Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.3
3.2
Journals
Energies
Special Issues
Advanced Research in Energy Economics and Sustainable Energy Transition
energies-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Advanced Research in Energy Economics and Sustainable Energy Transition

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 September 2026 | Viewed by 3214

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dongdong Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Public Policy and Administration, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
Interests: carbon market mechanism; energy transition policy; environmental economics; climate policy
Prof. Dr. Junlong Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Economics, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao, China
Interests: energy economics; industrial organization theory and application; public policy; green technology innovation
Dr. Hongjun Lv

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Business, Xi’an University of Finance and Economics, Xi'an 710100, China
Interests: energy economics; digital economy; platform governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The design and implementation of effective policy instruments are central to achieving global carbon neutrality targets. Carbon pricing, emission trading schemes, and environmental taxes have become widely adopted tools to internalize externalities and promote cleaner energy. However, the effectiveness of these instruments depends on how firms, investors, and consumers respond to them and how they interact with market structures, innovation incentives, and governance frameworks.

This Special Issue provides a platform for exploring the interplay between carbon markets, energy governance, and corporate behavior. We invite studies that analyze the efficiency and distributional impacts of carbon pricing mechanisms, compare policy instruments such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems, or examine their interaction with renewable energy policies and investment incentives. In addition, contributions that assess policy outcomes in different regions, evaluate regulatory commitments, and propose new designs for sustainable governance are highly encouraged.

Both empirical and theoretical studies are welcome, including cross-country comparisons, policy evaluation methods, and simulation models of carbon markets. By gathering interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, policy analysis, and energy systems research, this Special Issue aims to provide robust evidence and policy insights to guide the global low-carbon transition.

Dr. Dongdong Li
Prof. Dr. Junlong Chen
Dr. Hongjun Lv
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • carbon pricing and taxation
  • emission trading systems
  • environmental regulation and governance
  • policy evaluation and comparative analysis
  • sustainable energy transition

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

28 pages, 1964 KB  
Article
The Carbon Cost of Intelligence: A Domain-Specific Framework for Measuring AI Energy and Emissions
by Rashanjot Kaur, Triparna Kundu, Kathleen Marshall Park and Eugene Pinsky
Energies 2026, 19(3), 642; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19030642 - 26 Jan 2026
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1762
Abstract
The accelerating energy demands from artificial intelligence (AI) deployment introduce systemic challenges for achieving carbon neutrality. Large language models (LLMs) represent a dominant driver of AI energy consumption, with inference operations constituting 80–90% of total energy usage. Current energy benchmarks report aggregate metrics [...] Read more.
The accelerating energy demands from artificial intelligence (AI) deployment introduce systemic challenges for achieving carbon neutrality. Large language models (LLMs) represent a dominant driver of AI energy consumption, with inference operations constituting 80–90% of total energy usage. Current energy benchmarks report aggregate metrics without domain-level breakdowns, preventing accurate carbon footprint estimation for workloadspecific operations. This study addresses this critical gap by introducing a carbon-aware framework centered on the carbon cost of intelligence (CCI), a novel metric enabling workload-specific energy and carbon calculation that balances accuracy and efficiency across heterogeneous domains. This paper presents a comprehensive cross-domain energy benchmark using the massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) dataset, measuring accuracy and energy consumption in five representative domains: clinical knowledge (medicine), professional accounting (finance), professional law (legal), college computer science (technology), and general knowledge. Empirical analysis of GPT-4 across 100 MMLU questions, 20 per domain, reveals substantive variations: legal queries consume 4.3× more energy than general knowledge queries (222 J vs. 52 J per query), while energy consumption varies by domain due to input length differences. Our analysis demonstrates the evolution from simple ratio-based approaches (weighted accuracy divided by weighted energy) to harmonic mean aggregation, showing that the harmonic mean, by preventing bias from extreme values, provides more accurate carbon usage estimates. The CCI metric, calculated using weighted harmonic mean (analogous to P/E ratios in finance, where A/E represents accuracy-to-energy ratio), enables practitioners to accurately estimate energy and carbon emissions for specific workload mixes (e.g., 80% medicine + 15% general + 5% law). Results demonstrate that the domain workload mix significantly impacts carbon footprint: a law firm workload (60% law) consumes 96% more energy per query than a hospital workload (80% medicine), representing 49% potential savings through workload optimization. Carbon footprint analysis using US Northeast grid intensity (320 gCO2e/kWh) shows domain-specific emissions ranging from 0.0046–0.0197 gCO2 per query. CCI is validated through comparison with simple weighted average, demonstrating differences up to 12.1%, confirming that the harmonic mean provides more accurate and conservative carbon estimates essential for carbon reporting and neutrality planning. Our findings provide a novel cross-domain energy benchmark for GPT-4 and establish a practical carbon calculator framework for sustainable AI deployment aligned with carbon neutrality goals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research in Energy Economics and Sustainable Energy Transition)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

35 pages, 1041 KB  
Article
Taxonomic Evaluation of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Development in European Union Member States
by Anetta Barska, Joanna Wyrwa, Janina Jędrzejczak-Gas and Krzysztof Kononowicz
Energies 2025, 18(23), 6102; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18236102 - 21 Nov 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 886
Abstract
The present paper focuses on the transformation of energy and its connection with one of the areas of sustainable development, namely environmental sustainability. Energy and environmental sustainability are complex and multidimensional processes. Transitioning to more sustainable energy sources, such as renewable energy, has [...] Read more.
The present paper focuses on the transformation of energy and its connection with one of the areas of sustainable development, namely environmental sustainability. Energy and environmental sustainability are complex and multidimensional processes. Transitioning to more sustainable energy sources, such as renewable energy, has a significant impact on reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, improving energy efficiency, a key element of the energy transition, contributes to reducing overall energy demand and is therefore consistent with environmental sustainability goals. A fundamental goal of environmental sustainability is to minimise the carbon footprint. In this way, the fields of energy transition and environmental sustainability mutually reinforce each other. The objective of the present study is to evaluate territorial differentiation and to analyse the interdependence of energy and environmental sustainability in the European Union (EU). The study period covers the years from 2015 to 2022. The TOPSIS method, a multidimensional comparative analysis method, was used in the research procedure. Moreover, the paper undertakes an examination of the existence of a statistically significant relationship between energy and environmental sustainability. The study demonstrates that there is considerable territorial differentiation in both energy and environmental sustainability in the EU. The present study makes a contribution to the growth of existing knowledge in the field by highlighting the importance of energy and environmental sustainability. The results of this study could prove of assistance to policymakers, governments, and legislators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research in Energy Economics and Sustainable Energy Transition)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop