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Sustainable development has become society's focal point. In this context, China's paper industry needs to be more concerned about a low‐carbon strategy. Therefore, a carbon performance evaluation system must be built to guide the low‐carbon enterprise transformation. Based on the carbon value flow analysis, this study takes JX Paper (a paper‐making enterprise) as an example to construct a carbon performance evaluation system consisting of carbon input, transfer, and output indicators. The quantitative and qualitative index weights were determined through a principal component analysis and an analytical hierarchy process. The overall carbon performance increased from 2012 to 2021, but room remains for improvement. These results show that the performance evaluation system provides a helpful reference for enterprises to identify the key factors affecting carbon emissions and evaluate their carbon performance. Moreover, objective criteria should be developed to improve sustainable enterprise carbon performance and low‐carbon competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper calculates carbon emissions, and analyses relationship among economic growth, industrial structure, energy structure and carbon emissions using environmental quality equation based on the terminal energy consumption data in 1990-2017 based on Shanxi province in China. The results show that economic development is the main positive driving factor of carbon emissions, industrial structure has an inverted u-shaped curve related with the carbon emissions and there is not a high linear correlation between energy structure and carbon emissions. Finally, some suggestions are proposed to reduce carbon emissions. The energy-intensive provinces should adjust industrial structure and pay more attention to the improvement of technologies, at the same time, should keep the population rate not increasing rapidly and energy structure not degenerating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power sector is one of the major CO2-emitting industries in China. It is also the first key emissions control industry included in China's national carbon trading market established in 2021. Therefore, based on the data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2015 to 2022, this study analyzes the impact of the national carbon market policy on the carbon emissions of the power industry based on the generalized Difference-in-Difference (DID) model. Based on the method of text analysis, this paper constructs the carbon market policy intensity index of each region and incorporates it into the DID model. Empirical analysis finds that the national carbon market policy can significantly inhibit the carbon emissions of the power industry. However, the heterogeneity analysis of 30 provinces and cities shows that the national carbon market policy has a significant impact on the regions that already have a carbon pilot, but not on the non-pilot regions. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the national carbon market policy in the power industry emissions control, and also exposes the heterogeneity between regions, providing an important empirical basis for the inclusion of other energy-intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how National Eco-industrial Demonstration Parks (NEDP) in China affects carbon emission efficiency. The difference-in-differences (DID) strategy is used for analysis. This paper finds that the construction of NEDP is conducive to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency, and the findings remain robust through placebo tests and propensity score matching. Heterogeneity analysis shows NEDP construction has greater utility on carbon efficiency in non-resource-based cities as well as in environmentally friendly cities. The mechanism analysis found that green technology innovation, industrial restructuring, and the relocation of industrial enterprises are effective ways to improve carbon efficiency in NEDP. Finally, this paper finds that the construction of NEDP has obvious spatial spillover effects on carbon efficiency, which can effectively heighten the carbon efficiency level of this locality and nearby areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The research objective of this paper is to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of green finance on agricultural carbon total factor productivity (ACTFP) within the framework of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (dual carbon) goals, while also identifying the driving factors through an exponential decomposition of ACTFP, aiming to provide policy recommendations to enhance financial support for low-carbon agricultural development. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the Global Malmquist Luenberger (GML) Index method was employed to analyze and decompose the ACTFP, while the direct and spillover effects of China's green finance pilot policy (GFPP) on ACTFP were assessed using the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the spatial differences-in-differences (SDID) method, respectively. Findings: After the implementation of the GFPP, the ACTFP in the pilot area has experienced significant improvement, with the enhancement of technical efficiency serving as the main driving force. In addition, the GFPP exhibits a positive low-carbon spatial spillover effect, indicating it benefits ACTFP in both the pilot and adjacent areas. Originality/value: Within the framework of the dual carbon goals, the paper highlights agriculture as a significant carbon emitter. ACTFP is assessed by considering the agricultural carbon emission factor as the sole non-desired output, and the impact of the GFPP on ACTFP is investigated through the DID method, thereby providing substantial validation of the hypotheses inferred from the mathematical model. Subsequently, the spillover effects of GFPP on ACTFP are analyzed in conjunction with the spatial econometric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the issue of global climate change caused by carbon emissions is of great concern, China has proposed achieving its achieve carbon peak goal by 2030. Building carbon emissions account for approximately 50% of China's total carbon emissions. It is crucial to study the time and values of building carbon peaks. In this paper, based on a system dynamics model, logarithmic mean Divisia index model and Monte Carlo simulation, we predict the building carbon peak in China. The following conclusions are obtained: 1) in the baseline scenario, China's building carbon emissions will peak at 5,427 million tons in 2027. In the high-speed development scenario, China's building carbon emissions will peak at 6,298 million tons in 2032. In the coordinated development scenario, the green development scenario, the low-carbon development scenario, and the low-speed development scenario, the peak occurs in 2030 at 5,972 million tons, 5,991 million tons, 5,657 million tons, and 6,329 million tons, respectively. 2) According to the comprehensive simulation, China's building carbon emissions will reach the peak in 2030, with an 80% probability of reaching 5,729–6,171 million tons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of global climate change, corporate carbon emissions have increasingly become a focal point, making carbon reduction by companies a pivotal issue. Based on data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2020, this paper explores the impact of ESG performance on carbon reduction. The results indicate that ESG performance significantly reduce corporate carbon emissions. Green technology innovation, corporate efficiency, and managerial shortsightedness are vital channels through which ESG promotes corporate carbon reduction. For companies with different environmental regulations, industry competition intensities, and capital intensities, the relationship between ESG performance and carbon reduction varies significantly. Notably, we found that in companies with strict environmental regulations, intense industry competition, and high capital intensity, the carbon-reducing effect of ESG performance is more pronounced. Furthermore, digital transformation positively moderates the relationship between ESG performance and carbon reduction. This study not only provides new empirical evidence for understanding the impact of ESG performance on carbon reduction but also offers valuable insights for businesses and policymakers to promote corporate efforts in carbon reduction and achieve China's "Dual Carbon" goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with climate change, China commits that it will strive to achieve carbon peaking by 2030. Using the Cointegration model and the Markov Chain model, this paper forecasts China's carbon emissions during 2019–2030 in six scenarios, and assesses the contribution of optimizing the energy mix to China's carbon peaking. The research obtains three main conclusions. Firstly, optimizing the energy mix will contribute to achieving China's carbon peaking. In the economic slow-growth scenario, taking China's planned target of energy mix (PTEM) into account, the carbon peaking year will be brought forward from 2028 to 2023. In the economic medium-speed-growth scenario, optimizing the energy mix will make China achieve carbon peaking in 2028. Without considering the PTEM, however, the carbon emissions will not peak before 2030. In the economic fast-growth scenario, the peaking year will not occur whether considering the PTEM or not, but the growth rate of carbon emissions with the PTEM will be far lower than that without considering the PTEM. Secondly, in all three economic growth scenarios, optimizing the energy mix will largely reduce the growth rate of carbon emissions, and thus significantly reduce the peak value of carbon emissions. Thirdly, optimizing the energy mix has a negative adjusting effect on the impact of economic growth on the growth rate of carbon emissions, and the negative effect rise as the economic growth rate increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission intensity is an important index reflecting an entity's low-carbon competitiveness. This paper presents an extended logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) model to dissect carbon intensity within China's civil aviation from 1998 to 2019, revealing a significant reduction in CO2 emissions per air transport revenue. It attributes this decrease to technological advancements, optimized fleet structures, and improved operational efficiencies, highlighting the impact of larger, more efficient aircraft and enhanced load factors. The study also explores economic factors influencing carbon efficiency, suggesting a comprehensive approach encompassing technological innovation and strategic operational improvements for sustainable aviation development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of globalization has separated the production and consumption of products spatially, and the international trade of products has become a carrier of embodied carbon trade. This paper adopted the perspective of value-added trade to calculate the amount of embodied carbon trade of China from 2006 to 2015 and perform a structural decomposition analysis of the changes in China's embodied carbon trade. This study found that: (1) China's embodied carbon exports are much larger than its embodied carbon imports, and there are differences between countries. China imported the largest amount of embodied carbon from South Korea, and it exported the largest amount of embodied carbon to the United States. (2) The structural decomposition analysis shows that changes in the value-added carbon emission coefficient during the study period would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to decrease, and changes in value-added trade would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to increase. Therefore, countries trading with China need to strengthen their cooperation with China in energy conservation, emission reduction, and product trade. In order to accurately reflect China's embodied carbon trade, it is necessary to calculate embodied carbon trade from the perspective of value-added trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional trade leads to carbon transfer, which in turn raises the issue of carbon inequality. However, less existing research has focused on carbon inequality within megaregions. Combining multi-regional input-output analysis, carbon Gini coefficients and carbon deviation coefficients, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of carbon equity in inter-provincial trade in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) from the perspective of economic benefits and environmental pressure. The results show that: (1) Carbon emissions from the production and consumption sides of the 11 provinces in the YEB vary considerably. (2) Significant carbon inequality exists in the YEB region. This is manifested in the unequal relationship between the transfer of embodied carbon emissions and economic benefits, as well as the difference in carbon deviation coefficients. Based on the results of our research, this paper can help provide theoretical support and decision-making reference for implementing a differentiated carbon emission reduction responsibility mechanism and establishing a coordinated carbon emission reduction responsibility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon peak and carbon neutralization as a global mission cannot be completed without systematically designed carbon mitigation regulations. In order to achieve the carbon emission reduction as formulated in the Paris Agreement and fulfill the promises made at the United Nations General Assembly, the Chinese government has promulgated various types of regulations to curb carbon emission with the hope of realizing the Porter effect. Selecting low-carbon pilot cities and carbon emission trading schema as the research objects, this study employs a differences-in-differences (DID) model to investigate the effects of carbon mitigation regulations on innovation quality and its heterogeneity. The empirical results reveal that market-based carbon mitigation regulations can significantly achieve the Porter effect and improve innovation quality. Furthermore, the government financial situation and the technical efficiency change have important moderating and mediating effects respectively. It is recommended that a full play of the market be given in China for the Porter effect. The main scientific value of this paper is distinguished the heterogenous effect of different types of environmental regulations, which can enhance the pertinence of environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Basin is a key ecological barrier and commercial zone in China, as well as an essential source of energy, chemicals, raw materials, and fundamental industrial foundation, the achievement of its carbon peaking is of great significance for China's high-quality development. Based on this, we decomposed the influencing factors of carbon dioxide emissions in the Yellow River Basin using the LMDI method and predicted the carbon peaking in the Yellow River Basin under different scenarios using the STIRPAT model. The results show that (1) the energy intensity effect, economic activity effect and population effect play a positive role in promoting carbon emissions during 2005–2020. The largest effect on carbon emissions is the population size effect, with a contribution rate of 65.6%. (2) The STIRPAT model predicts that the peak of scenarios "M–L", "M–M" and "M–H" will occur in 2030 at the earliest. The "M–H" scenario is the best model for controlling carbon emissions while economic and social development in the Yellow River Basin. The results of this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the development of a reasonable carbon peak attainment path in the Yellow River Basin and help policy makers to develop a corresponding high-quality development path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing carbon emissions have been a major concern for most countries around the world. And as a result, every country is concerned about developing appropriate strategies to curtail it. As a major economy and the largest carbon emitter in the world, China has pledged to reduce the carbon intensity by 60–65% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Therefore, the analysis of the impact of China's carbon intensity is becoming an increasing important topic. Due to the spatial heterogeneity of carbon intensity, various spatial econometric models have been applied in this field. However, the existing literatures failed to consider the cross-products of relevant factors. This paper constructs our dynamic general nesting spatial panel model (GNS) with common factors to deal with the dilemma, and examines the direct and spatial–temporal spillover effects of industrial structure, GDP per capita, investment in anti-pollution projects as percentage of GDP and energy price on carbon intensity in China over the period 2003–2017. Our analysis shows that: (1) China's carbon intensity showed the spatial agglomeration and temporal "inertia" from 2003 to 2017. (2) From the time dimension, the long-term effect of industrial structure first increased and then gradually decreased. (3) From the spatial dimension, industrial structure and investment in anti-pollution projects as percentage of GDP accounted for the main spatial heterogeneity. Furthermore, this paper attempts to provide policy implications to help reduce carbon intensity and achieve carbon neutrality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By introducing network game theory, this paper analyzes the internal relationship and interaction mechanism among environmental governance, local government competition, and agricultural carbon peak level. On the basis of theoretical analysis, a spatial panel model is constructed using panel data from 30 provincial-level regions in China for empirical analysis. The research finds that local governments have positive competition with respect to the agricultural carbon peak, they adopt complementary carbon peak competition strategies, and they are more inclined to take geographical distance to adjacent regions as the yardstick in the competition with respect to the agricultural carbon peak strategy. That is, when the carbon peak level of surrounding provinces increases, the carbon peak level of the region will also increase. Thus, there is a phenomenon of mutual imitation and convergence between neighboring provinces. Environmental governance has a significant positive direct effect and a positive spatial spillover effect. From the perspective of coefficient, its direct effect is significantly greater than the spatial spillover effect. Therefore, more attention should be paid to local environmental governance to promote the improvement of the agricultural carbon peak level. Furthermore, the agricultural industrial structure, fiscal decentralization, agricultural public investment, regional industrial structure, and the proportion of the rural population have significant spatial spillover effects. The agricultural industrial structure and fiscal decentralization are significantly positively correlated with the peak level of agricultural carbon while the proportion of the rural population is significantly negatively correlated with the peak level of agricultural carbon. The research results have important theoretical value for expanding the research in the field of agricultural carbon emissions and provide important practical reference for China to successfully achieve the goal of agricultural carbon peak and promote the high-quality development of agriculture [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the implementation of carbon emissions trading policy (CETP) promotes carbon finance, proxied by investment and financing facilitating carbon emissions reduction (IFCER), and reduces carbon emissions. Evidence shows that first, CETP is effective in stimulating IFCER and reducing carbon emissions. Second, the effects of CETP persist over time. Third, the effects of CETP taking effect in pilot regions can spill over to non-pilot regions nearby. Fourth, the effect is more pronounced in eastern and wealthy regions. Finally, R&D and industrial upgrading have a mediating effect linking CETP to IFCER and carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the potential effect of industrial transfer on carbon lock-in in China, this paper constructed the measurement formula of industrial transfer based on output and demand, and calculated carbon lock-in according to carbon sink and carbon emissions. By means of a spatial autoregressive model and a panel threshold model, we discussed the spatial spillover of carbon lock-in and the effect of industrial transfer. The findings are as follows: (1) The level of carbon lock-in does have a positive spatial spillover effect between economic neighboring provinces. (2) The effect of industrial transfer on carbon lock-in depends on industry characteristics. (3) Technological progress has direct and indirect carbon unlocking effects, energy structure, trade openness and increased fiscal expenditure exacerbate the carbon lock-in dilemma, while economic growth and carbon lock-in show an inverted "U" relationship. (4) There is a non-linear relationship between industrial transfer and carbon lock-in. Finally, we propose some recommendations to reduce dependence on high-carbon fossil energy and speed up the process of carbon unlocking in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, known as the largest carbon emitter and the second largest economy worldwide, has continued to put effort into the understandings of the main drivers of carbon emission and their decoupling statuses from its economic growth. Considering the significant differences of natural and social environments in different regions of China, this paper presents a regional-scale decomposition of energy-related carbon emission and its decoupling from economic growth by using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) and the Tapio decoupling method. The decoupling results indicate that carbon emissions in all regions show a stable decoupling trend from their economic development, which means that China is now on the right road for achieving a low-carbon economy. However, the decoupling status by the end of 2016 also indicates that most of the regions are still in the states of expansive coupling or weak decoupling, especially in Northwest (NW), which implies that the speed of decarbonization process is still not high enough. The decomposition results show that in all regions except NW, GDP per capita is the most influential factor leading to increasing carbon emissions, while energy intensity is the largest factor in reducing carbon emissions. In NW, both GDP per capita and energy intensity drive the increase in carbon emissions. The results in this paper could benefit China's regional policy-making and national strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of carbon emissions reduction notwithstanding, the issue of its inequality should also elicit the urgent attention of scholars. This paper first evaluates the carbon inequality between urban and rural areas based on a panel dataset of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019. Then we quantitively investigate the role of digital economy development in reducing carbon inequality. We further explore the possible moderating role of residential disposable income in the rural areas and the impact channels in the nexus between digital economy development and carbon inequality. We find that (1) the relationship between digital economy development and carbon inequality is negative, and digital economy development exerts a significant mitigating impact on carbon inequality. (2) The nexus between digital economy development and carbon inequality is heterogeneous in terms of capital: provinces endowed with lower levels of social and human capital tend to exhibit a stronger connection between digital economy development and carbon inequality. (3) Rural residential disposable income can not only reduce carbon inequality, but can also show a synergistic effect with digital economy development, which means the interaction between rural residential disposable income and digital economy development also restricts carbon inequality significantly. (4) Digital economy development works on carbon inequality by increasing environmental regulation and technology innovation, and these two channels show a mitigating impact on carbon inequality. We propose several policy implications to accelerate the reduction of carbon inequality and the improvement of digital economy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the new development pattern, green low-carbon and digital economy become two mainstream development directions in China. Against the background 'dual carbon' strategies, based on the data of China between 2010 and 2018 at the city level, The paper adopts dynamic spatial Durbin models to investigate the causal links causal between digital economy and carbon intensity by constructing different spatial weight matrices, and explore the influence of human capital with threshold model. Results show that：(1) Urban digital economy and carbon intensity show significant positive spatial correlation characteristics. The carbon reduction of digital economy has obvious spatial spillover effect under different spatial weight matrices. (2) Industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation and resource allocation optimization are effective channels through which digital economy contributes to carbon emission reduction. (3) A double-threshold effect of human capital is evident in the carbon reduction of digital economy. The findings offer new perspectives and empirical evidence for understanding the causality relation between the digital economy and carbon emission, and those conclusions have important policy implications for how to promote the digital economy development and thus achieve the 'double carbon goal'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have become key agendas for countries to participate in global climate change governance. Research on China's carbon peaking has a guidance significance for the actions to achieve a nationwide carbon peaking by 2030. This paper builds a STIRPAT model which, in combination with a scenario -setting method, predicts the carbon peaking time of eight comprehensive economic zones in China, and analyzes the possible path of achieving carbon peaking at national level. The result shows a disparity in carbon peaking time among the zones--there are zones that can achieve carbon peaking under baseline scenario; zones that can achieve carbon peaking under conditional scenarios; and zones that cannot achieve carbon peaking under any scenario. In the first group, the zones can achieve carbon emission through both active path (southwest and eastern coastal comprehensive economic zones) and passive path (northeast comprehensive economic zones) according to characteristics of regional socio-economic development. The second group includes two economic anchors (northern coastal and southern coastal comprehensive economic zones) and an energy-exporting center (the middle reaches of Yellow River comprehensive economic zone). Zones in the third group generally witness a late development (the middle reaches of Yangtze River and northwest comprehensive zones). Based on characteristics of regional economy, population, industry, and energy of each zone, this paper proposes an initiative that the achievement of a nationwide carbon peaking should take regional development equity into consideration, and presumes that making each zone adopts differentiated peaking strategies may have a stronger effectiveness in controlling carbon emission growth than making all zones adopt strategies constraining on single factors on industry or energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a financial trend in China's carbon market. However, the legal and policy pathways in China have not specifically focused on carbon finance, which has led to some suspicions about the legitimacy and efficiency of the carbon market. China is following an ambiguous and complicated route in the financial market rules and specialized regime of the carbon market. Meanwhile, the EU has classified carbon emission allowances as financial instruments, and adopted financial market rules for all segments of the carbon market. On the basis of the financial regulation in the EU this paper will try to find an appropriate legal and policy pathway to carbon finance in China. Application and exemptions as regards financial market rules concerning different market participants and their behaviors will be suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic agglomeration has played a key function in China's economic transformation. Meanwhile, structural adjustment and external pressure to reduce carbon emission necessitate a deeper investigation into its relationship with carbon productivity. This paper measures economic agglomeration and carbon productivity of 281 cities in China in 2003–2017. With the purpose of exploring the spatial effect of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity, a spatial Durbin model is constructed. In addition, the mediation effect model is also adopted for examining the transmission mechanism of economic scale and technological progress on economic agglomeration as well as carbon productivity. A heterogeneity test is also carried out to uncover the varying effects of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity. The empirical results suggest that economic agglomeration raises carbon productivity not only in the local cities but also in the neighbouring ones. The impact of economic agglomeration on carbon productivity becomes more potent as the level of economic agglomeration increases. For cities with low level of economic agglomeration, the effect is mainly achieved through the expansion of economic scale, but for cities with high level of economic agglomeration, the effect is mainly achieved through technological progress. Therefore, we suggest encouraging carbon productivity improvement through technology effect in cities with high economic agglomeration level, while enhancing carbon productivity through scale effect in cities with low economic agglomeration level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on China's empirical data from 2000 to 2020 of 1875 county-level administrative units, combined with the multi-phase by the propensity score matching and difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) model, this paper studies the impact of clean energy demonstration province policies on the carbon intensity of pilot counties, and its further impact on carbon emissions and economic development level. The results showed that 1. from a county-level perspective, although the economic development level of the pilot areas of clean energy demonstration provinces has improved as the carbon emissions have also increased, what is more, the carbon intensity has also significantly improved in this process; 2. there is no time lag in the impact of policies on the carbon intensity of counties, and the impact effects gradually increase over time along with strong regional heterogeneity; 3. the clean energy demonstration policy has weakened the technological level of the county and reduced the proportion of industrial-added value to GDP, thereby increasing the carbon intensity of the county through these intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As economic development rapidly progresses in China, a method of carbon emission control that provides reasonable solutions is needed. This paper analyzes the convergence of carbon emission evolutionary characteristics in different regions of China and studies the dynamics of carbon emissions in China based on a convergence model. It was found that the carbon emission levels of each region are prominent in terms of time, and the regional carbon emission level has absolute β characteristics. The regional carbon emission condition β convergences have different convergence paths. Therefore, it is necessary to justify carbon emission reduction in China and put forward an emission reduction strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is in the period of vigorously developing the "digital economy" and "low-carbon economy," facing the double pressure of realizing the "dual-carbon" target and maintaining stable economic growth. This paper tests the role of the digital economy (DIEC) in the process of carbon emission reduction for the advancement of low carbon economy based on this issue from the perspective of carbon intensity (CI) by constructing a fixed effects and mediation effects model using data from 30 areas from 2011 to 2021. The study results show that at the national level, the advancement of DIEC significantly inhibits CI, and the conclusion still holds after various robustness tests. From the geographic region level, the suppression of CI by digital economic advancement has the most substantial impact in the central region. Although the eastern and western areas have similar results, the significance level is higher in the east region. When considering the economic development level, the impact of DIEC on CI is more significant in areas with lower economic development than those with higher economic growth. In analyzing the path of the DIEC affecting CI, it is found that the DIEC mainly inhibits CI by promoting technological advancement and reducing energy consumption intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to find out effective approaches to improve the low carbon economy efficiency of China and to promote its low carbon economy development. This paper utilizes two kinds of data envelopment analysis models to estimate the economic efficiency and low carbon economy efficiency of China. It takes carbon dioxide emissions as an undesirable output and compares them to find out the different performances of economic growth in various regions in China in the context of low carbon economy development, and then explores the potential determinants of low carbon economy efficiency for different regions in different periods. The results show that low carbon economy efficiency is much lower than economy efficiency in most areas in China. Additionally, both low carbon economy efficiency and economy efficiency show a slow downward trend in most provinces in China from 2000 to 2011, which was followed by a slight increase in 2012. Moreover, low carbon economy efficiency and economy efficiency show obvious geographic characters. We propose some policy implications. Several policy implications are also provided for various areas to improve low carbon economy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unbalanced and inadequate development in China has resulted in significant temporal and spatial differences in carbon intensity, impeding the achievement of carbon reduction targets. This paper explores the spatial distribution and convergence of China's provincial carbon intensity during 2000–2017 and its influencing factors employing spatial panel techniques. The spatial distribution analysis supports the existence of significant spatial agglomeration and radiation effects in China's provincial carbon intensity, and several provinces play key roles in the spatial distribution of carbon intensity, which are an important focus of carbon emission reduction policies. The results of spatial convergence estimation support that China's provincial carbon intensity presents significant spatial absolute and conditional convergence, and after considering regional differences, the spatial convergence speed is significantly accelerated. Meanwhile, economic level, urbanization, energy consumption structure, and industrial structure have significant spatial radiation effects on carbon intensity, and carbon intensity itself also has a spatial diffusion effect, indicating that carbon emission reduction requires multi-regional coordinated actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of low-carbon economic development, carbon productivity has effectively integrated the two major objectives of carbon reduction and economic growth, and increasing carbon productivity has become the main approach to address global climate change. Using data from China's input–output table for 2002–2017, this study measures the evolutionary characteristics and influencing factors of carbon productivity from the perspective of embodied carbon emission in China's industrial sector. The results indicate that, first, China's industrial sectors' carbon productivity shows an increasing trend from 25.22 to 65.3 million yuan/10,000 tons of CO2 in 2002–2017, but the overall level is low. The energy efficiency factor is a major element affecting improvement in carbon productivity. Second, the carbon productivity of the 28 industrial sectors shows an increasing trend. There is a significant gap in the carbon productivity between different industrial sectors. The energy efficiency factor in all industrial sectors is positive, indicating that energy efficiency is a positive factor in increasing carbon productivity. Third, from largest to smallest in the carbon productivity are the primary, tertiary, and secondary industries. Finally, this paper recommends several approaches to improve carbon productivity from the perspectives of technology, differentiated policies of carbon emission reduction, and industrial structure adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon neutrality agenda requires that carbon lock-in enters an endgame. A well-developed energy system, which is secure, equitable, and sustainable is paramount to getting rid of carbon lock-in and realizing decarbonization. We carry out systematic research to empirically study the possible carbon lock-in reduction effect of energy trilemma based on the instrumental variable-generalized method of moment (IV-GMM) model. We also detect heterogeneous effects in terms of geographical locations and endowments of capital, as well as the impact mechanisms. Moreover, this paper highlights the mediating and threshold role of environmental regulation. We thus get the following conclusions. (1) The paper's primary findings underscore that the continuous increase of energy trilemma exacerbates carbon lock-in and hampers the process of decarbonization; (2) Energy trilemma has a higher stimulating effect on carbon lock-in in provinces that lie in the central region and that have a comparatively low level of physical, social, and human capital; (3) Energy trilemma can also indirectly aggravate carbon lock-in by inhibiting technology innovation and exacerbating carbon emissions intensity; (4) The interaction of environmental regulation and energy trilemma can alleviate the energy trilemma - carbon lock-in nexus, and environmental regulation also shows a significant threshold effect. • We investigate the impact of the energy trilemma on carbon lock-in. • Energy trilemma eradication is an effective way to realize the carbon lock-in endgame. • The nexus between energy trilemma and carbon lock-in is more prominent in provinces with high capital endowments. • Environmental regulation shows significant mediating and threshold effects. • The exacerbate carbon lock-in effect of energy trilemma depends on technology and intensity effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing severity of global warming, the goal of carbon sequestration and emission reduction in various industries has become an important responsibility for sustainable development. As an important part of carbon sink, the improvement of net carbon efficiency in the plantations industry will make a great contribution to the realization of the "double carbon" target in agriculture. However, there are large spatial and temporal differences in the net carbon efficiency of the plantations sector in various provinces, and there is still a large scope for increasing carbon sink and reducing carbon emission. In this paper, we have analyzed spatial and temporal trends in the net carbon sink efficiency of the plantations' production processes in 31 provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) from 2000 to 2020. On this basis, we have analyzed the influencing factors of net carbon efficiency in the plantations' production process through an extended Kaya constant equation. Through the geographically and temporally weighted regression model, we explore the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the influencing factors, and further analyze the driving and restraining factors of net carbon efficiency in plantations' production process, in order to propose appropriate countermeasures. The study shows that: (1) The net carbon efficiency of plantations sector in China increase between 2000 and 2020, and the development of net carbon efficiency is uneven across regions. (2) The geographic center of net carbon efficiency of China's plantations industry shift from the northeast to the southwest and is consistent with the migration direction of agricultural inputs. (3) The influencing factors of net carbon efficiency in the plantations sector show large regional differences, and can be specifically divided into four major types of zones. In this regard, this paper provides more appropriate countermeasure suggestions for increasing carbon sink and reducing carbon emission in each zone, with a view to achieving the goal of double carbon in agriculture with practical significance. • Net carbon efficiency is a new objective indicator to measure the carbon sink level of cropland. • Cultivated land carbon sink capacity is closely related to agricultural inputs. • Regional differences in the factors influencing net carbon efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, rapid development has lead to serious environmental pollution. Excessive carbon dioxide emissions have not only caused significant damages to the environment, but also harmed people's health. Subject to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, cities need to conserve energy and reduce emissions while maintaining steady economic growth, an effective measure for which is to improve carbon efficiency. Carbon efficiency is affected by environmental regulation. As a kind of environmental regulation featuring public participation, environmental information disclosure has become an important measure affecting carbon efficiency. In this paper, we estimated carbon efficiency of Chinese cities with super-efficiency DEA model, analyzed the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of carbon efficiency. Unlike previous literature, we further investigated the impact of environmental information disclosure on carbon efficiency using difference-in-differences model, tested split samples by geographical location and city size to examine the impacts of environmental information disclosure on carbon efficiency in different regions and cities of different sizes, and validated that environmental information disclosure affects carbon efficiency through technological improvements and clean industry substitution. On this basis, we proposed policy measures to improve carbon efficiency, including transforming government functions, offering inter-regional carbon compensation, and establishing a diversified carbon emissions reduction system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating carbon emission performance of the construction industry is a significant prerequisite for developing regional carbon mitigation plans. Taking environmental and technical heterogeneities into account, this paper employed a meta-frontier method to measure the carbon emission efficiency, carbon mitigation potential, and costs of the construction sector in different regions of China from 2005 to 2016. The empirical results show that substantial disparities in carbon emission efficiency exist in the construction industry. The total carbon mitigation potential of this sector was 206.76 million tons, with the Lower Yellow river area accounting for the largest proportion at 27%. Meanwhile, the carbon mitigation costs of this sector increased from 584.94 to 1273.30 yuan/ton during 2005–2016. The highest mitigation costs occur in the Lower Yangtze River area and the South Coastal area, indicating it was more costly in these areas to conduct additional carbon emissions mitigation. The results could facilitate the policy formulation on regional-oriented carbon emissions mitigation of the construction industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions in the transportation sector are of great concern, since they are the third leading contributor to China's carbon emissions. This research examines the decoupling relationship between economic outputs and carbon emissions of 11 provinces in 2000–2016 by focusing on Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), which is the densest traffic and economic corridor in China. Although many studies have focused on the decoupling state and its driving forces between economic outputs and carbon emissions, few studies further addressed the microscale analysis for decoupling drivers. This paper reveals the characteristic, inequality contribution ratio, and dynamic evolution of the drivers by integrating Dagum's Gini ratio with kernel density estimation in YREB. Results are as follows: (1) The decoupling states presented weak decoupling state at the whole belt in the majority of the latter observed sub-periods. The decoupling states at the provincial level turned more satisfactory during the four observed sub-periods, especially for Shanghai and Zhejiang. (2) The energy intensity (EI) effect is the predominant driver for promoting the decoupling state in the vast majority of provinces, whereas value added per capita effect is the major role for inhibiting the decoupling state. (3) During the four observed sub-periods, the Gini inequality and transvariation intensity of the EI effect between sub-regions are the main sources of the provincial differences in YREB. The driving force of EI effect is increasing, but the provincial differences are expanding in the upstream and downstream regions by analyzing its dynamic evolution. Understanding the temporal and spatial microscale inequality of the decoupling drivers provides governments with differentiated and forward-looking suggestions towards coordinating regional economic growth and carbon emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is characterized by high energy consumption and high carbon emissions. With growing concern about climate change, environmental protection is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, the whole construction process of prefabricated floor slab (PFS) is divided into three stages: production, transportation, and construction stages. Carbon emissions are calculated based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. A case study of PFS construction in Shaoxing city, China, was examined, and the calculation results were compared and evaluated with the traditional construction methods, which showed that in the production stage, carbon emissions increased due to mechanical operations during the prefabrication process. In the transportation stage, carbon emissions also increased due to the heavier prefabricated components during the transportation process. During the on-site construction stage, carbon emissions considerably decreased due to the lower hoisting frequency and less on-site pouring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental issues aggravated heavily, China faces increasing pressure and challenges on carbon emission reduction and distribution. we used non-competitive input-output table (I-O table) combined with the methods of Structural Path Analysis (SPA) and Multidimensional Analytical Framework (MAF), based on the data of China in 2012, to analyze the current situation of inter-sector carbon emission transfer and identify the key sectors and the critical paths from multiple perspectives. Our results show that total fixed capital formation is the main final demand. The electricity, petroleum, and metal smelting are the largest carbon outflow sectors, which emit carbon at the upstream of the path. Construction and other services are the most obvious carbon inflow sectors, which belong to the middle and downstream of the path and lead to indirect carbon emissions through their demands for other sectors. "Metal smelting → Construction → Total fixed capital formation," "Nonmetallic products → Construction → Total fixed capital formation," and "Petroleum → Urban consumption," "Electricity → Urban consumption" are the top four paths with large carbon emission, which deserve attention. Finally, this paper puts forward some policy implications on emission reduction based on the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Carbon reduction in the construction industry is related to the achievement of carbon emission peaks and carbon neutrality targets. Therefore, exploring the influence of current carbon reduction policies on the construction industry is necessary. China's low-carbon pilot (LCP) policy has been extensively studied, while LCPs mechanism and effectiveness on carbon reduction in the construction industry remain to be explored. Design/methodology/approach: This study selected four provincial LCP regions as case studies and adopted the grounded theory method for case studies to analyze the implementation mechanism of the LCP policy on carbon reduction in the construction industry. Then, this study adopted the propensity score matching and difference-in-differences regression (PSM-DID) approach to evaluate the influence of the LCP policy on carbon intensity (CI) in the construction industry by using panel data taken from 30 provinces in China between 2008 and 2017. Findings: The authors found that (1) the LCP policy promotes carbon reduction in the construction industry through the crossing implementation mechanism of five vertical support approaches and five horizontal support approaches. (2). The LCP policy can significantly reduce CI in the construction industry. Originality/value: The study not only explored how is the LCP policy implemented, but also examined the effectiveness of the LCP policy in the construction industry. The policy implications of this study can help policy-makers better achieve low-carbon development targets in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of low-carbon constrained development, in order to avoid the risk brought by climate change, more and more companies choose to disclose carbon information, respond to the national policy of carbon emission reduction and focus on the sustainable development of enterprises. This paper will investigate the impact of carbon disclosure on financial performance based on the 2011–2018 CDP report, taking the Fortune 500 companies as a sample. The study finds that for carbon-intensive industries, carbon disclosure cannot significantly contribute to the improvement of financial performance in the current period, but for carbon-non-intensive industries, carbon disclosure can significantly contribute to the improvement of financial performance in the current period, and the positive impact of carbon disclosure on financial performance in the current period can be extended to the next period. Finally, based on the findings of the empirical study, this paper puts forward policy recommendations for the construction of China's carbon disclosure system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry of China is characterized by its huge consumption and carbon emissions, thereby making this industry one of the most important areas that require energy conservation efforts. Identifying those factors that affect carbon emissions in the construction industry carries great significance in reducing building carbon emissions, promoting low-carbon cities, and achieving China’s emission reduction goals. This paper firstly reviews the literature on those factors that affect the carbon emissions in the construction industries of developed countries. Second, by using Henan Province as an example, those factors that influence carbon emissions are measured by using the classical STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model. Third, some measures for reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry are developed. Those factors that influence the carbon emissions of buildings are multi-dimensional and diversified. Resident population, urbanization rate, building carbon emission intensity, per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and per capita added value of the tertiary industry all have significant effects on the carbon emissions of buildings in Henan Province. Some policy suggestions can be derived from the findings of this work, such as encouraging building energy conservation, improving the energy efficiency of the construction industry, adjusting the use of building materials, and improving the extant policies for building emission reduction. The results also provide a theoretical basis for identifying those factors that affect the carbon emissions in the construction industry and for formulating and implementing strategies for the low-carbon development of this industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon market has been playing an increasingly important role in mitigating carbon emissions. However, with the tightening of the carbon allowance, where the carbon market will evolve is still unclear. Abstracting three agents—Government, Carbon-supplier('CS'), Carbon-buyer('CB'), this paper intends to investigate the operation mechanism of carbon market from the perspective of the stakeholders. Based on the simulation analysis, it is suggested that: 1) the carbon market in China may become a major "seller's market" when carbon quota experienced dramatic reduction; 2) when the carbon price is constant, CS with excessive carbon productivity will crowd out and exploit CB in the carbon market competition; 3) strict administrative penalties and information disclosure would help promote proactive participation of CS and CB in the carbon market; and 4) the interaction between CS and CB in different strategic scenarios is influenced by the carbon price and the coefficient of demand variation for carbon quota. In contrast with previous studies, this paper has uncovered a dynamic strategic evolution mechanisms of stakeholders in the carbon market at the micro-level, contributing to carbon market governance and providing stakeholders with tailor-made climate policy tools and strategic choices. • The carbon market in China may evolve into a "seller's market" with a scarcer allowance. • We first identify the phenomenon of carbon exploitation in the carbon market. • Improving the carbon price under buyer's market would facilitate positive participation of three agents. • Carbon accounting, carbon disclosure, and strict administrative penalty help regulate non-compliance actions by enterprises. • The equilibrium of agents' strategy are influenced by dual aspects—parameters and other stakeholders' choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's industry is facing a carbon lock-in (CLI) dilemma. Based on the complexity and dynamics of CLI, exploring diversified unlocking paths is an important way to achieve emission reduction goals. This paper innovatively applies system dynamics (SD) to the study of CLI prediction and unlocking path, and systematically constructs an industrial CLI SD model, trying to break the positive feedback mechanism of CLI through multiple causality and feedback chains. This paper simulates and predicts the changing trend of the CLI level of China's industry and 8 major subsectors from 2020 to 2050. At the same time, the random forest algorithm is used to select the regulatory variables of policy analysis. Compared with the previous research methods, the accuracy and objectivity of the selection of regulatory variables are improved, so as to test the effectiveness of the unlocking path under each scenario. The results show that (1) the whole industry faces a serious CLI problem and is still in a deep lock-in state. From the perspective of subsectors, the light, electromechanical, and textile industries have achieved unlocking; the oil and extractive industries are in a moderately lock-in state; the chemical, steel, and power industries are in a deep lock-in state; and the CLI situation is serious. (2) The results of the random forest algorithm show that R&D investment, the proportion of fixed asset investments in the energy industry, car sales, energy structure, and carbon emission industry structure are the most significant factors affecting CLI in each subsystem. (3) Compared with the existing economic development model, the technological, institutional, social, and comprehensive unlocking scenarios can all enable industry to achieve carbon peak and carbon unlocking in advance. However, the effect of each scenario is as follows: comprehensive unlocking scenario > technological unlocking scenario > institutional unlocking scenario > social unlocking scenario. (4) The unlocking times of the oil, chemical, steel, and power industries are relatively late in each scenario. To realize carbon unlocking in industry, these four areas should be focused on in the future. This study helps policymakers formulate reasonable policies to accelerate industrial carbon unlocking and promote the implementation of the "dual carbon" strategy. • The whole industry faces a serious carbon lock-in problem. • The technological, institutional, social and comprehensive unlocking scenarios can all achieve carbon unlocking in advance. • The comprehensive unlocking scenario has the best effect, and the social unlocking scenario has the worst effect. • The oil, chemical, steel and power industries should be focused on in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs an agricultural carbon welfare performance indicator based on the "Two Mountains Theory" and the concept of green agriculture, which takes into account people's welfare and the environment, trying to answer the driving effects of "Internet + Agricultural Insurance" on welfare levels and environmental protection in different rural areas of China. Using Chinese provincial dynamic panel data from 2007-2017, a time-individual double fixed-effects model and a systematic GMM model were constructed to empirically find that at the national level, agricultural insurance contributes to agricultural carbon emissions, thereby weakening agricultural carbon welfare performance. The Internet contributes to agricultural carbon welfare performance. The joint effect of the Internet and agricultural insurance on agricultural carbon welfare performance is characterised by an Internet-led facilitation effect in the form of lower agricultural carbon emissions and higher rural welfare. This finding confirms the synergistic governance effect of "Internet + Agricultural Insurance" on high quality green development in agriculture and provides strong evidence for the implementation of this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's carbon emission trading policy plays a crucial role in achieving both its "3060" dual carbon objectives and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) on climate action. The policy's effectiveness in reducing pollution and mitigating carbon emissions holds significant importance. This paper investigated whether China's carbon emission trading policy affects pollution reduction (PM 2.5 and SO 2) and carbon mitigation (CO 2) in pilot regions, using panel data from 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2005 to 2019 and employing a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. Furthermore, it analyzed the heterogeneity of carbon market mechanisms and regional variations. Finally, it examined the governance pathways for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation from a holistic perspective. The results indicate that: (1) China's carbon emission trading policy has reduced CO 2 emissions by 18% and SO 2 emissions by 36% in pilot areas, with an immediate impact on the "carbon mitigation" effect, while the "pollution reduction" effect exhibits a time lag. (2) Higher carbon trading prices lead to stronger "carbon mitigation" effect, and larger carbon market scales are associated with greater "pollution reduction" effects on PM 2.5. Governance effects on pollution reduction and carbon mitigation vary among pilot regions: Carbon markets of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin show significant governance effects in both "pollution reduction" and "carbon mitigation", whereas Guangdong's carbon market exhibits only a "pollution reduction" effect, and Hubei's carbon market demonstrates only a "carbon mitigation" effect. (3) Currently, China's carbon emission trading policy achieves pollution reduction and carbon mitigation through "process management" and "end-of-pipe treatment". This study could provide empirical insights and policy implications for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, as well as for the development of China's carbon emission trading market. • China's carbon emission trading (CET) policy promotes pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. • Higher carbon trading prices lead to stronger "carbon mitigation" effect. • Larger carbon market scales bring greater "pollution reduction" effects on PM 2.5. • Regional heterogeneity exists on pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the relationship between land-use patterns and regional carbon storage, as well as predicting future land-use changes for regional carbon sink and emission management, are of immense significance. This study utilized land-use data from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, as well as the InVEST model, to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of carbon storage in the Sanjiangyuan area over the past three decades. Furthermore, predictions for carbon storage in 2035 were presented using the PLUS model. The findings revealed the following key results: (1) the land types in the Sanjiangyuan area are mainly low cover grassland, medium cover grassland and unused land, among which unused land decreased significantly from 1990 to 2020, and the area of low cover grassland and wetland increased, which is the main reason for the increase of carbon storage. (2) Climatic-environmental and social-economic factors jointly influenced the land-use change in the Sanjiangyuan area. Except for the three types of grassland, the expansion of other land types was mainly influenced by climatic and environmental factors. (3) During 1990–2020, carbon storage in the source region of Sanjiangyuan area showed an overall upward trend, with a total increase of 39.97 × 107 t, and land-use change had a positive potential impact on carbon storage as a whole. (4) Under the natural change scenario, both carbon storage and regional carbon density increased in the simulation of 2035, and the potential impact of land-use change on carbon storage is positive. On this basis, the paper puts some suggestions forward to improve the carbon storage capacity of the Sanjiangyuan area in the future. This study provides valuable scientific insights for land-use management decision-making and promotes sustainable development of carbon storage functions in this region. • Total carbon storage increased between 1990 and 2020. • The simulation predicts higher carbon storage in 2035 than in 2020. • Ecological protection policies have a crucial contribution to improving carbon storage. • Regulating regional Socioeconomic activities is an effective measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's growth plans include a carbon emission peak policy, which is a restriction that indirectly impacts land use structure. In this study, we simulate different paths for achieving policy objectives, and explore the linkages between those paths and land use change. The IPAT model was used to simulate the carbon emissions generated from a natural development scenario, an ideal policy scenario, and a retributive carbon emission scenario in China from 2020 to 2030. The simulation results were incorporated into the CLUMondo model as a demand driver to simulate the land use change in 2030. The results show that carbon emission peak policy can somewhat reduce carbon emissions and increase building land in a regulated way. However, the policy may also lead to a short-term surge in carbon emissions, a reactive expansion of arable land and building land. This may reduce losses in economic development when carbon emissions are limited, but does not achieve the integration of social, economic, and ecological goals. This study links the carbon emission peak policy with land use change and provides a fresh perspective on the Chinese government's carbon reduction policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's agriculture has struggled over the past century to produce more food to feed the country's expanding population while also contending with high-intensity pollution. In order to support China's transition to low-carbon agriculture more efficiently, it is important to improve the efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions. This study employs the biennial weight modified Russell model to investigate China's agricultural total factor carbon efficiency (ATFCE) during 1999–2018 and its differences between the three agricultural functional zones (AFZs), including the grain-producing zone (GPZ), the grain balance zone (GBZ), and the main grain-selling zone (GSZ). The study found that the ATFCE in China was 0.761, a high value. GSZ (0.9865) had the highest ATFCE, followed by GBZ (0.7201) and GPZ (0.6666). ATFCE in China fell by approximately 25%, from 0.825 in 1999 to 0.6983 in 2018. Further, the provinces with the highest ATFCE included Tibet (0.9997), Hainan (0.9981), Shanghai (0.997), Beijing (0.9937), and Jiangsu (0.9924). Provinces with the lowest ATFCEs included Hubei (0.4743), Yunnan (0.4645), Hunan (0.441), Anhui (0.4295), Heilongjiang (0.4130), and Jiangxi (0.3354). In addition, the difference in ATFCE within the whole of China, GPZ, and GBZ generally widened during 1999–2018. There was a rise in all three inequalities between the three AFZs. The difference between GPZ and GBZ was the greatest among the three interregional differences. Finally, the difference between subregions was the largest source of the total difference (43.66%), followed by the difference within subregions (30.04%) and the intensity of transvariation (25.94%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embodied carbon flows among regions have led to unfair carbon emission responsibility accounting based on production. However, the heterogeneity of carbon peaking stress between regions is significantly neglected for those embodied carbon flows. Incorporating the carbon peaking stress into the embodied carbon flows can more clearly show what causes the carbon peaking stress and which carbon flow paths are more critical. In this study, the decoupling index of carbon emissions and economy development was applied to characterize the carbon peaking stress in each region, and the environmental extended multi-regional input–output model was applied to re-evaluate the criticality of regional embodied carbon flows. The results showed that the carbon peaking stress in China improved from 2007 to 2012, but the rebound of carbon peaking stress in 2017 made most regions reverse the previous downward trend. The stress to reach carbon peaks varies considerably from region to region, and the stress in the northwest is much higher than that in developed eastern China. Considering the heterogeneity of carbon peaking stress, additional concerns should be given to the net embodied carbon output in the northwestern, northern, and central regions, which can help avoid the dilemma between outsourcing embodied carbon and reducing carbon emissions from production. The policy to reduce emissions should be implemented in all regions that benefit from the net embodied carbon output of the northern and northwestern regions, where the carbon peaking stress is higher. The focus should be on the actual improvement of the carbon peaking stress, not just on the transfer of stress. The increasing urgency of achieving carbon peaking targets and unequal stress for regional peaking emissions calls for differentiated regional mitigation measures to help the Chinese government scientifically and in an orderly manner promote the overall and local carbon peaking work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhance performance in manufacturing carbon emission (MCE) reduction has become a widespread consensus and a necessary part, which cannot be achieved without the joint participation of manufacturing enterprises and supervisory departments. Accordingly, how to coordinate the interests of both sides and design a reasonable incentive-compatible mechanism becomes an urgent task at present. Considering the two subsidy funding channels of peer funds and government finance, this study applies the evolutionary game model to analyze feasible schemes for designing incentive-compatible mechanism of MCE supervision, discusses and simulates the realistic scenarios and influencing factors of incentive-compatible mechanism under the non-subsidized and subsidized schemes. The results show that MCE supervision is in an incentive-incompatible state under the non-subsidized incentive scheme, while in a constrained incentive-compatible state under the subsidized incentive scheme. With the increase of peer funds and penalty coefficient or the decrease of subsidy coefficient, the period of MCE supervision to reach an incentive-compatible state becomes shorter. However, a lower peer fund and penalty coefficient or a higher subsidy coefficient will contribute to a state of incentive-incompatible or a periodic cycle state of "incentive-compatible → incentive-incompatible →incentive-compatible→..." in the MCE supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the impact of economic modernization on carbon balance is an essential endeavor to achieve carbon neutrality and combat climate change. However, the spatial impact of economic modernization on carbon balance remains ambiguous. Therefore, this study aims to explore the spatial spillover effects of agricultural modernization, industrialization, and urbanization on carbon balance during the economic modernization process in China, taking 30 provinces and cities in China as examples from 2010 to 2021. This study utilizes the spatial Durbin model to derive the following results: In the past decade, the carbon balance ratio has shown a fluctuating and decreasing dynamic evolution trend. There is an increase in regions with serious carbon deficits. Further investigation into the spatial spillover effect of carbon balance unveils that for every 1% increase in the carbon balance ratio of a province, neighboring provinces experience a decrease of 0.833%. Additionally, the spatial spillover effects of the three modernizations in China on the carbon balance ratio behave differently. Agricultural modernization and urbanization demonstrate negative spatial spillover effects on the carbon balance in neighboring regions, while industrialization exerts a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the carbon balance of neighboring regions. Regarding control variables, the level of innovation solely contributes to local carbon balance realization without generating a trickle-down effect, whereas infrastructure development operates inversely. At the same time, there are differences in the spatial effects of agricultural modernization and industrialization on the carbon balance between the eastern region and the central and western regions. The study underscores the importance of economic modernization and development processes focusing on fostering synergistic growth between economic and environmental benefits within both local and neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency Power Plant (EPP) is a package of power demand side projects with zero emission, zero pollution and other advantages. In the process of implementing EPP, enterprises not only save electricity, but also reduce carbon emissions, while meanwhile increase the cost of R&D and equipment. Therefore, it is very necessary to study relationships between carbon quota and EPP implementation decision. In this paper, we build the profit functions of three different types of enterprises implementing EPP and analyze the relationship of main parameters, such as the probability of implement EPP, electricity saving, income, cost and carbon quota, and refine 11 relative results. At last we use 'Maple' software to verify the validity of the results, and carry out an empirical analysis of a case in China to prove the practicability of the relationship analysis results. The conclusion shows that under the carbon quota trading environment, enterprises should tend to implement EPP, and increase investment in R&D and acquisition of EPP, and need adjust the intensity of implementing EPP according to the change of carbon quota, unit carbon quota income, to obtain higher income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]