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Abstract With the development of China's economy, the use of fossil energy has become more and more, resulting in increasing carbon emissions. CO 2 emissions have caused global warming, threatening humans and creatures on Earth. In order to effectively suppress the growth of carbon emissions, it is necessary to analyze the influencing factors of carbon emissions and apply them to predict carbon emissions. This paper presents sixteen potential influencing factors and uses grey relational analysis to identify the factors that have a strong correlation with carbon emissions. The principal component analysis (PCA) is used to extract the four principal components, which reduce the redundancy of the input data. The long short-term memory (LSTM) method is established to predict carbon emissions in China. We use back propagation neural network (BPNN) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) to compare LSTM method. The simulation results show that the prediction accuracy of carbon emissions based on LSTM is better than that of BPNN and GPR, indicating the effectiveness of PCA and LSTM in prediction of carbon emissions. Finally, this paper provides the theoretical basis for China to reduce carbon emissions by studying prediction of carbon emissions. Highlights • Grey correlation analysis is applied to identify factors associated with carbon emissions. • Principal components analysis is used to simplify input variables and obtain the main factors affecting carbon emissions. • The long short-term memory model is used for the first time to predict carbon emissions. • The direction of reducing carbon emissions in China is given by analyzing the prediction results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aggravation of carbon emissions and global warming, the probability of various natural disasters and environmental risks will increase significantly. Therefore, carbon emission reduction and low-carbon development have become the focus of environmental economic research. This paper uses the information about the opening of high-speed railway (HSR) in China to comprehensively explore the effect of infrastructure construction on urban carbon total factor productivity (CTFP) in China, which is calculated by the novel non-parametric method named biennial non-radial Luenberger productivity indicator (BLPI). Our results reveal that in China, an extra HSR line significantly improves the CTFP of local cities by 0.63%, while the CTFP of related surrounding cities increases by 6.3%. We confirm the robustness of our empirical findings and perform the mechanism analysis from several aspects. The mechanism analysis shows that the HSR improves the CTFP of local cities mainly via industrial upgrading and technological progress, and improves the CTFP of surrounding cities via industrial agglomeration and factor spillover. Besides, the impact of the HSR is more pronounced for the core cities, large cities, and innovative cities. Our results suggest that the HSR makes cities more carbon efficient, which is a non-negligible advantage of infrastructure construction in reducing environmental risks. • Governments around the world have been committed to reducing external environmental risks by adopting urbanization. • This paper analyzes the spillover effect of the onening of HSR on CTFP in China. • This paper provides a novel framework, which uses the LPI combined with the BNDDF to measure CTFP. • An extra HSR line significantly improves the CTFP of local cities by 0.63% and surrounding cities by 6.3%. • The mechanism analysis reveals four channels, including industrial upgrading, technological progress, industrial agglomeration, and factor spillover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the rapid development of transportation industry brings economic benefits, at the same time, the problem of environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious. The emission of CO 2 intensifies the trend of global warming. How to measure the development of environment and economy is a huge challenge for us. This paper proposes a data envelopment analysis (DEA) method based on slacks-based measure (SBM) to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of the transportation industry from 2015 to 2017. According to the economic region, 30 provinces in China are divided into northeast, east, central and western regions for efficiency analysis. The model can determine the low efficiency decision units and finally put forward improvement suggestions for the low efficiency areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has set an ambitious national determined contributions target to peak CO 2 emissions by 2030 and aims to be carbon neutral by 2060. One of China's top energy consumers and CO 2 contributors, the steel industry accounts for 13% of the country's total consumption and 15% of CO 2 emissions. In response to the present global warming trend, there is an urgent need to cut energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to promote low-carbon growth. This paper attempts to provide a detailed analysis of the steel industry's CO 2 emission reduction path to carbon neutrality. Further efforts in terms of industrial structure, material efficiency, energy efficiency, and low- or zero-carbon technologies are required to achieve a low-carbon transition. Given that decarbonization is a significant priority in the steel industry in many countries, this study focuses on the goals and technological paths of low-carbon emissions projects to optimize existing technology priorities and propose development directions. Deep decarbonization is also projected to be achieved by combining CCUS and hydrogen metallurgy technologies. The steel industry requires collaborative efforts to standardize CO 2 emission accounting methodologies and establish a carbon trading system to strengthen carbon emission management. • The steel industry is one of the key contributors to carbon neutrality which needs to accelerate decarbonization. • Reducing energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to keep up with the current global warming trend are reviewed. • This paper selects low-carbon emission projects to optimize current technology priorities and provide development directions. • Policy recommendations and next steps for low-carbon transition are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing contribution of refrigeration systems to global warming has led to widespread demand for low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants as alternatives. This paper proposed a comprehensive environmental assessment method for evaluating the carbon footprint of units charged with low-GWP refrigeration. Experimental and numerical studies were used to investigate the carbon footprint impact of using alternative refrigerants at different ambient temperatures in China. Initially, the model was validated through experimental case studies on the use stage of cold storage units. Subsequently, a comparison was made between the cooling capacity (CC) and energy efficiency ratio (EER) of cold storage units charged with different refrigerants. Additionally, the impact of alternative refrigerants in the use stage was analyzed by numerical calculations, and the adaptability of the cold storage unit to the ambient temperature and the national energy structure was also studied. The results indicate that among the four stages of the cold storage unit, the use stage is the hotspot of carbon footprint due to the large amount of energy consumption and the existence of refrigerant leakage and other behaviors. Utilizing low-GWP alternative refrigerants could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the cold storage units' use stage by 10.56%–16.39%, thereby lowering the whole stage carbon footprint. Furthermore, the ambient temperature and national energy structure could also effectively reduce the carbon footprint of cold storage units' whole stage by 1%–27.17%. Furthermore, after adopting low GWP refrigerants, the life-cycle cost (LCC) of the units have also decreased by 6.1%–12%. Taking into account both environmental impact and economic considerations, it is recommended to directly replace R404A with R448A in the units in regions where the average ambient temperature is above 15 °C. • A carbon footprint evaluation model for the units was established. • Influencing factors of carbon footprint are studied numerically and experimentally. • By GHG assessments, the optimal refrigerant and external conditions were determined. • Alternative refrigerants reduce carbon emissions for cold storage units by 8.8%–24.92%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming caused by the excessive combustion of fossil fuels has become the focus of the international community. China's carbon emission reduction policy plays a vital role in international climate change, carbon emission neutrality and domestic environmental pollution control. This paper summarises the progress of China's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) pilots from 2011 to 2021, including trading volume, carbon emissions price, and the effect of carbon emission abatement. By calculating the carbon emissions intensity decrease rate of China's ETS pilot and non-pilot regions, the ETS and carbon emissions tax are compared in terms of emission reduction effectiveness, emission reduction cost and implementation resistance to provide theoretical support for the Chinese government to select and develop carbon emission reduction tools. The development of the Clean Development Mechanism in China is also compared with China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER), and the offsetting rules of CCER are summarised. After the whole analysis and assessment, the results show that from 2013 to 2018, the average carbon emissions intensity decline rate in the ETS pilots was 7.3% and that in non-pilots was 4.29%. Some problems of China's carbon emissions trading market are also concluded. The trading volume is small (only 43.4 × 106 t in 2020) and is discrepant greatly in the different ETS pilots. The carbon emissions price is low (only 33.45 Yuan/t in 2020), with high volatility and large price differences among the ETS pilots. Based on the existing problems, this paper proposes some suggestions for improving China's emission trading market and provides theoretical and decision-making support for promoting carbon emission reduction and neutralisation for China. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming can be solved with carbon trading. When carbon emissions become a commodity, it can be a powerful motivator for companies to optimize production capacity and innovate technologically. The goal of this paper is to examine the way in which China's carbon emissions trading policy (CET) influences firm technological innovation in seven pilot regions, using a sample of firms in eight high-carbon industries. We employ difference-in-difference (DID) as well as DID-based propensity score matching (PSM-DID) models to investigate the influence of China's carbon emission policy on firms' technological innovation by using 4745 observations of 749 A-share listed firms in eight high-carbon industries in mainland China from 2007 to 2021. According to the findings, China's CET policy significantly boosts firms' technological innovation, and this beneficial effect persists even after a series of robustness tests that change the policy's implementation year and the technological innovation measure. Further analysis shows that this positive effect is heterogeneous across high-carbon industries and firms with different ownership. In addition, based on the external governance perspective, we find that CET policy performs better in firms in high-carbon industries with a sizable portion of ownership held by institutional investors. This study suggests the effectiveness of CET policy in promoting firms' technological innovation, confirms empirical evidence for Porter's hypothesis, and provides a basis for Chinese firms to achieve their emission reduction targets by improving technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of household carbon emissions (HCEs) has become one of the most important topics in sustainability research due to the growing awareness of its significances in responding to global warming. This paper aims to identify the trends and characteristics of HCEs research for the period 1993–2019 through the bibliometric analysis approach. The impacts of most productive journals, countries, institutions and authors are evaluated by citation analysis, while the co-authorship network between various countries, institutions as well as the co-occurrence among different keywords are presented. The results of this paper provide a detailed picture on HCEs-related articles from 1993 to 2019. Both the number of publications on HCEs and the cooperation among countries and institutions have increased during the period. Keyword analysis suggests that the revelation of current status of HCEs and corresponding influencing factors are the main lines of HCEs research, and the prediction of HCEs should become the focus of future research. The valuable results obtained from this study can help the academic professionals keep informed of the latest developments in the HCEs-related field. • We employed bibliometric analysis to examine the evolution in HCEs Research. • HCEs research is at its rapid growth stage of development. • USA and China are the most active countries in HCEs research. • The quantification of HCEs and corresponding influencing factors are the main line. • The evolution trend of HCEs should be the focus of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production consumes a large amount of water consumption and generates huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Quantitative study of impact food wastage imposing on water and greenhouse gas emissions contributes to public awareness that food wastage will further worsen the resource shortage and climate warming, reducing food wastage accordingly. This paper evaluates the impacts of food wastage in the consumption stage on water resources and the environment in China. The result indicates that in the year 2010, the wastage of major food in China was around 62818 M kg in the consumption link, accounting for 14.5% of the total food production, of which the plant food wastage takes up the majority. The loss of water resources (blue water plus green water) caused by food wastage is 60502 Mm³, more than 10% of the country's total water use. Food wastage has a serious impact on agricultural non-point source pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a grey water footprint of 16292 Mm³ and 60.85 M ton of carbon emissions. Taking regional differences of food consumption into consideration, the proportion of water footprints and carbon emissions in the eastern and southern developed areas is relatively higher, while the plant food takes a relatively larger share in water footprints and carbon emissions in the western and central provinces. Reducing food waste is important to remove unnecessary burdens on the environment and natural resources. The optimization of resource utilization in the process of food production is conducive to effectively reduce water footprints and carbon emissions of food; healthy diets shall be popularized among citizens so that the animal food consumption which causes more water footprints and carbon emissions can be decreased, alleviating resource and environmental burdens through reduction of the wastage in food consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black carbon (BC) is the most potent light-absorbing component of particulate matter and can have a significant warming impact. On-road vehicles are a major source of BC and a significant contributor to global warming. This paper establishes an updated inventory to quantify the mitigation potential of efforts to control BC emissions from on-road transportation in China. The total emissions of BC from on-road vehicles in China were 152.1 thousand tons in 2017. Heavy-duty diesel fleets accounted for a large percentage of emissions, whereas light-duty gasoline fleets presented a gradually increasing trend of emissions. Historically, comprehensive control policies for on-road vehicle emissions have achieved substantial BC reductions, with a 45% decrease in 2017 compared to 2000. With the implementation of stringent control policies and the development of advanced control technologies, BC emissions from the on-road sector may have a greater reduction potential in the future. By 2035, three various future scenarios representing different stringency levels of emission controls will reduce BC emissions by 58%, 90%, and 93% relative to 2017. The major benefits in reducing BC emissions result from more stringent emission standards and the accelerated retirement of older heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The shorter lifetime of BC than that of CO 2 implies that the mitigation of BC emissions would offer an important opportunity to contribute to alleviating global warming in the short term. Our assessment reveals that in 2035, the most stringent scenario, Scenario PC3 , could deliver a CO 2 -equivalent emission reduction on a 20-year scale of 234.2 (GWP 20-yr) million tons compared with the NAP Scenario, which is equivalent to reducing the oil consumption in China's transportation sector by nearly 20% from a climate impact perspective. [Display omitted] • The historical and future BC emissions from on-road vehicles in China are estimated. • Comprehensive control policies have achieved a substantial BC reduction with a 45% decrease. • BC emissions from the on-road sector suggest a greater reduction potential in the future. • The most stringent Scenario can deliver a CO 2 -equivalent reduction of 234.2 million tons (GWP 20-yr) in 2035. • The BC emission mitigation potential could be equivalent to ∼20% of the climate benefits from fuel savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abatement of carbon emissions is an important way to alleviate global warming. It is therefore crucial to explore the factors behind the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement (CPCEA). However, existing research mainly focused on the factors that promote national, provincial, city-level, and industrial carbon emissions reduction, without looking at the micro-company level. In response to the research gap, this study therefore explored the drivers of CPCEA using panel data from 736 listed companies in China. This study used the logit regression to examine the effects of pre-identified factors on the CPCEA. The results indicated that political ties, corporate scale, industry category, and regional disparity have significant impacts on the CPCEA. Contrary to expectations, environmental regulation was not found to affect CPCEA. Based on the findings of this study, five policy implications to improve CPCEA in China were proposed. This paper presented empirical evidence to promote CPCEA. Additionally, the results have important practical implications and priority guide for carbon emissions reduction in China and around the world. Image 1 F09F • Political ties are negatively related to the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement (CPCEA). F09F • Corporate scale is positively related to the CPCEA. F09F • Companies in the higher carbon industries and companies in the more developed region have stronger CPCEA. F09F • Environmental regulation has no significant impact on promoting CPCEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]