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Carbon neutrality strategies have a significant role in climate mitigation efforts. As global concerns regarding climate change continue to increase, achieving carbon neutrality has emerged as a paramount objective for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the adverse impacts of anthropogenic activities on the environment. This research investigates a wide range of scholarly works to conduct an in-depth analysis and synthesis of the relevant information about carbon neutrality strategies. The review introduces carbon neutrality principles and terminologies, highlighting their importance in climate mitigation. It then proceeds to explore the wide range of strategies employed across different sectors and industries, investigating their effectiveness, scalability, and potential challenges. A multidimensional analysis contrasts the United States Nationally Determined Contributions pathway 2023, China's Nationally Determined contributions 2023, and the EU Directive 2023/2413, assessing their economic, environmental, political, and social impacts. The study evaluates strategies' effectiveness, scalability, and innovation for transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon future. It fills a gap by analyzing global approaches across the US, China, and the EU, which account for about 50% of the world's total GHG emissions. It evaluates the novel application of diverse strategies, from renewable energy transitions to innovative policy measures, highlighting their potential to mitigate climate change effectively. By providing a multidimensional analysis of these strategies' impacts, the research not only enhances understanding of effective carbon neutrality tactics but also underscores the importance of international cooperation in realizing a sustainable, low-carbon future. • Identifies and analyzes carbon neutrality strategies, emphasizing the need for diverse US, Chinese, and EU approaches. • Evaluate renewable energy, carbon capture, and policy tools for carbon reduction effectiveness, scalability, and innovation. • Highlights the study's novelty in synthesizing current knowledge on carbon neutrality, addressing a significant research gap. • Concludes with strategic ideas for international collaboration and policy development for low-carbon futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality", China's cities are at the heart of climate change mitigation. To fulfill the commitments, the potential drivers of China's low-carbon economy at the city level should be explored. Thus, this study estimated the quality of low-carbon economy from the perspectives of carbon emissions and sequestration. Subsequently, spatial econometric approach was adopted to analyze the direct and spatial spillover effects of drivers on low-carbon economy. Moreover, to explore more potential variables, this study combined machine learning algorithms with different weight matrices to assess the importance scores of neighbouring cities' potential variables. The results show that (1) GDP per capita, emissions reduction technological progress, terrestrial vegetation's net primary productivity and the ratio of forest land cover improved cities' low-carbon economy; (2) land urbanization reduced nearby cities' low-carbon economy (especially those with high human footprint index at the inter-city border), which was caused by its negative spatial spillover effects on forest net primary production; (3) based on importance analysis, this study found that the characteristics of different sectors (e.g., the ratio of labor to fixed capital stocks, employment and fixed asset investment expenditure) also significantly influenced nearby cities' low-carbon economy. • China's city-level quality of low-carbon economy (reo) was estimated based on carbon intensity and sequestration. • The importance of 72 variables' spatial spillover effects were ranked based on machine learning algorithms. • Terrestrial vegetation's net primary productivity and the ratio of forest land cover greatly improved the reo. • The spatial spillover effect of land urbanization was negative in nearby cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the major contributors to global carbon dioxide emissions; however, the carbon transfers embodied in cities' domestic and foreign trade have not been fully discussed. As carbon emissions from different domestic and foreign trade partners have not been distinguished, and since China's four municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing) carry an increasingly significant responsibility for carbon reduction in China, a multi-scale and multi-regional carbon emission assessment is applied to identify their emission transfers to and from 26 domestic provinces and 184 foreign economies. The results show that the intensities of the four municipalities are mainly above the international standard (0.14 kg/CNY) but beneath the Chinese average (0.24 kg/CNY). 71.72%, 55.35%, 65.34% and 33.65% of their emissions are imported from other regions. Generally, the four municipalities are net recipients of domestic carbon transfers and suppliers of foreign carbon transfers. Carbon transfers from Hebei to Beijing and Tianjin, Zhejiang to Shanghai, and Sichuan to Chongqing as well as from Beijing and Tianjin to Japan and South Korea and from Shanghai and Chongqing to the United States and Germany are identified in domestic and foreign supply chains. The multi-scale and multi-regional simulation and assessment in this work allows us to identify the carbon emissions not only within a city's boundaries but also via inter- and intra-national trade, providing a solid foundation for the carbon emission assessments of Chinese mega cities from an embodied perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to contribute to climate change mitigation, China has committed to achieving its peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. However, reaching these goals will require a massive reduction in carbon emissions. The humans have to consume food to meet their survival needs. Furthermore, the society's demand for food is consistent with the development level of agricultural structures. At present, reducing environmental costs associated with food to adjust the agricultural structure has not received sufficient scientific attention. Because of this, the present study combines food consumption, climate change, and agricultural structure to design future scenarios based on the widely used SSP storyline. Moreover, in order for China to reach its carbon peak in 2030, this study applies a life-cycle approach to uncover the potential carbon reduction of Chinese residents under different dietary structures. From a demand perspective, this study puts forward recommendations for dietary restructuring and guides the direction of future agricultural restructuring in China. It also shows that a diet structure that replaces red meat with plant foods such as vegetables and fruits will have a more significant carbon reduction potential. The traditional agricultural structure consumes a large amount of food and produces a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Reducing meat and high-fat foods consumption may help reduce GHG emissions produced by food consumption. In addition, reducing the proportion of food used for feeding in the agricultural structure will also help achieve peak carbon targets. The shift in diet structure will advance China's agricultural structure and promote green agriculture development. • Food consumption and related carbon emissions within the 2030 scenario will continue to increase, with the highest share of rice consumption. • The carbon emissions of food consumption in the environmentally sustainable scenario will decrease. • Readjusting toward a more balanced diet could significantly contribute to the carbon peak goal. • A shift in dietary structure will promote agricultural restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban parks are considered as an effective, sustainable, and affordable heat mitigation strategy. At present, there is a lack of understanding of the carbon saving potential of urban parks in the context of urban warming. Here we provide a simple approach to estimate the potential carbon savings due to heat mitigation based on analysis of 1510 parks in 26 major urban areas of the years 2017–2021 within the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China's largest sustainability experiment. On average, an urban park with 26.9 ± 1.5 ha in the YREB could avoid 23.7 ± 1.6 t CO 2 (1.08 ± 0.03 t CO 2 /ha) in emissions due to heat mitigation per summer day. Considered altogether, the 1510 urban parks can offset 5.37% of the daily fossil fuel emissions in the YREB. To boost carbon saving efficiency, lush vegetation should be first considered and the coupled green and blue infrastructures are always advocated. The total parks carbon saving of cities gradually improved along the Yangtze River from west to east, among which Shanghai city (in the east of the YREB) is with the largest amount (4341 t CO 2). The strategies using exquisite landscape design for improving carbon saving may differ across different climate zones. These findings can inform decision-making for urban sustainable development and climate change mitigation, which may benefit China's movement toward carbon neutrality. [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]

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]

Achieving the carbon neutral targets before year 2060 is one of the important commitments for mitigating global climate change by Chinese government. However, the manner in which one would maximize the carbon sequestration of the planted forests is still unclear. Estimating accurately the carbon balance in forestry depends highly on the dynamics of numerous delay-released carbon pools (e.g., harvest residues, wood products), thus the strategies used to account for the carbon emissions of these components may have great influences on the decision-making and profitability associated with planted forests. This study developed a tool that allows forest managers and policy makers to analyze the effects of alternative accounting strategies for recognizing carbon emissions on the optimal rotation lengths and profitability of planted forests. The considered carbon balance not only refers to the within-forest pools, e.g., living biomass, harvest residues, annually generated litters and dead trees, but also refers to the outside-forest pools that include wood products, biofuel, operating process and substitution effect. The obtained results indicated that the lengths of optimal forest rotation decreased significantly with increases in site index, planting density and discount rate, while they increased dramatically with increases of carbon price. The gaps in rotation lengths were as large as 13.5 years, 6.9 years, 27.6 years and 11.0 years, respectively for the ranges of site index (10–18 m), planting density (2500–4444 trees per hectare), discount rate (1%–5%), and carbon prices (0–880 CNY/ton CO 2) assumed. The effects of delay-released carbon pools on the optimal rotation lengths were not significant, when the substitution effects of wood products and biofuels were considered under the current carbon trading markets; however, some exceptions were observed when a very high carbon price (880 CNY/ton CO 2) was assumed. [Display omitted] • A management tool that considers carbon balance and wood production was developed. • The optimal rotations are sensitive to forest- and economic-based variables. • The delayed effects of carbon emissions on optimal rotations were offset by substitution effects. • Pricing CO 2 sequestrated in forests can increase optimal rotations and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]