AI-Driven Energy Transition and Urban Efficiency for Low-Carbon Growth
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 November 2026 | Viewed by 228
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental policy; ecological economics; energy economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies is reshaping energy systems, urban economies, and patterns of economic growth. As cities concentrate energy consumption, production activities, and emissions, improving urban efficiency through AI-driven energy transition has become a key economic pathway toward low-carbon growth. From an economic perspective, AI affects energy demand, factor allocation, and technological progress by reducing information frictions, optimizing resource allocation, and reshaping innovation incentives. These mechanisms have important implications for energy efficiency, green total factor productivity, and regional carbon performance. However, the economic impacts of AI-enabled energy transition remain uncertain and heterogeneous. Potential rebound effects, unequal access to digital technologies, and variation in policy effectiveness across regions and industries may generate uneven low-carbon outcomes. Against this backdrop, this Special Issue aims to advance rigorous economic research on how AI-driven energy transition and urban efficiency influence low-carbon growth, in line with the scope of Sustainability of energy sustainability and sustainable economic development. This Special Issue welcomes empirical and theoretical contributions on themes including AI and energy productivity, urban efficiency and carbon intensity, digital innovation and green growth mechanisms, energy and climate policy evaluation, and distributional and regional effects of AI-enabled low-carbon transitions.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Economic mechanisms through which artificial intelligence drives energy transition;
- AI-enabled improvements in urban efficiency, energy productivity, and green total factor productivity;
- Digital innovation, resource allocation, and structural transformation in energy-intensive and urban industries;
- Smart energy systems, renewable energy integration, and data-driven optimization;
- Evaluation of energy, climate, and digital policies using big data, machine learning, and econometric methods;
- Spatial and regional heterogeneity in urban energy efficiency and low-carbon outcomes;
- Governance frameworks, institutional design, and policy implications for AI-enabled energy and urban systems;
- Green finance, FinTech, and investment strategies supporting digital and low-carbon transitions;
- Other topics related to energy transition, urban efficiency, and low-carbon development in the era of artificial intelligence.
I/We look forward to hearing from you.
Prof. Dr. Yu Hao
Dr. Jingxia Chai
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
- artificial intelligence
- energy transition
- urban efficiency
- low-carbon development
- digital innovation
- smart energy systems
- green total factor productivity
- renewable energy integration
- policy evaluation
- sustainable urban development
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.
