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Guangxi is a typical developing region on the southern coast of China. The current issues encountered in the region's development are that fossil energy accounts for about 80% of the energy structure, fossil fuels are heavily dependent on imports, and the self-sufficiency rate of resources is only 32%. These challenges have created a disparity between the current regional development state and the country's dual carbon target. Under the premise of comprehensively considering the multi-sectors of electricity, industry, transportation, and heating, this paper presents a study on the energy system transition towards low-carbon development for Guangxi in four steps. Firstly, to demonstrate EnergyPLAN's capability in energy modeling, a reference scenario for Guangxi is created using official yearbook data from 2020. Then, a short-term scenario is formulated to analyze the development of Guangxi's energy system during the 14th Five-Year Plan. Furthermore, two mid-term scenarios are established, revealing that Guangxi is anticipated to reach its carbon emission peak between 2025 and 2030. Finally, three long-term scenarios are proposed for Guangxi's energy system for 2050. These scenarios encompass the expansion of photovoltaics, nuclear, and wind power in the electricity system and emission reduction policies in the industrial, transportation, and heating sectors. As a result, compared with the 2020REF scenario, Guangxi can achieve a carbon emission reduction exceeding 57% and the share of non-fossil energy consumption can reach about 70% in the 2050 scenarios, despite a substantial increase in energy consumption, which makes it possible to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060 and to establish an energy system with less than 20% of fossil energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since energy-related carbon dioxide emissions represent two-thirds of all greenhouse gases, a transition towards cleaner and renewable energy is imperative. Moreover, the carbon neutrality targets set by countries hinge upon increased uptake of renewable energy and storage. Some of these energy transition (ET) interventions are highly mineral intensive and depend upon critical minerals (CM), which are scarce and face supply challenges. However, what is meant by 'critical' is not uniform and static. The interface between ET and minerals is still an emerging area in policy studies literature. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive review of 68 studies from a policy perspective studying the critical minerals – ET nexus. Most literature has approached the issue from the perspective of economics or geopolitics, followed by a broad governance approach. Very little attention has been given to legal and institutional aspects and justice in particular. The review suggests that the main challenges associated with the subject relate to the criticality of minerals, raw material security, trade and geopolitics, circular economy strategies, environmental and social impacts, and energy justice. • In-depth review on critical minerals-energy transition relationship from a policy perspective. • Discussion on key issues & challenges around minerals - energy transition interface. • Highlights the need for more research on legal & institutional issues on the subject. • Discussion on complexities in defining 'criticality'. • A review of 68 policy studies on parameters such as geography, intervention, theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • H 2 , above all the green H 2 , will play a key role in the future energy transition. • Many countries are adopting hydrogen policies towards the net-zero GHG. • Storage and distribution are key enabling technologies for widespread H 2 deployment. • Hydrogen deployment in a real CCGT proves a remarkable reduction of CO 2 emissions. • H 2 leads to carbon footprint reduction in Power to Gas and Gas to Electricity fields. Hydrogen is gaining momentum in the current global energy transition framework. In fact a great and widespread enthusiasm is growing up towards it, as indicated by the current worldwide economic and political strategies, which endorse the carbon neutrality by 2030 and a fast transition to clean energy. Green hydrogen has the potential to create a virtuous cycle for the future renewables-based electricity grids, as it can provide the much-needed flexibility to power systems, acting as a buffer to non-dispatchable renewable generation. Indeed, the excess energy, provided by conventional and renewable power plants, can be stored as hydrogen and then employed to produce electricity (fuel cells or power systems), heat (combustion) or both (co-generation), abating drastically the greenhouse gas production. In this scenario, it is important to understand what benefits could derive from the use of hydrogen. For this reason, the present work not only aims at reviewing the recent updates on hydrogen economy (in terms of the main advantages and drawbacks) but also focuses on determining the impact that this hydrogen may have in various sectors (transport, industry and power generation). Different assessments have been carried out showing how hydrogen can effectively contribute to the carbon neutrality goal. This work points out that hydrogen can be really sustainable if produced via electrolysis powered by renewable energies. Furthermore, for the mobility, the use of fuel cells currently turns out to be less efficient than the adoption of Li-ion batteries, but at the same time far less polluting ( CO 2 , eq ) and labor intensive. Finally, a near-term solution to contrast the power generation carbon footprint, namely the blending of fossil fuels with hydrogen, has been investigated. Thus, a real Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power plant has been selected as a case study, in order to assess the impact of the hydrogen employment in terms of power output and emissions with respect to the current status of the plant fueled with 100% natural gas. As a result, using a mixture with 70% CH 4 and 30% H 2 a remarkable reduction of CO 2 can be achieved (0.28 Mt CO 2 / year). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]