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The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is China's substantial energy consumption base. The issue of carbon emission efficiency directly affects the ecological protection and high-quality development of the YRB. It is the key to achieving carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutralization in 2060 ("30.60") double carbon emission reduction targets. Therefore, taking YRB as the research object, this paper first calculates the carbon emission and the decoupling state in the YRB. Secondly, the super-efficiency slacks-based measurement (SE-SBM) model is combined with the Malmquist index to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of YRB's carbon emission efficiency from static and dynamic perspectives. Thirdly, the dynamic evolution characteristics of carbon emission efficiency are analyzed with the help of the Kernel density function. Finally, the Tobit model analyzes the influencing factors of YRB's and China's carbon emission efficiency. The results show that: (1) Among the nine provinces of YRB, the decoupling state between carbon emissions and economic growth in most provinces changes from weak decoupling to strong decoupling, and the decoupling elasticity index shows a fluctuating downward trend. (2) There are significant differences in carbon emission efficiency among provinces, but on the whole, it shows a stable growth trend. The high-value area of carbon emission efficiency is increasing, and the phenomenon of two-level differentiation is improving. The decline of the technological progress index causes the Malmquist index in Qinghai and Ningxia. On the contrary, the rise of the Malmquist index in the other seven provinces is caused by improving the technical efficiency index. (3) Industrial structure, economic development, and industrialization are the main positive factors affecting YRB's carbon emission efficiency. Urbanization level, green development level, and energy consumption level are the leading negative indicators hindering YRB's improvement of carbon emission efficiency. Therefore, targeted emission reduction suggestions should be formulated according to YRB's resource endowment and development stage characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy and environment urgently require a green recovery as COVID-19's consequences expand over time, and the platform economy is a practical means of pursuing this goal. By employing the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM), this paper aims to analyze the impact of platform economy on carbon emissions in China during the period 2013–2020. Overall, the platform economy has increased carbon emissions, but there was a decrease in carbon emissions in the platform economy between 2014 and 2016. The scale factors of platform economy are the primary contributors to the increase in China's overall emissions and most provincial carbon emissions, while the carbon intensity of platform economy factors contributes most to the decrease in carbon emissions. In particular, the carbon intensity of platform economy factors promoted the most cumulative carbon emissions in Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Ningxia between 2013 and 2020, and the energy intensity of platform economy factors reduced most of the cumulative carbon emissions of Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Xinjiang during the same period. From the perspective of the heterogeneity of platform economic development, the main contributors of carbon mitigation from high-platform economic provinces are intensity effects. However, the platform economic structure of low-platform economic provinces significantly reduces carbon emissions. In addition, we also found significant differences in the factors influencing emissions in different groups under the influence of the pandemic. Finally, we provide some valuable references for China's platform economic development to achieve "carbon neutrality" targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As major strategic development areas in China, the provinces around the Yangtze River are facing the pressure of large aggregate CO 2 emissions and high per capita CO 2 emissions. The study on the pathway of reducing CO 2 emissions and increasing carbon sequestration will help China better clarify the ways realize the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality as soon as possible. In this paper, the extended STIRPAT model and OLS regression were used to establish a prediction model to estimate the CO 2 emissions during 2010–2060 under different scenarios. Meanwhile, the InVEST model was used to estimate the carbon sequestration, and the comparison with the CO 2 emissions was analyzed. The results show that Qinghai and Yunnan have achieved the goal of carbon neutrality in 2010. Under the low-carbon and energy-saving scenario and the baseline scenario, all provinces within the study area are anticipated to attain their emissions peak by 2030 or earlier, and the CO 2 emissions peak value of the whole study area is 3111 Mt and 3199 Mt, respectively. While under the high emissions scenario, only Chongqing and Qinghai will reach the emissions peak in 2030, and the whole study area will reach the emissions peak in 2040, with peak value of 3470 Mt. Under the three scenarios, the whole study area cannot achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Only Sichuan and Hubei can achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 and 2060 under the low-carbon and energy-saving scenario. All provinces and municipalities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are facing huge pressure of emissions reduction. The research reveals that the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality should be achieved by developing clean energy, transforming industrial structure, increasing carbon sequestration and improving carbon emissions trading system. [Display omitted] • The CO 2 emissions showed a pattern of increase during 2010–2020. • The whole study area will achieve carbon peak by 2040 or earlier. • The whole study area cannot achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. • The realization pathway of carbon peak and neutrality was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intricate interplay between water resources, land resources, energy systems, and carbon emissions has emerged as a prominent discourse in academic research. Nonetheless, there remains a dearth of comprehensive research dedicated to fostering environmentally friendly and low-carbon development through systematic integration and coordination efforts. This study aimed to fill this gap by integrating the coupling mechanism of the Water-Land-Energy-Carbon (WLEC) system, thereby constructing an evaluation index framework that assesses coordinated developments in Northwest China's WLEC system. It scrutinizes the security levels within the Water-Land-Energy (WLE) subsystem while conducting quantitative analyses on the degrees of coupling coordination within the WLEC systems, alongside their associated hindering factors. The preliminary findings were as follows: Firstly, the safety development within the WLE system demonstrates a positive trend across Northwest China, with notable advancements primarily observed in the Qinghai and Gansu provinces. In 2021, all five Northwestern provinces exhibited moderate levels of safe development, except for the Qinghai province, which transitioned from moderate to robust. Secondly, the coupling coordination degree of the WLEC system across the five provinces has consistently illustrated an upward trajectory over the years. However, as of 2021, the system remains in a state characterized by marginal disorder. Notably, the Qinghai and Gansu provinces have shown particularly encouraging upward trends, with the Shaanxi province also making notable progress. Conversely, Xinjiang has declined since 2017 due to negative interactions between the subsystems of water, soil, energy, and carbon emissions. Thirdly, spatial variations exist in the distribution patterns between the provinces regarding the influence of obstructing factors on indicators related to coupled coordinated development, such as per capita arable land area, per capita energy consumption, per capita carbon emissions, per capita construction land area, and the proportion of groundwater water in the total amount of water supply, which demonstrated an increasing trend. These findings carry significant practical implications for actively and steadily promoting carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in Northwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is critical for China to promote the substitution of coal with natural gas (NG), and the development of carbon sequestration (CS) technology to achieve its carbon neutrality goal by 2060. Underground gas storage (UGS) employing CS technology is an important choice suitable for NG development in large scale and carbon neutral goal requirements. Unfortunately, to date China's UGS has not yet adopted CS technology. This paper focuses on the operation optimization scheme of UGS with CS technology as well as the economic benefits and carbon emission reduction effects of this technology. Firstly, a proxy model with consideration of CS is constructed to improve the operation mode of UGS, and then the operation parameters concerning the dual objective function of maximizing revenue and CS volume is optimized. Based on the range of geological parameters in China, Monte Carlo simulation is used to simulate 100,000 scenarios. The results show that by 2050 the total UGS revenue in China would reach 22.013 billion to 39.423 billion US dollars, and the total CS volume would reach 26.374 million to 54.018 million tons, approximately the total carbon emissions of China's Qinghai Province in 2018. Finally, policy recommendations are provided. • A new carbon storage operation method is presented for underground gas storage. • A proxy model is built to optimize the profit of underground gas storage. • The potential of carbon sequestration is estimated for underground gas storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has proposed to achieve the carbon neutrality target by 2060. It is important for China to clearly understand the carbon sink of ecosystems. Most current studies focus on accounting for the carbon sink or carbon emission in the past and ignore the contribution of ecosystems to carbon neutrality in the future. The work presented in this paper projects land use changes in 2030 and 2060 under the business as usual (BAS), rapid economic development (RED), and ecological land protection (ELP) scenarios based on Multiple Objective Programming and GeoSOS-FLUS and calculates the carbon budgets and contributions of ecosystems to carbon neutrality in Qinghai during 2000–2060. The key findings are that the contributions of the terrestrial ecosystem to carbon neutrality in Qinghai are 9.92% (BAS), 10.03% (ELP) and 7.56% (RED) in 2030, and 3.23% (BAS), 3.28% (ELP) and 2.91% (RED) in 2060. These results indicate that the Qinghai ecosystem has carbon sink potential and the reduction of carbon emissions by humans is the core challenge in achieving carbon neutrality. Therefore, some recommendations have been made: 1) optimizing the land use structure to enhance the ecosystem sink in Qinghai; 2) continuing to implement the policies of ecological protection in Qinghai; 3) reducing the anthropogenic carbon emissions is the key to achieving carbon neutrality in 2060. This study not only offers data support and related policy recommendations to realize carbon neutrality goals but also provides a feasible method for future ecosystem contribution assessments under the goal of carbon neutrality. • Current land use policies in Qinghai are partial to ecological land protection. • Terrestrial ecosystem contributions to carbon neutrality are decreasing. • Terrestrial ecosystem contributions are similar in 2060 under three scenarios. • Carbon emission reduction of social system is key to achieving carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]