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Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The low-carbon city pilot policy is an important way to promote corporate green innovation, and it is also an inevitable choice to achieve the goals of achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. However, existing research on the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on green innovation lacks depth, and literature focusing on micro-corporate level is insufficient. Therefore, it is difficult to provide an effective reference for corporate green transformation. Based on the panel data of 936 A-share listed companies in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment. The multistage dynamic difference-in-differences model and difference-in-difference-in-differences model were used to explore the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on corporate green innovation and its heterogeneity in terms of enterprise size, property rights, and carbon emission industry. Furthermore, from the perspective of environmental responsibility and talent agglomeration, this paper discussed the transmission mechanism of this policy to promote corporate green innovation and determined the optimal path for the low-carbon city pilot policy to take. The research results showed that: ① The low-carbon city pilot policy effectively promoted corporate green innovation in the pilot areas. Compared with the green utility model patent innovation, the pilot policy had a more significant impact on green invention patent innovation. A series of robustness tests such as PSM-DID and the placebo test found that the conclusion was still valid. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on green innovation presented heterogeneity in terms of enterprise size, property rights, and carbon emission industry. This policy had a more significant policy impact on large-scale enterprises, and only had a positive impact on the utility model patent of state-owned enterprises but had a significant positive impact on the green innovation of non-state-owned enterprises to varying degrees. The low-carbon city pilot policy had a significant positive impact on the green innovation of enterprises in high-carbon industries but had a certain inhibitory effect on the green innovation of enterprises in low-carbon industries. ③ The main transmission mechanism of the low-carbon city pilot policy on the promotion of corporate green innovation was that the pilot policy enhanced the awareness of the environmental responsibility of enterprises by strengthening their management of environmental information disclosure, improving the level of their environmental protection investment, providing government support for their environmental protection, and inducing the effect of talent agglomeration by attracting talented people seeking employment and those who graduated from local universities as well as high-tech talents from enterprises. From the perspective of the transmission path effect, environmental responsibility played a greater role, followed by talent agglomeration. Therefore, the government should keep on expanding the scope of the lowcarbon pilot policy, give more financial and policy support to small and medium-sized technological private enterprises and green environmental protection enterprises, promote the shareholding system reform, mergers, and reorganization of state-owned enterprises, and provide sustainable environmental regulation and assistance to high-carbon emission enterprises. They should also continuously enhance enterprises' environmental responsibility awareness and promote the effect of talent agglomeration to improve the level of green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis framework of the general equilibrium model of trade environment effect constructed by Copeland and Taylor, this paper explained the mechanism of the effects of coordinated development of two-way FDI on carbon emissions, and then based on the data of two-way FDI and carbon emissions in 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2020, the paper measured the carbon emission reduction effect of the coordinated development of two-way FDI in China by using the spatial panel model and moment estimation method generated by Han and Phillips and introduced the intermediary effect model to explore its impact mechanism. Moreover, the spatial spillover effect of the spatial model was investigated by applying partial differentiation. The study showed that: ① The coordinated development of China' s two-way FDI could significantly inhibit the improvement of the country' s carbon emission level. The spatial distribution and time path dependence of high and low carbon emission clusters were significant, and the results were still valid after robustness and endogenous tests. ② Heterogeneity analysis showed that coordinated development of two-way FDI in the eastern region had the most obvious carbon emission reduction effect, followed by the central region, while the regression results of the impact of the western region on carbon emissions were not significant. That was mainly related to the highest level of coordinated development of two-way FDI in the eastern region, followed by the central region, while the western region had been in a state of extreme imbalance. ③ The test result of the impact mechanism showed that coordinated development of two-way FDI, on the one hand, reduced carbon emissions by improving the capital-labor ratio, and on the other hand, had a positive impact on carbon emissions by promoting the expansion of industrial scale and the improvement of productive technology. However, under the combined effect of structural effect, scale effect, and technological effect, it ultimately had a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions. ④ The spatial spillover effect analysis found that the improvement in coordinated development of two-way FDI in China' s provinces inhibited not only the carbon emissions of their own regions, but also those of neighboring regions and even the whole country. In view of the above findings, we believe that we should do a good job of coordinating the development of two-way FDI, establish a long-term mechanism of coordinated regional economic development and joint pollution prevention and control, further tap the emission reduction effect of structural effects, and encourage and guide technological progress to focus on pollution control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Population Resources & Environment is the property of Shandong Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As a typical means of transportation for residents to travel with low carbon in the new era, it is of grea t significance to explore how to achieve sustainable development throughout its life cycle. Based on t he challenges of the development of shared bicycles in China's cities, this paper innovatively proposes a governance framework for the sustainable development of shared bicycles oriented to the circular e conomy and a governance path based on the 3R principle, and constructs a complex system dynamics model that integrates three sub-modules of faulty vehicle reduction, faulty vehicle reuse and end-of-lif e vehicle resource. On this basis, based on the practical case of Shanghai, a multi-scenario simulation of the sustainable development path of shared bicycles from the perspective of circular economy is ca rried out. The study found that: (1) the five strategies of user use behavior governance, recycling parti cipation behavior governance, urban total delivery control, faulty vehicle recycling monitoring and pro ducer responsibility extension system all play a significant role in the sustainable development of the s hared bicycle industry; (2) In terms of a single strategy, the extended producer responsibility system a nd the monitoring of faulty vehicle recycling are the two best governance measures for the governme nt to control faulty and scrapped vehicles, operators to reduce production and recycling disposal cost s, and thus improve the efficiency of resource utilization in the industry, followed by urban total invest ment control; (3) In terms of combination strategies, the comprehensive integration and implementati on of the five strategies is the optimal governance path to promote the sustainable development of sh ared bicycles in China, after full implementation, the total number of scrapped bicycles in Shanghai wil l be reduced by 71.15% from 2021 to 2031, the production and recycling costs of operators will be sav ed by 73.77%, and the carbon emissions will be reduced by 87,800 tons. Based on the above research results, this paper proposes to implement the extended producer responsibility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual implementation of strategies to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, the heterogeneous performance of low-carbon technological progress driving carbon emission reduction in different situations has become an important basis for targeted technological carbon reduction. As an important special subject of national energy resource security and carbon emission reduction, whether resource-based cities can reach peak carbon emissions simultaneously is a key to the achievement of the ' dual carbon' goals. This paper reviewed the theoretical literature on low-carbon technology progress and carbon emissions in resource-based cities, and extracted the their driving mechanisms. Based on the panel data of 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities in China from 2005 to 2019, this paper innovatively considered six undesirable outputs with resource-based city characteristics to define the low-carbon technological progress of such cities, and used the DEA-Malmquist index model, STIRPAT model, and threshold model to clarify the current situation of low-carbon technological progress and carbon emissions in resource-based cities. The study also carried out a deep analysis of the driving relationship and threshold effect between low-carbon technological progress and carbon emission reduction, and compared and analyzed their multiple heterogeneity. The study found that during the sample period, the low-carbon technology progress of these 116 prefecture-level resource-based cities showed a phased upward trend, and that carbon emissions had obvious regional heterogeneity and type heterogeneity. The progress of low-carbon technology in resource-based cities had a certain inhibitory effect on carbon emissions and presented type heterogeneity, regional heterogeneity, and a double threshold effect. In different threshold ranges, the driving effects of low-carbon technology on carbon emission reduction effect and carbon emission reduction rebound effect were different. The driving effects of other seven control variables, such as gross domestic product, command-based environmental regulation, market-based environmental regulation, voluntary environmental regulation, industrial structure, energy consumption structure, and foreign direct investment, on carbon emissions were also different. Finally, based on the research conclusions, regarding different regional resource-based cities, different types of resource-based cities, and different levels of low-carbon technology progress in resource-based cities, policy recommendations related to low-carbon technology progress and carbon emission reduction are proposed in a targeted manner, aiming to promote the improvement of low-carbon technology progress in resource-based cities and the simultaneous achievement of carbon emission reduction targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China' s digital finance has developed rapidly, and its application scope continues to expand, which has a profound impact on people' s production and lifestyle and may affect carbon emissions. On the basis of a literature review, this paper firstly summarized the possible ways of impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and then illustrated the economic principles and impact mechanism of how digital finance affected carbon emissions by introducing digital finance and energy consumption into the production function and introducing the stock of carbon dioxide into the consumer utility function to improve Romer's endogenous economic growth model. The results of the theoretical analysis showed that the development of digital finance would affect carbon emissions by influencing the consumption concepts and behavior of residents, the mode of production activities, and the innovation efficiency of enterprises. Besides, the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions represented an inverted U-shape, and the digital financial capacity required by the turning point of carbon emissions mainly depended on the existing energy consumption and technological innovation. Then, based on China' s provincial data, this paper analyzed the above inverted U-shape relationship empirically and tested the corresponding intermediary mechanism. The results showed that: (1) The impact of digital finance on carbon emissions could be decomposed into the effects of increasing production and those of saving energy. (2) Under the two comprehensive effects, carbon emissions increased first and then decreased with the development of digital finance, and this inverted U-shape relationship passed the endo-geneity and robustness tests. (3) There were significant structural differences in the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions in terms of breadth, depth, and degree of digitalization. (4) In addition, the results of the impact mechanism analysis also showed that the development of digital finance alleviated the pressure on the financing demand of enterprises, and the production scale under the traditional production mode was thus expanded and the carbon emissions increased, meaning that the impact brought by the development of digital finance was more reflected in the increase of carbon emissions with the expansion of output (yield increasing effect). However, as the development of digital finance deepened and digitalization played a cumulative role in the later stage, the innovation and emission reduction effects brought by the promotion of enterprise R&D and energy-saving technology patents significantly increased, which eventually led to the reduction of carbon emissions (energy saving effect) by reducing the carbon intensity. Based on this, the development of digital finance in China should shift from a mode emphasizing quantity to one emphasizing quality as soon as possible to provide precise support for the country' s low-carbon and energy-saving transformation, digital upgrading of enterprises, optimization of energy industry structures, new energy development and utilization, and continuous innovation of digital carbon financial products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the global value chain (GVC) crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, using methods of risk analysis of input-output table and geopolitical deduction, and based on the latest datasets of carbon dioxide emissions and the world energy trade, this paper analyzes the global value chain risks and energy security issues from three dimensions: climate governance dilemma, the global value chain crisis, and energy security and energy transition. It then presumes changes in world energy trade and geopolitical evolution and assesses their impact on China. The main findings and viewpoints of this paper are as follows: (1) The brokage, fragmentation, cutoff, and even production stoppage of the global value chain have done huge damage to the world economy, and it is urgent to rebuild a safe, stable, resilient, and green global value chain in the post-COVID-19 era. (2) Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the flow direction and volume of the world' s energy trade have changed greatly, and the energy supply chain has gradually formulated into five formulas: the ' Europe-U.S. supply chain,' the ' Eurasian supply chain,' the ' U.S., Japan, Australia, and India supply chain,' the ' OPEC supply chain,' and a ' new Europe supply chain.' Among them, the United States has increased rapidly its LNG exports to Europe, and Russia has significantly increased its energy exports to Asian countries, inducing a new ' Eurasian energy supply chain.' (3) The world' s energy geopolitics is evolving in such a way that the United States is strengthening its grip on Europe to jointly restrain Russia' s power and initiating a Asia-Pacific ' four-sided mechanism' to counter China' s rise. Consequently, energy security has been bound to geopolitics. (4) China should act as a geopolitical ' power of equilibrium' to avoid the increasing risk of a new Cold War or a ' quasi-Cold War' to ensure its own energy security, to promote its dual goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality actively and gradually, and to steadily follow the path of peaceful development. We conclude that: the ' dual carbon' goals set up a timetable for China' s transitions in terms of energy, economy, and development mode. At the same time, the strategy of 'decoupling with China' promoted by some countries gives China an opportunity instead and forces China to accelerate its industrial transition, trade upgrading, and optimization of economic structure, in order to build an upgraded version of the ' world factory' and fully realize a high-quality, green, sustainable development with a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate warming on world agricultural production and food security has become increasingly obvious. As an important source of carbon emissions and the carbon sink system, the green development of agriculture is one of the important ways to alleviate the crisis and achieve China' s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Exploiting the potential of agricultural carbon sinks and accurately calculating agricultural net carbon emissions are of great significance to promoting the green development of agriculture meeting the ' dual carbon' goals. Based on the dual characteristics of the agricultural carbon cycle, this paper sorted out the logical relationship between agricultural green development and the agricultural carbon cycle, incorporated the role of agricultural carbon sinks into the calculation framework of agricultural carbon emissions, and measured China' s agricultural net carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019 by time and region. The decoupling model of agricultural net carbon emissions from agricultural economic growth was constructed. The results of the study found that the total amount of carbon emissions from agricultural sources increased from 277.899 million t in 2000 to 308.383 1 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 0.52%, but the agricultural carbon emission intensity showed a trend of continuous decline; the agricultural carbon sink increased from 99.539 9 million t in 2000 to 133.039 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 1.46%, and the agricultural carbon sink resources were considerable. The intensity of agricultural carbon source emissions was higher in the west than in other regions and there was a clear gap with the eastern region. The total amount of agricultural carbon source emissions, carbon sinks, and net carbon emissions all showed a medium-high pattern. The decoupling relationship between agricultural economic growth and agricultural net carbon emissions was mainly manifested in two decoupling states: strong decoupling and weak decoupling. Nearly 50% of the provinces achieved the ideal strong decoupling state in terms of agricultural green development, while the remaining provinces were in a weak decoupling state, and the decoupling state was generally ideal. Finally, this paper puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions to promote the green development of agriculture and help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals: we should accurately locate the carbon source; ensure the ' double bottom line' of food security and pig production capacity under low-carbon agriculture; resolve the resource endowment differences between regions; explore the potential of the agricultural carbon trading market; create a new path for farmers to increase their income, maintain the strong and improve the weak; and strive to achieve the ' package' of strong decoupling in agriculture to help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New urbanization plays an important role in China's regional economic growth and green transformation. In this stage of high-quality economic development, the effect of the government-led new urbanization policy on reducing pollution and carbon emissions needs to be verified. Based on the data of 180 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2020, this paper built a difference-indifferences model from the two dimensions of ' pollution' and ' carbon emission' to empirically test the effect of the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions in new urbanization and its influencing mechanisms. The results showed that: (J) The new urbanization construction had a significant effect of reducing pollution and carbon emissions, which was characterized by its annual increase. The conclusion was still robust after validity and robustness tests. © Based on the ' location-feature-scale' dimensional urban heterogeneity, the effect of the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions was more significant in the samples of eastern cities, non-resource-based cities, cities with high human capital, and larger cities. Quantile estimation results showed that this effect in the new urbanization construction was increasing marginally. © Mechanism analysis showed that the new urbanization construction could not only directly promote the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions, but also effectively promote this reduction by fostering the overall upgrading of industrial structure, service structure, and performance-based technological innovation. However, the impact of input-based technological innovation on this reduction was not obvious. This article offers new ideas for the next stage of regional pollution control in China. It is suggested that the government should promote the synergy between the new urbanization and the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions and release the dividends of the new urbanization in regional green development in a more effective way with the help of industrial structure upgrading and performance-based technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep decarbonization aims to achieve the profound transformation of energy systems through steeply reducing carbon intensity in all sectors of the economy, which is the only way to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. It is of great practical significance for China to clarify the research themes and identify the research evolution trend of deep decarbonization. We first analyzed the connotation and characteristics of deep decarbonization, based on which we deeply read the related academic literature and the frontier reports issued by international organizations and research institutions to make a systematic review of relevant research themes. Moreover, based on the identification results of research hotspots and research frontiers of deep decarbonization obtained by bibliometric analysis, we analyzed the evolution trend of deep decarbonization research. The research found that: ① Deep decarbonization is essentially to promote the deployment of carbon reduction, zero carbon, and negative carbon technologies to achieve the transition of the entire energy system from a high carbon emission type to a net-zero emission type through technological, social, and economic policy paths. Compared with normal decarbonization, the characteristics of coverage and path planning determine that deep decarbonization is a more advanced decarbonizing process. ② The research themes of deep decarbonization mainly fall into four categories: challenges faced by deep decarbonization, technological paths of deep decarbonization, policy research oriented to deep decarbonization, and cost and benefit evaluation of deep decarbonization. ③ The evolutionary trend of deep decarbonization research can be divided into two stages. In the initial stage (2015-2018), the framework, including subdivided research fields and research frontiers of deep decarbonization research, was initially formed. In the rapid development stage (2019-2021), more detailed emerging research topics were emerging in the field of deep decarbonization research, and scholars began to turn to new research perspectives. Finally, the implications of deep decarbonization research for China were proposed: In terms of research perspective, deep decarbonization research should be expanded to the micro-subject level and to research on issues such as decarbonization of the corporate value chain and corporate decarbonization potential assessment with an interdisciplinary perspective. In terms of research methods and paradigms, multidisciplinary research methods should be used to better develop comprehensive models supporting accurate decision-making. New paradigms such as big data, machine learning, and simulation can be explored in deep decarbonization research. In terms of research content, this paper suggests the expansion of the current research boundary of deep decarbonization through studying the incentive mechanisms, investment and financing mechanisms, identification of emerging technologies, construction of technology systems, and establishment of cost-benefit evaluation frameworks, models and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment is the foundation of people ’s livelihoods, and a low-carbon transition is a key development theme for China in the future. The impact of reducing CO2 emissions as a hard macroeconomic constraint on the labor market is an important economic issue. This paper used China’s low-carbon city pilot policy as a representative policy to study the low-carbon transition. Firstly, based on the analysis of typical economic facts and policy texts, it was found that there might exist two distinct low-carbon transition approaches in China. The study then examined the differences in the policy impact on labor employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities, analyzed the underlying mechanisms, and finally constructed a general equilibrium model based on the empirical findings to further elaborate the heterogeneous impact pathways from a theoretical perspective. The study showed that: ① There was a difference in the policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. The policy increased employment in secondary and tertiary industries and total employment in the first batch of pilot cities, but it increased employment in tertiary industries and decreased employment in secondary industries in the second batch of pilot cities. ② There was a difference in the mechanisms of policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. Under the influence of the policy, the first batch of pilot cities adopted the low-carbon transition approach of focusing resources on the secondary industry, while the second batch of pilot cities adopted the lowcarbon transition approach of focusing resources on the tertiary industry. ③ The low-carbon transition approaches of the two batches of pilot cities had their own advantages and disadvantages. The approach of the first batch of pilot cities achieved a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in the number of jobs, with the disadvantage of increasing the intensity of CO2 emissions and reducing the disposable income of workers, failing to improve the quality of employment. However, the approach of the second batch of pilot cities reduced the intensity of CO2 emissions, increased employment in the tertiary industry, and increased the disposable income of workers, effectively improving the quality of employment but failing to achieve a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in total employment. Accordingly, China’s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality can be achieved either by industrial transformation and upgrading or by enhancing the development of the tertiary industry, but the best way is to develop the tertiary industry on the basis of industrial transformation and upgrading without blindly adopting the de-industrialization approach to achieve the peak carbon emission goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the launch of a unified national carbon market in China, its synergistic effects on promoting carbon emission reduction in the power industry with renewable energy subsidies are noteworthy. The traditional view is that the total amount of carbon emissions is fixed under the carbon trading policy and the renewable energy subsidy policy under the total amount control will no longer play an additional role in reducing emissions, and would even lead to excessive carbon market quotas, distorting carbon market prices. This paper establishes a general equilibrium analysis framework for national carbon trading and examines the parallel emission reduction effects of renewable energy subsidies in the power industry and the national carbon market and their policy synergy paths. The results show that: ① The national carbon market and renewable energy subsidy policy for the power industry would both bring about CO2 emission reduction in the whole industry. ② The carbon market that only covers the power industry would produce a ‘carbon leakage’ effect, which would lead to an increase in carbon emissions in non-power industries. On this basis, continuing the renewable energy subsidies may alleviate the ‘carbon leakage’ by means of the transfer of production factors among industries or lead to excessive carbon market quotas by ‘greening’ the power production structure. ③ Considering two sources of renewable energy subsidies: the one-time tax on residents (resident income tax) and the renewable energy electricity price surcharge (electricity consumption tax), the emission reduction effect of the former resource is better than that of the latter resource, and the latter may even cause ‘cross-border damage.’ ④ The renewable energy subsidies would lead to a decrease in the carbon market transaction price. The FIT is better than the FIP, and it is necessary to increase the total amount of constraints to effectively restrain the decline of carbon trade prices. As the carbon market expands and improves, renewable energy subsidies can be gradually reduced or even eliminated to avoid their impact on the carbon market price. [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]

The system as a whole is composed of various interrelated sub-systems. The effect of a system will be affected by the coordination of other systems associated with it. Only when the complementarity and coordination between systems increase can the implementation effect of the system be fully brought into play. As an informal system, social trust can affect the implementation effect of formal environmental regulations, but there are few studies on the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. Based on this, the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2019 were selected as research samples. The moderating effect model and mediated moderating effect model were used to study the moderating effect and mechanism of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. In addition, the heterogeneity of this moderating effect was tested by region. The results showed that: ① The impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions showed an inverted Ushaped nonlinear relationship, and the promotion effect of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was dominant in the present stage. FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation were important mediating channels for environmental regulations to affect carbon emissions. ② As a moderating variable, social trust positively moderated the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions and accelerated the arrival of the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve. ③ In terms of the mediating effect, the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was realized through the mediating effect of FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation, and the impact of social trust on the inflection points of the three intermediary channels was heterogeneous. ④ The moderating effect of social trust had regional heterogeneity. In small cities, the impact of social trust on environmental regulations on carbon emissions was greater than that in large and medium-sized cities. The moderating effect of social trust was greater in the cities without environmental protection than in the cities with environmental protection. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests. It is hoped that this paper can enrich the relevant research on environmental regulations and social trust and be helpful for local governments to formulate relevant policies according to local conditions, improve the carbon emission reduction effect of environmental regulation, and accelerate the green development and transformation of Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructed the mismatch index of land supply structure by cities in China from 2010 to 2019 and analyzed the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of land supply structure mismatch on urban carbon emission efficiency using the spatial Durbin econometric model. The results showed that: ① There were obvious regional differences and interactive forms of spatial strategies in the mismatch of urban land supply structures in China. The mismatch index of urban land supply structure in the eastern region was the lowest, while that in the northeast region was the highest. There was a 'race to the top' type of spatial strategic interaction in residential land supply mismatch, industrial land supply mismatch, and commercial service land supply mismatch. ② Due to the competitive effect of economic growth among cities, urban carbon emission efficiency had a significant positive spatial spillover effect. The estimation results of the spatial Durbin econometric model showed that the mismatch of land supply structures inhibited the improvement of the carbon emission efficiency of cities themselves as well as spatially related cities. ③ In terms of the degree of land supply mismatch in different industries, urban residential land supply mismatch, industrial land supply mismatch, and commercial service land supply mismatch were not conducive to improving the carbon emission efficiency of cities themselves as well as spatially related cities. ④ The mechanism analysis showed that, with the intensification of competition in attracting investment and fiscal and tax competition between cities, the negative effect of the mismatch of land supply structure on the carbon emission efficiency of spatially related cities and cities themselves was greater. In dimensional terms, the supply mismatch of residential land and commercial service land only inhibited the carbon emission efficiency of spatially related cities and cities themselves through fiscal and tax competition, while the supply mismatch of industrial land only inhibited the carbon emission efficiency of spatially related cities and cities themselves through competition in attracting investment. In order to improve the efficiency of urban carbon emissions, local governments should improve the lowcarbon oriented urban land governance system, curb the vicious competition of land resource allocation among local governments, constantly eliminate the micro-factors of urban land supply structure mismatch, and promote regional collaborative carbon emission reduction. [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 one of the three core pillars of the development of the Olympic Movement, ' sustainability' has become an important indicator of success in organizing comprehensive international sports events. It is of great relevance to discuss its impact on environmental performance. Using panel data of Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2002 to 2019, this study constructed a quasi-natural experiment using previous comprehensive international sports events hosted by China, and systematically investigated the impact of these events on the carbon performance of the host cities by combining the difference-in-differences model (DID), spatial difference-in-differences model (SDID), and the synthetic control method (SCM). The results showed that: (1) Hosting comprehensive international sports events significantly improved the carbon emission performance of host cities, and contributed to a 15.3% reduction in carbon emission intensity. (2) The mechanism analysis showed that hosting such events could significantly improve the host cities 'green development and scientific and technological innovation capacity, and could drive host cities to optimize and upgrade their industrial structures and attract foreign investment. Higher-level green development capacity and science and technology innovation capacity were important driving forces behind the low-carbon transformation of host cities. However, the advanced industrial structure and foreign direct investment induced by comprehensive international sports events did not have a significant impact on the carbon emission performance of host cities. (3) In the temporal dimension, the carbon reduction effects of comprehensive international sports events were short-term in nature, and their effectiveness was not sustainable in the long term. (4) In the spatial dimension, there was a significant spatial spillover of the impact of comprehensive international sports events on carbon emission performance. It brought about a decrease of about 2.50% in the carbon emission intensity of neighboring cities of the host cities and led to a decrease of about 1.84% in the carbon emission intensity of other cities in the whole region. (5) The heterogeneity analysis showed that the carbon reduction effects of comprehensive international sports events were highly correlated with the scale of the events and their influence. More influential events such as the Olympic Games, the Asian Games, and the Uni-versiade were more likely to improve the carbon emission performance of the host cities, while relatively small-scale events such as the Asian Winter Games and the Winter Universiade had limited impact on the carbon emission performance of the host cities. Based on the above conclusions, this paper argues that we should take the hosting of comprehensive international sports events as an opportunity to promote the modernization of the public governance capacity of the host cities, focus on solving the problems in the process of urban development, and achieve a 'win-win' situation between 'green hosting' and sustainable economic and social development. [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]

Global warming is evolving into a crisis affecting the future of humanity. As the world' s second largest economy, China is actively involved in global climate governance, proposing to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and has successively introduced the corresponding ' 1+N' policy system. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze 23 policy texts relevant to the achievement of the goals with over 160 000 characters from the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant ministries and provinces through two typical qualitative research methods-ground theory and institutional grammar tool, to outline the elemental structure and functional profile of the pathways of China' s carbon peak and carbon neutrality policies, and to clarify the group structure and regulation intensity of different policy pathways. Based on grounded theory, it is found that these pathways are already very comprehensive and complete. Among them, the policy pathways under the administrative mechanism include: high energy consumption and high emission industrial control; regulations and standards systems; carbon reduction governance in key industries; control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption; and carbon absorption capacity of ecosystems. The policy pathways under the market mechanism include circular economy development; energy transformation development; cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions; green finance development; and green transformation development. The results of institutional grammar tool research show that relevant policy pathways are dominated by ADIC normative condition statements (177, accounting for 52%), followed by AIC strategy statements (130, accounting for 38%), while ADICO rule-based statements are the least, with only 33, accounting for 10%. Given the pressure of time constraints and heavy tasks to achieve the goals, ADICO' s institutional grammar structure is the most desirable policy statement paradigm because it is more intense in its policy regulation, and it is easier to achieve its governance effectiveness. Undoubtedly, policy regulation is an important tool to effectively alleviate the pressure of the governance of the goals and to ensure the effectiveness of such governance. Policy regulation mainly focuses on the industrial sector with high energy consumption and high emissions, relying on top-down hierarchical organization and using political mobilization and administrative decrees as means to promote governance in the high carbon emission sector. By further constructing a theoretical framework of regulation mechanisms, relevant governance paradigms are classified as ' mandatory governance' and ' flexible governance' according to the intensity of regulation. It is found that the underlying logic behind these two paradigms is precisely the mobilization of the administrative mechanism and the allocation of resources under the market mechanism. Simultaneously, with the gradual achievement of the goals and the gradual decoupling of carbon emissions from economic development, the governance logic should gradually shift from ' mandatory governance' to ' flexible governance,' and from ' administrative hierarchical mobilization' to ' balanced allocation of market resources.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a speech at the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that China would peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. China has issued a series of documents on the carbon peaking and neutrality goals, which have become hot issues in society. The concept of carbon peaking is relatively easy to understand, but for that of carbon neutrality, there are some misunderstandings, such as mixed use of different terms and ambiguous scope, classification, and relationships between related concepts, which not only directly affect the implementation of the 'dual carbon' goals in China, but also impede China􀆳s participation in global climate governance and international climate cooperation towards the goal of carbon neutrality. This paper attempts to trace the origin and evolution of the concept of carbon neutrality. It sorts out the different expressions of the carbon neutrality goal, compares the differences and correlations between related concepts, and discusses the key elements and implications of the concept of carbon neutrality. The discussion leads to the following conclusions: ① The concept of carbon neutrality was introduced to the field of global climate governance after carbon trading and carbon offsetting had been proposed in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. ② The concept of carbon neutrality has both narrow and broad senses. Narrowly speaking, it refers to carbon dioxide neutrality, while in a broad sense, it is a collective term for related concepts such as carbon dioxide neutrality, greenhouse gas neutrality, climate neutrality, net zero carbon dioxide emissions, and net zero greenhouse gas emissions. In the international community, the expression 'net zero' is more widely used. ③ To understand the concept of carbon neutrality, four elements need to be grasped: the balance between the source and removal of anthropogenic emissions; multiple implementation entities and their carbon accounting boundaries; the scope of emissions (covering merely carbon dioxide or all greenhouse gases); and carbon neutralization paths including carbon emission reduction, carbon removal, carbon offsets, etc. ④ Clarifying the concept of carbon neutrality is the basis for efficiently implementing the 'dual carbon' goals and promoting international cooperation. The terms used in the legal documents and IPCC guidelines and reports approved in the UNFCCC negotiations are internationally accepted concepts and norms. They are recognized by various governments and serve as an important foundation for scientific research as well as the cognitive basis for international negotiations and actions. The definition and interpretation of the concept of carbon neutrality should be consistent with the international community as much as possible to form a unified understanding that is not only conducive to promoting international cooperation towards carbon neutrality, but also to China' s implementation of the Paris Agreement and advancement of work towards the 'dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]