Carbon Emission Mitigation: Drivers and Barriers

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to launch a new Special Issue focusing on new insights into the drivers and barriers towards carbon emission mitigation.

Carbon emission mitigation is central to achieving sustainable development and countering climate change. Albeit the past few decades have seen some positive developments and global efforts in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the potential for further mitigation is in doubt after “the low-hanging fruit has been picked”. The next phase of carbon emission mitigation will entail close attention to hard-to-decarbonize sectors and carbon-intensive economies. Sectors, such as heavy industries, power generation, and road transport are significant contributors to carbon emissions and, for different reasons, are difficult to decarbonize. Economies, such as China, the United States, and India, are the biggest greenhouse gas emitters and their low-carbon transitions are of key significance in combatting climate change.

The tremendous challenges call for studies that identify and evaluate drivers and barriers towards further carbon emission mitigation at different levels, from households to firms, sectors, economies, and regions. In particular, we invite high-quality papers that address one or more of the following topics:

• Identification of driving forces behind decarbonization at the sectoral or regional levels
• Impact(s) of climate and environmental policies on carbon emission mitigation
• Contribution of consumer behavior to decarbonizing hard-to-decarbonize sectors (e.g., transport, electricity, etc.)
• Cost and benefit analysis of emerging low-carbon technologies (e.g., hydrogen power, smart grid, etc.)
• Effect(s) of innovative business models on low-carbon technology diffusions
• Motivations, drivers, and barriers for corporate carbon-mitigating actions
• Practices and collaborations for achieving low-carbon supply chains
• Measurement and decomposition of green total-factor productivity growth
• Evaluation of carbon efficiency and its development and influencing factors

Dr. Xun Zhou
Dr. Wen Wen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-anonymized 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.