Energy Carbon Emission Reduction and Carbon Neutrality: The Uncertainty Path

Dear Colleagues,

The global pursuit of carbon neutrality has triggered far-reaching transformations in climate policy, regulatory systems, and corporate strategy. Yet, this green transition is unfolding along an uncertain and uneven path—regulatory frameworks continue to evolve in response to shifting global climate norms, domestic institutional experimentation, and rising demands for energy decarbonization. Meanwhile, firms—especially in emerging economies—face complex decisions under policy uncertainty, technological disruption, and environmental performance pressure.

This Special Issue addresses the institutional, strategic, and socioeconomic dynamics shaping the uncertain journey toward carbon neutrality. It focuses on how climate and energy policy uncertainty influences regulatory change, corporate environmental investment, green innovation, export performance, and broader development outcomes. It also examines how governments and firms adapt to climate risks, manage transition trade-offs, and respond to domestic and international policy shifts.

Special emphasis is placed on the heterogeneous and sometimes contradictory impacts of the green transition across sectors. While environmental regulation and carbon reduction goals aim to foster sustainability, they may also impose adjustment costs, innovation frictions, or productivity slowdowns—especially in sectors undergoing rapid digitalization or structural transformation. These “growth drag” effects highlight the tension between long-term climate objectives and short- to medium-term industrial competitiveness, raising critical questions about the design of balanced and adaptive regulatory pathways.

We welcome interdisciplinary submissions that adopt legal, institutional, empirical, or comparative perspectives. Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The impact of international climate agreements on national regulatory frameworks (e.g., China’s legal adaptation);
• Corporate responses to climate and energy policy uncertainty;
• The effects of environmental investment on export competitiveness and innovation outcomes;
• Comparative studies on how energy policy uncertainty affects poverty and inequality;
• The role of corporate energy management in improving environmental and financial performance;
• Sectoral analysis of growth constraints and innovation frictions in green digital transformation;
• Risks, opportunities, and adaptation strategies in climate governance.

This Special Issue will integrate insights from climate economics, policy studies, legal analysis, and corporate strategy to illuminate the contested and uncertain nature of global decarbonization and offer actionable insights for regulators, firms, and scholars navigating the transition.

Dr. Zhengning Pu
Dr. Jiasha Fu
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• carbon neutrality
• climate policy
• energy/climate policy uncertainty
• climate risk and opportunity
• environmental regulation
• regulatory transformation
• institutional adaptation
• adaptation strategy
• corporate environmental strategy
• environmental management practice
• international climate agreements ESG performance
• legal adaptation
• technology innovation
• export performance
• poverty and inequality
• firm resilience
• green transition trade-offs
• decarbonization cost
• environmental compliance pressure
• digital transformation and sustainability
• growth drag
• structural adjustment