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Toward Carbon Neutrality: The Low Carbon Transition Pathways

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 497

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: dual carbon planning and management; modernization of environmental governance

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Guest Editor
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: energy-environmental-economic-policy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In response to the urgent climate crisis, achieving carbon neutrality has become a global imperative. This transition requires transformative changes across energy systems, industrial structures, and societal behaviors, underpinned by innovative technologies and robust policy frameworks. This Special Issue invites researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to contribute cutting-edge studies that explore low-carbon transition pathways, addressing both theoretical and practical challenges. We seek submissions that analyze the multidimensional impacts of decarbonization strategies, including their technological feasibility, economic costs, renewable energy, social equity, and environmental co-benefits. By synthesizing diverse perspectives, this Special Issue aims to advance the knowledge base for designing actionable and just transition pathways toward carbon neutrality.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Carbon neutrality policy mechanisms and governance;
  • Low-carbon energy system integration and optimization;
  • Industrial decarbonization and circular economy strategies;
  • Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies;
  • Behavioral and societal dimensions of climate action;
  • Green finance and carbon pricing instruments;
  • Climate resilience and adaptation synergies;
  • Urban and regional transition planning;
  • Renewable and sustainable energy action;
  • Negative emission technologies and nature-based solutions;
  • Global equity and justice in climate mitigation.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Pingjian Yang
Dr. Yanru Fang
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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 neutrality
  • low-carbon transition
  • decarbonization pathways
  • climate policy
  • renewable energy
  • carbon pricing
  • industrial decarbonization
  • CCUS
  • social equity
  • green finance
  • net-zero strategies

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 1002 KB  
Article
Forecasting Industrial Carbon Peaking and Exploring Emission Reduction Pathways at the Metropolitan Scale: A Multi-Scenario STIRPAT Analysis of the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area
by Fengjie Cui, Zhoukai Chen, Xiaoan Li, Xiangdong Xue, Yixuan Chu, Xuewen Jiang, Junjie Lin, Meng Shi, Yangfei Huang and Jinyu Ye
Sustainability 2025, 17(24), 11089; https://doi.org/10.3390/su172411089 - 11 Dec 2025
Viewed by 290
Abstract
The rapid development of industry has led to intensive energy and resource consumption, increasing carbon emissions. As key areas for carbon control, metropolitan regions play an essential role in China’s urbanization and regional development, yet research on predicting industrial carbon emissions remains insufficient. [...] Read more.
The rapid development of industry has led to intensive energy and resource consumption, increasing carbon emissions. As key areas for carbon control, metropolitan regions play an essential role in China’s urbanization and regional development, yet research on predicting industrial carbon emissions remains insufficient. This study takes the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area in China as a case study and employs an extended STIRPAT model to predict industrial carbon emissions from 2024 to 2050 across different scenarios. The results show that industrial carbon emission intensity has the most significant impact on carbon emissions, followed by urbanization, population, economy, industrial structure, technology, energy intensity, and openness. The peak time of industrial carbon emissions varies significantly under different scenarios. The peak appears in 2026 under the deep emission reduction scenario, in 2028 under the green economy scenario, in 2030 under the baseline scenario, and does not occur by 2050 under the extensive development scenario. The green economy scenario achieves effective emission reductions with the least economic impact and is superior to the single-emission-reduction-oriented deep-emission-reduction scenario. This study responds to China’s “dual-carbon” strategy and provides a replicable and transferable regional pathway for industrial decarbonization and policy-making in other metropolitan areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward Carbon Neutrality: The Low Carbon Transition Pathways)
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