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Achieving tourism carbon neutrality is essential for sustainable tourism development. This paper uses the coupled coordination distance model, modified gravity model and social network analysis to attempt to construct a nationwide tourism carbon neutral spatial network to clarify the role of each province in the process of achieving China's tourism carbon neutrality. The results show that: (1) only seven provinces will achieve tourism carbon neutrality in the target year of carbon neutrality in China (2060). (2) From 2001 to 2060, most provinces are at the stage of coordinated development of tourism carbon emissions and tourism carbon sinks, but the degree of coordinated development is low. (3) The structure of China's tourism carbon-neutral spatial network tends to be looser from 2001 to 2060. As the time series progresses, the role of each province in the spatial network will be gradually clarified. (4) In the process of achieving the goal of China's tourism carbon neutrality, the number of tourism carbon sink input areas is much larger than that of tourism carbon sink output areas. Accordingly, this paper proposes countermeasures from three aspects: government-led, market system and voluntary mechanisms, in order to promote the achievement of China's tourism carbon neutrality goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and collects firm-level green innovation data that matches it with provinces and cities. Then, this paper executes quasi-natural experiments on green innovation to examine the effects of China's emission trading policy on green innovation. Further, this paper introduces the interactive terms of the pilot time and pilot area dummy variables into the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and spatial dynamic panel model (SDPM) to construct quasi-natural experiments to examine the spatial effect. The findings confirm a negative association between the 'policy treatment effect' and green innovation. The results also indicate a significant negative association between the emissions trading policy and clean energy. Besides, the empirical results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and green innovation; clean energy promotes green innovation in the region and the surrounding areas. This paper complements existing research and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for developing clean energy, promoting green innovation, and improving the emission trading policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration or segmentation of regional carbon prices implies that barriers may hinder prices from adjusting efficiently and impede linkages between regional carbon markets. Past studies have found that crossregional carbon prices in China tend to diverge, indicating unbalanced regional markets and that carbon cap-and-trade policies may be insufficiently effective. China's carbon trading pilots opened in 2013. Is the integration efficient? This is the research question addressed in this study. This paper uses the carbon prices of four carbon-trading pilot regions in China (i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangdong) over the period of January 1, 2014, to March 23, 2021, to explore whether prices are correlated across three dimensions: long-term convergence, short-term correlation, and volatility transmission by adopting a vector error correction model with heterogeneous variances. And by using longer-term daily data and empirical tests that can account for the multiple-faceted correlations, this paper provides evidence showing that long-term convergence and risk transfer between the four regional carbon prices exist, which indicates significant regional integration. The results indicate that the price behavior of the Beijing pilot is efficient and that the Shanghai pilot has the lowest volatility. The paper also documents an information transfer pattern. For example, the Beijing pilot is shown to be the leading risk transfer market, whereas the Shanghai pilot is shown to be the market where most risk is transferred. Contrary to findings elsewhere, our main results demonstrate that China's carbon markets exhibit integration efficiency and no imbalance between regions. This may be because the efficiency of China's carbon markets has improved over time. The evidence also implies that if a multi-dimensional correlation has not been considered, it may underestimate the efficiency of regional carbon prices' integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon flow in forest products trade will affect the report of a country's carbon stock. This will have an impact on a country's contribution of carbon flows. Based on the analysis of China's forest product trade, this paper uses the stock-change approach, the production approach and the atmospheric-flow approach to calculate the changes of China's forest products trade carbon flows. Different carbon flow measurement approaches have very different results. From the perspective of the contribution of forest products to carbon flow, the production approach of calculation for forest products trade carbon flow has the largest contribution to atmospheric carbon flows. However, the calculation results of the stock-change approach and the atmospheric-flow approach are just the opposite, that is, the calculation for forest products trade has a negative contribution to China's carbon sinks, and forest products trade has become a source of carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government's "dual carbon" commitment to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in September 2020 indicates that China will promote green economy transition and achieve high-quality growth in line with the New Development Concept. Definitely, both China's economic and financial development will undergo a paradigm shift. This paper reviews the evolution of global finance's role in supporting environmental governance, climate change and sustainable development, and proposes that the time has come to develop zero-carbon finance which should be closely aligned with the "net-zero emissions" requirement for achieving the global temperature target of the Paris Agreement. While the current policy frameworks for zero-carbon finance in major Western countries are useful references, they also have limitations. In order to build a Chinese-style zero-carbon financial system, China should integrate the experience of other countries and leverage both institutional advantages and green finance practices of own to the fullest extent possible. This paper goes into further detail about the concept of building a zero-carbon financial macro-management framework and a composite ecology of the zero-carbon financial market, and puts forward policy recommendations. The Chinese-style zero-carbon finance solution will also contribute to global carbon neutrality by enabling China to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible and providing countries with China's solution as reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial development (FD) is pioneered to solve the problem of vital capital supporting for carbon neutrality. Detecting the effect of FD on carbon emissions (CE) plays an important role in accurately planning FD, and guiding carbon neutrality in China. To clarify the influence of FD on CE and the underlying pathways concerning scale effect, structural effect, and technological effect, this paper use China’s 285 city-level data spanning 2003–2016 and fixed effect (FE) models and instrumental variable (IV) methods to test the effect of FD on carbon neutrality in China. The findings show that (1) the development of financial deepening, financial interrelation ratio, and financial intermediary all prompt carbon emissions at the national level. (2) Regional heterogeneity indicates that FD benefits carbon neutrality in mid-Western cities but fails in eastern cities. (3) FD increases carbon emissions by boosting electricity consumption but decreases carbon emissions by promoting structural optimization and technological progress. (4) Environmental regulations partially curb the carbon emissions effect of FD. This paper proposes some suggestions to reduce CE and gain carbon neutrality in China by greening FD, optimizing industrial structure, promoting technologi)cal innovation and strengthening environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent literature, energy efficiency got the attention of scholars due to its discouraging impact on CO2 emissions, which is considered the most prevalent greenhouse gas that human activities produce. Data reports that China is the leading CO2 emitting country across the globe, and still the environmental degradation is in progress. Thus, the current paper empirically investigates the impact of energy efficiency (ENEF), financial inclusion (FD), GDP, export diversification (EXD), and human capital index (HCI) on the environmental degradation of China over the period from 1988 to 2018. This study uses various time-series tests to empirically investigate the determinant of CO2 emissions, including normality tests, unit root tests, and combined cointegration tests. Besides, the long-run coefficients are analyzed via the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and the Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) estimators. The empirical findings reveal that all the variables are cointegrated in the long run. However, the coefficient estimate shows that ENEF and HCI significantly promote environmental sustainability. While GDP, FD, and EXD significantly promote environmental degradation by enhancing the CO2 level in the atmosphere. This study recommends practical policy implications based on the empirical findings: energy-efficient products and energy sources could be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of the national carbon emission trading market has brought new pressure to coal power plants in China. How to control the carbon emissions of the plants and ensure their power generation has become an important issue. This paper proposed a new production profit model based on risk constraint to explore a decision-making method for the plant's carbon emission and production. A branch-and-cut algorithm is applied in the optimization solver to achieve a large-scale constraint linear programming, where the conditional value-at-risk is evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. Results from the numerical analyses of the coal plant of 4520 MW capacity show that, the carbon emission according to our method is reduced by 3.94%, while the annual profit is increased by 1.25% and the overall cost is decreased by 1.06%. The proposed approach is helpful for the coal plants to manage their carbon emissions and optimize their power production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving carbon neutrality is an important initiative to cope with global warming. Most studies on the role of tourism towards carbon neutrality were based on the carbon emission reduction (CER) perspective while the carbon sink (CS) perspective was lacking. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of high-standard scenic spots, this paper aimed to examine the effect of tourism resources development on regional CS with high-precision multi-source datasets of 2601 Chinese county units. According to the results of the time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) model regression, CNSA significantly deteriorated CS, but the findings of the rolling regression test confirmed that the adverse effect diminished over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing millennium documents the most adverse consequences of global warming which in contrast to pre-industrial era are more devastating. Thus, these prevailing consequences raise numerous concerns regarding the well-being of future and current generation. Scholars, in this regard, are putting efforts punctiliously towards methods that could halt the surging emissions. This paper also attempts to contributes to existing literature by reporting the empirical evidences regarding the role of energy transition technologies, renewable energy production (REP), trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes in carbon neutrality in Chinse economy covering the time span of 1980–2020. By employing Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) model to check the association, findings exposed that electricity production from water sources, electricity production from solar sources, REP, trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes are negatively correlated with CO2 emissions. Study offers policymakers a help in formulating policies related to achieve carbon neutrality using renewable sources of energy production, carbon taxes, and green investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China announced the goal of carbon peaking by 2035 and carbon neutral by 2060. In 2020, the carbon emission of cement production was 1.32 billion tons, accounting for about 80% of the total carbon emission of building materials in China. The carbon emission of cement production mainly comes from the clinker production. The key to cut emission is to reduce the consumption of fossil energy and limestone. The major measures include energy efficiency improvement, alternative fuel usage, raw material substitution, and new low-carbon cement clinker production technology. This paper illustrates the effect of low carbon technologies application and the carbon reducing potential from this period to 2060. It is predicted that when carbon neutral goal would be achieved by 2060, the carbon reduction from energy efficiency improvement, alternative fuels usage, alternative raw materials usage, low-carbon cement and CCUS technology would be 8%, 4%, 27%, 28% and 33%, respectively. Meanwhile, the 13% of CO2 related with cement producing would be used to curing cement-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Photovoltaic industry promotes the transformation of China's energy structure to green and low-carbon, which is of great significance to achieve the goal of "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality." At present, the industry is mainly faced with problems such as the drastic reduction of government subsidies and the difficulty of financing. From the perspective of independent auditing, our paper takes 54 A-share listed photovoltaic companies in China from 2011 to 2020 as the research object to study the impact of audit quality on financing efficiency, and the role of agency costs in the relationship between audit quality and financing efficiency.The results show that audit quality is positively related to financing efficiency. For every 1% increase in audit quality, the financing efficiency will increase by 13%. In addition, agency cost plays an intermediary role between audit quality and financing efficiency. For every 1% increase in audit quality, agency cost can be reduced by 34% and financing efficiency can be increased by 25%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been assessments of the carbon (C) offsetting potential of China's forest sector using historical inventories and future projections. Here, we critically reflect on the assessments we have done and carefully synthesize our findings of China's C sequestration by forest ecosystems and storage by harvested wood products (HWPs). We show that China raised its forest stock volume by 5.069 × 109 m3 during 2006–2020, giving a biomass C uptake of 2.592 petagrams (Pg). With a cumulative C emission of 37.031 Pg during the same period of time, the offsetting ratio of forest biomass is 6.99%. If C stored in HWPs during the period (0.491 Pg) is included, that ratio rises to 8.33%; further counting C sequestered by forest soil (1.277 Pg) boosts the ratio to 11.76%. With a stock volume increase of 14.813 × 109 m3 from 2006 to 2060, projected under a conventional scenario, the forest sector C removal could reach 9.286 Pg without including soil C or 13.017 Pg otherwise, offsetting 10.50% or 14.72% of the cumulative emission of 88.425 Pg. These results indicate that the forest sector has played and will continue to play a significant a role in its decarbonizing drive, but the government has been conservative in setting its targets, particularly for the increase of forest stock volume. Future policy and research efforts must effectively link the country's forest structure, quality, and growth, and thus C sequestration and storage, with improved forest management and wood products manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, it was explored how the volatility of the carbon neutrality concept index (CNCI) was affected by China economic policy uncertainty (CEPU) index, climate policy uncertainty (CPU) index, and geopolitical risk (GPR) index. According to the research of Amendola et al. the GARCH-MIDAS model was improved by introducing the realized kernel volatility of China stock market into the short-term volatility component. On this basis, the GARCH-RKV-MIDAS model was constructed. Meanwhile, both GARCH-MIDAS and GARCH-RKV-MIDAS models were applied to identify the influencing factors for CNCI volatility during the period between January 2018 and June 2022, with CNCI predicted. According to the research results, both the CPU index and the GPR index exert a significant effect on the long-term volatility of CNCI, despite no significant difference made by the CEPU index to the long-term volatility of CNCI. As for the prediction of CNCI volatility, the GARCH-RKV-MIDAS model clearly outperforms the GARCH-MIDAS model. Moreover, the CPU index outperforms the GPR index and the CEPU index in predicting the volatility of the CNCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have explored the impact of China Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on economic growth, but few have paid attention to its impact on environmental pollution. Taking the establishment of SEZ as a quasi-natural experiment in China, this paper used the time-varying difference-in-difference method to explore the impact of industrial agglomeration caused by SEZ on CO2 emission from 1998 to 2011. The results showed that the industrial agglomeration would aggravate CO2 emissions, while effective regulatory measures in SEZ can reduce CO2 emissions. The policy emission reduction effect was significant in non-urban agglomerations and before 2006. To reduce CO2 emissions and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, the local government should supervise and manage industrial agglomeration effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground deformation in the coal mining area of Northwestern China is usually featured by large and inconsistent subsidence. Large subsidence brings great challenge to Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) and Permanent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technology due to the pixel-level offset in the range direction after co-registration, which could directly result in complete coherence loss even for the artificial Corner Reflectors (CRs). Offset tracking provides an alternative to capture the large deformation although the results could be biased due to the large deformation gradient and use of fixed correlation window size. In this paper, the point-like target (PT) offset tracking method is introduced to deformation monitoring in coal mining area with a levelly decreasing correlation window size. For each PT-centered SLC patch in the reference SAR image, the estimate from the larger correlation window will serve as a guide for the smaller one to locate the matching SLC patch in the slave SAR image, thus providing a guarantee that the residual offsets to be estimated remain to be a small fraction of the decreasing patch size. The offset estimates were evaluated by ground surveying results at 34 CRs obtained using single reference real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS technique, with a RMS error of 1/13-1/14 SLC pixel in both the range and azimuth directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States (U.S.) and China are key to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and reaching carbon neutrality by around mid-century. Despite differences, carbon neutrality will be met more rapidly if the two countries coordinate and facilitate synergies in carbon-neutral technologies and policy development and implementation. Building on long-term pathway models in the U.S. and China, current emissions trends and sources, and a policy analysis, this paper puts forward a novel framework for U.S.-China coordination on carbon neutrality. The analysis reveals similar technology and policy pathways, policy gaps, and shared milestones for decarbonization in 2030, 2040, and 2050-2060. The main technological pathways focus on reductions in energy demand and non-energy-related CO2 emissions, decarbonization of electricity and fuels, and increases in electrification rates and CO2 sequestration. Given existing domestic policies and opportunities for further action, areas for coordination on carbon neutrality include common policy milestones; dialogue and technical exchange; research, development, and demonstration (RD&D); and international climate leadership. Despite escalated tensions between the U.S. and China, and challenges for climate cooperation, coordination between both countries on carbon neutrality is both possible and necessary. Carbon neutrality will be met more swiftly if the U.S. and China coordinate and facilitate synergies in carbon-neutral technologies and policy. Despite the rise in geo-political tensions between the U.S. and China, coordination on carbon neutrality is both possible and necessary. An analytical framework for U.S.-China coordination on carbon neutrality, includes technology and policy pathways, and common milestones of key sectors' decarbonization for 2030, 2040, and 2050-2050. The two countries could coordinate on common policy milestones, dialogue and technical exchange, research and development, and international climate leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling household consumption is an essential means to achieve carbon neutrality in China, and population ageing has an important impact on its structure. Since older people exhibit different consumption patterns than younger people, an increase in the proportion of aged people affects overall consumption patterns. This paper adopts an input–output model to reflect the heterogeneity in the consumption structure and household carbon footprint of different age groups, followed by a simulation of the future household carbon footprint. The results find that in China, the total household carbon footprint shows an inverted U-shape with age, with the lowest total carbon footprint coming from aged households (age of household head 65 and above) and the highest total carbon footprint from middle-aged households (age of household head 45–54). The average household carbon footprint decreases with age, with aged households remaining the lowest. Aged households, however, have the highest share of the direct carbon footprint. Interestingly, urban households of all ages have a higher carbon footprint than rural households, with the largest difference being among aged households. The projection results show that based on demographic changes, although the average household carbon footprint of elderly households in China is low, as the number of elderly households increases, the total carbon footprint of elderly households will be sizable and need to be taken seriously. The total carbon footprint of elderly households will become more significant and sizable as the number of elderly households increases. Urban life is more carbon-intensive, and China's urbanization is leading to an increase in the carbon footprint. Aged households require more attention in future climate policies. Targeted, consumption-based climate policies are necessary for carbon reduction in China and will have relevance in other countries with similar consumption structure and demographic trends, e.g. with ageing or rapidly urbanizing populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1982, China's blue carbon management policies have made significant contributions to blue carbon's development. Blue carbon is carbon captured and stored by marine ecosystems and it plays an important role in addressing climate change. Analyzing the evolution of blue carbon management policy is necessary to understand its potential to contribute to climate action, and to improve its management and maximize its effectiveness. This paper considers these issues in China. It used content analysis and ROSTCM6 software to empirically analyze 82 blue carbon management policy documents from China. The evolution of relevant policies and their performance is as follows: First, policy focus has gradually shifted from protecting blue carbon ecosystems to increasing blue carbon stocks; second, policy participants became increasingly diversified; and third, the policy approach has changed from simple protection to comprehensive, integrated land use – marine system management. Although the Chinese government has made progress in blue carbon management policies, it still faces many challenges including blue carbon ecosystem protection; legal status; trading mechanisms; and international cooperation. The development of future blue carbon management policy should focus on optimizing the land use structure of coastal zones, on promoting environmental legislation highlighting blue carbon issues, on supporting the establishment of blue carbon trading mechanisms, and on strengthening its international cooperation in this arena. China's blue carbon management approaches shows that relevant policies contribute greatly to addressing climate change and sustainable development. This provides new theoretical support to promote future development of blue carbon management policies. Establishing a blue carbon trading mechanism provides economic incentives for its management. Blue carbon's property rights, accounting standards, and trading entities need to be further clarified. A detailed legal definition of blue carbon is needed to ensure that appropriate penalties are imposed for the destruction of blue carbon ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence demonstrates that market-driven carbon trading scheme (ETS) is a crucial instrument for China to control environmental pollution. Based on the panel data of China's 283 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2017, this research investigated the transmission mechanism, direct and indirect effects of ETS on carbon emission intensity (CEI) using difference-in-differences (DID) model, propensity-score-matched difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) model at national, regional, and local levels (cities with different industrial characteristics). The results demonstrated the mediating effects of total energy consumption, energy consumption structure, and industrial structure upgrading in the incentive role of ETS on CEI reduction. Moreover, ETS directly and effectively reduced CEI at the national level, while the spatial heterogenous effects were identified at regional and local levels, which emphasises the necessity and importance of unified carbon trading market establishment and classified governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socioeconomic impacts of potential climate policies are unevenly distributed across the globe, and different countries take different leading positions in fulfilling carbon neutrality. We select two top-emitting emerging economies, China and India, as our case studies. Considering structural, entrepreneurial, ideational, and exemplary leadership based on the leadership theory, we analyze the two countries' international and domestic positions in climate change mitigation after each became active climate action taker (i.e. during 2008–2021). We further rely on interest-based and norm-based approaches to explore the driving factors of their leading positions. We conclude that although China is generally more inclined to take the leading position, China and India currently both exert substantive leadership, especially prevalent in recent international climate negotiation rounds. China and India's consistency of international and domestic leadership evolves via different paths. China initially focused more on international rather than domestic leadership positions (symbolic leader), while India initially took the opposite approach (pioneer). An alignment between international and domestic leadership is found in both countries in more recent years, making both countries substantive leaders. Compared with the interest-based approach, the norm-based approach has greater explanatory power for the two countries' leading position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power sector plays a pivotal role in China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets. To build a low-carbon power system, it is important to develop wind and solar. This study aims to evaluate the economic impacts of the newly launched renewable portfolio standard in 2030 in China using a cost minimization model and an input-output model. The results show that to accomplish the renewable electricity portfolio standard in 2030, the installed wind and solar capacity will have to reach 1451.9 gigawatts (GW) in 2030. The Northeast, Northwest, and North regions will deploy the most installed capacity, and Inner Mongolia will take on the most renewable energy generation tasks. The annual cost of wind and solar development is expected to be 506.6 billion CNY in 2030, 94.7% of which are new construction costs and storage costs. Renewable energy growth will result in a national average electricity price increase of 5.4 CNY¢/kWh compared to 2019, and Heilongjiang, Gansu, and Shanxi are the most affected. The rapid development of renewable electricity in the next decade will increase the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 0.4%, Producer Price Index (PPI) by 0.9%, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator by 0.5% in 2030. Based on the results, we propose to improve the electricity market mechanisms, enhance the electricity transmission stability, and develop policies appropriate to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of carbon peaking and neutrality, it would be interesting to study the policy conditions for achieving carbon targets. From a technical perspective, this study constructed a theoretical model of the relationship between energy tax policy, R&D subsidy policy, and energy intensity within the framework of biassed technical change. Subsequently, through the logical relationship between energy and carbon intensities, three combination policy schemes for achieving the carbon intensity target were obtained. The findings are as follows: First, a higher rate of energy tax and R&D subsidy is destined to lead to a lower energy intensity, and energy tax policy can better boost energy intensity than R&D subsidy policy. Second, in terms of pulling the carbon intensity, the effect of the energy tax policy is better than that of the R&D subsidy policy, but in terms of its impact on the future policy effect, the R&D subsidy policy is better than the energy tax policy. Third, China should adopt a combination of policies to reduce carbon intensity, with a certain increase in the energy tax policy and a certain increase in the R&D subsidy rate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the social goal of 'carbon peak and carbon neutral' in the 14th Five-Year Plan of China, this article used Enrofloxacin (ENR), a common antibiotic, as a model compound to study the method of efficiently degrading pharmaceutical sludge and simultaneously producing Formic Acid (FA), hydrogen storage energy, in a sub-supercritical system. The Ni/SnO2 bimetallic catalyst, which was prepared by the equal volume impregnation method, was used for the liquid phase catalysis. As shown by the results, when the reaction temperature was 330°C, and the addition amount of H2O2 was 0.38 mL, the degradation rate of antibiotics could reach 99% after the reaction proceeded for 6 h. In terms of the resource utilization, the yield of FA could reach up to 32.44%. The resource utilization efficiency with Ni/SnO2 catalyst in sub-/supercritical reaction was about 2.5 times higher than that without catalyst. The kinetic reaction model was established to explore the reaction rate of the antibiotic degradation process. In addition, the Ea and the frequency factor of the reaction were 6455 J/mol and 5.78, respectively. As shown by characterization, the prepared Ni/SnO2 bimetallic catalyst had good activity and has already passed repeated stability experiments. In short, this method has broad application prospects in antibiotic catalysis and resource degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a new type of power system with wind and solar as the dominant body of sources is expected to play the key role for China to achieve carbon neutrality. Transiting from the fossil fuel dominating power system to a renewable dominating system requires both the technology progress and the institutional changes. The total direct investment cost of China's power system decarbonization is estimated to be about 67.6 trillion yuan, which consists of new wind and solar power capacity, energy storage facilities, and transmission lines. The electricity storage technology is the key factor to affect the transitional costs. Meanwhile, institutional changes are needed to adapt to the high penetration of wind and solar to cope with the new challenges the renewable brings, namely the flexibility, adequacy and affordability. China's market-oriented reform should move to the direction of establishing a real unified national market system to achieve the integration of high percentage of renewables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy development is essential to energy structure transition and environmental emission reduction, and promoting renewable energy development via green financial instruments has been an effective approach to attain the objective of carbon neutrality in China. This research explores the bi-directional cointegration relationship between green finance and renewable energy development by adopting provincial data of China from 2005 to 2018. Results indicate a long-run bi-directional comovement exist between green finance and renewable energy development. This cointegration relationship appears in the eastern and central provinces of China, but is absent for western provinces. The pooled mean group estimators show that green finance cannot promote renewable energy development in the short run, whereas it does so in the long run for both the eastern and central provinces. Our research presents implications for emerging economies to initiate and design green financial instruments and renewable energy measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is one of the key issues in mitigating global climate change. The carbon neutrality process accelerates the global energy transformation from fossil energy to renewable energy. Among the main indicators related to carbon neutrality proposed by the Chinese government, those directly related to energy include carbon emission intensity, the proportion of nonfossil energy consumption, and the total installed capacity of wind and solar power generation. It can be seen that the transformation of energy development is crucial for realizing carbon neutrality. Meanwhile, the correlation between carbon neutrality and economic development is not antagonistic. On the contrary, carbon neutrality can not only enhance the quality and efficiency of traditional industries but also improve the overall development of society. Therefore, the coordinated and sustainable developments of the energy - economy-environment (3E) system is the priority for achieving the target of carbon neutrality. However, the impact of carbon neutrality on regional development requires long-term consideration, which increases the difficulties of comprehensive planning. In this study, a long-term comprehensive programming model of regional energy and economic development under carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets was established. A carbon neutrality assessment indicator (CNAI) framework was constructed to assess the effect of carbon neutrality actions in different regions. Meanwhile, a LEAP model was developed to simulate energy demand and carbon emissions. The multi-target weights determined by assessment results of CNAI and the parameters range set by LEAP model were the basis of the multi-objective optimization model to support regional development. Furthermore, the proposed method was applied to Shaanxi province in China, which offered quantitative targets and suggestions for energy structure transformation and industrial structure adjustment. The results show that coal and oil will account for 6.25% of the total energy consumption and the proportion of secondary industry will drop to 25.40% by 2060. The method established in this study provides a new scientific approach for resolving multi-objective trade-offs in long-term programming and determining a reasonable optimization range for regional development under climate mitigation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unflinching surge in global warming has left the world in ecological chaos. Consequently, governments across the globe are committing to achieving decarbonizing the environment with a target aimed at 2050, of which China is a key player. In effect, this study seeks to contribute to the strides by querying the extent to which shocks in technological innovation make or mar the sustainability of the Chinese environment from 1990 to 2019. The other impacts of foreign direct investment, renewable and nonrenewable energy, and economic growth are considered in the model estimated through nonlinear ARDL robust for ascertaining instantaneous positive and negative effects. The results reveal that technological innovation promotes and hinders environmental sustainability based on the positive and negative shocks, respectively, whereas the adverse shocks impede it. Besides, economic growth and nonrenewable energy turn out to be negative predictors of environmental sustainability while renewable energy and FDI facilitate it. The results of the Fourier Toda Yamamoto corroborate the NARDL results. The EKC hypothesis is not validated for China based on estimates from the novel Itkonen (2012) approach. Following the empirical results, practicable policy insights toward sustaining the environment in China and beyond are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has announced its goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, which will have a profound impact on its energy and economic systems. During this process, the power sector will play a key role in helping the country on its road towards carbon neutrality. This study develops a multi-regional power dispatch and capacity expansion model to combine long-term capacity expansion with short-term power dispatch. The model is built to optimise the carbon-neutral transition pathway from the perspective of economics, focussing on power system stability and reliability under high penetrations of renewables. Using the case study of North China, the cost-effective methods for power system transitions under the targets of reaching peak emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 are discussed under different scenarios. We find that the future power supply system will rely heavily on renewable energy which will account for more than 89% of power generation. Inner Mongolia will produce more than 84% of power in the North China region. The inter-regional power transmission capacity will be five times higher than its current level. Policy choices will lead to different transition pathways as the early-stage installation decisions will have a lock-in effect on the following carbon emission reduction strategies and determine the importance of technologies adopted in achieving carbon neutrality. Although the transition to a low-carbon economy will result in an increase in cost by 17–19%, it will bring huge climate benefits to the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is an indispensable part of the carbon removal technologies to achieve carbon neutrality for China. Our study focuses on China's CCUS pathways, and draws out three key conclusions: (1) in terms of the greenhouse gases emission reductions required to achieve carbon neutrality and based on current technology projections, the CO2 emission reductions to be achieved by CCUS are 0.6 ∼ 1.4 billion tonnes and 1 ∼ 1.8 billion tonnes in 2050 and 2060, respectively; (2) from the perspective of source-sink matching in China, the emission reduction potential provided by CCUS can basically meet the demand of carbon neutrality target (0.6 ∼ 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2); (3) with the development of technologies, the cost of CCUS in China has a great potential to be reduced in the future. It is expected that by 2030, the technical cost of the whole CCUS process (according to 250 kilometers transportation) in China will be 310 ∼ 770 Chinese Yuan per tonne of CO2, and by 2060, it will gradually drop to 140 ∼ 410 Chinese Yuan per tonne of CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the last few decades, scholars and policy-makers have been struggling to find ways to achieve carbon neutrality target or a low carbon economy. To contribute to the existing literature regarding the said issue, this study aims to investigate whether energy efficiency could lead to achieving carbon neutrality target in the case of China. Also, this study analyses the association of economic growth to energy-related greenhouse gas emissions while using quarterly data over the period from 1990Q1 to 2014Q2. Empirical findings of the study suggest the mixed order of integration and Cointegration between economic growth, energy efficiency, and energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. This study employed a Quantile-on-Quantile regression approach to examine the long-run association at various quantiles. The estimated results asserted that energy efficiency holds a weaker relationship in the lower and medium quantiles, while relatively higher association to energy-related emission in the upper quantiles. On the other hand, economic growth and its squared are found significantly and highly associated with enhancing energy-related emissions in the country. Besides, the frequency domain causality indicates a causal association running from energy efficiency and economic growth to energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. This study recommends revised policies for energy efficiency and suggests that economic growth could be used as a remedial measure for environmental recovery by enhancing investment in the renewable energy sector, energy efficiency, and structural transformation of the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market intermediaries play a crucial role in stitching together necessary actors for effective systems of exchange. However, there is limited understanding of how intermediaries emerge, and contribute to, water market development. This article explains how the China Water Exchange, the country's first and only national-level water trading platform, was catalysed by a top-down imperative consistent with China's water governance reform path. It shows how its genesis, objectives and functions reflect the congruence of goals between its key actors, and their struggles and efforts to build trust. Our focus on interorganizational dynamics adds a new perspective to understanding water market intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We empirically investigate the effect of emissions trading scheme (ETS) on the corporate performance of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2016, treating China's pilot ETS as a quasi-natural experiment. Our difference-in-differences analysis shows that the ETS is significantly correlated with corporate performance of high-energy-consuming firms. While the policy effect strengthens in the first few years and then weakens by 2016. This indicates that ETS cannot sustainably and steadily affect the corporate performance. Finally, we find that ETS has a stronger impact on the performance of high-energy-consuming firms in regions with high governmental intervention and an underdeveloped legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to low-carbon energy is on the political agenda of most developed states, supported by investment in green technologies and legislative initiatives. The EU is actively elaborating the 2050 climate and energy policy framework and has adopted the Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategy to make the EU 'climate-neutral' by 2050. Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping announced China's goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. These strategic goals are in line with China's and the EU's international commitment to 'global climate action' under the 2016 Paris Accords. These plans go in stark contrast with rising investment in pipeline projects in Central Asia and the South Caucasus that compete with Russia's expanding transit capacities and with the dramatic development of LNG markets in Europe and Asia. The New Great Game seems to have been turning 180°—from rivalry among consumers over upstream assets and transportation routes in Central Asia and the South Caucasus towards competition between producers over sales markets in Europe and China, although the recent and sudden global gas supply crisis suggests a more complicated picture. So, what do the net-zero strategies mean for Eurasia? This article attempts to answer this question by exploring the prospects for gas pipeline expansion amid the carbon neutrality pledges of the major net consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting energy transformation is a major issue in achieving China's carbon neutrality target. The changes in China's energy consumption stemming from the policies related to this issue were simulated based on the energy policy simulation model. The results show the following. (1) Implementing related policies will significantly decrease total primary energy consumption, and non-fossil energy will be China's main source of energy consumption by 2050. (2) The energy consumption corresponding to buildings, transportation, and industry will be electricity-led by 2050, and electricity will mainly be generated with non-fossil energy sources. (3) In 2030, China will reach a carbon peak, and non-fossil energy will account for 43% of the country's primary energy consumption, comprising electrical (73%), solar (11%), wind (7%), hydro (7%) and biomass (2%) energy. (4) COVID-19 has had a short-term driving effect on this process, as it initially slowed down global economic cooperation, but it has had a hindering effect on the process in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]