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Achievement of national climate targets and the corresponding costs would entirely depend on regional actions within the country. However, because of substantial inequalities and heterogeneities among regions, especially in developing economies, aggressive or uniform actions may exacerbate inequity and induce huge economic losses, which in turn challenges the national climate pledges. Hence, this study extends prior research by proposing economically optimal strategies that can achieve national climate targets and ensure the greatest local and national benefits as well as regional equality. Focusing on the biggest developing country China, we find this strategy can avoid up to 1.54% of cumulative GDP losses for approaching carbon neutrality, and more than 90% of regions would obtain economic gains compared either with existing independently launched targets or with the uniform strategy that all regions achieve peak carbon emissions before 2030. We also provide optimal carbon mitigation pathways to regional peak carbon, carbon intensity and energy consumption. Aggressive or uniform actions on climate targets may exacerbate regional inequality and induce economic losses in China. The proposed collaborative strategy for carbon neutrality can avoid up to 1.54% of GDP losses while 90% of provinces would gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limiting climate change to 1.5°C and achieving net-zero emissions would entail substantial carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere by the mid-century, but how much CDR is needed at country level over time is unclear. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of when and how much CDR is required at country level in order to achieve 1.5°C and how much CDR countries can carry out domestically. We allocate global CDR pathways among 170 countries according to 6 equity principles and assess these allocations with respect to countries' biophysical and geophysical capacity to deploy CDR. Allocating global CDR to countries based on these principles suggests that CDR will, on average, represent ∼4% of nations' total emissions in 2030, rising to ∼17% in 2040. Moreover, equitable allocations of CDR, in many cases, exceed implied land and carbon storage capacities. We estimate ∼15% of countries (25) would have insufficient land to contribute an equitable share of global CDR, and ∼40% of countries (71) would have insufficient geological storage capacity. Unless more diverse CDR technologies are developed, the mismatch between CDR liabilities and land-based CDR capacities will lead to global demand for six GtCO2 carbon credits from 2020 to 2050. This demonstrates an imperative demand for international carbon trading of CDR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass co-firing technology is a potential solution for low-carbon transition of coal-fired power plants. Existing techno-economic analyses of this technology fail to consider indirect benefits, such as avoided losses from technology retrofitting, and the heterogeneity across regions. To address these limitations, we developed five types of techno-economic indicators to analyze six possible future scenarios for the application of this technology in 29 provinces of China, based on regional heterogeneous data. The results show, first, generally, the higher the local coal price, the local on-grid electricity price, the biomass feed-in tariff subsidy, and the carbon trading price, the greater the incentives and benefits for biomass co-firing. Second, bio-electricity tariff subsidies greatly increase the incentives for technology retrofitting, with 26 of the 29 provinces analyzed having sufficient incentives for retrofits in this scenario. Third, biomass co-firing technology has more revenue potential when emission quota is limited than when it's not. Our results indicate that a timely tightening of the CO 2 emission quotas of the coal power sector will stimulate technological retrofits even without additional policy incentives, while more plants retrofitted will achieve positive returns with additional incentives. [Display omitted] • A biomass cofiring technology scenario-economics assessment model is built. • Five types of techno-economic indicators for six future scenarios are analyzed. • Indirect revenues of biomass co-firing technology are considered. • Tighten the CO 2 quota will stimulate the impetus of technological retrofit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study dissects the most recent progress in the global CCUS patent market. • Technology reserves of CCUS in major economies are inventoried via patent data. • From 36,854 patents retrieved, 27 key technology clusters of CCUS were screened. • Fifty-seven possible breakthroughs in CCUS have been identified. • Nine promising clusters are recommended to be vigorously researched and developed. Under the premise of being a mature technology, carbon dioxide capture, storage and utilization (CCUS) is an important part of a global climate solution that can help achieve near-zero emissions. However, CCUS development lies well short of what had been anticipated by the public. At present, global CO 2 emissions and the target of climate mitigation are so broadly divided that international climate governance is in grave shape. Here has probably become the optimum time to make an inventory of CCUS technology reserves in various economies to enable advanced deployment of technology research and development, dramatically reduce technology costs, and accelerate CCUS commercial deployment. Based on patent data, this study uses a dynamic programming algorithm combined with topic modeling to identify key technology clusters and main development paths from a complex patent network. Such a wide-range open monitoring mode for CCUS technology can quickly detect potential breakthroughs in the evolution paths. To some extent, it is possible to address the problems of less decision-making information and poor accuracy of CCUS technology monitoring. We dissect the development status of the global CCUS patent market and outline the patent layout strategy of CCUS in major economies. From 36,854 patents retrieved, 27 key technology paths are screened, 9 of which are emerging ones that need to speed up the layout; while 57 potential breakthroughs are identified (35 for CO 2 capture and 22 for CO 2 storage and utilization). These findings are informative for micro-level CCUS research and development in enterprises and provide decision support for the macro-level national science and technology strategic layout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a crucial technology for global climate mitigation. To implement large-scale CCUS, decisions about where and how to build a CO 2 transportation network are urgently required. However, previous studies are limited in proposing the economical transportation network for CCUS that considered comprehensive risks from socio-economic, geographical and geological factors. Here, we develop a pipeline layout planning model to investigate the cost-effective and reliable transportation network for CCUS. Results show that to meet the annual CO 2 emission reduction target of 654 million tons for CCUS in the coal-fired power sector under China's carbon neutral goal, pipelines with a total length of 17,589 km need to be constructed. The emission sources can be transported in pipelines with an average radius of 58 km, and with diameters of 8, 12, and 16 inches. Northeast, north, and northwest China are the main areas suitable for pipeline construction. • Northeast, North, and Northwest in China are vital areas for capture, transport, and storage. • Five large-scale pipeline network groups can be constructed in China. • Pipeline construction is greatly affected by a variety of practical factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]