Search

The electric power sector is the primary contributor to carbon emissions in China. Considering the context of dual carbon goals, this paper examines carbon emissions within China's electricity sector. The research utilizes the LMDI approach for methodological rigor. The results show that the cumulative contribution of economies scale, power consumption factors and energy structure are 114.91%, 85.17% and 0.94%, which contribute to the increase of carbon emissions, the cumulative contribution of power generation efficiency and ratio of power dissipation to generation factor are -19.15% and -0.01%, which promotes the carbon reduction. The decomposition analysis highlights the significant influence of economic scale on carbon emissions in the electricity industry, among the seven factors investigated. Meanwhile, STIRPAT model, Logistic model and GM(1,1) model are used to predict carbon emissions, the average relative error between actual carbon emissions and the predicted values are 0.23%, 8.72% and 7.05%, which indicates that STIRPAT model is more suitable for medium- to long-term predictions. Based on these findings, the paper proposes practical suggestions to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the dual carbon goals of the power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low carbon operation of power systems is a key way to achieve the goal of energy power carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In order to promote the low carbon transition of energy and power and the coordinated and optimized operation of distributed energy sources in virtual power plants (VPP), this paper proposes a framework for collaborative utilization of pumped storage–carbon capture–power-to-gas (P2G) technologies. It also constructs a multi-time scale low carbon economic dispatch model for VPP to minimize the internal resource operation cost of VPP in each time period. During the intraday scheduling stage, the day-ahead scheduling results as the planned output and the energy flow is then dynamically corrected at a short-term resolution in the framework. This allows for the exploration of the low-carbon potential of each aggregation unit within the virtual power plant. The results of the simulation indicate that the strategy and model proposed in this paper can effectively encourage the consumption of renewable energy sources, promote the low-carbon operation of power system power, and serve as a valuable reference for the low-carbon economic operation of the power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU has set the ambitious target of raising the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources to 32% by 2030, with a target of climate neutrality by 2050. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of biomass usage in the context of these targets. The paper identifies the progress made between 2013 and 2022 by focusing on a selection of EU countries. The largest bioenergy increments of 130, 77, and 60 PJ were reported for Poland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. This study evaluates the crucial role of co-generation and heat in EU regions, with biomass usage between 55 and 80% of the combined heat and power (CHP) energy in Nordic countries. The future perspectives for bioenergy based on EU policies, biomass resources, and technical issues were addressed. The EU possesses around 9% of the global biomass supply, ensuring a certain level of biomass resource dependence. Thus, the biomass usage demand in energy production, non-energy sectors, and transport is expected to rise, leading to increments of 13–76% on biomass imports. It appears that bioenergy development is mostly limited by economic issues and uneven support for bioenergy in different EU countries as well as environmental issues. The study shows a promising and sustainable potential of bioenergy in the EU as a renewable energy source while minimizing negative impacts on the environment and the economy. By 2050, liquid biofuels are likely to be increasingly used in the transport sector. Non-energy sector usage of biomass is still in an early stage of development, except for the pulp and paper industry, and significant use of biomass in non-energy sectors seems unlikely in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play a pivotal role in achieving worldwide carbon neutrality due to their significant contribution to global energy consumption and carbon emissions. Therefore, planning effective strategies and guiding evidence-based policymaking at the city scale becomes even more crucial. Composite indices serve as a valuable tool for monitoring urban energy transition trends. This paper aims to present a novel approach, robust and flexible even under conditions of data scarcity, for tracking the energy transition trend of a city by means of a composite index (UETI). The Turin case study is introduced to test the applicability of the proposed approach. Additionally, to demonstrate the robustness of the composite index framework, the paper includes the findings of correlation and sensitivity analyses. This study reveals a significant improvement in Turin's environmental and energy domains, while the socio-economic domain shows more modest improvement. Furthermore, the study highlights the need to address the shortage of urban data to enhance the accuracy and reliability of metric-based frameworks and to extend the assessment to a larger sample of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of water eutrophication, global energy crisis and the carbon neutrality policies, the ammonia recovery from wastewater with high efficiency and low energy consumption is crucial for preserving the ecological environment and achieving sustainable development. Transmembrane electro-chemisorption (TMECS), which integrates transmembrane chemisorption with electrochemical systems to reduce the addition of chemicals and improve recovery efficiency, is a promising technology for ammonia recovery from wastewater. Accordingly, this paper first reviews the recent advances in TMECS for ammonia recovery from wastewater. In particular, the technology principles, including ammonia stripping by cathodic base, ammonia recovery by TMECS with authigenic acid and base, and ammonia recovery by membrane cathode with in situ cathodic base are elucidated. Couplings of TMECS with other electrochemical systems, including electrodialysis, flow-electrode capacitive deionization, and electrochemical precipitation, are further summarized and compared. Finally, the challenges and prospects of the TMECS technology are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been an increasing effort to promote energy efficiency, using renewable energies and electric mobility to achieve a more sustainable future and even carbon neutrality by 2050. This paper aims to understand if combining these technologies leads to a win–win solution. For that, the system's characteristics that will be used for the simulation were defined as a residential community consumption scenario with and without electric vehicles charging overnight. The simulation was completed in software, and eight scenarios were tested: high population density/low population density with/without electric mobility and hourly tariff/simple tariff. After these scenarios had been tested, the conclusion was that the low population density and hourly tariff without and with electric mobility were the best two cases economically (in terms of levelized cost of energy, net present costs, and savings) and environmentally, and the worst was high population density with hourly tariff and electric mobility. Other scenarios were then tested, including changes in the load curve, namely a commercial load curve, and changes in the load curve of electric vehicle chargers, mainly daytime charging. The conclusion was that even though the initial hypothesis did not lead to a win–win solution, with changes in the hypothesis, the integration of electric mobility in energy communities might lead to that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sewage sludge and red mud, as common industrial waste, have become a research hotspot in the field of achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, reducing carbon emissions, and solving environmental problems. However, their treatment and disposal have always been a difficult problem in the environmental field. Utilizing these two materials for thermal energy storage can not only improve energy utilization efficiency but also further reduce carbon emissions during their treatment process, providing a new approach for sustainable development in the industrial sector. This article summarizes the research progress for the resource recovery of sewage sludge and red mud for direct thermal energy recovery and composite phase change energy storage. After proper treatment, sludge and red mud can be directly used as energy storage materials. In addition, sludge and red mud can be combined with phase change materials to prepare composite materials with an excellent energy storage performance. This composite has broad application prospects in fields such as solar energy utilization and building energy efficiency. However, there are still some challenges and issues in this resource recovery and utilization, such as potential environmental pollution during the treatment process, the long-term stability of energy storage materials, and cost-effectiveness, which require further research and resolution. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of sewage sludge and red mud as energy storage materials, to explore their feasibility and advantages in practical applications, and to reveal the research progress, technical challenges, and future development directions of these two materials in the field of thermal energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the objectives of achieving "peak carbon" and "carbon neutrality", accurately quantifying the carbon emissions of road transportation becomes crucial. It is challenging to accurately describe the energy consumption of vehicles at both temporal and spatial scales from a macro perspective. Therefore, focusing on the quantitative model of vehicle micro energy consumption and road meso energy consumption, this paper reviewed and summarized the energy consumption model of road traffic in terms of data collection, quantification accuracy, and scope of application. Based on this analysis, this paper identifies the challenges of the current road traffic energy consumption model. Finally, we look forward to future research directions for studying quantitative models of energy consumption from road transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is the only way for green low-carbon development. Technological progress is an important starting point for improving energy efficiency. Through scientific and technological innovation, improving energy efficiency is a practical way to achieve the goal of carbon neutralization. Due to the limitation of data and index selection, there is no qualitative analysis of carbon neutrality in this paper. Compared with previous studies, the paper has the following contributions: Firstly, the energy efficiency score of China's provincial level is measured with the DEA method and it is found that the average energy efficiency score of the eastern region is the highest, followed by the western region, and finally the central region. The results also show that the energy efficiency is not in accordance with the economic growth. The regions with higher energy efficiency scores are not always economically developed because of huge energy consumption supporting the economic development. Secondly, the Tobit method is used to study the impact of the reverse technology spillover effect of OFDI on China's energy efficiency. The results show that the spillover effect has a significant positive effect on the improvement of China's energy efficiency, and has a positive impact on the eastern and western regions, but has no significant impact on the western region. Finally, we put forward some policy recommendations to increase energy efficiency to approach carbon neutrality and thus promote green economic development. This paper enriches the content of energy economy, the research method is innovative, and the conclusion is more scientific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A life cycle assessment (LCA) of solid recovered fuel (SRF) was conducted. • SRF production process contributes to about 35.6 kg CO 2 -eq per ton. • A maximum of −1752.03 kg CO 2 -eq was obtained with about 80 % of SRF biogenic carbon. • A footprint of −542.09 to −1729.05 kg CO 2 -eq can be found due to coke substitution. • The study recommended SRF production to mitigate the global carbon footprint. Solid recovered fuel (SRF) from non-recyclable waste obtained from source separation and mechanical treatments can replace carbon coke in cement plants, contributing to the carbon neutrality. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SRF production from non-recyclable and selected waste was conducted in an Italian mechanical treatment plant to estimate the potential environmental impacts per ton of SRF produced. The analysis would contribute to evaluate the benefits that can be obtained due to coke substitution in best- and worst-case scenarios. The avoided impacts achieved were assessed, together with an evaluation of the variables that can affect the environmental benefits: SRF biogenic carbon content (in percentage of paper and cardboard); transportation distances travelled from the treatment plant to the cement kiln; the renewable energy used in the mechanical facility. On average, about 35.6 kgCO 2 -eq are generated by the SRF transportation and production phase. These impacts are greatly compensated by coke substitution, obtaining a net value of about −1.1 tCO 2 -eq avoided per ton of SRF. On balance, the global warming potential due to SRF production and consumption ranges from about −542 kgCO 2 -eq to about −1729 kgCO 2 -eq. The research recommended the use of SRF to substitute coke in cement kilns also in low densely-populated areas to mitigate environmental impacts and achieve carbon neutrality at a global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several northern European countries have announced ambitious plans to become carbon neutral already before the year 2050. Recent research has, however, highlighted how potential bottlenecks in raw material and resource availability could significantly delay or hinder wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) expansion and continued biomass usage in parts of Europe. To address this issue, this paper assesses how exposed the national energy and climate plans (NECPs) of Finland, Estonia, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark are to resource limitations and techno-economic risks by reviewing and analysing 2030 NECP targets compared to statistical energy use data in these countries. The results indicate that the NECPs of Denmark and Germany are particularly exposed to risks related to global raw material availability, as Denmark plans to rapidly grow the share of wind and solar PV in electricity generation to 81% and 13% by 2030, respectively, followed by Germany, which outlines a 39% and 16% share of wind and solar PV in its national climate strategy. The NECPs of Finland and Germany are also shown to be vulnerable to limitations in biomass availability, as there is a significant disparity between the projected biomass usage and legally binding European Union (EU) targets for land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector emissions in 2030 in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of poor scheduling flexibility and insufficient carbon emission reduction capacity of the current integrated energy system, this paper proposes an optimization scheduling model of integrated energy demand response that combines source-load synergy with reward and punishment stepped carbon trading mechanism. Firstly, the integrated energy system operation architecture including electricity-heat-cooling energy was constructed to harmonize the energy generation side and consumption side and effectively improve the multi-energy complementary capability of the system. Secondly, the reward and punishment stepped carbon trading mechanism is established by combining the initial carbon quota allocation method and the actual carbon emission calculation theory, so that environmental friendliness and economic sustainability are effectively improved. Finally, to minimize the system operating cost, an integrated demand response optimal dispatch model that considers the characteristics of electric, thermal and cooling loads is constructed to determine the optimal dispatch scheme for the integrated energy system. The results of the calculation example indicate that the proposed integrated demand response model has the function of peak reduction and valley correction, energy conservation and carbon reduction, and provides a feasible solution for the integrated energy system optimal scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global energy consumption has led to concerns about potential supply problems, energy consumption and growing environmental impacts. This paper comprehensively provides a detailed assessment of current studies on the subject of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology in net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs). The review is validated through various case studies, which highlight the significance of factors such as building surface area to volume ratio (A/V), window-wall ratio (WWR), glass solar heating gain coefficient (SHGC), and others in achieving the NZEBs standards. In addition, this review article draws the following conclusions: (1) NZEBs use renewable energy to achieve energy efficiency and carbon neutrality. (2) NZEBs implementation, however, has some limitations, including the negligence of indoor conditions in the analysis, household thermal comfort, and the absence of an energy supply and demand monitoring system. (3) Most researchers advise supplementing facade and window BIPV as solely roofing BIPV will not be able to meet the building's electricity usage. (4) Combining BIPV with building integrated solar thermal (BIST), considering esthetics and geometry, enhances outcomes and helps meet NZEB criteria. (5) BIPV designs should follow standards and learn from successful cases. However, to ascertain the long-term reliability and structural integrity of BIPV systems, a comprehensive study of their potential degradation mechanisms over extended periods is imperative. The review paper aims to examine BIPV applications in-depth, underscoring its pivotal role in attaining a net-zero energy benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the analogy where achieving the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goals (the "dual carbon" goals) is compared to a battle, energy is the main battlefield, and electric power the main force. The low-carbon transformation path of the electric power industry exerts fundamental impact on progress towards carbon peaking and carbon neutrality of the whole society. Therefore, this paper first analyzes challenges and opportunities faced by the electric power industry to achieve the "dual carbon" goals; secondly, on the basis of deep low-carbon, zero-carbon and negative-carbon scenarios of the electric power industry, this paper quantifies and delves into the consumption structure of primary energy and final energy, as well as the future development positioning and trend of different categories of energy. Based on the research results, this paper proposes low-carbon transformation path of the electric power system at the stages of carbon peaking, deep low-carbon and carbon neutrality, and analyzes the trend of power supply cost changes in different scenarios. On this basis, a series of implementation key points and measures are proposed to adapt to green and low-carbon transformation of the electric power industry, covering areas such as coal-fired electric power development positioning, new energy development and utilization, diversified supply and demand, new energy industry chain, and power supply costs, and so forth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals were proposed, different institutions and scholars carried out research on China's medium- and long-term mitigation pathways. Through the literature review of China's research on carbon neutrality, this paper finds that the zero-carbon energy transition is the key to achieving carbon neutrality. The main driving factors of reducing energy-related carbon emissions include the cleanliness of primary and secondary energy supply systems, the electrification of energy consumption and the development of hydrogen energy, energy efficiency improvement, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and negative emissions. Furthermore, based on the literature, this paper conducts a quantitative comparative analysis, and selects key indicators for comparative analysis and summary from seven dimensions, including economic and social development, carbon emission pathways, primary energy consumption, final energy consumption, final hydrogen energy consumption, electricity demand and supply, and installed capacity and structure of power generation. Main conclusions are as follows: (i) In terms of carbon emission pathways, the institutions generally believed that China will peak carbon emissions around 2028 and achieve carbon neutrality between 2050 and 2060. Achieving net-zero or near-zero emissions first in the power sector is the key to carbon neutrality across the society; (ii) In terms of energy supply, it is a consensus to increase the proportion of clean energy and reduce carbon emissions from the source. The proportion of clean energy in primary energy will increase to more than 85%, and the proportion of clean energy power generation and installed capacity will reach more than 90%; (iii) In terms of energy use, electricity will become the core of final energy consumption in the future. The predicted electricity consumption across the society will range 14.3–18.4 PWh, and the predicted electrification rate will exceed 65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In recent years, the escalating global concerns surrounding climate change have placed a growing emphasis on achieving dual objectives: reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. Businesses and organizations are under mounting pressure to align their operations with these crucial environmental goals. This paper introduces the concept of an enterprise carbon performance evaluation index system (ECPIS) to strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection and enhance overall enterprise management and development strategies. The ECPIS framework is constructed using machine learning and advanced data mining techniques, particularly support vector machines (SVM). Its core purpose is to provide enterprises with a systematic tool to gauge, analyze, and enhance their carbon performance, addressing dual carbon objectives. ECPIS development hinges on data mining techniques, extracting insights from diverse data sources to construct a comprehensive system that accommodates these dual carbon goals' intricacies. Its methodology includes data collection, preprocessing, feature selection, and data mining algorithms to unveil vital patterns and relationships within data. It conforms to international standards, establishing a tailored carbon performance index system aligned with China's national conditions. It validates carbon-related enterprise data and employs data mining's association rules to uncover pertinent carbon performance information. The results obtained from ECPIS are auspicious, boasting an experiential accuracy rate of 97.5%. This level of accuracy surpasses that achieved by other algorithms like K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest (RF), Decision Trees (DT), Naïve Bayes (NB), and Logistic Regression (LR). ECPIS stands out by considering various factors, including carbon emissions reduction, energy consumption, supply chain efficiency, and financial performance indicators. This multifaceted approach enables enterprises to gain a comprehensive understanding of their carbon performance and identify areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro energy grids (MEGs) play a vital role in realizing carbon neutrality and efficient utilization of renewable energy resources. This research focuses on optimizing the synergy of MEG interconnections. Given the diverse development paths of different operating entities within the system, information barriers emerge among MEGs, creating great difficulties for the collaborative system management. In response, this paper proposes a decentralized coordinated dispatch model targeting multiple stakeholders within the system. This model accounts for energy interactions between MEGs and the inherent uncertainty associated with renewable energy sources. Specifically, stochastic optimization approach was applied to characterize the uncertainty of renewable energy output by generating stochastic scenarios. Furthermore, it incorporates the analytical target cascading (ATC) method to decouple objective functions and constraints, creating autonomous scheduling sub-models for individual MEGs. This decentralized approach ensures independent modeling and coordinated problem-solving. Simulations verify that (1) the ATC-based inter-MEG energy interaction strategy effectively achieves decentralized coordinated scheduling of multiple MEGs and (2) the decentralized coordinated scheduling solution closely approximates the global optimum while considering the interest of various system entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" goal, the construction of an efficient, low-carbon, and economical energy supply system is of great significance for advancing a dual carbon strategy. In allusion to the integrated energy systems (IES) with hydrogen energy coupling, a hydrogen energy coupling IES low-carbon optimization operation strategy that took account of green certificate and ladder-type carbon joint trading and dual-incentive demand response was proposed in this paper. First, a hydrogen energy multiuse system composed of an electrolyzer, a hydrogen fuel cell, a methane reactor, and hydrogen energy storage was constructed to make full use of the low-carbon cleaning characteristics of hydrogen energy. Besides, a combined model of hydrogen mixed with natural gas was established to improve the utilization efficiency of hydrogen energy. Second, a dual-incentive demand response model including price incentives and subsidy incentives was constructed to fully use the ability to adjust demand-side resources. Next, in view of the carbon emission reduction mechanism of the green certificate, a green certificate and ladder-type carbon joint trading mechanism was constructed. In addition, a green certificate trading mechanism and a reward and punishment tiered carbon trading mechanism had been introduced separately in the IES optimization operation model to reduce carbon emissions of the system. The calculation simulation sets up different scenarios for comparative analysis. As shown by the results, the proposed model could effectively improve renewable energy consumption capacity and energy utilization efficiency. The effectiveness of hydrogen energy utilization, demand respond, and green certification carbon trading mechanism in improving system economy and low-carbon efficiency is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid industrialization, rising fossil fuel consumption, and environmental concerns, developing clean and green energy is an inescapable option. Hydrogen has emerged as a significant potential energy carrier and a viable future replacement fuel for fossil fuels due to its renewable and pollution-free properties. Previous review papers have significantly contributed to the body of literature on the various technologies for producing hydrogen by revealing key insights into their working principles and conditions, as well as the economic and environmental aspects. In addition, they also highlighted the potential pathways to enable the application of these technologies in the context of carbon neutrality. However, these studies have not broken down the evolutionary patterns and developmental progress of either fossil fuel-based or renewable energy-based technologies used to produce hydrogen. In addition, the currently available literature does not contain the most recent research that focuses on the evolution and life cycle of each technology category from a chronological point of view. The key drivers, countries/regions, and their contributions to the field's development have received little attention. As a result, it is critical to monitor technological advances in hydrogen energy production and investigate the key enablers of these advancements. Against this backdrop, the current study employs patent analysis tools to achieve four primary goals: (1) to track the development trends in the field of hydrogen production from 2000 to 2019; (2) to identify and compare the recent development trends in the last five years according to the feedstock, i.e., fossil fuel, water, and biomass-based technologies; (3) to predict the technology life cycle of the two main groups of hydrogen production technologies (fossil and renewable); (4) to identify and compare the key drivers of hydrogen production technologies from a statistical standpoint. The findings of the study may aid in identifying technical prospects in the field of fossil and renewable-based hydrogen production, and decision-makers may use them as a reference in developing a strategic plan for future technological growth. • Patent review on hydrogen production technologies from 2000 to 2019. • Japan, US, China are the leading countries in the field. • Recent developments are focused on renewable energy-based technologies especially water. • Technology maturity rate of renewable-based technologies is about 57%. • R&D expenditure strongly promotes hydrogen production innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The material flow analysis (MFA) method is widely used in the fields of resource management, environmental governance, and sustainable development evaluation, but the progress of its international research and the paths to support carbon neutrality are still unclear. Therefore, following the logic of ' sorting-integration - expansion,' this study first analyzed 2 148 documents included in the core database of Web of Science from 2000 to 2022 by using CiteSpace bibliometric tools, captured the key knowledge base and topic evolution of the international MFA research, and conducted a detailed review and comprehensive analysis of the MFA frontier application research. Second, by integrating the current status of international MFA research and the paths to carbon neutrality, this study constructed an integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality. Finally, this paper summarized the support paths of MFA application research for the four important carbon reduction sectors and proposed current research deficiencies and future development directions. The main findings include: (J) The key studies in the fields of ' resource management,' ' environmental accounting,' and ' indicators ' could serve as a methodological and theoretical basis for MFA to perform its management, accounting, and evaluation functions. © With the support of the basic research topics of 'industrial ecology,' 'material flow analysis,' and 'material flow management, ' the application research topics of MFA had gradually evolved from the outdated topics of ' nitrogen,' ' Tarragona province,' ' heavy metals,' and ' alloying elements' to the frontier topics of ' municipal solid wastes,' ' iron,' ' circular economy,' ' exposure,' and ' renewable energy,' and the integrated application of MFA with the methodologies of scenario analysis, life-cycle assessment, and input-output modeling had become a mainstream trend. © The integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality consisted of three modules, i.e., theoretical and methodological basis, application research paradigm, and supporting pathway for carbon neutrality, of which the structure of the application research paradigm reflected the core functions of the MFA, i.e., accounting material stocks and flows, assessing material demand and recycling potential, and developing the material management system. The elements of the application research paradigm covered the metabolic object, spatial scale, application triggers, main content, and application purpose of MFA research. ® The studies of MFA application supported the four important carbon reduction sectors in heterogeneous ways, and their relevance to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality needed to be further improved. In future research, MFA can be applied to account for the resource demand and waste generation of specific zero-carbon technologies in the energy production sector, to assess the resource and environmental impacts of end-use electrification, efficiency, and cleaner technologies in the energy consumption sector, to measure the environmental exposures and economic feasibility of the technologies for decarbonization and solid-waste utilization in the industrial and commercial sectors, and to evaluate the metabolic efficiency of nutrients and the performance of biological carbon fixation in the agriculture and forestry sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of renewable energies such as solar power, heat pumps, and wind power is on the rise, and individuals have started generating energy using their own solar panels. In recent years, many blockchain-based energy trading schemes have been proposed. However, existing schemes cannot fully address privacy issues and dependency on energy brokers during energy trading. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving authentication scheme for blockchain-based energy traders. An energy user encrypts a request message through lightweight attribute-based encryption, and only energy sellers who have proper attribute keys can decrypt and conduct further processes with the energy user. We analyze the proposed scheme using both informal and formal methods, such as the BAN logic, AVISPA simulation tool, and RoR model. Furthermore, we compare the computational and communication costs of our scheme with related schemes and show that the proposed scheme has competitive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies to combat climate change may be based on mitigation of the phenomenon or on adaptation to its consequences. This paper aims to identify the driving factors of the choice between these two categories of strategies in the context of urban climate plans. The fight against climate change being characterized by a logic of free riding, the situation tilts the balance towards adaptation strategies in an urban context, to the detriment of mitigation. This hypothesis is tested here through a review of the existing literature on urban climate strategies. This study shows that, counterintuitively, mitigation prevails over adaptation in urban climate strategies up to now. This paper explores the explanations for this seemingly paradoxical situation. We argue that a big part of the explanation has to do with the institutional context of urban climate strategies, specifically the decision-making capacities of municipalities, or the fact that they take part in international networks promoting mitigation over adaptation. Other explanations rely on the cost/benefit impact of adopting mitigation or adaptation, like the collateral local/private benefits of urban climate strategies that are often bigger with mitigation than adaptation. Another finding is that there is no systematic planning making it compulsory to choose between mitigation and adaptation strategies, as they are in some instances complementary, providing co-benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in energy demand and carbon emission requirements, energy management and CO2 emission reduction on the user side are significant for integrated energy system (IES) scheduling. This paper constructs a two-stage optimal dispatching model combining active/passive demand response (DR) and reward and punishment ladder-type carbon trading. In the first stage, the electricity/gas load was optimized by adding a logistics function to the active DR model. A passive DR model is built based on the optimized electric load and the heat/cooling–electricity ratio of the cogeneration unit to optimize the heat/cooling load. In the second stage, a multi-objective IES model based on the optimized load and reward and punishment ladder carbon trading was solved by the golden eagle multi-objective optimization (MOGEO). Analyzing the scheduling results from different scenarios, the active/passive DR model can reduce the load peak-to-valley difference and improve user satisfaction and grid revenue. At the same time, the combination of reward and punishment ladder carbon trading makes the system gain more carbon revenue, reduces system operating costs and carbon emissions, and improves energy utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon reduction programs are being introduced for carbon neutrality and energy transition to clean energy sources in various sectors, such as energy, buildings, transportation, and agriculture. In the residential electricity energy of the energy sector, the time-of-use (TOU) rate plan, which employs dynamic rates depending on energy usage times based on the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), is being implemented for efficient electricity energy consumption. For broad expansion of the TOU rate plan, customers need information about its benefits, such as potential savings on electricity bills. In this paper, we first analyze the statistical characteristics of electricity energy usage using the metering data collected from 10 apartment complexes through AMI and develop a model to calculate the electricity bill savings. We next introduce examples of major home appliances, of which usage times can be shifted, and offer projected bill savings from the developed model. We analyze the examples from both the perspectives of households and apartment complexes. The information from this analysis is helpful in practically investigating customers' willingness to shift the usage time for a successful implementation of the demand response program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The transition to carbon neutral mobility will require a lot of carbon neutral energy, but a lot of space as well. In many countries, it will be a challenge to find this space or to import enough energy. Land use indicators related to sustainable mobility usually focus on space for transport infrastructure and parking, i.e. direct land use, and do not include energy supply. Existing literature on the emerging research field of 'energy landscapes' has not covered the transport sector. Objective: The aim of this paper is to estimate the order of magnitude of land or sea area required for carbon neutral mobility. Method: In a well-to-wheel analysis, we investigate the land use for the production, transport, storage, distribution, and charging/refuelling of carbon neutral energy carriers for various modes of transport. The analysis focuses on the Netherlands, but part of the results are expected to be broadly applicable to other countries as well. Findings: The results show that electricity from wind or solar energy supplied to electric vehicles is the most space efficient. Use of hydrogen and synthetic fuels in vehicles takes 2–5 times more land, while use of biofuels from energy crops takes 100 times more land compared to the electricity route. We also conclude that the indirect land use for energy supply for carbon neutral road transport in the Netherlands is in the same order of magnitude as the current direct land use of road mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, microgrid clusters have attracted widespread attention due to their high stability and energy efficiency. This article proposes a scheduling architecture for microgrid clusters that integrates blockchain smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, and encryption technologies to address the issues of data trust, privacy protection, and security reliability in microgrid clusters. An economic adjustment model for microgrid clusters is constructed that combines economic and environmental objectives. Finally, based on the RPBFT (Rotating Proof of Believability) algorithm and group architecture of FISCO BCOS blockchain technology, an economic scheduling method for microgrid clusters is designed. The authors built a microgrid cluster model on the FISCO BCOS blockchain platform and conducted experiments on the effectiveness, economy, fault tolerance, and scalability of economic scheduling methods. The experimental results showed that the economic scheduling method proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the risk of nodes tampering with data in a microgrid cluster system, ensure the privacy of submicrogrids, and support the deployment of large‐scale microgrid clusters, the realization of multiparty collaborative autonomy and the stable, low‐carbon, economic operation of microgrid clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• analyze the energy efficiency of Beijing's industrial sectors from 2002 to 2018. • model industry heterogeneity of Beijing's industrial sectors accurately. • low energy efficiency of Beijing's industrial sectors due to management inefficiency. • the energy efficiency of heavy industry is higher than that of light industry. • explore the influencing factors of energy efficiency of Beijing's industrial sectors. Improving energy efficiency is one of the effective means to achieve China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. As the capital of China, Beijing should improve energy efficiency and has a primary responsibility in achieving the goals. Considering the heterogeneity of industrial sectors, this paper proposes a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to analyze the total factor energy efficiency and its influencing factors of 31 industrial sectors in Beijing from 2002 to 2018. We show that the low energy efficiency of Beijing's industrial sectors, mainly due to management inefficiency, is not conducive to the realization of the goals. Besides, the energy efficiency of heavy industry is higher than that of light industry. The expansion of enterprise scale has a positive impact on energy efficiency, while the property right structure, foreign trade and energy consumption structure have a negative impact on energy efficiency. Finally, we put forward some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is unquestionably necessary for economic progress, but it also results in carbon emissions, which are the leading cause of environmental deterioration and climate change. From this perspective, clean energy can contribute to both sustainable development and ecological sustainability, as it consists of non‐carbohydrate energy sources that do not or rarely emit greenhouse gases. In this context, this paper investigates economic policy uncertainty (EPU), economic expansion (EE) and clean energy consumption (EC) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Russia from 1995 to 2021. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was used to illustrate the interdependence of factors. The error correction model (ECM) is also used to check the relationship among the study's desired factors. The long‐term investigation found that EPU harms the environment by increasing emission levels. The economic expansion increases CO2 emissions and reduces the environmental quality, supporting the ecological modernization argument. The consumption of clean energy negatively impacts CO2 emission; hence its higher amount reduces the carbon. Thus, the study found a causal relationship between EPU, EC, EE and CO2 emissions. Based on the study's findings, a policy framework is proposed to address the sustainable development goals and environmental quality. Adding the other variables like environmental regulations can be taken as future direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to ensure the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goal is a crucial problem for China with good performance, low cost and limited time. As a pillar industry, the manufacturing industry need offer more great potential helps. In this paper, for the intelligent workshop, firstly, an energy consumption architecture, based on mutual inductance sensing technology & a multi-granularity production line energy consumption modeling, is put forward. Secondly, the device-level sensing technology demonstrates the detailed implementation for the multi working condition machines whose power is unknown. And then, the research devoted the basic aspects of the proposed multi-granularity production line energy consumption modeling and summarized the implementation elements of 3-matrix (the attribute attributes, power attributes and cumulative timing attributes). Above the 2 sections, the robot and SMT production lines case studies are presented separately. Results show that the architecture can effectively sense and model the energy consumption of the devices and the workshop, which provides an available method for the fine management and control of energy consumption and energy efficiency. Through this study, we hope to provide some reference ideas for future researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the carbon neutrality goals set post-Paris Climate Conference (COP21), this study delves into the relationship between green technology innovations, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in China, spanning the period of 1990 to 2021. The objective of this paper is to creatively present the idea of a low-carbon digital economy from the viewpoint of digital technology. Utilizing the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, we scrutinize this relationship, employing unit-root testing to verify the integrative attributes of the variables, inclusive of structural break data. Further analysis using the bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing method corroborates the relationship between these key variables. The study reveals unidirectional co-integration over time among green technology innovations, renewable and non-renewable energy, per capita income, population, and CO2 emissions as per the Granger causality test. Interestingly, our findings suggest that while green technology innovation, per capita income, and renewable energy contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, non-renewable energy consumption and population growth exacerbate them. These insights offer valuable guidance for policymakers in formulating comprehensive strategies to enhance environmental quality through the promotion of renewable energy and green technology innovations, with a specific emphasis on the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the global goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", new power system is facing a new energy development trend of increasing the capacity of new energy and reducing the capacity and quantity of coal power. Furthermore, new power systems are also moving towards new models such as the Energy Internet and energy storage diversification. This paper combines the needs of new power systems' "source-load interaction" and a differentiated analysis of the specific carbon emission characteristics of each subject of the Energy Internet "source-network-load-storage". This paper analyzes the energy efficiency coefficient and carbon emission factors of each link of "source-grid-load-storage". Therefore, the paper proposes a carbon control model for the Energy Internet. This paper focuses on the characteristics of coal power with the largest carbon reduction. Therefore, this article constructs a multi-dimensional low-carbonization evaluation index system for coal-fired power plants. In addition, this article designs a fusion weight calculation method for subjective and objective indicators based on CRITIC-G1. Additionally, this paper uses the ideal solution–gray relational method to evaluate the specified samples. Finally, this article verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the implementation of the low-carbonization evaluation index system for coal-fired power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature on tunnel lighting was conducted. • The literature is sorted by energy saving, visual comfort, and low carbon. • The relationship between energy saving and low carbon is discussed. • The relationship between energy saving and comfort is also discussed. • The optimization methods of tunnel light environment are summarized. A reasonable and applicative tunnel light environment is important to ensure driving safety. This review aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the tunnel lighting, which expands from safety to visual comfort, energy saving, and low carbon This paper employs bibliometric method to a visual analysis of the relevant literature and summarizes current research efforts and development directions. Firstly, the literature is visually presented by CiteSpace to elaborate the state-of-art with the dimensions of the timeline graph, the keyword co-occurrence graph, and the institutions & countries co-occurrence graph. Afterwards the literature is reviewed from three major perspectives: energy saving, visual comfort, and low carbon. Current research is mainly on luminaire arrangement, auxiliary lighting and other measures to reduce energy consumption. Visual comfort is mainly improved by optimizing the light environment's physical quantities, e.g. luminance, color temperature, color rendering etc. Current measures to achieve low carbon targets include green energy, green photoconductivity, green luminaires and green operation. Energy saving, visual comfort and low carbon are interrelated and complementary. However, a systematic understanding of how tunnel lighting contributes to carbon emission is still lacking. There is still room for development in tunnel lighting to achieve full intelligent control and the goal of carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundation pit excavation is common in urban construction, while safety evaluation is always significant in every specified project. The soil material properties, groundwater level, excavation method, supporting structure, monitoring points' arrangement, and so on distinguish from one site from another. Thus, many studies have looked into the safety and reliability of designated projects. This paper was based on the co-construction underground tunnel project of a deep foundation pit excavation in Suzhou, China. This paper aimed to perform a safety evaluation on this foundation pit by means of numerical simulation for parameter influence analysis, as well as scientific comparison with in-site monitoring data. To minimize the energy consumption and contribute to the carbon neutrality, a brief energy consumption analysis was also conducted. The results indicated that the maximum deformation of the foundation pit bottom is 4.5 cm and the deformation of the foundation pit is within the allowable range. The maximum horizontal displacement of each excavation is approximately at 10 m to 12 m of the diaphragm wall and the largest deformation is 28 mm. The maximum ground settlement is less than 16 mm, which confirmed the safety during excavation. It is ideal that the above deformation law will provide a reference for similar projects. Furthermore, this research simulated and monitored the whole cycle of foundation pit excavation, and contributes to savings in energy consumption and limiting of carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the urgency to mitigate climate change intensifies, the achievement of zero carbon targets in the built environment has become a critical objective. Building retrofitting plays a vital role in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in existing buildings. This paper presents an approach that combines Building Information Modeling (BIM) with multiple domains to strive for zero carbon targets in building retrofit projects. The proposed approach is based on a dynamic multi-parameter analysis that integrates indoor comfort, energy savings, CO2eq reduction, and the social cost of carbon while considering investment costs. Renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems, are emphasized to achieve the desired zero-carbon outcomes. Real-time monitoring mechanisms enable continuous performance evaluation and adaptive retrofit strategies for further energy savings. This approach is validated through a case study of an existing thermal bath building, known as "Terme Lucane", located in southern Italy. The results of the study demonstrate significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions, highlighting the potential of the proposed approach to achieve zero carbon targets through the integration of multi-data BIM implementation. These findings offer a promising pathway for building retrofit projects aiming for zero carbon targets through multi-data BIM modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The paper discusses existing trends and prospects for decarbonization in the Commonwealth of Independent States (the CIS), an international organization that regroups Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The CIS occupies a significant share of Eurasia, representing a large share of global energy consumption and production with a corresponding carbon footprint. These countries and their decarbonization prospects are rarely discussed in the English-language scientific literature. This paper fills in this gap by offering a comprehensive analysis based on statistical data, policy documents, and scenario-based future projections. The results underline that revisiting Nationally Determined Contributions, increasing energy efficiency, and decoupling GDP growth from greenhouse gas emissions are essential to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The future energy mix should include larger shares of renewable energy, hydrogen, fossil fuels (highly efficient with carbon capture), and nuclear energy to achieve energy security and decarbonize the economy of the region in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Many institutions of higher education have committed to carbon neutrality. Given this goal, the main economic issue is minimizing cost. As for society as a whole, dominant decarbonization strategies are renewable electricity generation, electrification of end uses and energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to describe the optimum combination of strategies. Design/methodology/approach: There are four questions for eliminating the primary institutional greenhouse gas emissions: how much renewable electricity to produce on-site; where and at what price to purchase the balance of renewable electricity required; how to heat and cool buildings without fossil fuels; and how much to invest in energy efficiency. A method is presented to minimize decarbonization costs by equating marginal costs of the alternates. Findings: The estimated cost of grid-purchased carbon-free energy is the most important benchmark, determining both the optimal level of campus-produced renewable energy and the optimum efficiency investment. In the context of complete decarbonization, greater efficiency investments may be justified than when individual measures are judged only by fossil-fuel savings. Practical implications: This paper discusses a theoretically ideal plan and implementation issues such as purchasing carbon-free electricity, calculating marginal costs of conserved energy, nonmarginal cost changes, uncertainty about achieving efficiency targets, and dynamic pricing. The principles described in this study can be used to craft a cost-minimizing decarbonization strategy. Originality/value: While previous studies discuss decarbonization strategies, there is little economic guidance on which strategies are optimal, on how to combine strategies to minimize cost or how to identify a preferred path to decarbonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of carbon trading on low-carbon transformation of high energy consumption enterprises in China. Based on the mechanism of interaction and restriction among high energy consumption enterprises, carbon verification agencies and the government, a tripartite evolutionary game model is constructed. The three-dimensional dynamic system is built to analyze the behavior patterns of the three parties. The evolution path of the tripartite game is visualized, and the low-carbon transformation states of high energy consumption enterprises in different situations are described. The results show that the high energy consumption enterprises, verification organization and the government cannot reach the optimal game equilibrium (low-carbon transformation, verification and supervision) temporarily when seeking their own interests. The corresponding measures should be taken with different situations of the tripartite game. No matter what strategy the government chooses, the low-carbon transformation could be promoted by carbon trading through carbon verification mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guangxi is a typical developing region on the southern coast of China. The current issues encountered in the region's development are that fossil energy accounts for about 80% of the energy structure, fossil fuels are heavily dependent on imports, and the self-sufficiency rate of resources is only 32%. These challenges have created a disparity between the current regional development state and the country's dual carbon target. Under the premise of comprehensively considering the multi-sectors of electricity, industry, transportation, and heating, this paper presents a study on the energy system transition towards low-carbon development for Guangxi in four steps. Firstly, to demonstrate EnergyPLAN's capability in energy modeling, a reference scenario for Guangxi is created using official yearbook data from 2020. Then, a short-term scenario is formulated to analyze the development of Guangxi's energy system during the 14th Five-Year Plan. Furthermore, two mid-term scenarios are established, revealing that Guangxi is anticipated to reach its carbon emission peak between 2025 and 2030. Finally, three long-term scenarios are proposed for Guangxi's energy system for 2050. These scenarios encompass the expansion of photovoltaics, nuclear, and wind power in the electricity system and emission reduction policies in the industrial, transportation, and heating sectors. As a result, compared with the 2020REF scenario, Guangxi can achieve a carbon emission reduction exceeding 57% and the share of non-fossil energy consumption can reach about 70% in the 2050 scenarios, despite a substantial increase in energy consumption, which makes it possible to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060 and to establish an energy system with less than 20% of fossil energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decarbonization of the power sector in China is an essential aspect of the energy transition process to achieve carbon neutrality. The power sector accounts for approximately 40% of China's total CO2 emissions. Accordingly, collaborative optimization in power generation expansion planning (GEP) simultaneously considering economic, environmental, and technological concerns as carbon emissions is necessary. This paper proposes a collaborative mixedinteger linear programming optimization approach for GEP. This minimizes the power system's operating cost to resolve emission concerns considering energy development strategies, flexible generation, and resource limitations constraints. This research further analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of current GEP techniques. Results show that the main determinants of new investment decisions are carbon emissions, reserve margins, resource availability, fuel consumption, and fuel price. The proposed optimization method is simulated and validated based on China's power system data. Finally, this study provides policy recommendations on the flexible management of traditional power sources, the market-oriented mechanism of new energy sources, and the integration of new technology to support the attainment of carbon-neutral targets in the current energy transition process. [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 ambitious goal of the European Union (EU) countries is to achieve carbon neutrality by providing inclusive economic growth, which requires the development of relevant incentives and initiatives. Furthermore, such incentives and initiatives should guarantee the achievement of the declared goals. Energy sectors are the core determinant of inclusive economic growth. Traditional energy resources (coal oriented) have a higher negative impact on nature and people's well-being than on economic and social benefits. However, the transition to renewable energy raises new issues in achieving goals of inclusive economic growth: affordable and clean energy, responsible energy consumption, and energy infrastructure. The analysis of the theoretical framework found that the digitalization of government could be a core instrument for handling the abovementioned issues. The paper aims to justify the role of green energy in achieving inclusive economic growth empirically. The study applies the following methods: fully modified Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and canonical cointegrating regression. The findings allow concluding that institutional quality passively affects inclusive economic growth and that the digitalization of government has a U-shaped impact on inclusive economic growth. In this case, countries should boost the digital transformation of public services and continuously increase the quality of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's automotive industry has been dedicated to a series of carbon-reduction efforts and has strived for comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation in order to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. On the basis of automobiles' whole life-cycle (WLC) carbon emission accounting, this paper calculates life-cycle carbon emissions per vehicle, proposes green and low-carbon development path for China's automotive industry, quantifies and analyzes implicated carbon-reduction potential, and puts forth suggestions for high-quality green and low-carbon development of China's automotive industry. The first is to establish a sound standard and data management system; the second is to promote research, development and application of low-carbon materials and low-carbon technologies; the third is to accelerate the pace of fostering a new consumption model in the automotive industry. The research results can further support national policy-making regarding carbon emissions, promote corporations' research, development and application of low-carbon technologies, encourage green and low-carbon consumption, and lead the automotive industry to achieve WLC neutrality. [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]

Energy development in industrial parks promotes both industrial and inter-park economies. However, as the number of industrial parks increases and the economic level of the parks rises, energy consumption is also increasing rapidly. The rapid expansion of inter-park trading markets is accompanied by a surge in carbon emissions, making industrial parks increasingly significant contributors to carbon emissions within the industrial sector. In response to this environmental challenge, this paper proposes an integrated trading approach within industrial parks that considers carbon constraints. By implementing a spot trading method for surplus industrial energy, the goal is to mitigate the carbon emission pressure within these parks. Firstly, the paper conducts an analysis of the characteristics of combined heat and power units in industrial parks. It introduces an integrated analysis method within the target region, consolidating information from various park units to enhance flexibility in energy utilization. Secondly, an energy storage model is established. This model efficiently leverages energy storage capacity to balance fluctuations in energy supply and demand within industrial parks, thereby alleviating carbon emission pressure. Finally, the study and analysis of an industrial park in Liaoning Province were conducted using the Yalmip + Gurobi commercial software on the MATLAB platform. Compared with the traditional industrial park, the carbon dioxide emission of the industrial park is reduced by 91.49t, and the energy cost is saved by 11.2 million RMB. Numerical results from instances indicate that this method surpasses traditional trading approaches, aligning with the rigorous standards of scientific research. • An energy storage model is proposed to address the shortage of energy storage in waste heat trading in industrial parks. • A coordinated scheduling program is presented to reduce energy scheduling imbalances between multiple campuses. • The carbon-constrained energy storage device is integrated to improve the decarbonization capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve carbon neutrality quickly and deal with urban greenhouse effect, it is necessary to study the energy consumption of urban buildings. Energy consumption prediction is an important step in planning and managing energy use in buildings. At present, few studies have comprehensively considered the relationship between geometric features, functional types, location and energy use of buildings in urban built-up areas. In this paper, a spatial data-driven framework is introduced for the analysis and assessment of building energy consumption. The framework is grounded in the building centroid and is combined with single photon radar and point of interest data through the utilization of the nearest neighbor classification algorithm. Two megacities, Beijing and Shanghai, are taken as examples to illustrate the method and to generate the regional building energy use database. The results show that: a) building physical feature (geometric form, functional type) have a significant impact on energy consumption, and energy consumption is correlated with the economic level of the region; b) Energy use in urban built-up areas has obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the siphon effect is obvious in region with high energy consumption. The contribution of the framework is to provide insights into the feasibility of employing multiple spatial data fusion for the analysis of energy consumption within urban built-up areas. This can be employed to address energy planning concerns and help promote sustainable environmental practices in urban areas worldwide. • This paper attempts to provide a feasible framework for analyzing urban building energy use by utilizing real-time urban semantic perception information and building features. • The proposed framework have comprehensively considered the relationship between geometric features, functional types, location and energy use of buildings. • The proposed methodology can obtain regional energy consumption stocks and produce spatial distribution results, thus improving the interpretability of the data. • The results show that energy use in urban built-up areas has obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the siphoning effect is obvious in regions with high energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the background of exhaustion of the traditional fossil energy sources and environmental deterioration, developing renewable energy has become a strategic choice for countries to achieve energy sustainable utilization and carbon neutrality target. Different renewable energy technical plans have different characteristics under multiple criteria. Therefore, before the further exploitation of renewable energy sources, it is of great significance to evaluate the comprehensive performance of different plans and then determine the best renewable energy sources. However, the commonly used weight calculation methods in the existing renewable energy evaluation have obvious shortcomings, such as the randomness of the subjective method is strong and the gap in the weight allocation of the objective method is too large, which affect the reliability and accuracy of the sorting result. In this paper, a novel weight calculation method based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is proposed, and is applied to renewable energy evaluation. The study in this paper focuses on methodology. Firstly, for the linear normalized and Zeros normalized evaluation data, the differences between renewable energy plans in the two normalized evaluation data are measured, and the ranking deviations of the two normalized data are calculated. Then, the multi-objective weight solving model is constructed in terms of plans differences minimization and ranking vectors deviations minimization. The NSGA-II algorithm is applied to the optimization of multi-objective functions to find the Pareto non-dominated solution, so as to determine the weight values of each evaluation index. Finally, the TOPSIS method is used to determine the relative closeness value of each plan, and the rankings of renewable energy technical plans are achieved. Based on the actual renewable energy development data of a province in China, experiments were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs better than some popular renewable energy evaluation methods. [Display omitted] • Propose a novel evaluation method for renewable energy technical plans. • Apply non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II to determine the index weights. • Compared with the existing evaluation method, the proposed method performs better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clarifying the influencing factors of energy consumption in underground production processes of coal mine is the premise and foundation for the coal mining industry to control the energy consumption and intensity to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. This paper aims to investigate and compare the differences in energy consumption and carbon emissions between a mining‐separating‐backfilling integrated coal mine (MSBICM) and a traditional coal mine and explore the effects of the main production links underground on carbon emission intensity in coal mines. Hence, taking an MSBICM in Henan province as an example, this study constructed an energy consumption and carbon emission model of the mine using system dynamics (SD) method. Based on this model, the energy consumption of the main production logistics system and auxiliary production system in MSBICM was simulated and analyzed. In addition, this study made a comparative analysis of the energy consumption of the different production links in the two types of coal mines. The results showed that: (1) the comprehensive mechanized coal mining with solid filling system and ventilation system were the subsystems with the highest and lowest energy consumption in MSBICM respectively. (2) The influence rates of raw coal mining, gangue filling, coal‐gangue separating, and material transportation on carbon emission intensity in coal mine were 1.09%, 1.34%, 1.09%, and 5.13%, respectively. (3) Under the same production and filling targets, energy consumption of underground transportation systems in MSBICM was found to be 336.66 tons of standard coal less than that in traditional coal mine. This study has helped clarify the complex relationships among the factors that influence energy consumption in coal mines and provided a reference for implementing dual control of energy consumption to promote low‐carbon mining of coal resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]