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Green Transition Paths under the Carbon-Neutral Targets: Policy Design, Digital Governance, and Technological Progress

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 8439

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Qinglong Shao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Interests: doughnut economics; energy policy; digital governance; marine economics and management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ke Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Interests: biotechnology; microbial fermentation; bioprocess systems; techno-economic analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is already affecting the entire world. In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—a threshold that the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) suggests is safe—carbon neutrality by mid-21st century is essential. Under this backdrop, main economies take actions. In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, its flagship plan that aims to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050. At the end of September 2020, China pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. This was followed by announcements by Japan, South Korea, Canada, and the United States that aimed at being carbon neutral by 2050. For all countries, achieving carbon neutrality means that the economy must undergo all-round changes from industries to industrial chains and move away from a resource-dependent concept and development model of the industrial era to technology-dependent sustainable development.

Carbon mitigation policies such as green finance are important and play essential roles. The development of green industries requires a large amount of capital input, which must rely on financial means to guide the market to increase investment. However, a large “green finance gap” exists in countries, and green financial systems always require optimization. Thus, it is necessary to encourage more social capital to be invested in green industries and promote technological progress to meet emission reduction commitments. The impact of digitization on the environment is uncertain. Digitalization helps to achieve sustainable development on one side through online resource-sharing and can optimize energy networks; however, on the other side, the digital industry is energy intensive and is a main emitter itself. In this manner, the questions of how to estimate its impact on the environment and how to shape its role in carbon mitigation are key issues that deserve more attention.

This Special Issue will also address the latest advances in environmentally friendly bioprocess technologies, including bioenergy and bioproducts from agricultural and food waste, fermentation technology development, bioprocess optimization and scale-up, and modeling. We are particularly interested in receiving manuscripts that integrate theoretical and engineering studies. In addition to proof-of-concept through early-stage research, the economic feasibility of a sustainable technology is one of the key perspectives when transitioning towards commercialization and entrepreneurship. Therefore, systematic design, demonstration, and techno-economic analysis are other highlights of this Special Issue.

We are excited to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue with your valuable research observations and assessment. The aim of this Special Issue is to serve as a platform for collating updates on green transition paths under carbon-neutral targets. We deem such information essentially important, which could revolutionize the green industry and optimize socio-economic structures. We propose submitting manuscripts related but not limited to the following themes:

  • New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) and renewable energy innovation;
  • Marine resources development and utilization;
  • Sustainability evaluation based on Planetary Boundary (BP) and Doughnut Economics;
  • Digitalization effects on green transition;
  • Green finance and climate finance;
  • Carbon emissions trading policies;
  • Sustainable biotechnology innovation;
  • Economic feasibility of production systems.

Dr. Qinglong Shao
Dr. Ke Wang
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.

Keywords

  • marine resources
  • planetary boundary (PB)
  • doughnut economics
  • digitalization
  • renewable energy innovation
  • carbon emissions trading
  • green finance
  • sustainable bioproducts
  • economic feasibility

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2750 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Nonlinear and Spatial Spillover Effects of the Digital Economy on Carbon Emissions in the Yellow River Basin
by Ruiyuan Dong and Xiaowei Zhou
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5253; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065253 - 16 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1473
Abstract
Low-carbon development of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an inherent requirement for implementing ecological protection and high-quality development strategies in the YRB and an important way to achieve China’s carbon peak and neutrality goals. However, utilization of the newly emerging digital economy [...] Read more.
Low-carbon development of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an inherent requirement for implementing ecological protection and high-quality development strategies in the YRB and an important way to achieve China’s carbon peak and neutrality goals. However, utilization of the newly emerging digital economy to reduce carbon emissions in the YRB remains a largely unexplored topic. Based on panel data obtained from 56 cities in the YRB from 2011 to 2019, the nonlinear and spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on carbon emissions were studied using spatial econometric and multiple threshold effect models. The results showed that: (1) The digital economy had an inverted U-shaped relationship with carbon emissions, initially increasing and subsequently decreasing, with a more prominent impact intensity in upstream cities; (2) The digital economy had distinct negative spatial spillover effects on carbon emissions, with more significant effects observed in the midstream and downstream; (3) The digital economy had a nonlinear threshold effect on carbon emissions. When the optimization level of the industrial structure was above a certain threshold, the digital economy reduced carbon emissions. Based on these results, we propose suggestions for accelerating the healthy growth of the digital economy while promoting carbon emission reductions across the YRB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Transition Paths under the Carbon-Neutral Targets: Policy Design, Digital Governance, and Technological Progress)
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25 pages, 1903 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Coupling Coordination of Green Transformation of Industry and Novel Infrastructure in the Context of Low-Carbon Economy
by Yanmei Dong and Yingming Zhu
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4872; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064872 - 9 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1348
Abstract
In response to the huge economic impact of the new pneumonia epidemic, the “new infrastructure” has become an important hedge against the downward pressure of the economy. We believe that we should take this opportunity to ensure that the “new infrastructure” projects can [...] Read more.
In response to the huge economic impact of the new pneumonia epidemic, the “new infrastructure” has become an important hedge against the downward pressure of the economy. We believe that we should take this opportunity to ensure that the “new infrastructure” projects can strongly support the green and low-carbon transformation of the economy, so whether the new infrastructure can promote the green transformation of the industry has become the focus of academic circles, whereas the existing literature has ignored the coupling and coordination between the green transformation of the sports industry (GTSI) and the novel infrastructure in the context of a low-carbon economy. This study uses data of 31 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2020, and a linked coordination degree model is selected to assess the relationship between novel infrastructure and GTSI. The conclusions are as follows. (1) China’s comprehensive index of “novel infrastructure” was 0.228 from 2013 to 2020, comprised of 0.705 convergence infrastructure, 0.227 information infrastructure, and 0.200 innovation infrastructure. (2) The sports industry’s average green total factor productivity is 1.223, with an annual growth rate of 11.2%. The yearly growth rates for green technology efficiency, green pure technology efficiency, and green scale efficiency are correspondingly 10.5%, 6.8%, and 4.5%. 83.6% of provinces and cities are in the growing return to size phase. (3) The mean coupling coordination value between novel infrastructure and GTSI is 0.449. Except for Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the majority of provinces and cities led in the development of novel infrastructure but lagged in GTSI. From 2013 to 2020, the coupling coordination degree of novel infrastructure and its three subsystems in specific provinces and cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and GTSI show an upward trend, while the overall trend displays a downward trend. (4) Novel infrastructure and GTSI have mutual promoting effect; Government intervention negatively affects the coupling and coordination level; Consumption structure, industrial structure and foreign investment also have a certain positive impact on the two. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Transition Paths under the Carbon-Neutral Targets: Policy Design, Digital Governance, and Technological Progress)
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21 pages, 2644 KiB  
Article
Smart City, Digitalization and CO2 Emissions: Evidence from 353 Cities in China
by Zhongxin Ma and Fenglan Wu
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010225 - 23 Dec 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2696
Abstract
The development of digital technology provides new governance methods for achieving the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. Since 2013, the pilot construction of smart cities in China has strengthened the government’s digital governance capabilities and significantly influenced the reduction in carbon [...] Read more.
The development of digital technology provides new governance methods for achieving the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. Since 2013, the pilot construction of smart cities in China has strengthened the government’s digital governance capabilities and significantly influenced the reduction in carbon emissions. This paper provides empirical evidence for the driving effect of digitization on carbon emission reduction based on panel data from 353 cities in China. The results show that digital governance based on smart city construction pilots has significantly reduced regional carbon emissions, and the implementation of smart city construction pilots has reduced regional carbon emissions by an average of 6.6%, and this effect is sustainable over the long term. The increase in the level of digitalization has significantly promoted carbon emission reduction. From the perspective of the impact path, regional green patent innovation has played a significant partial intermediary effect in the process of digitization-driven carbon emission reduction. From a micro-mechanism standpoint, digitization plays a significant role in promoting the green innovation of high-polluting listed companies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Transition Paths under the Carbon-Neutral Targets: Policy Design, Digital Governance, and Technological Progress)
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18 pages, 2443 KiB  
Article
China’s Carbon Market in the Context of Carbon Neutrality: Legal and Policy Perspectives
by Haiqing Hao and Xue Yang
Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11399; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811399 - 11 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2112
Abstract
China’s carbon market covers a huge amount of emissions, but the effects of emission reduction in the early stages are limited. This study explores the regulation of policies and laws on the carbon market through doctrinal and empirical research in the field of [...] Read more.
China’s carbon market covers a huge amount of emissions, but the effects of emission reduction in the early stages are limited. This study explores the regulation of policies and laws on the carbon market through doctrinal and empirical research in the field of law. The study reveals that although the national carbon market witnessed a considerable quota trading volume, the peak of trading is concentrated and accompanied by a high compliance rate. The total amount of quotas in the first compliance cycle is too large, coupled with a single trading product, and participants in the early stage fail to activate the carbon market, making it difficult to form the carbon pricing mechanism in the market. The legal factors behind this phenomenon are related to the total amount setting mode and the construction route from simple to complex. Based on the above analysis, this study concludes with the following path to improve China’s legislation. To comply with cap and trade, China must improve the setting mechanism of total quotas to form an investment field that participates in multiple entities; effectively play the role of carbon trading in market regulation; and guarantee smooth operation through penalty and reward coordination and a unified MRV mechanism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Transition Paths under the Carbon-Neutral Targets: Policy Design, Digital Governance, and Technological Progress)
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