficiency, while power sector, fossil energy sector, transportation industry, chemical industry and heavy industry are generally industries with lower carbon emissions efficiency, especially power and fossil energy sectors. Based on these, this paper provides policy implications and scientific evidence for accurately improving carbon emissions efficiency from the perspective of carbon emissions efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the convening of the annual global climate conference, the issue of global climate change has gradually become the focus of attention of the international community. As the largest carbon emitter in the world, China is facing a serious situation of carbon emission reduction. This paper uses the IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) method to calculate the carbon emissions of energy consumption in China from 1996 to 2016, and uses it as a dependent variable to analyze the influencing factors. In this paper, five factors, total population, per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), urbanization level, primary energy consumption structure, technology level, and industrial structure are selected as the influencing factors of carbon emissions. Based on the expanded STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) model, the influencing degree of different factors on carbon emissions of energy consumption is analyzed. The results show that the order of impact on carbon emissions from high to low is total population, per capita GDP, technology level, industrial structure, primary energy consumption structure, and urbanization level. On the basis of the above research, the carbon emissions of China′s energy consumption in the future are predicted under eight different scenarios. The results show that, when the population and economy keep a low growth rate, while improving the technology level can effectively control carbon emissions from energy consumption, China′s carbon emissions from energy consumption will reach 302.82 million tons in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitigation of climate change is the main issue for environmental policymakers. A large number of authors analysed the impact of various factors on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this paper, we proposed a multiplicative approach to use 2- and 3-way interactions simultaneously in order to analyse the effects of energy efficiency, renewable energy and sector mix as the moderators that shape the economic activity – environmental degradation nexus. The results encompassing global panel data show that the turning point increased from 1990 to 1995 to 2002–2007 and decreased afterwards. Considering the analysis of moderators, a high share of agriculture and industry sectors make the curve flat with a positive slope and a high level of economic activity was associated with more GHG emissions with no turning point. The marginal effect of energy efficiency to reduce the negative impact of agriculture and industry sectors was growing. Meanwhile, the marginal effect of renewables to reduce the negative impact of agriculture and industry sectors was diminishing. Service sector and energy efficiency, service sector and renewables worked as the substituting forces reducing GHG emissions with a diminishing marginal rate of substitution. Therefore, this study confirms that the economic activity – environmental degradation relationship is very complex and further studies should consider the role of the moderators of this nexus. [Display omitted] • Technique, composition effects should be considered as moderators of HGH emissions. • The multiplicative approach was applied to model interactions of GHG factors. • Agriculture, industry sectors made the economic activity GHG emissions curve flat. • Marginal effect of renewables to reduce GHG emissions was diminishing. • Service sector and renewables worked as substituting forces reducing emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and climate change have become a common concern to all countries in recent years. As an industrial sector with high energy consumption, the construction sector is facing enormous pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Given the continuous integration of the world economy, the construction sector in each country has extensive linkages with other sectors and countries. By using a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model and hypothetical extraction method (HEM), this paper aims to further decompose the CO 2 emission linkages of the global construction sector from consumption-based and production-based perspectives in order to identify the key sectors and regions related to global trade. Based on data from the World Input–Output Database from 1995 to 2009, the results indicate that the average internationalization ratios of the net backward linkage and the net forward linkage of the global construction sector increased from 37% to 46% and from 16% to 20%, respectively. The global construction sector mainly imported CO 2 emissions from secondary industry and the transportation industry. The construction sector exported small amounts of CO 2 emissions to other sectors both domestically and internationally. The CO 2 emission flows embodied in the international trade of the construction sector mainly occurred between the USA, China, Russia, Germany, and the Rest of the World (ROW). The construction sectors of the ROW imported the largest amount of CO 2 emissions from China (32.72 Mt). The largest exported CO 2 emission flow was between the construction sectors of the USA and the ROW, with a value of 0.091 Mt. Based on these findings, some corresponding countermeasures are suggested, such as optimizing international trade structures, establishing a mechanism for both consumers and producers to share responsibility for carbon emission reduction, applying new environmental materials, and upgrading industrial structures by reducing dependence on high-pollution sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]