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The Chinese government's use of fiscal policy, which includes fiscal income and spending, is crucial in its fight against environmental pollution and climate change. Innovation‐driven has arisen as a new alternative to reconcile economic success with environmental conservation in light of tighter resource restrictions and the suggestion of the Chinese High‐quality Development policy. The paper uses an econometric model to examine the connection between institutional resource consumption efficiency and carbon neutrality, using a data set consisting of Chinese inter‐provincial panel data from 2007 to 2020 as a research sample; fiscal decentralization is also discussed as a potential moderating factor. Collaborative innovation positively boosts ecological efficiency and produces geographical spillovers, and the findings suggest so long as the economic distance is considered. When it comes to increasing ecological efficiency, collaborative innovation plays a more important role than financial decentralization alone. Among these is the improvement of carbon neutrality, which is best achieved via the joint promotion of ecological efficiency and industrial organizations. By reducing the intensity of the positive effect of innovative cooperation on ecological efficiency, the moderating effect suggests that fiscal decentralization is a critical factor in this relationship. Promoting China's ecological efficiency necessitates a fair distribution of local budgetary spending. China should also actively encourage the degree of synergy between institutional resource consumption efficiency and associated institutions to improve eco‐efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Chinese government has announced a national mitigation target towards sustainable development of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit GDP (CO2/GDP) by 40-45% by 2020 compared with the 2005 level. This paper analyses China's CO2 strategic mitigation target and suggests possible ways to reduce CO2/GDP. The mitigation target of reducing CO2 intensity in terms of GDP is ambitious and would greatly reduce CO2 emissions compared with business as usual (BAU) in China. However, it would not prevent an increase in absolute CO2 emissions and therefore a more ambitious target, e.g. a larger reduction goal for CO2/GDP, is still needed. Promoting energy structure by more ambitious economic instruments to increase the proportion of renewable energy and replace coal consumption with oil and gas, and improving energy efficiency by applied advanced technologies, are both necessary measures. Special attention should be given to improving technologies in the manufacturing sector owing to its high energy consumption and low energy use efficiency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global climate crisis intensifies, ecosystems, human society and economic activities are significantly affected. Countries around the world have successively put forward the goal of carbon neutrality or zero carbon. At the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Chinese government explicitly proposed making efforts to reach the goal of Carbon Peak (peak of carbon emissions before 2030) and Carbon Neutrality (Dual Carbon) (carbon neutrality before 2060). In October 2021, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Fully, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concepts to Achieve Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" and the Action Plan for Achieving Carbon Peak before 2030, specifying the targets and tasks related to achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality in China. As the world's largest developing country, the world's largest manufacturer, and a country with the most complete industrial categories, China will face multiple challenges such as climate change, economic transition, and environmental protection, which requires systematic support from policy, economy, technology, and society. How to achieve the goal will be a great challenge to China's sustainable development. The academic community has conducted extensive exploration on the realization of China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality in many fields, such as energy transformation, industrial structure upgrading, transportation carbon reduction, urban planning and construction, carbon sink enhancement, low‐carbon technologies, green finance, and supporting policies. Among them, policy planning and technological innovation are the most important to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Second, industrial adjustment and enterprise implementation are also important. Therefore, this review will focus on the development status and prospects of policy support, technological innovation, industrial adjustment, and enterprise implementation for achieving dual carbon goals in China. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abalone species are economically important shellfish in China's aquaculture industry. In 2020, China's abalone aquaculture production was 203,500 tonnes, accounting for nearly 90% of total global production. However, many problems have accompanied the rapid development of this industry, including a reduction in near‐shore space suitable for culture and the risk of exposure of farms to natural disasters such as typhoons and red tides. In addition, high temperatures and low oxygen levels resulting from global climate change are causing increased abalone mortality in summer. In this review, the culture patterns and characteristics used in different countries are compared with respect to larvae nurseries, intermediate juvenile culture and the grow‐out phase. Next, the transitions and challenges in China's abalone culture industry over the past 60 years are summarized. Finally, a coordinated land‐sea program for reducing solid waste emissions into the water and increasing carbon sinks is suggested based on the 'Carbon Neutrality' theory. Under the framework of the program, new facilities, technologies and models should be created to achieve increased mechanization and a greater understanding of the abalone aquaculture industry as soon as possible. This review provides references and data to support the scientific planning and mapping of China's abalone culture industry as well as the transition of China's perceived identity from a major fishery country to a strong fishery power with an awareness of environmental protection and resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unexpected emergence of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic resulted in anthropogenic emissions changes, which have significant consequences for the regional and global climate. However, the long‐term impacts of emission reductions and recovery scenarios on regional climate change in China remain unknown. We use the COVID Model Intercomparison Project (CovidMIP) simulations to project climate change in China in the mid‐21st century under four recovery emission pathways in the post‐COVID era. We found that the temporary emission cut during the COVID‐19 lockdown under the 2‐year‐blip scenario has limited long‐term impact on regional climate change. Anthropogenic emissions are reduced under moderate and stringent greening recovery pathways, leading to reductions of 0.17 ± 0.09°C and 0.35 ± 0.10°C in surface air temperature (SAT) relative to the SSP2‐4.5 baseline in China, respectively. Although the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions decreases SAT, the simultaneous enhanced surface solar radiation due to reduced aerosol concentrations partly offsets the GHG‐induced cooling. Additionally, the weakened aerosol‐cloud interactions associated with reduced aerosols increase the national precipitation by 1.30 ± 0.88 mm month−1 (1.63 ± 1.11%) and 1.91 ± 0.60 mm month−1 (2.39 ± 0.77%) in two green scenarios. As a comparison, regional precipitation decreases by 0.40 ± 0.53 mm month−1 (0.50 ± 0.66%) in the fossil‐based recovery scenario. Therefore, long‐term climate change is more dominated by the emission recovery pathways rather than short‐term emission reduction during the pandemic for China. Plain Language Summary: The COVID‐19 pandemic led to reductions in CO2 and aerosol emissions globally during 2020. This has substantial implications for climate at both the regional and global scales. Here, we use the simulations from CovidMIP to project climate change in China by the midcentury under different COVID‐19 recovery emission pathways. We find that the short‐term emission reduction during the pandemic has limited impacts on the long‐term climate change, which is more dominated by the emission recovery after the pandemic. Under the greening recovery pathway similar to carbon neutrality, reduced CO2 mitigates warming while reduced aerosols increase precipitation in China compared to the baseline climate. Key Points: Short‐term emission reduction during the pandemic has limited impacts on the long‐term climate changeThe cooling from reduced greenhouse gas is partly offset by the warming from reduced aerosols under the greening recovery pathwaysWeakened aerosol‐cloud interactions increase precipitation in China under a carbon neutral pathway [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet has become a valuable tool for people to receive and transmit information, thus having a profound impact on their living habits and values. Based on face‐to‐face interview survey data collected in Central China, taking the biogas CCER scheme as an example, we discuss the effects of internet access on farmers' willingness to participate in the PCT scheme and desired carbon price. Our findings revealed that internet access improved the willingness of farmers to participate in the PCT scheme. We also found that it was likely to further increase the desired carbon price for those willing to participate. Further analysis demonstrated that male, young and middle‐aged, and low‐educated farmers were more likely to show greater motivation for participation in the PCT scheme due to internet access influence compared to other farmers. Additionally, we identified that the longer duration of internet access, the more likely farmers are to show a higher willingness to participate in the PCT scheme and hence the desired carbon price. In summary, the findings from this study imply that rural internet building exhibits a significant role in promoting the spread of PCT scheme and also helps to alleviate rural poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support future solar energy deployment in China, long‐term changes in solar energy resources over China were investigated based on high‐resolution dynamical downscaling simulations under three emission scenarios. First, an evaluation of model performance was conducted through comparison with station and ERA5 data, which indicated that although consistent overestimation was found, the spatial distribution and intra‐annual variation of solar radiation were captured well by ensemble simulation, showing added value over regions with complex topography as well. Then, the trends of the solar power output from photovoltaic (PV) systems during 2020–2099 were projected, characterized by an increase in east and central China, and a consistent decrease in the solar‐energy‐abundant regions (e.g., northeast China, the Tibetan Plateau, and northwest China) under the three scenarios. Except for under the low emission scenario, the regional averaged trends of PV were projected to decrease consistently over China in all four seasons, with significant magnitude apparent in both spring and winter. In addition, a more intense magnitude of decline was found under the higher emission scenario, with more subregions with a significant trend and higher intra‐annual and inter‐annual variability. However, it seems that the emission scenarios impact the spatial pattern only remarkably in the late century, however strengthened the decreasing magnitude in all future periods. In addition, results indicate decline in the future PV potential over most of subregions of China due to reduced radiation and increased temperature, but for the decrease over Tibetan Plateau the reduced wind speed also act as an important factor. Plain Language Summary: The long‐term goal of carbon neutrality in China involves new requirements for the development and utilization of solar energy. The present study was motivated by supporting future solar energy deployment at local scales. However, due to data limitations, relatively little effort has been made to project long‐term changes in solar energy over different subregions of China. Accordingly, we investigated this based on a set of high‐resolution dynamical downscaling simulations under different climate scenarios, and found that the higher emission scenarios reinforce the magnitude of the decline in solar energy and result in higher inter‐annual variability. These findings suggest an increased need for constraining emissions for the benefit of solar energy. In addition, we found that radiation will likely be the most important factor related to future changes in solar resources over most of subregions under RCP2.6 scenario, however the effect of wind speed should not be ignored over Tibetan Plateau. Key Points: Despite some overestimation, the spatial distribution and intra‐annual variation of solar radiation were captured well, showing added valuesFuture solar power were projected to generally increase in east and central China but decrease in solar‐energy‐abundant regionsRadiation was the most robust factor for future solar energy trend over China, however wind speed can not be ignored over Tibetan Plateau [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a nature‐based and cost‐effective solution, forestation plays a crucial role in combating global warming, biodiversity collapse, environmental degradation, and global well‐being. Although China is acknowledged as a global leader of forestation and has achieved considerable overall success in environmental improvements through mega‐forestation programs, many negative effects have also emerged at local scales due to the planting of maladapted tree species. To better help achieve carbon neutrality and the new vision of an ecological civilization, China has committed to further increase forestation. However, where forestation lands and such efforts should really be located is not so well understood yet and agreed upon, especially in the face of rapid climate change. Based on an ensemble‐learning machine, we predicted the spatial habitats (ecological niche) of the forest, grassland, shrubland, and desert under present and future climate conditions based on the natural climax vegetation distribution across China. We show that the potential forestation lands are mainly located in eastern China, which is east of the Hu Line (also known as the Heihe‐Tengchong Line). Under future climate change, forests will shift substantially in the latitudinal, longitudinal, and elevational distribution. Potential forestation lands will increase by 33.1 million hectares through the 2070s, mainly due to the conversions of shrub and grassland to forests along the Hu Line. Our prediction map also indicates that grassland rehabilitation is the universal optimal vegetation restoration strategy in areas west of the Hu Line. This analysis is consistent with much of the observed evidence of forestation failures and recent climate‐change‐induced forest range shifts. Our results provide an overview and further show the importance of adaptive science‐based forestation planning and forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated how ozone pollution and climate change/variability have interactively affected net primary productivity (NPP) and net carbon exchange (NCE) across China's forest ecosystem in the past half century. Continental China. Using the dynamic land ecosystem model (DLEM) in conjunction with 10-km-resolution gridded historical data sets (tropospheric O concentrations, climate variability/change, and other environmental factors such as land-cover/land-use change (LCLUC), increasing CO and nitrogen deposition), we conducted nine simulation experiments to: (1) investigate the temporo-spatial patterns of NPP and NCE in China's forest ecosystems from 1961-2005; and (2) quantify the effects of tropospheric O pollution alone or in combination with climate variability and other environmental stresses on forests' NPP and NCE. China's forests acted as a carbon sink during 1961-2005 as a result of the combined effects of O, climate, CO, nitrogen deposition and LCLUC. However, simulated results indicated that elevated O caused a 7.7% decrease in national carbon storage, with O-induced reductions in NCE (Pg C year) ranging from 0.4-43.1% among different forest types. Sensitivity experiments showed that climate change was the dominant factor in controlling changes in temporo-spatial patterns of annual NPP. The combined negative effects of O pollution and climate change on NPP and NCE could be largely offset by the positive fertilization effects of nitrogen deposition and CO. In the future, tropospheric O should be taken into account in order to fully understand the variations of carbon sequestration capacity of forests and assess the vulnerability of forest ecosystems to climate change and air pollution. Reducing air pollution in China is likely to increase the resilience of forests to climate change. This paper offers the first estimate of how prevention of air pollution can help to increase forest productivity and carbon sequestration in China's forested ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]