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Copyright of SDU Journal of Engineering Sciences & Design / Mühendislik Bilimleri ve Tasarım Dergisi is the property of Journal of Engineering Sciences & Design and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the rapid development of urbanization in China, urban energy consumption increases rapidly, leading to energy shortages and environmental pollution, of which building operational energy consumption carbon emissions (BECCE) account for a large proportion. It has a vital impact on global warming and urban green and sustainable development. Chengdu city in Sichuan Province is taken as the research area in this paper. First, basic information and power data on four types of single buildings, including large-sized buildings, small- and medium-sized buildings, government agencies, and residential buildings, are collected. Second, the characteristics of the four types of buildings are extracted, and the calculation model of BECCE ("electricity-carbon" model) based on particle swarm optimization algorithm-support vector machine (PSO-SVM) is constructed, and the model is trained and verified using the method of five-fold cross-validation. Then, according to the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and R² evaluation indicators, the constructed "electricity-carbon" model is compared and evaluated. Finally, the generalization ability of the "electricity-carbon" model is verified. The research results show that (1) the "electricity-carbon" model constructed in this paper has a high accuracy rate, and the fitting ability of the PSO-SVM model is significantly better than that of the support vector regression (SVR) model; (2) in the testing stage, the fitting situation of large buildings is the best, and MAE, RMSE, and R² are 858.7, 1108.6, and 0.91, respectively; and (3) the spatial distribution map of regional BECCE can be quickly obtained using the "electricity-carbon" model constructed in this paper. The "electricity-carbon" model constructed in this paper can provide a scientific reference for building emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new generation of transportation, electric vehicles play an important role in carbon-peak targets. The development of electric vehicles needs the support of a charging network, and improper planning of charging stations will result in a waste of resources. In order to expand the charging network of electric vehicles and give full play to the low-carbon and efficient characteristics of electric vehicles, this paper proposed a charging station planning method that considers the characteristics of carbon emission trends. This paper combined the long short-term memory (LSTM) network with the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model to predict the carbon emission trend and quantified the correlation between the construction speed of a charging station and the evolution characteristics of carbon emission by Pearson's correlation coefficient. A multi-stage charging station planning model was established, which captures the dynamic characteristics of the charging demand of the transportation network and determines the station deployment scheme with economic and low-carbon benefits on the spatiotemporal scale. The Pareto frontier was solved by using the elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. The model and solution algorithm were verified by the actual road network in a certain area of Shanghai. The results showed that the proposed scheme can meet the charging demand of regional electric vehicles in the future, improve the utilization rate of charging facilities, and reduce the carbon emission of transportation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's rapid industrialization and urbanization in the process of socio-economic development, the extensive use of energy has resulted in a large amount of CO2 emissions, which puts great pressure on China's carbon emission reduction task. Through multivariate socio-economic data, this paper proposes an extraction and screening method of multivariate variables based on land-use types, and the downscaled spatial decomposition of carbon emissions at different scales was carried out by using the spatial lag model (SLM). This paper makes up for the shortcomings of previous studies, such as an insufficient modeling scale, simple modeling variables, limited spatio-temporal span of spatial decomposition, and no consideration of geographical correlation. Based on the results of the spatial decomposition of carbon emissions, this paper explores the spatial and temporal dynamics of carbon emissions at different scales. The results showed that SLM is capable of downscaling the spatialization of carbon emissions with high precision, and the continuity of the decomposition results at the provincial scale is stronger, while the differences of the decomposition results at the municipal scale are more obvious within the municipal units. In terms of the spatial and temporal dynamics of CO2 emissions, carbon emissions at both scales showed a significant positive correlation. The dominant spatial correlation types are "Low–Low" at the provincial level, and "Low–Low" and "High–High" at the municipal level. The smaller spatial scope is more helpful to show the geographic dependence and geographic differences of China's carbon emissions. The findings of this paper will help deepen the understanding of the spatial and temporal changes of carbon emissions in China. They will provide a scientific basis for the formulation of feasible carbon emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-energy consumption and high-emission industries contribute a lot to economic development, but their carbon emissions are also huge. In order to achieve the dual-carbon target as early as possible, it is necessary to reduce the carbon emissions of high-energy consumption and high-emission industries. This paper selected five representative factors (population, per capita gross domestic product (GDP), energy intensity, energy structure and carbon emission coefficient) and adopted the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) method to decompose the driving factors of carbon emissions. Therefore, this paper uses Tapio decoupling model to analyze the decoupling relationship between the two factors with the greatest impact on carbon emissions and carbon emissions. The results show that: (i) There is a good decoupling between high-energy consumption and high-emission industries and per capita GDP, and the impact of per capita GDP on carbon emissions will gradually decrease in the future; (ii) The decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and energy intensity is poor. For some industries, the reduction of energy intensity can help reduce carbon emissions. Finally, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote carbon emission reduction. This paper provides theoretical support for studying how to reduce carbon emissions and formulate relevant emission reduction policies in the high-energy consumption and high-emission industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for the embodied carbon in construction materials and calculating the carbon footprint of entire construction projects in life-cycle assessments is a rapidly developing area in the construction industry. Carbon emission accounting relies on inventories that claim to represent the values of carbon contained in materials. However, these values vary between different carbon inventories. This scoping review identifies academic research on the carbon inventories used in Australia, as well as the methods used to compare these inventories. The study was conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. We identified 182 papers and narrowed these down to 11 that complied with the objectives of this study. Data for a range of construction materials were compared in these papers, as were the methods used to calculate the values. While some carbon inventories were used frequently, no clear preference for the method of calculating carbon values was apparent. The system boundaries also varied between publications, and a range of functional units was used. There was agreement that the variables involved in calculating carbon values for building materials are compounded by the practical issues of extracting and manufacturing materials in different regional or local conditions, cultures, and technological situations. It is therefore understandable that different inventories store different values when so many factors need to be considered. There is thus a clear need for agreement to be reached about standardisation of the processes involved. If the trustworthiness of the data stored in carbon inventories is questionable, so too are the outcomes of subsequent activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic globalization and green development have become the consensus of all countries in the world. The importance of FDI, carbon emissions and green total factor productivity is self-evident. This study analyses the impact of FDI inflows on green TFP and the role of carbon emissions in FDI inflows and green TFP. The empirical analysis employed kernel density estimation, OLS, mediation effect model, and panel quantile regression methods using China's provincial panel data spanning over 2001–2019. The facts show that China's carbon emissions have been reduced because of environmental regulations and green TFP is still rising in fluctuation. The results from OLS and mediation effect model indicate that the impact of FDI inflows on green TFP present an asymmetric inverted U-shape and FDI influences green TFP by changing carbon emissions. The panel quantile regression results also show that FDI has a stronger impact on green TFP in less developed regions. This paper believes that the introduction of FDI should be appropriate and should be accompanied by corresponding environmental regulations, in order to promote green TFP in countries around the world. [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]

Digital technology has a significant impact on most industries in the 21st century. The publishing industry is also facing digital transformation, and the traditional paper business is considered polluted and wasteful as it generates carbon emissions. To compare the influence of digital paperless business with the traditional one on environmental performance in publishing, this paper adopts a refined weak disposability model initially introduced by Kuosmanen (2005). The main novelty of the paper is to include two types of desirable outputs in production technology: one is linked to generating undesirable outputs while another is not. Two additional economic assumptions can be imposed on environmental production technology, namely, weak disposability and null-jointness, respectively. We apply the refined model to assess the economic and environmental performance of the publishing industry in China. The paper business generates carbon emissions while the digital outputs (paperless business) may not produce pollution. The empirical results indicate that a vast potential improvement is detected for the digital outputs while limited progress is allowed for traditional outputs. Furthermore, we use the entropy method to obtain a comprehensive digital technology indicator and further explore its influence on performance in the publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote the balanced development of regional economy, governments at all levels are constantly introducing regional coordinated development policy (hereinafter referred to as "the Policy"). However, there is an important and interesting issue, namely, with the increasingly severe environmental problems resulted from rapid regional economic growth, what kind of impact will the Policy have on carbon emissions reduction? This is attracting wide attention from relevant stakeholders. Therefore, taking the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region in China for example and through constructing the difference-in-differences (DID) model, this paper evaluated the effect of the implementation of the Policy on carbon emissions reduction. Results indicated that the Policy significantly reduced the level of regional carbon emissions in the BTH region. After carrying out a series of robustness tests, this paper still found that the above conclusions were reliable. Moreover, the mediation effect test shown that the Policy indirectly lessened carbon emissions by optimizing energy structure and reducing the intensity of carbon emissions, while the expanding of economic scale would lead to an increase in carbon emissions due to the effect from the Policy. Additionally, heterogeneity analysis revealed that the Policy had a more significant effect on carbon emissions reduction in underdeveloped regions with low environmental constraints. Overall, this paper would be beneficial to understanding the environmental effects of the Policy at the urban regional scale, thus providing an important basic theoretical basis for promoting the green and sustainable development of regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the creation, development, and dissemination of prefabricated concrete rural houses in Jiangsu Province in East China from 1961 to the 1980s, an example of the technological transition provoked by the depletion of forest and timber in China. Through archival research, fieldwork and interviews, the paper examines the two waves of design and dissemination of prefabricated concrete rural houses between 1961 and 1965 and their subsequent 'vernacularisation' in the 1970s and the 1980s. This research provides a twofold insight into the current scholarly debates surrounding built heritage and global climate change. On one hand, it addresses a historical context of concrete overuse in contemporary China, a matter of critical importance in relation to carbon emissions and global climate change. On the other hand, it offers a counter-argument to today's call for reintroducing timber structures in many places, as evidenced by the case of East China, where the widespread use of materials like concrete was primarily a consequence of the ecological crisis following decades of deforestation and timber resource depletion. In addition, the 'vernacularisation' of concrete structures manifested by this case still provides lessons for today's efforts to popularise more eco-friendly construction materials and technologies, especially in rural areas, and the prefabricated concrete houses possess potential heritage values as trackers of ecological changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital economy is an important direction of the new round of technological revolution and a key driving force for realizing the "double control of carbon emissions". This paper utilizes the panel data of 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2011 to 2021 to measure the development level of the digital economy, total carbon emissions, and carbon emission intensity and explores the impact of the digital economy on the dual control of carbon emissions and the mechanism of its effect by applying the mediating and moderating effect models. The results show that the digital economy can play a significant inhibitory effect on total carbon emissions and carbon emissions intensity, and this conclusion is still robust after a series of tests. From the government level, there exists a transmission path of "digital economy → environmental regulation stringency → dual control of carbon emissions"; from the enterprise and research organization level, there also exists a transmission path of "digital economy → R&D intensity → dual control of carbon emissions". From the perspective of regional imbalance, there are large regional differences in the impact of the digital economy on the dual control of carbon emissions, and there are also large differences in the impact of the various subdivided indicators of the digital economy on the dual control of carbon emissions. In addition, this paper also finds that the positive effect of the digital economy on the dual control of carbon emissions is more obvious in regions with a smaller proportion of SOEs. These findings add new evidence to the study of "the impact of the digital economy on the dual control of carbon emissions" and provide new ideas for accelerating the realization of green and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital inclusive finance (DIF) is a strategic tool that fosters the green transformation of the industrial economy. Based on the data from the 11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China between 2012 and 2021, This paper utilizes the Tobit, intermediary effect, and threshold effect models to empirically study the impact of DIF on the industrial land carbon emission intensity (ILCEI). This paper reaches the following conclusions: (1) The ILCEI in the region revealed a downward trend during the study period. There are substantial differences in carbon ILCEI; higher upstream and lower downstream. The average ILCEI in the lower reach provinces is 0.5829 ton/m2 during the research period, while that in the upper reach region is 1.0104 ton/m2. (2) DIF has a significantly inhibitory effect on the ILCEI; this effect has nonlinear characteristics. The impact of DIF on ILCEI exhibits a marginally diminishing trend as the industrial land economic agglomeration degree improves. (3) Regarding the transmission mechanism, the level of industrial R&D investment plays a primary intermediary role in the impact of DIF on ILCEI. (4) Concerning control variables, foreign investment dependence and trade contribute significantly to inhibiting ILCEI. Lastly, this paper proposes a series of measures to promote DIF to fully utilize the emission reduction effect. The research outcomes have substantial implications for the sustainable development of industrial land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing concern for the environment, sustainable development centred on a low-carbon economy has become a unifying pursuit for the energy industry. Integrated energy systems (IES) that combine multiple energy sources such as electricity, heat and gas are essential to facilitate the consumption of renewable energy and the reduction of carbon emission. In this paper, gas turbine (GT), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and power-to-gas (P2G) device are introduced to construct a new carbon capture coupling device model, GT-CCS-P2G (GCCP), which is applied to the integrated electrical and gas system (IEGS). Multi-agent soft actor critic (MASAC) applies historical trajectory representations, parameter spatial techniques and deep densification frameworks to reinforcement learning for reducing the detrimental effects of time-series data on the decisional procedure. The energy scheduling problem of IEGS is redefined as a Markov game, which is addressed by adopting a low carbon economic control framework based on MASAC with minimum operating cost and minimum carbon emission as the optimization objectives. To validate the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed low-carbon economy scheduling model of IEGS based on MASAC, this paper simulates and analyses in integrated PJM-5 node system and seven nodes natural gas system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the core carriers and key positions to achieve the dual carbon goals. It is of great significance to explore whether promoting urbanization can improve carbon emission performance, which is of great significance to comprehensively promote the goal of carbon neutrality. Based on the panel data from 2006 to 2021, this paper analyzes the spatial autocorrelation of carbon emission performance per unit space and the impact mechanism of urbanization process on it. The fixed-effect model was further used to identify the influencing factors of spatial carbon emission performance. The results show that: 1) China's carbon emission performance per unit space is declining year by year. 2) There is a strong positive spatial correlation and stable path dependence on the performance of carbon emissions per unit space in each region. 3) To a certain extent, increasing the level of urbanization will reduce the carbon emission performance per unit space. 4) The urbanization process has a spatial spillover effect on the carbon emission performance per unit space of surrounding provinces, and the spatial spillover effect of industrial structure and energy consumption structure is more obvious than that of economic level, population density and urbanization rate. Based on the conclusions, this paper puts forward specific policy suggestions to reduce the carbon emission performance per unit space to help the low-carbon development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the proportion of household carbon emissions to global carbon emissions continues to increase, reducing carbon emissions from household consumption has become an important way to achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. How the trend of miniaturization of household size will affect household carbon emissions is a matter of concern. This paper uses a sample of 9,090 households from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database in 2018 to empirically study the impact of changes in household size on household carbon emissions, from the perspective of household consumption structure and urban-rural areas. The research results indicate that the miniaturization of household size will increase household carbon emissions, the impact of household size on indirect HCEs is greater than on direct HCEs. The impact of household size on indirect HCEs is heterogeneous in consumption structure and the impact of household size on indirect HCEs from housing, transportation is greater than that of other consumption items. The impact of household size on urban household carbon emissions is greater than that in rural areas. The upgrading of household consumption structure and the miniaturization of household size promote the increase of HCEs jointly. Therefore, this paper proposes that under the trend of household miniaturization, energy-saving and emission reduction policies should focus on reducing indirect households carbon emissions, optimizing household structure and household consumption structure, enhancing environmental awareness among family members, establishing and improving the green consumption system, and building environment-friendly households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively address climate change, it is necessary to quantify the carbon emissions in high energy-consuming regions, analyze driving factors, and explore effective pathways for achieving green development. Therefore, this paper takes Liaoning Province as research area, using extended Kaya identity and LMDI method to analyze the driving factors of carbon emissions from energy consumption in five major industries and the residential consumption sector from 2011 to 2020 in Liaoning Province. Furthermore, this paper uses the Tapio model to explore the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic development. The results show that: 1) From 2011 to 2020, total carbon emissions from energy consumption in five major industries showed a trend of initially declining and then rising, while carbon emissions from the residential consumption sector exhibited an upward trend. 2) For carbon emissions from the industrial sector, economic output and industrial structure are the primary factors that promote and inhibit carbon emissions respectively. The inhibitory effects of energy structure and energy intensity are not significant. Population scale has a certain promoting effect on carbon emissions. For residential energy consumption carbon emissions, Household consumption expenditure, residential energy structure, and residential population scale are driving factors that promote the growth of carbon emissions, while residential energy intensity restrains the growth of carbon emissions. 3) From 2011 to 2018, carbon emissions from the industrial sector have been decoupled from economic output, and the decoupling state is dominated by weak decoupling. However, carbon emissions are once again correlated with economic development in 2019-2020. Carbon emissions from residential energy consumption have not yet decoupled from consumption expenditure, and its decoupling state is unstable and has no obvious change rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately predicting the trajectory of carbon emissions is vital for achieving a sustainable shift toward a green and low-carbon future. Hence, this paper created a novel model to examine the driver analysis and integrated prediction for Chinese carbon emission, a large carbon-emitting country. The logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) approach initially served to decompose the drivers of carbon emissions, analyzing the annual and staged contributions of these factors. Given the non-stationarity and non-linear characteristics in the data sequence of carbon emissions, a decomposition–integration prediction model was proposed. The model employed the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) model to decompose each set of data into a series of components. The various carbon emission components were anticipated using the long short-term memory (LSTM) model based on the deconstructed impacting factors. The aggregate of these predicted components constituted the overall forecast for carbon emissions. The result indicates that the EMD-LSTM model greatly decreased prediction errors over the other comparable models. This paper makes up for the gap in existing research by providing further analysis based on the LMDI method. Additionally, it innovatively incorporates the EMD method into the carbon emission study, and the proposed EMD-LSTM prediction model effectively addresses the volatility characteristics of carbon emissions and demonstrates excellent predictive performance in carbon emission prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning to clean cooking fuels is not only part of achieving SDG7 but also makes a significant contribution to mitigating climate change by reducing carbon emissions. Research projects and pilots across a number of countries in Africa and South Asia have been exploring the suitability and energy performance of different cooking appliances and fuels. The paper presents the first statistical analysis across these multiple datasets to determine the range of energy required to cook dishes using different technologies and fuels. The paper draws out distinctions between African and Asian dishes, notably the impact of energy-intensive dishes prepared mostly in Africa. The paper demonstrates that the standard efficiency-based approaches to comparing the performance of stoves are not appropriate to modern electric cooking devices, so a novel alternative approach based on specific energy consumption and termed energy ratios is developed. Charcoal stoves are shown to use 15 times as much energy as electric pressure cookers (EPCs) to cook African dishes, and a detailed review of how the EPC works explains why this should be. Energy ratios provide a basis for estimating carbon emission reductions associated with transitioning to modern cooking fuels and also for estimating household cooking costs. Fuel and electricity prices from studies show that the cost of cooking with an EPC can be only 20% of the cost of cooking with charcoal, which highlights the potential for modern, energy-efficient electric cooking devices to defy the conventional wisdom of the energy ladder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the double constraints of the "double carbon" target and high-quality economic development, carbon trading policy is an important tool for realizing the emission reduction commitment; based on the perspective of microenterprises, the specific mechanism and spatial effect of carbon trading policy still need to be evaluated. Taking China's carbon emissions trading pilot as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper empirically investigates the impact of carbon trading policy on the carbon emission intensity of pilot enterprises and its mechanism of action, and its impact on the carbon emission intensity of neighboring enterprises, based on the multi-temporal double-difference model, moderating effect model, and spatial Durbin model with the A-sharelisted enterprises in the period of 2009-2019 as the samples. It is found that: 1) Carbon trading policy will reduce the carbon emission intensity of enterprises to different degrees, and there are significant differences under different ownership types, degrees of marketization and the level of digitization. 2) Under the influence of environmental uncertainty, ESG disclosure will weaken the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction in the pre-pilot stage of the policy; with the gradual improvement of the carbon trading policy and ESG disclosure mechanism, ESG ratings will positively regulate the inhibitory effect of the carbon trading policy on the carbon emission intensity of enterprises through multiple paths. 3) Carbon trading policy effectively reduces multiple negative spillovers through the demonstration effect and competition effect of neighboring enterprises, driving the carbon emission reduction behavior of non-pilot enterprise. The research in this paper enriches the research paradigm of carbon emission intensity influencing factors, provides reference suggestions for the government to improve its policies, and better contributes to the realization of the "dual-carbon" vision in China as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical progress has a tremendous potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by reducing energy consumption, a major concern across production units. However, the existing empirical literature concerning technical efficiency and carbon intensity is scanty. Thus, this paper examines the relationship between technical efficiency and carbon intensity for the organized manufacturing sector of two states, Maharashtra and Odisha, and the all-India level from 2001 to 2018. The paper uses data envelopment analysis to estimate technical efficiency scores. It applies the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Tier 1 methodology for estimating carbon intensity for each 3-digit manufacturing industry in all three sample cases. The study has used static panel regression and fractional logit regression techniques to examine the deterministic relationship between technical efficiency and carbon intensity. The result shows that technical efficiency is highly sensitive to carbon intensity in the Indian manufacturing industries. The findings also addressed that the size of the industries also reduces the technical performance of manufacturing units. This paper also confirmed that increased profit could boost the Indian manufacturing industries' technical efficiency. Thus, this study addresses that carbon intensity as a proxy for the manufacturing sector's potential to affect climate change plays a crucial role in explaining the technical efficiency variations across industries. Thus, it calls for better policies aimed at reducing the emissions of industries specifically to achieve sustainable growth for the Indian manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synergistic relationship between water, energy, and food faces increasing challenges. Green finance as a policy tool promotes high-quality and efficient development of water, energy, and food subsystems. However, whether it can improve the synergistic relationship of "water–energy–food" (WEF) still needs to be studied. Using the panel data of 38 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2013 to 2021, and network DEA and panel regression models, we study the impact of green finance on the level of synergy of "water–energy–food". The results of the study show that green finance can promote the synergy level of "water–energy–food" in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, which was first inhibited and then promoted from 2013 to 2021. The impacts of green finance on the efficiency of the three subsystems are also characterized by a "U" shape. However, linear impacts show differences, with green finance improving the efficiency of the water subsystem but not the energy and food subsystems. The implementation of China's national strategies empowers green finance. The digital strategy, the "dual carbon" strategy, and the new urbanization strategy have increased the effectiveness of green finance in contributing to the level of water–energy–food synergy. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of green finance mainly exists in non-resource-based cities, non-main grain-producing areas, and non-cities along the South-to-North water diversion route and large cities. Finally, this paper puts forward relevant policy recommendations. [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]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the role and advantages of knowledge resources in the carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain, and how it can be used to promote the carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain, so that the industry can better achieve the saving of energy and the reduction of emission. Design/methodology/approach: This paper argues that the traditional resource-plundering industrial chain production method can no longer meet the needs of sustainable development of the green and low-carbon industrial chain, and builds the coupling and coordination of knowledge technology innovation drive and industrial chain carbon emission reduction mechanism, in the four dimensions of industrial chain organization, government support, internet support and staff brainstorming, put forward suggestions for knowledge resources to drive carbon emission reduction in the industrial chain. Findings: This paper holds that the use of knowledge resource advantages can better help industrial chain enterprises to carry out technological innovation, knowledge resource digital platform construction, knowledge resource overflow and transfer, application and management of network information technology, so as to reduce carbon emission in industrial chain. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the discussion about the high-quality implementation of the revitalization strategy of the industrial chain and also deepens research on the knowledge resource-driven carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain. Further, this paper enriches the role of knowledge resources in the industrial industry, and the theoretical results support the advantages of knowledge resource in the field of chain carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the capacity of environmental regulatory policies to effectuate carbon emission reduction (CER) at the enterprise micro-level. It delves into the intrinsic correlation between these policies through theoretical analysis and empirical assessments, scrutinising the varied effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations (ERs) such as sewage charges and environmental protection subsidies. Findings reveal that diverse ERs can bolster CER, with sewage charging ERs manifesting a more conspicuous emission reduction effect. Rigorous robustness tests validate these initial conclusions. Moreover, distinct ERs exhibit temporal lags in their impact on CER; sewage charging ERs display a diminishing trend in emission reduction efficacy, while environmental subsidies ERs exhibit dynamic superposition traits. Importantly, incentives for green innovation and enhancements in total factor productivity emerge as pivotal mechanisms by which diverse ERs propel CER within enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, global forest area has been reducing; tropical forests have suffered from different anthropogenic and natural factors that account for forest loss. Tropical deforestation is the second driver of anthropogenic emissions; increasing demand and investments in tropical forests drive these emissions. These forests attract significant foreign direct investments, but the effects of these investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry are not well enshrined in the literature for the countries under study. This paper seeks to analyse the impact of foreign direct investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry amongst 30 tropical forest countries from 1996 to 2019. The sampled countries were disaggregated by tropical blocs: Amazon, Congo basin, Australasia, and Southeast Asia, and by income levels; low-income, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income. The findings reveal a U-shape structure of the impact of FDI on carbon emissions from LULUCF within Congo basin and Amazon countries; at higher levels of FDI, emissions from LULUCF will increase while Australasia and Southeast Asian countries show an inverted U-shape impact, thus at higher levels of FDI, there will be a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions from LULUCF. The income levels reveal an inverted U-shape for low-income and high-income countries and a U-shape for upper-middle-income countries; the impact for lower-middle-income countries is not significant. Overall, for the whole sample, the impact depicts a U-shape. This paper proposes high-level development of environmental conditions for FDI for different sectors that align with country and regional green growth plans. Enhancing national and regional governance systems to enforce decisions and fight corruption effectively can significantly promote green FDI for green growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is looking for sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to conventional building materials. As the world faces increasing environmental challenges, the need for greener construction practices has become more urgent. Cement production is known for its high energy consumption and significant carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, it is essential to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of cement production and use. One promising area of research is the use of industrial byproducts such as steel slag to partially replace cement in concrete. The use of these by-products not only solves the problem of waste disposal but also provides a sustainable solution to improve the properties of building materials. When mixed with cement, steel slag participates in pozzolanic reactions, in which reactive silica from the slag reacts with calcium hydroxide, produced during the hydration of cement, to form calcium silicate hydrate gel (CSH). This CSH gel is responsible for the strength and durability of concrete. Incorporating steel slag can improve the mechanical properties of concrete, including compressive, flexural, and tensile strength. In addition, steel slag can improve the durability properties of concrete, such as resistance to chemical attack, reduced permeability, and increased resistance to physical and chemical degradation over time. This paper investigates the durability properties of cement when partially replaced by steel slag, focusing on various aspects of durability, including resistance to chemical attack, mechanical strength, and long-term performance under various environmental conditions. The study includes a comprehensive experimental program designed to evaluate the impact of steel slag on the durability of concrete through a series of tests and analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While we live in times of pervasive digital transformation, the world faces a physical challenge: climate change. Addressing it requires the global economy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. "Net zero" describes a state in which, globally, the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere is balanced by the amount of emissions removed. As some sectors and firms are more difficult to decarbonize, net-zero pathways indicate that othersmustmove beyond net zero and adopt a regenerative approach. Although carbon emissions are inherently physical, digital innovation might be the key to accelerating progress on net zero, given its potential to measure, coordinate, and change the emissions logic of the current economy. This paper aims to construct a novel perspective on digital sustainability by exploring how digitally enabled and digital-first innovation can contribute to net zero. We develop a framework of four complementary digital netzero strategies by synthesizing insights fromprior literature with empirical illustrations. The framework serves as a starting point for future research and provides practical guidance for net-zero strategizing. It challenges digital sustainability research and practice to complement emissions reduction efforts with removal and regeneration and to explore both digitally enabled and digital-first innovation for net zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the optimal vehicle fleet planning and collaboration problem for a fuel vehicle (FV) transport service provider, a commercial electric vehicle (CEV) transport service provider, and a carbon emission treatment agency under carbon neutrality. The FV transport service provider pays a fixed fee or a portion of its sales revenue to a carbon emission treatment agency in exchange for technology to reduce its carbon emissions, and it can adopt three strategies (i.e., no emission reduction, purchasing technology for emission reduction, and entrusting a carbon emission treatment agency). We derive each party's optimal fleet size, price, and profit in the three scenarios. Our results suggest that carbon emission reduction strategies may improve the market performance of the FV transport service provider. Then, we find no certain strategy is always preferable to another: the optimal cooperation strategy between the transport service provider and carbon emission treatment agency depends on the fixed technology fee, ratio of revenue sharing, government penalty, the transport service market potential, and consumer green preference, as well as the cost per CEV. This paper gives the transport service provider and carbon emission treatment agency a full picture of whether, when, and how to collaborate in green commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of transitioning from fossil carbon to green carbon in the chemical industry. It highlights the need to address the environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions and the potential for global warming. The article also mentions a Royal Society Discussion Meeting that focused on replacing fossil carbon with carbon derived from sustainable sources. The papers in the special edition explore various topics related to transforming the chemical industry for a sustainable future. The article concludes by emphasizing the urgency of pursuing sustainable green carbon as a replacement for fossil carbon. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an editorial published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science. It discusses the governance of carbon emissions in the context of urban-rural interaction. The editorial highlights the importance of managing carbon emissions and related environmental issues in urban-rural dynamics and proposes strategies for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. The editorial provides an overview of four papers published in the research topic, which explore topics such as the correlation between environmental governance attention and environmental quality, regional disparities in urban-rural carbon emissions, carbon emissions inequality between urban and rural residents, and carbon emissions from building operations. The papers contribute to the academic community and offer guidance for policy development in carbon emission management. The editors hope that this research will inspire further exploration and collaborative initiatives to mitigate regional carbon emissions and create an environmentally sustainable and socially just future. [Extracted from the article]

This paper aims to study the relationship between regional logistics efficiency and economic development in 31 provinces of China and analyze their coupling coordination. To comprehensively evaluate the coordination between logistics and the economy, we introduced external indicators, such as carbon emissions, based on traditional evaluation indicators. We constructed an evaluation index system to coordinate regional logistics efficiency and economic development. The research approach used in this paper is the cross-DEA method, and data from 2010 to 2019 were selected for empirical calculation. The research findings indicate that Eastern and Northern regions of China show higher logistics efficiency, while Northwestern and Southwestern regions exhibit lower logistics efficiency. Coastal areas have relatively higher economic development levels compared to inland areas. Regarding the coupling coordination between logistics efficiency and economic development, different regions show temporal fluctuations and spatial disparities. Some regions demonstrate higher coordination between logistics efficiency and economic development, while others show lower coordination. Additionally, as the economy experiences rapid growth, logistics efficiency also improves, but the level of coordination varies among different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to highlight the steps our country needs to take to achieve green economy and industry, defining the new adopted regulations regarding the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in goods imported. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is a price adjustment dedicated to goods carrying CO2 emissions that enter the European Union. The main purpose of CBAM is to prevent the risk of carbon leakage and by encouraging the reduction of emissions by operators in third countries (countries outside the EU), global carbon emissions should be reduced. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is an instrument used to achieve a greener industry, economy and life, a tool to a green transition. The paper presents the basis and decisions made in time and seeks to identify the measures that need to be taken so that we can all contribute to what it means to decarbonize the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfibers and microplastics originating from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are significant pollutants in freshwater sources and marine environments. This research investigated the biodegradation of cotton microfibers generated from bleached cotton jersey knit fabric and commercially available flushable wipes, polypropylene-based (PP) nonwoven wipes containing a cellulose component, and tissue paper. Biodegradation was tested in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) solids, seawater, and lakewater according to the ISO 14852 and ASTM D6691 standard methods in an ECHO respirometer. Degradation experiments continued until a plateau in CO2 emissions was reached, and the final biodegradation extent was calculated relative to the theoretical CO2 produced based on elemental analysis. The results showed that the cotton and other cellulosic materials/components biodegrade to a great extent, as expected for all conditions, whereas the PP did not degrade. In general, for the cellulose polypropylene composite wipes, the cellulose biodegraded readily; the presence of the PP did not hinder the cellulose biodegradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proposal of "Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" goals, China is facing a more serious carbon emissions reduction situation, and how the booming digital economy effectively helps China's carbon emissions reduction is one of the most urgent things that should be solved. To study the impact of the digital economy on carbon emission intensity, this paper is based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2011 to 2021, and applies the double-fixed effect model and the threshold effect model to study the impact of the digital economy on carbon emission intensity and the mechanism of its action, as well as to analyze the mechanism of the digital economy's action on carbon emission intensity from the perspective of technological innovation. The results of the study show that: i) The digital economy can reduce the intensity of regional carbon emissions; ii) The carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy is non-linear, and its carbon emission reduction effect gradually increases with the level of development of the digital economy; iii) In addition to the direct impact of the digital economy on carbon emission intensity, it also has an indirect impact on carbon emissions through technological innovation; iv) There is regional heterogeneity in the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy, and the carbon emission reduction effect is more significant in the central and western parts of the country and regions with a high level of human capital development. Based on the conclusions obtained, this paper suggests: i) The rational integration of the digital economy and regional development should be strengthened; ii) Strong provinces in the digital economy should be encouraged to help weaker provinces, to narrow the "digital divide" between provinces; iii) Differentiated development strategies should be formulated in accordance with local conditions, to give full play to the optimal effect of the digital economy in carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the carbon emission policy and low-carbon capacity sharing, this paper studies the optimal product pricing and capacity matching strategies of competition and cooperation between two companies in a duopoly market. And the optimal strategies with or without capacity sharing are discussed. In addition, a differential game model based on carbon emission constraints, low-carbon capacity sharing, and delayed decision-making is established. We also study the evolution of duopoly enterprises from the initial state to the equilibrium state. Besides, the influence of delayed decision variables, price adjustment speed and decision weights on the stability of the game system is analyzed. The results show that the government can effectively intervene and guide the enterprises' low-carbon production strategy through carbon emission restriction policy. Low-carbon capacity sharing is beneficial to both enterprises, and the demand side benefits more than the supply side. We discuss the impact of stable and unstable systems on enterprises' decisions. When the system is stable, enterprises can converge from different initial game states to equilibrium states. The adoption of a delay strategy will not affect the tendency of convergence to the equilibrium. Furthermore, the system using the variable feedback control method is of higher stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the carbon dioxide emissions of constructing flood protection schemes with the emissions saved by providing flood defences. There is considerable information available on the carbon dioxide 'cost' of construction, but less on repairing flooded properties. Drawing on existing research into flooding, this paper identifies a carbon dioxide cost of repairs of 6 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent per property flooded and uses this to provide a method to determine emission benefit for constructing flood protection schemes. While emission reduction should be the first priority, flood defences defend against future emissions. Using Stonehaven in the UK as a case study, this paper demonstrates that the carbon dioxide cost of constructing a flood protection scheme can be less than the carbon dioxide cost of undertaking repairs following flooding over the life of a scheme, with a benefit ratio of 2 identified for the case study scheme. The paper concludes with a review of the UK government appraisal process and cautions that the carbon value many not differentiate a flood protection scheme option when compared with capital cost. It is considered that an independent assessment should be undertaken to demonstrate that a net-zero-emission option is selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy and environmental studies (E&E) have faced a significant turning point due to the lack of reliability of the existing models, as well as the lack of policy governance. Most papers in E&E have adapted data envelope analysis due to its popularity, which is a result of its structure of having multiple inputs and outputs. However, due to its crucial weakness in statistical reliability, diverse new methodologies to gain better reliability have been developed, such as difference-in-difference and computational general equilibrium models, but they are still do not popular because the world has not shown significant progress in the abatement of carbon emissions. This comes not only from the lack of appropriate, precise research models, but also from a worldwide lack of governance. Most countries advocate for the necessity of E&E policies, yet their policies alone are not enough for sustainable performance, due to the lack of reliability and/or weakness of public–private partnerships. This Special Issue shall examine all of these new challenges to the methodologies, as well as the implications and suggestions arising from their empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]