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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]

Coordinating policies is an essential guarantee for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Based on the theoretical framework of the policy paradigm, we quantitatively analyze 266 policy documents on promoting carbon emission trading and green financial policies from 2011 to 2022 using the content analysis research method. Based on the matching network of "policy objectives-policy tools," we analyze the synergistic characteristics of carbon emission trading policies and green financial policies in promoting carbon emission reduction targets and reveal the matching mode of "objectives-tools" of green financial policies by using social network analysis. It is found that, first, from the perspective of policy objectives, the main policy objectives of carbon emissions trading are to promote green innovation of enterprises, and the main policy objectives of green finance are to promote green development, which reflects the consistency and endogenous motivation of policy objectives. Secondly, command-control and market incentive policy tools are the main policy tools in the structure of policy tools. The proportion of public participation policy tools is small, and there is a structural asymmetry. Third, carbon emissions trading tools focus on supervision, adjustment, and platform construction. The green financial policy tools have the characteristics of guidance, public welfare, and externality. The two constitute a complementary, embedded, and integrated ' double synergy ' carbon emission reduction policy. Based on this, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote policy coordination and provides a reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy supply and environmental capacity are important material foundations for social and economic development and constraints for scientific and sustainable development, and with achieving the strategic goals of carbon peak and carbon neutral at an early date, too. Therefore, the international community generally regards energy-economic- environment (3E) as a necessary research direction. This paper studies the relationship among effective energy utilization, economic growth protection and ecological environment protection by establishing the contribution rate model of energy consumption factors to economic GDP growth. At the same time, this paper puts forward the government needs to use carbon trading market, carbon tax, such as low carbon management mechanism based on the Pareto Optimality of carbon trading market, prompts the excess money of the country or the region back to actively invest in low-carbon production, lets more energy companies to clean energy and low carbon production transformation, and helps to achieve the goal of regional energy industry carbon neutral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting carbon prices is crucial for the growth of China's carbon trading industry. This paper proposes a residual correction model that considers multiple influencing factors. First, the best historical data and main external factors input by the model are determined by using the partial autocorrelation function and Spearman correlation analysis, and the carbon price forecasting index system is constructed. Second, the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is utilized to determine the optimal parameters of the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and the WOA‐XGBoost model is built to perform preliminary carbon price forecasts and obtain the residual series. Finally, the carbon price residual series undergoes decomposition into multiple components utilizing the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition for subsequent forecasting and the aggregation of outcomes. Experiments are conducted to predict two carbon trading markets in Hubei and Guangzhou, and a feature importance analysis is performed. The results indicate that the proposed hybrid model consistently outperforms the comparative models in terms of prediction accuracy. Furthermore, it is revealed that historical carbon prices and European Union carbon prices are the key factors influencing the prediction of carbon market prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traction power systems (TPSs) play a vital role in the operation of electrified railways. The transformation of conventional railway TPSs to novel structures is not only a trend to promote the development of electrified railways toward high-efficiency and resilience but also an inevitable requirement to achieve carbon neutrality target. On the basis of sorting out the power supply structures of conventional AC and DC modes, this paper first reviews the characteristics of the existing TPSs, such as weak power supply flexibility and low-energy efficiency. Furthermore, the power supply structures of various TPSs for future electrified railways are described in detail, which satisfy longer distance, low-carbon, high-efficiency, high-reliability and high-quality power supply requirements. Meanwhile, the application prospects of different traction modes are discussed from both technical and economic aspects. Eventually, this paper introduces the research progress of mixed-system electrified railways and traction power supply technologies without catenary system, speculates on the future development trends and challenges of TPSs and predicts that TPSs will be based on the continuous power supply mode, employing power electronic equipment and intelligent information technology to construct a railway comprehensive energy system with renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric power is the basic industry of a modern country. The rapid development of the power industry has promoted economic development and social progress. With the establishment of the carbon neutrality target of carbon peak, China's power industry is also facing new situations and new challenges. This paper innovatively introduces the concept of allometric growth in biology, and uses the data of provincial electricity consumption and economic development from 1972 to 2017, to study the allometric growth relationship between electricity consumption and economics in China at multiple scales. Combined with the spatial autocorrelation analysis method, the temporal and spatial characteristics of allometric growth between electricity consumption and economic development were researched based on the analysis of spatial correlation of GDP electricity consumption intensity. The results show that: (1) The provincial GDP electricity consumption intensity shows an aggregate distribution, and the local aggregate pattern changed significantly from 1972 to 2017. (2) The High-High Cluster gradually disappeared, and the Low-Low Cluster moved southward, appearing in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. (3) The differential growth coefficient of electricity consumption and economic development increased initially and decreased from 1972 to 2017. (4) GDP would increase by 7.4%, 20.1%, and 15.6% in the simulation of electricity consumption, increasing 10% at the three stages of China's economic development. (5) The allometric growth coefficients of electricity consumption and economic development are very different in the three economic belts, eight economic zones, and provinces with different characteristics at the different stages of economic development. Formulating differentiated regulation policies for regional economic development and electricity consumption will be conducive to the coordinated development of electric power production and the national economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging farmers to adopt greener and cleaner energy is crucial for reducing energy pollution and achieving carbon neutrality goals. In rural China, the decision making of farmers is often closely related to the whole family. At different stages of the family life cycle, the family has different characteristics, which leads to heterogeneity in the focus and final decision of farmers in adopting living clean energy. Therefore, this paper studies the farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior from the perspective of the family life cycle. It is helpful to identify the different policy needs and the evolution of farmers in different stages in order to provide a reference and inspiration for encouraging the adoption of living clean energy by farmers and for promoting the development of clean energy in rural areas. Based on the survey data of 1382 farmers in Jiangxi Province, this paper uses a multiple linear regression model to explore the impact of the family life cycle on farmers' clean energy adoption behavior. The results show the following: (1) The family life cycle has a significant impact on farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior, which is reflected in four aspects: energy demand, livelihood strategy, health demand and support burden; (2) Awareness of environmental ecology and frequency of government promotion have significant positive effects on farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior, while gender has significant negative effects on farmers' clean energy adoption behavior; (3) There are also differences in the influencing factors of farmers' living clean energy adoption behavior at different stages of the family life cycle. Therefore, when promoting clean energy in rural areas, a precise clean energy incentive mechanism should be adopted to treat families in different family life cycle stages differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional low carbon will play an important role in the path of achieving the "double carbon" goal, and there are still many key technologies to be broken in its planning research. In this paper, an optimal scheduling model of integrated energy system with multiple energy supply devices is established by using Beetle Antennae Search-Particle Swarm Optimization (BAS-PSO) algorithm. First, in the scheduling model, a carbon trading mechanism is introduced and a stepped carbon trading cost model is constructed to constrain the carbon emissions of the plant. Then, using drosophila algorithm, the premise of whether wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation need to be built is determined by judging the economics of wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation in the construction area, and then the target power consumption curve and new energy power supply output curve are fitted. Then use the life cycle analysis method to analyze the carbon emissions generated by electric energy storage equipment, consider the carbon trading mechanism in the system economic operation model, and solve the model by BAS-PSO algorithm to overcome the problems of local optimum and slow convergence speed. Finally, a typical park integrated energy system is simulated to analyze the economic operation conditions and energy efficiency level of the system before and after participation in demand response. The innovation of this paper lies in considering the carbon trading mechanism and solving with the optimized BAS-PSO algorithm. Considering carbon trading can effectively improve the system wind power consumption capacity, and the optimized BAS-PSO algorithm improves the defects of traditional PSO. The simulation analysis results show that the established optimal scheduling model with multiple energy supply devices can realize the optimal operation of the integrated energy system of the park in the demand response environment; the improved BAS-PSO finds the lowest energy consumption within 100 iterations in 21 out of 50 iterations; the improved BAS-PSO algorithm reduces the energy consumption by 27.1 kW on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by the demand for carbon emission reduction and environmental protection, battery swapping stations (BSS) with battery energy storage stations (BESS) and distributed generation (DG) have become one of the key technologies to achieve the goal of emission peaking and carbon neutrality. Therefore, this paper proposes a strategy to optimize the operation of BSS with photovoltaics (PV) and BESS supplied by transformer spare capacity. Firstly, it introduces the operation mechanism of BSS and uses the spare capacity of building special transformers and the roof PV to supply power to BSS to avoid the investment of transformers. Secondly, this paper establishes the load model of BSS and proposes the charging rules of battery swapping. Thirdly, a segmented pricing mechanism for the rental price of special transformers is formulated to guide BSS operators to preferentially rent spare capacity during low load rate periods. Aiming at the maximum daily profit of BSS, an optimization model is established to optimize the number of batteries to be charged and the charging status of BESS in each period; on this basis, the demand response model is further proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can improve the daily profit of BSS through shifting load. And the configuration of BESS can improve the battery swapping capacity and peak‐shaving ability. Moreover, the exponential segmented pricing mechanism can greatly reduce the number of high load periods and reduce the burden on the power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The double-carbon goal proposal has made it imperative for China's power industry to address the urgent issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and promoting their clean and efficient use. A new approach to achieving peak-shaving and improving grid stability is the combination of carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities with coal-fired power plants, which offers a strategic solution for mitigating climate change. Nonetheless, the viability of CCS retrofitting for coal-fired power plants in China hinges on its economic feasibility. The technical characteristics, economic analysis, and policy implications of clean coal-fired power plant equipped with CCS (CCP-CCS) technologies are evaluated in the paper. A comparison of the characteristics of different clean coal power generation technologies, including capacity, efficiency, coal consumption, and environmental performance, is conducted. The paper analyzes the economic feasibility of four typical clean coal power generation technologies, namely Supercritical (SC), Ultra-supercritical (USC), Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), and Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB), both with and without CCS, using the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) model. Financial parameters, investment parameters, operation and maintenance parameters, tax parameters, and capacity parameters are all considered in the LCOE model. The results indicate: (1) If CCS is not installed, the LCOE of USC power plants is the lowest at 0.37 yuan/kWh, while the LCOE of IGCC power plants is the highest at 0.44 yuan/kWh. (2) If CCS is installed, the LCOE of CFB units is the highest at 0.74 yuan/kWh, while the LCOE of USC units is the lowest at 0.60 yuan/kWh. (3) In sensitivity analysis, coal prices have the most significant impact on LCOE, followed by expected annual operating hours, while the cost of carbon capture equipment is the least sensitive. (4) The cost of retrofitting CCS on clean coal-fired power plants (CCP) is currently high, with an LCOE increase of around 40 to 70%, which is comparable to that of renewable energy electricity. This paper presents policy recommendations, including preferential loans, tax incentives, and R&D funding, to promote the development of CCP in China based on the economic analysis results and challenges faced by CCP. Additionally, the paper proposes relevant policy implications such as preferential loan policies, a diversified financing system, R&D and innovation, and the establishment of a carbon trading market for CCS in China to provide practical guidance for the promotion of CCP-CCS technologies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings consume about 40% of the global energy. Therefore, the building sector plays a key role in achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Various energy-saving technologies for buildings, such as building envelops, mechanical systems, and energy resources, have been developed to help to achieve zero- or even net-energy buildings while maintaining comfort and a healthy indoor environment. This Special Issue on building energy-saving technology was open to all contributors in the field of building engineering. The original experimental studies, numerical simulations, and reviews in all aspects of building energy utilization, management, and optimization have been considered. For this event, all of these topics were covered in the extensive submissions which were accepted, but interesting papers on other aspects of building energy efficiency were also received. The purpose of this editorial is to summarize the main research findings of the accepted papers in this Special Issue, including the energy-saving technologies involved in building envelops, mechanical systems, and occupant behaviors, and to identify a number of research questions and research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of electricity in the transition to renewable energy to mitigate climate change. A systematic literature review with the Scopus database identified 92 papers relevant to the renewable electricity transition. A PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) review of the papers provided a multidisciplinary analysis. The Paris Agreement created a global movement for carbon neutrality to address the threats of climate change, calling for a transition to renewable electricity to lead the way and expand into new sectors and regions. Although smaller renewable technologies are ramping up, complexities thwarting the transition include locked-in assets, high upfront costs, variability of solar and wind energy, infrastructure, difficulty in decarbonizing transportation and industry, material resource constraints, and fossil fuel support. This research found that renewables are not replacing fossil fuels to date but adding further energy demands, so that greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2021 despite an increased renewable electricity share. Without a major shift in the trillions of dollars of subsidies and investment away from fossil fuels to renewables, catastrophic climate change is predicted. This paper found that the Paris Agreement's commitment to net-zero carbon and the transition to renewable electricity are undermined by record-high levels of subsidies and financing for fossil fuel industry expansion. Transitioning to a climate-neutral economy requires an investment away from fossil fuels into renewable energy ecosystems. Renewable electricity provides possibilities to realize sustainable development goals, climate stabilization, job creation, a green economy, and energy security with careful planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of electric vehicles (EVs), a large number of electric vehicle charging stations (CSs) have been rapidly rolled out to meet the charging demand of EVs. However, high construction costs and long payback periods motivate investigations to improve the profits of CSs. Considering the profit improvement of CSs and carbon emission reductions, this paper first proposes a carbon revenue model for CSs to participate in the carbon trading market. A charging price strategy is proposed to share the carbon revenue with EV users to reduce the charging cost of users, increase the charging income of CSs, and reduce carbon emissions. By describing the EV users' response to the charging price based on the fuzzy theory, this paper establishes the charging behavior model of EV users and solves the profit optimization of the dynamic charging price model by particle swarm optimization algorithm. Finally, the results of the simulation case demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. A sensitivity analysis of various grid power purchase prices illustrates the difference between the fixed and dynamic charging price methods. The dynamic charging price method is superior, and under the power purchase price of 0.5 yuan/kWh, it can lower EV user charging costs by 16.25%, improve CS profits by 30.09%, and reduce carbon emissions by 74.68%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to optimise fleet management for companies that utilise both internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and electric vehicles by considering various costs, including fixed costs, variable costs, time window penalty costs, fuel costs, and electricity consumption costs. Additionally, the study examines the influence of four types of regulations, i.e. carbon cap, carbon tax, carbon trading, and carbon offsetting, on carbon emissions and fleet configuration. The optimisation model was solved using a Clarke-Wright savings heuristic algorithm followed by an improved adaptive genetic algorithm (IAGA), and a sensitivity analysis was conducted under different regulatory policies. The results show that all four types of regulations can effectively reduce fleet emissions. While carbon prices have a greater impact on carbon regulations than carbon quota, carbon trading was more effective under similar circumstances. Therefore, governments should implement appropriate regulatory strategies to reduce energy consumption and encourage enterprises to reduce their emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated energy system is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. To further exploit the carbon reduction potentials of IESs, an optimal dispatch strategy that considers integrated demand response and stepped carbon trading is proposed. First, an integrated demand response (IDR) pricing approach is proposed based on the characteristics of different load types. Classify multi-energy loads into curtailable and substitutable loads, and incentivize both loads through a price elasticity matrix and low-price energy in the same period. Then, to better incentivize IESs to reduce carbon emissions, a stepped pricing mechanism was introduced in the carbon price. Finally, an optimal dispatch model is developed with an objective function that minimizes the sum of energy purchase cost, carbon trading cost, and operation and maintenance (O&M) cost. Considering the high-dimensional and non-linear characteristics of the model, an improved differential evolution (DE) algorithm is introduced in this paper. In addition, this paper also analyzes the effects of the stepped carbon trading parameters on the optimal dispatching results of the system in terms of carbon trading base price, carbon emission interval length, and carbon price growth rate. Compared to the case of adopting a single IDR model or a single stepped carbon trading, carbon emissions from the IESs decreased by 6.28% and 3.24%, respectively, while total operating costs decreased by 1.24% and 0.92%, The results show that the model proposed in this paper has good environmental and economic benefits, and the reasonable setting of stepped carbon trading parameters can effectively promote the low-carbon development of IESs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is planning to introduce carbon tax policy to control the carbon emissions of the country better and achieve the "3060 goals", but there is still widespread discussion about how to introduce it and how to combine it with cap and trade. China has already established a national carbon emission trading market; however, there is also disagreement on whether to impose the carbon tax on companies and projects that have been included in scope of cap and trade. This paper adopts the research method of experimental economics to study the effect on social economy and social emission reduction under cap and trade, carbon tax, and carbon tax-carbon trading policies, and analyzes average prices of carbon market under cap and trade and carbon tax-carbon trading policies. The study finds that under the carbon tax-carbon trading policy, carbon emissions cannot be reduced significantly; but the profits of manufacturers will be reduced significantly; meanwhile, this reduction effect is even more severe for high consumption manufacturers; and it will be resulting in a lower average carbon market price under the carbon tax-carbon trading policies than under the cap and trade policy. This paper will provide theoretical suggestions for introducing carbon tax policy into China in the future and make policy recommendations for the better development of China's carbon market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major environmental concern today is the carbon emissions caused by rapid urbanization. As the largest developing country and carbon emitter, China has controlled the urban growth boundary (UGB) as a quasi-experimental policy to achieve carbon neutrality. Therefore, this paper employs the difference in differences (DID) method, for panel data from 2000 to 2019 in China to shed light on the effects on carbon emissions. Results show that the UGB can reduce carbon emissions considerably. After the implementation of the policy, the carbon emissions of the pilot cities decreased by 23.91%. Additionally, a series of robustness tests such as PSM-DID and Placebo tests support the conclusions. Moreover, the greater influence is reflected in the scope of the whole city and the intensity of the permanent plan. The UGB is more susceptible to cities in the central and western areas and cities with weak environmental regulations. Through the mechanism tests, the emission reduction effect of the UGB will be greater in cities with larger vegetation coverage and advanced industry structure. Furthermore, our analysis suggests the UGB needs to be adequately promoted as a policy to achieve carbon neutrality in cities. To make the policy more effective, vegetation cover and industrial structure ought to be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

Carbon emission trading has been actively applied in many countries, and its operational effect has received widespread attention. However, previous studies mostly focused on single environmental effect, and the investigation of the comprehensive environmental effect needs to be further supplemented. Based on this, this paper explores the comprehensive environmental effect of carbon emission trading with eco-efficiency as the starting point. First, this paper measures eco-efficiency using the super-efficient minimum distance to strong efficient frontier (MinDS) model with undesirable outputs. Second, this paper uses the propensity score matching difference in difference (PSM-DID) model to quantify the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. Finally, this paper examines the mediating mechanism of the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency based on the mediating effect model. The results show that carbon emission trading can improve the level of urban eco-efficiency. Energy savings and increased efficiency effectively mediate the promoting effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. The mediating push effect of R&D innovation and industrial structure restructuring has not yet appeared. This paper can not only provide policy basis for the improvement of carbon emission trading market but also provide reference for the construction of carbon emission trading market in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the utilization of biomass through advanced power technologies has intensified to achieve carbon neutrality. An oxy-fuel circulating fluidized bed combustor of biomass with higher efficiency supercritical carbon dioxide cycle has been developed with the aim of compensating the penalties for carbon capture and storage. The combustor fuelled with waste paper, waste wood, and cow manure, at an input of 200 ton/day is economically evaluated. Waste paper is on the verge of becoming an economically feasible fuel, more so than the other biomass examined. The use of waste paper led to a positive net present value, an internal rate of return of 3.8%, a benefit-cost ratio of 1.025, and a payback period of 17.7 years. Subsequent sensitivity analyses conducted for the waste paper fuelled power plant indicated that the capital cost is the most influential factor; the boiler, supercritical carbon dioxide cycle, and oxygen fuel combustion system were indicated in descending order of related subdivided sensitiveness. Both renewable energy certificate and carbon credit has contributed to the feasible economic of the system, with former one took precedence over later one. Sensitivity from the technical perspective, improvement in air separation unit is likely to greatly improve the economic feasibility of the proposed system. The power consumption of the air separation unit, as well as that of the carbon dioxide compression and purification unit, were highly sensitive to the implementation cost. [Display omitted] • Integration of oxygen combustion and supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle. • Economic feasibility study of integrated biomass circulating fluidized bed. • Capital cost demonstrated the foremost sensitivity factor. • Waste paper as potential economically feasible fuel. • Innovation in air separation unit improves economic feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shadow price of carbon emissions can measure the marginal output effect under the carbon emission regulation and is also one of the key indicators to construct a low-carbon development path for production units. Currently, international research on shadow price is focused on the industrial and energy sectors. However, in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets in China, the use of shadow price to study the cost of reducing emissions from agricultural production, especially forestry fruit industries, is significant. In this paper, we use a parametric approach to construct the quadratic ambient directional distance function. Using the input–output data of peach, we then calculate the environmental technical efficiency and shadow price of carbon emissions from peach production in Guangxi, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Sichuan provinces, and further estimate the values of green output in each province. The results show that (i) the environmental technology efficiency of peach production in Jiangsu province, located in the coastal plain area of eastern China, is the highest among the four provinces, while that in Guangxi province, located in the hilly area of southeast China, is the lowest. (ii) Guangxi province has the smallest carbon shadow price of peach production among the four provinces, while Sichuan province, located in the mountainous area of southwest China, has the largest. (iii) The green output value of the peach production in Jiangsu province is the highest among the four provinces, and that in Guangxi province is the lowest. In order to effectively reduce carbon emissions in peach production without affecting economic benefits, the paper puts forward the following suggestions: for peach-producing areas in the southeast hills of China, it is necessary to increase the application of green environmental technology while reducing the input of production factors in peach production. For peach-producing areas in the northern plains of China, the input of production factors should be reduced. It is not easy for peach-producing areas in the southwest mountains of China to reduce the input of production factors while increasing the application of green technologies. Finally, for peach-producing areas in China's eastern coastal plain, the implementation of environmental regulations for peach production should be gradual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a power quality analysis for multiple electric vehicle charging stations of the AC-Level 2 type in a real-life case study. The data was collected with a power quality analyzer that measured the main distribution system feeding nine 7 kW charging stations in a commercial site with light-duty vehicles in Malta, Europe. The relevance of this study to the specific case of Malta is accentuated by the topological challenges of the country; high density of road vehicles, with 18,000 vehicles for each square kilometer; and ambitious targets of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Data were collected over six days on an actual charging system with real-life charging patterns. Various results are presented in this paper, including three-phase system voltages and currents, individual harmonic voltage and current components, total harmonic distortion and total current demand distortion. These measurements were compared with standardized thresholds for low-voltage equipment used in public spaces, mainly as stated in IEEE 519-2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major part of global development governance, G20 countries account for 80% of global carbon emissions. In order to achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality" proposed by the United Nations, it is important to compare and analyze the drivers of carbon emissions in G20 countries and provide recommendations for their carbon emission reduction. Based on the data of 17 G20 countries in the EORA database, this paper compares the drivers of carbon emissions of each country from 1990-2021 using weighted average structural decomposition and K-mean model. This paper focuses on four drivers, including carbon emission intensity, final demand structure, export structure, and production structure. Carbon emission intensity and final demand structure are the main factors of carbon emission reduction, and the other two factors have little influence. Among the G20 countries, the UK is in the first category because it does the best job on the four factors of carbon emissions, yet Italy is in the last category because it does not take full advantage of the four factors. Therefore, improving supply energy efficiency and adjusting demand, export, and industrial structure have become important tools for countries to transform and achieve carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of urbanization and industrialization, carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions have become common sustainability goals worldwide. However, there are few literature statistics and econometric analyses targeting carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions, especially the publication trends, geographic distribution, citation literature, and research hotspots. To conduct an in-depth analysis of existing research fields and future perspectives in this research area, 1615 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection, between 2010 and 2020, were evaluated by using three analysis tools, under the framework of the bibliometrics method. These publications are distributed between the start-up (2010–2015) and the stable development (2016–2020) phases. Cluster analysis suggests three areas of ongoing research: energy-related carbon emissions, methane emissions, and energy biomass. Overall, future trends in this field include cumulative carbon emissions, the residential building sector, methane emission measurement, nitrogen fertilization, land degradation neutrality, and sciamachy satellite methane measurement. Finally, this paper further examines the most comprehensive coverage of nitrogen fertilization and the most recent research of the residential building sector. In view of the statistical clusters from 1615 publications, this paper provides new insights and perspectives for climate-environment-related researchers and policymakers. Specifically, countries could apply nitrogen fertilizer to crops according to the conditions of different regions. Additionally, experiences from developed countries could be learned from, including optimizing the energy supply structure of buildings and increasing the use of clean energy to reduce CO2 emissions from buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial impact effects and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the digital economy on urban carbon emissions (CO2). Specifically, firstly, the Digital Economy Index (DEI) system of 285 cities in China was constructed and the Global Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) was applied to evaluate the digital economy level of Chinese cities. Based on spatial correlation and spatial heterogeneity, the paper explores the global spatial impact and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the impact of digital economy on CO2 using spatial Durbin model (SDM) and geographic time-weighted regression (GTWR), respectively. And the mechanism variables are used to further demonstrate the mechanism effect and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of digital economy on CO2. The findings indicate that (1) the advancement of the digital economy is beneficial for achieving carbon abatement goals, and the impact of the digital economy on CO2 mitigation remains stable across several robustness tests. (2) The spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the impact of carbon reduction is not significant. And there is significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions. (3) According to the mechanism analysis, the digital economy reduces carbon emissions by encouraging the development of green technologies and promoting the modernization of industrial structures. And there are non-linear characteristics of this effect. This study concludes that the digital economy can support China's goal of achieving "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." However, it is important to consider the differences in urban development over time and space. Leveraging the city's strengths to develop a digital economy in a unique way that will help achieve China's carbon reduction goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is a requisite for industrial development in modern times. In this paper, we review information on possible applications of polymers from the energy crop Miscanthus in the global industries, and we highlight the life cycle aspects of Miscanthus in detail. We discuss the benefits of Miscanthus cultivation on unoccupied marginal lands as well as the rationale for the capabilities of Miscanthus regarding both soil carbon storage and soil remediation. We also discuss key trends in the processing of Miscanthus biopolymers for applications such as a fuel resources, as part of composite materials, and as feedstock for fractionation in order to extract cellulose, lignin, and other valuable chemicals (hydroxymethylfurfural, furfural, phenols) for the subsequent chemical synthesis of a variety of products. The potentialities of the biotechnological transformation of the Miscanthus biomass into carbohydrate nutrient media and then into the final products of microbiological synthesis are also examined herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the background of carbon neutrality targets, panel data of 30 Chinese provinces during 2000–2019 were selected in this paper to explore the nonlinear correlation mechanism among transportation, tourism development, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Firstly, by employing a fixed effects model as the base model, we confirmed the existence of correlations among these variables. And the nonlinear moderating effects were also verified by setting interaction terms in the model. Secondly, we further discussed the characteristics of the nonlinear relationship among the variables by employing a threshold effects model. Our results demonstrated that the effect of transportation on economic growth is positive and significant if and only if renewable energy consumption surpasses a certain threshold. Meanwhile, we also found that the effect of tourism development on economic growth is positive when non-renewable energy consumption is under a certain threshold. Finally, our study indicated that transportation maintains a positive and significant effect on economic growth within any threshold of tourism development, and the positive effect gradually increases as the threshold rises. The findings of this paper suggested that for China, the contribution of transportation and tourism to economic growth can be expanded by further expanding the substitution of renewable energy for non-renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Externalities influencing countries, such as wars tend to disrupt the regular economic and social processes. This paper analysis how a military conflict impacts the efforts of world acters in climate change and carbon neutrality. It focuses on armed conflict between Russian Federation and Ukraine, research the most recent available data and compare the emissions in given periods in order to provide and estimated impact of such events on climate efforts of countries directly and indirectly involved in conflict. Assumption, that crises directly lead to neglecting the climate goals and therefore an increase in GHG emissions is tested. Paper also analyzes the overall impact of war on GHG emissions, providing a overview of its severity. The results indicate that emissions on territory of countries directly involved in conflict tend to increase significantly, while change in emissions of external actors are insignificant. Results that would confirm or disprove the assumption of increased GHG emissions during crises are inconclusive and indicate a high subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing electric vehicle (EV) energy storage technology is a strategic position from which the automotive industry can achieve low-carbon growth, thereby promoting the green transformation of the energy industry in China. This paper will reveal the opportunities, challenges, and strategies in relation to developing EV energy storage. First, this paper clarifies the strategic value and potential of developing EV energy storage under the carbon neutrality goal. Second, this paper demonstrates strategic opportunities and challenges during the development. Third, this paper proposes methods for creating a good market environment and business models. Finally, this paper suggests that relevant policies and regulations should be formulated and charts the course of technology development. The results show that EV energy storage technology has potential in terms of technology, the scale of development, and the user economy. The proposal of the carbon neutrality goal, the increasing market share of EVs, lower-cost and higher-efficiency batteries, etc., have all further accelerated the development of EV energy storage. The EV energy storage field should focus on developing battery technology, make advancements toward delivering longer cycle lives and improving the safety and availability of battery materials, and ramp up the R&D efforts with respect to developing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) management technologies. Simultaneously, it is necessary to create a business ecosystem centered on V2G operating platforms, constituting a process to which various players can contribute and achieve mutually beneficial results. It is also essential to formulate top-level strategic plans across industries and organizations, develop an electricity-trading mechanism as soon as possible, and promote the implementation of technical standards related to EV energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest energy consumer, China's control of carbon emissions from energy consumption plays a pivotal role in world climate governance. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the emission reduction pathways that promote a high level of synergy between China's economic growth and the " carbon peaking and carbon neutrality " goal from the perspective of energy consumption. Based on the measurement of energy consumption carbon emissions, this paper reveals the spatial and temporal distribution and evolution trends of carbon emissions in China at the national-provincial level. The multi-dimensional socio-economic factors such as R&D and urbanization are taken into account, and the LMDI model is used to decompose the driving effects of energy consumption carbon emissions at the national-provincial levels. Further, this paper combines the Tapio decoupling index with the LMDI model to decompose the decoupling states of China year by year and at the provincial level in four periods to explore the reasons for the change of carbon decoupling states. The results show that: (1) China's energy consumption carbon emissions grew at a high rate before 2013, and slowed down after that. There are significant differences in the scale and growth rate of carbon emissions among provinces, which can be classified into four types accordingly. (2) The R&D scale effect, urbanization effect, and population scale effect are the factors driving the growth of China's carbon emissions; while the energy structure effect, energy consumption industry structure effect, energy intensity effect, and R&D efficiency effect inhibit the growth of China's carbon emissions. (3) Weak decoupling is the most dominant decoupling state in China from 2003 to 2020, and the decoupling state varies significantly among provinces. According to the conclusions, this paper proposes targeted policy recommendations based on China's energy endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a novel stress measurement system of carbon market from the perspective of trading, emission reduction, and external shocks and simulates the stress indices of national and pilot carbon markets of China with the methods of functional data analysis and criteria importance through intercriteria correlation. It concludes that the overall carbon market stress is in the shape of "W" and still at a high level, with frequent fluctuations and an upward trend. In addition, the stress of Hubei, Beijing, and Shanghai carbon market fluctuates and rises, while the stress of Guangdong carbon market decreases. Moreover, carbon market stress mainly comes from trading and emission reduction. Furthermore, stress fluctuation of Guangdong and Beijing carbon market is more prone to "big waves," indicating that the two markets are sensitive to big events. Finally, the pilot carbon markets are divided into stress-driven and stress-release market and the type of which keeps change in different period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon trading is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. It is a market mechanism aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide emissions. Blockchain technology can be applied to the carbon-trading scenario using characteristics that guarantee the security, decentralization, data immutability, and data traceability of the carbon-trading process. It would be difficult to implement carbon trading on blockchains for all enterprises and individuals, as the current performance of blockchains does not meet the requirements. There has been extensive research conducted on blockchain performance optimization, and the off-chain payment channel is one of the more mature solutions. This approach involves the transfer of transactions to off-chain transactions, thus avoiding high transaction fees. Existing research has addressed the problem of routing security and efficiency, with less emphasis on factors such as routing transaction costs, node reputation, and routing path considerations. This paper researches the optimization of payment routing in Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) and proposes the Multi-Factor Routing Payment Scheme (MFPS), which integrates factors such as the node reputation, transaction fee cost, and distance to select the route for payment transactions. In order to improve the success ratio of routing transactions, the transaction-splitting algorithm is proposed. To ensure the security and privacy of the transaction process, the Asymmetric Time-Lock Contract (ATLC) protocol is proposed. The results of extensive experimental simulations show that the MFPS proposed in this paper outperforms the ShortestPath, Cheapest, and SplitDistance algorithms. It achieves an approximately 13.8%∼49% improvement in the transaction success ratio and reduces the average transaction processing cost. The security and privacy measures can defend against wormhole and double-flower attacks and exhibit better performance in terms of computational verification and message overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renewable energy+energy storage model has an important role to play in achieving China's proposal of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal. In order to study the development mechanism of renewable energy+storage cooperation with government participation, this paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model among government, renewable energy generators, and energy storage service suppliers, based on the data of a renewable energy+storage project in a Chinese province. In this paper, we analyze the game process and the factors affecting the behavioral strategies of the three parties through numerical simulation. The study shows that the government regulation has a positive effect on the cooperative development of renewable energy+energy storage, and it can effectively restrain the wasteful phenomenon of renewable energy generation by means of punishment and improve the operating income of cooperative projects by means of subsidies, which can help the enterprises to broaden the application scenarios of energy storage. The government can effectively promote the improvement of renewable energy+energy storage cooperation mechanism by formulating regulatory mechanism, controlling the cost of supervision, and dynamically adjusting the intensity of supervision. Therefore, the research in this paper not only enriches the research related to renewable energy+energy storage mode but also provides valuable reference for the government to formulate regulatory policies related to renewable energy+energy storage. [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]

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of the total global direct and indirect CO2 emissions. Urban green infrastructure, which includes features such as urban trees, vegetation, green roofs, and green facades, are examples of nature-based solutions often employed as municipal climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. This approach offers a range of cost-effective strategies for reducing municipal CO2 emissions and presents compelling public policy co-benefits such as improved urban livability and enhanced environmental conditions. For municipalities to confidently deploy these solutions at a scale necessary to achieve climate benefits, acquiring knowledge of quantifiable and demonstrated outcomes is an essential requirement. The objectives of this paper are to (1) provide a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and limitations of nature-based solutions (NBS) to address the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions; (2) evaluate existing design guidelines and policies as may be available across Canada, and that that support the of implementation of NBS in urban agglomerations; (3) identify knowledge gaps and research needs to address challenges to the implementation of NBS. In this review, suggestions and requirements as presented in these documents are examined while giving due consideration to the scientific evidence available in research papers. It was found that the adoption of NBS can contribute to carbon neutral communities through reduced building energy consumption and carbon sequestration. Supportive guidelines and policies have been developed, or are in development, to promote the implementation of NBS at the city scale, despite challenges in assessing, quantitatively, their impact due to uncertainties in data, methods, and scale. Nonetheless, existing research provides sufficient evidence to qualify the measures and suggestions outlined in the guidelines and policies described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, human activities have caused the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide, which has severely impacted the Earth's ecosystem and human health. Therefore, carbon reduction has become the focus of global attention. In this study, the Zhouyuan region of China, which is rich in ancient remains, is taken as an example. Based on the land use characteristics in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, the spatial-temporal evolution of land use and carbon storage in the Zhouyuan region is simulated using four methods, including land use classification, land use transfer maps, patch-level land-use simulation (PLUS), and the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) models under three scenarios, including the natural development scenario, urban development priority, and heritage conservation priority in 2030. According to the results, the carbon storage in the area in 2030 under all three scenario simulations has decreased compared with 2020, indicating that the region faces great challenges in achieving its targets of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. The paper points out four causes for the decrease in carbon storage, and five suggestions for increasing carbon storage are proposed, such as developing a carbon storage master plan, applying energy-saving technologies, establishing an ecological substitution mechanism, and so on. Through the study of carbon storage in the Zhouyuan region, this paper hopes to establish a mechanism to balance urban development, heritage conservation, and carbon sinks on the one hand, and encourage more scholars to participate in the study of carbon sinks in areas rich in ancient remains, so as to to jointly promote their healthy development on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing technology is favored by users because of its strong computing power and convenient services. At the same time, scheduling performance has an extremely efficient impact on promoting carbon neutrality. Currently, scheduling research in the multi-cloud environment aims to address the challenges brought by business demands to cloud data centers during peak hours. Therefore, the scheduling problem has promising application prospects under the multi-cloud environment. This paper points out that the currently studied scheduling problems in the multi-cloud environment mainly include independent task scheduling and workflow task scheduling based on the dependencies between tasks. This paper reviews the concepts, types, objectives, advantages, challenges, and research status of task scheduling in the multi-cloud environment. Task scheduling strategies proposed in the existing related references are analyzed, discussed, and summarized, including research motivation, optimization algorithm, and related objectives. Finally, the research status of the two kinds of task scheduling is compared, and several future important research directions of multi-cloud task scheduling are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon policies are essential for facilitating manufacturing industries' low-carbon transformation and achieving carbon neutrality in China. However, recent studies usually apply proxy variables to quantify policies, while composite indices of policy intensity measured by objectives and instruments focus more on the national level. It is deficient in direct and comprehensive quantification for low-carbon policies. Hence, having extended the meaning of policy intensity, this paper constructs a low-carbon policy intensity index quantified by policy level, objective and instrument via phrase-oriented NLP algorithm and text-based prompt learning. This process is based on the low-carbon policy inventory we built for China's manufacturing industries containing 7282 national-, provincial- and prefecture-level policies over 2007–2022. Lastly, we organize the dataset in two formats (.dta and.xlsx) for multidiscipline researchers. Apart from the inventory and intensity for each policy, the policy intensity is also aggregated to national-, provincial- and prefecture-level with sub-intensity for four objectives and three instruments. This dataset has potential uses for future studies by merging with macro and micro data related to low-carbon performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve the ambitious goal of "carbon neutrality", countries around the world are striving to develop clean energy. Against this background, this paper takes China and Italy as representatives of developing and developed countries to summarize the energy structure composition and development overview of the two countries. The paper analyzes the serious challenges facing the future energy development of both countries and investigates the possibilities of energy cooperation between the two countries, taking into account their respective advantages in energy development. By comparing the policies issued by the two governments to encourage clean energy development, this paper analyzes the severe challenges faced by the two countries' energy development in the future and combines their respective energy development advantages to look forward to the possibility of energy cooperation between the two countries in the future. This lays the foundation for China and Italy to build an "Energy Road" after the "Silk Road". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the intelligent energy management of the complex ship energy system, achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal and reduce the ship carbon emissions and ship operating costs, this paper proposes a distributed energy management method for ships entering and leaving ports based on polymorphic network considering computing power resources. Firstly, a polymorphic network-based energy management system for ships entering and leaving ports is proposed to enhance the information exchange between ship computing power, power and port power, simultaneously improve the communication quality and communication security among different modes. Secondly, in order to reduce the ship operating costs and port carbon emissions, the energy management model of ships entering and leaving ports is constructed considering computing power resources. Then, according to the ship's berthing and departing operation modes, this paper uses the distributed algorithm to solve the energy management problem, and explores the impact on the ship microgrid when the ship's data load changes. Finally, simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable implementation of resources and the transition to low-carbon construction is on the world's daily agenda. This paper describes the development of criteria for the efficient management of material resources in low-carbon construction. Net income, gross profit, balance sheets, and equity are proposed as indicators that serve as criteria for assessing the efficient use of resources. Nonlinear regression models were the methodological basis for the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships of the volume of construction of transport structures. It was established that since construction companies do not purchase materials for storage, the cost of materials for use in low-carbon technological construction work is directly proportional to the cost of construction. The volume of production in the construction industry is determined by construction costs. More efficient use of low-carbon materials reduces cost and construction waste. In this paper, we have established the relationship between the indicator of efficiency for the functioning of the construction enterprises in Ukraine and the use of low-carbon materials for the construction of transport structures. The practical value of the obtained results for low-carbon construction management lies in proving the relationship between the performance indicators of the construction enterprise (net profit, gross profit, output volume, balance sheets, and equity capital) and the use of low-carbon material resources. Our results form the basis for future research into the use of a cost-based model for low-carbon economy transition in municipalities and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To combat the industry's contributions to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a rapidly increasing number of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are making corporate climate pledges. The broader literature has shown that corporate carbon disclosures may correspond to measurable and statistically significant corporate emissions reductions. However, the literature has not yet targeted climate pledges in the AEC industry, making this a practically important topic for research. This paper documents the publicly available climate pledges made by the 100 largest civil design firms and the 100 largest contractors, in terms of 2020 revenue, to gauge their sustainability efforts. The authors describe corporate climate pledge attributes such as company climate targets, use of carbon credits, and reported Scope coverage (greenhouse gas emissions). As of February 2023, 42 design firms and 22 contractors had a formal climate commitment, including 7 duplicates (i.e., companies on both contractor and design firm lists). Although several companies have developed specific targets and reporting mechanisms, overall climate commitments vary due to differing company disclosures (e.g., different levels of Scope reporting) and the novelty of some companies' climate pledges. Similarly, there is a lack of standardization for defining and using climate pledge targets (e.g., net zero and carbon neutral classifications). This paper provides a framework for improving climate commitment accounting for the AEC industry, with an explicit focus on AEC industry relevant GHG emissions accounting. This research makes a significant practical contribution to enabling AEC firms to leverage sector experience as they adopt and strengthen corporate climate pledges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the shortage of traditional energy and the increasingly serious environmental problems, this paper proposes a bi-level optimization configuration method for microgrids based on stepped carbon trading and price-based demand response. The stepped carbon trading mechanism is introduced into the planning model to clarify the impact of construction processes on land carbon emissions. Simultaneously, price-based demand response during system operation is introduced, guiding users to change the electricity consumption strategies to promote the consumption of renewable energy. Then, a bi-level optimal configuration framework is constructed. The upper level is optimized to allocate the capacity of the microgrid, with the lowest annual equivalent comprehensive cost as the objective function. The lower level is optimized for microgrid operation, with the minimum sum of the microgrid operation cost and carbon emission cost as the objective function. In view of the advantages of enhanced whale optimization algorithm (E-WOA) in solving multidimensional feature selection problems, E-WOA and CPLEX solver are combined to solve the bi-level optimization model for the first time. Simulation results show that after introducing a stepped carbon trading mechanism, the system carbon emissions decreased by 23.09%. Considering price-based demand response under the premise of introducing a stepped carbon trading mechanism, the total cost decreased by 3.57% and the carbon emissions decreased by 19.83%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to explore the influential factors that promote and impede Chinese customers' adoption intention of electric vehicles (EVs). An extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was developed to gauge customers' willingness to adopt EVs. 348 responses and structural equation modelling were employed for analysis. This paper contributes to this research area mainly through two aspects: First of all, it provides more robust evidence of the positive moderating effects on price value since few research studies on it. Secondly, the positive moderating effects of facilitating conditions between perceived risk and adoption intention of EVs were found for the first time, which fills the gap in this research area. Except these, the results also showed that performance expectations, social influence, and price value positively influence EV adoption intention, while perceived risk has a negative impact. Additionally, age and gender were found to significantly moderate adoption intention. These findings offer insights for policymakers to craft more effective policies, ultimately advancing sustainability and accelerating the achievement of long-term carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, this paper critically assesses the potential distortions and efficacy of various revenue-neutral carbon emission trading schemes (ETSs) in China, through government subsidies and value-added tax (VAT) relief strategies aimed at achieving peak carbon emissions before 2030. The analysis reveals that reallocating market revenues to the production sector, either through government subsidies or VAT reductions, can feasibly attain carbon peaking before 2030, with minimal impact on GDP. Notably, both government subsidies and VAT cuts foster output growth in the oil, gas, and ETS-covered sectors. Moreover, directing carbon market revenue toward ETS-covered industries via VAT relief emerges as the most effective approach to reducing income disparities. In contrast, redistributing carbon market revenue to non-ETS-covered industries via VAT relief is found to be the least effective in promoting social equity. The study emphasizes that the reallocation of carbon market revenues to ETS-covered sectors is paramount. This strategy not only regulates the overall energy consumption effectively but also steers the nation towards a more sustainable and optimized energy consumption pattern. In light of these findings, this paper offers detailed insights and tailored policy recommendations, aiming to assist policymakers in striking a balance between environmental goals and economic and social imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] Carbon dioxide (CO2) displacement and storage are the most viable technologies for achieving carbon neutralization and enhancing low-permeability reservoir recovery. The current research focused on the evaluation of CO2 storage capacity and mechanism under different geological conditions but ignored the problem of CO2 storage time being too long. When CO2 was injected into the stratum for geological burial, it mainly existed in the form of geological structure burial in the initial stage of injection (within several decades), and the safety was relatively low. In the middle stage of injection (within 100 years), it changed from geological structure burial to bound storage and gradually to dissolved storage, and the safety was relatively good at this time. In the later stage of injection (thousands of years), the storage forms were mainly dissolved storage and mineralized storage, and the safety was the highest. Therefore, through laboratory experiments, studying how to improve CO2 mineralization and storage speed and shorten the CO2 storage time using chemical agents is of great significance. [Methods] Based on the actual CO2 storage technology in reservoirs, a CO2 storage experimental device under formation temperature and pressure conditions was independently built, and multimedia-assisted CO2 storage experimental research was conducted. The precipitation of potassium carbonate through the utilization of the ethanol + KOH solution system enabled CO2 capture and carbonization. The reaction process in the solution system was affected by the ethanol concentration, resulting in different CO2 carbonization amounts with the change in the ethanol concentration. Simultaneously, the precipitation-generated potassium-based acid salt could undergo a reaction with water to facilitate ethanol regeneration. This paper utilized experimental methods to investigate the CO2 capture efficiency of the ethanol + KOH system, real-time monitoring of ethanol content in the solution, and identification of the optimal ethanol concentration for the formation temperature. The solution was supplemented with KOH, followed by the utilization of regenerated ethanol from the solution's carbonization reaction for subsequent carbonization, enabling the determination of the maximum CO2 capture capacity of the ethanol + KOH system. The CO2 burial experiment was conducted using a high-temperature and high-pressure core displacement device after injecting the ethanol + KOH solution. The characteristics of CO2 mineralization under different permeability/porosity conditions were discussed. [Results] The research results indicated that the 96% ethanol + 3-g KOH solution demonstrated effective CO2 capture, resulting in an average precipitation of 4.56 g per capture. Simultaneously, following the saturation of the core with the 96% ethanol + 3-g KOH solution, CO2 injection was conducted to induce sediment formation, resulting in a reduction in core permeability of approximately 16.01%. After CO2 mineralization and burial, the average porosity of the low-permeability core decreased by 7.07%, and the porosity change rate was positively correlated with porosity. The results of the CO2 storage experiment indicated that after the action of the 96% ethanol + 3-g KOH solution, CO2 could be effectively captured in the form of precipitates in the reservoir, with the largest degree of capture in medium to large pores. Compared with formation water, the composite solution studied in this paper can improve the CO2 storage efficiency by 30%. The 96% ethanol + 3-g KOH solution can accelerate the CO2 precipitation process in the reservoir and shorten the mineralization and storage time of CO2 in the reservoir. [Conclusions] This study proposed a new method to increase CO2 storage capacity by injecting a KOH + ethanol solution into a formation to improve CO2 mineralization and storage efficiency. Moreover, it realized the effective integration of the chemical industry and petroleum engineering disciplines and provided a new research approach for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]