Search Results (81)

Carbon finance is widely proposed as a route to improving agroforestry viability, yet the literature appears divided, as some studies find it decisive and others insufficient. The current review asks whether that divide reflects a genuine economic variation or inconsistency in how carbon prices have been sourced and reported. 56 studies from 37 countries were selected from 471 records identified across three databases and coded across 22 variables, including system type, accounting method, implementation status, and carbon price. The latter was classified into four credibility tiers: transacted, benchmarked, assumed, or unstated. Only 14% of papers reported a price any project had actually paid, and just under half relied on an assumed, unsourced figure. Studies that concluded either that carbon pricing played a decisive role or that it was insufficient were based on price data of comparable reliability, with estimated prices appearing with similar frequency in both groups. Half of all papers never tested whether carbon payment changed any financial or land-use outcome, and among those that did, fewer than half found it decisive. Moreover, carbon rate measurements remained broadly consistent with independent global estimates. The variation between studies is mainly in the way the prices are determined, rather than in the carbon measurements. Therefore, future studies should clearly state how the carbon price is determined. Full article

China’s transition toward a low-carbon and sustainable energy system requires renewable energy firms to align their technological decisions with environmental policy objectives. Drawing on the Porter hypothesis, this study examines how command-and-control, market-incentive, and voluntary environmental regulations influence firms’ utilization of three sustainable energy technologies (SETs): renewable electricity, energy-saving technologies, and waste management. It also assesses how these technological practices contribute to firm competitiveness. Survey data collected from 273 renewable energy firms in China’s hydropower, wind, and solar sectors were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results show that command-and-control and voluntary environmental regulations positively influence all three SET dimensions. Market-incentive environmental regulation positively affects energy-saving technologies and waste management but has no significant effect on renewable electricity utilization. Renewable electricity, energy-saving technologies, and waste management all positively contribute to firm competitiveness. These findings provide conditional support for the strong Porter hypothesis by demonstrating that technological responses that can improve firms’ competitiveness depend on the alignment between the regulatory instrument employed and the technology targeted. This study provides firm-level evidence for designing differentiated regulatory strategies that support both China’s decarbonization objectives and the competitiveness of renewable energy firms. Full article

Building resilient manufacturing industrial chains while advancing low-carbon transformation is an important issue for sustainable development. This study examines the relationships among configurations of command-and-control, market-incentive, voluntary, and implicit environmental regulation, green technological innovation, and manufacturing industrial chain resilience across 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China. We combine fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis with a complex mediation model. The former identifies environmental regulation configurations associated with high green technological innovation, while the latter examines their relationships with manufacturing industrial chain resilience and the mediating role of green technological innovation. Resilience is measured from the dimensions of entity resilience and structural resilience. The results show that no single type of environmental regulation is necessary for high green technological innovation. Three configurations are identified: the “government–enterprise-driven,” “enterprise–society synergistic,” and “policy–society co-promotion” configurations. Among them, the first two are significantly and positively associated with manufacturing industrial chain resilience, with green technological innovation partially mediating both relationships. When voluntary environmental regulation is a core present condition in both configurations, the mediating role of green technological innovation is more pronounced in the government–enterprise-driven configuration. The findings indicate that coordinating multiple forms of environmental regulation is important for promoting green technological innovation and strengthening manufacturing industrial chain resilience. Full article

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has faced sustained legitimacy stress since 2023, when peer-reviewed work found that fewer than one in six issued credits represented a real emission reduction. In parallel, tokenisation through Web3 protocols, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), and regenerative finance (ReFi) infrastructures introduced new participants interacting with incumbent registries without a shared coordination framework. Existing scholarship examines commons governance, complex system governance (CSG), and tokenised carbon markets largely in isolation; the gap addressed here is the absence of an integrated system-of-systems (SoS) governance treatment of the tokenised VCM. This study develops and empirically applies a polycentric SoS governance framework for the tokenised VCM, structured around four research questions and five foundational contributions. We treat the tokenised VCM as an SoS that is polycentric in configuration but not by design, and develop a system-of-systems engineering (SoSE) governance reading of it. We reformulate Ostrom’s eight design principles as SoS governance criteria for digital–physical hybrid commons, map each to CSG metasystem functions, and apply the framework to four cases: KlimaDAO, Toucan Protocol, Regen Network, and the post-2023 Verra reforms. Qualitative coding is complemented by on-chain and Base Carbon Tonne spot-price evidence from October 2021 to December 2025. Disclosure by an analytical intermediary acted on the SoS roughly seven weeks before formal regulatory action and was associated with about 90% of the observed bridging slowdown, interpreted descriptively rather than causally. We derive an eight-item reform agenda, six DAO–registry interface specifications, and a five-level governance maturity rubric. Full article

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has emerged as a promising mechanism for climate mitigation; however, farmer participation in developing countries remains limited. This study combines the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Capability–Opportunity–Motivation–Behavior (COM-B) framework to investigate factors associated with Thai farmers’ intention and self-reported stage of participation in VCM. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 240 farmers across multiple crop systems in Thailand and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The model explained substantial variance in intention and behavior (R² = 0.610 and 0.555, respectively), although PLS-Predict indicated limited predictive performance. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) showed the strongest positive association with reported participation behavior (β = 0.493, p < 0.001), followed by intention (β = 0.343, p < 0.001). Access to extension and technical support (AES) was positively associated with intention (β = 0.624, p < 0.001) and PBC (β = 0.338, p < 0.001). Knowledge was positively associated with PBC (β = 0.324, p < 0.001) but negatively associated with intention (β = −0.106, p = 0.045). No significant association was observed between attitude and intention; however, subjective norms were negatively associated with intention (β = −0.336, p < 0.001). Indirect associations through intention and PBC were also observed. Overall, the findings suggest that capability-, opportunity-, and trust-related factors are associated with farmers’ reported participation in VCM and may inform the design of future policies and support programs. Although the model demonstrated useful explanatory capability, its predictive performance was limited, indicating that the findings should be interpreted primarily as explanatory rather than predictive. Full article

The global regulatory landscape is shifting from voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting to mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure, yet whether this transition drives substantive corporate environmental change or merely symbolic compliance remains empirically contested. This study investigates the causal impact of mandatory ESG disclosure on firm value and operational carbon intensity, drawing on an unbalanced panel of 9682 firm-year observations for 1626 listed firms from the European Union (EU-27) and Japan covering the period 2018 to 2024. The EU serves as the treatment group, where mandatory disclosure requirements escalated substantially from 2021 onward through the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive proposal. Japan serves as the control group, representing a developed economy with sophisticated capital markets and high ESG awareness that maintained a voluntary disclosure environment throughout the study period. A Difference-in-Differences framework with firm- and year-fixed effects is employed, and causal identification is validated through a dynamic event study analysis. Three principal findings emerge. First, mandatory ESG disclosure is not associated with a statistically significant improvement in firm value in the EU–Japan comparative context, a result that is interpreted as descriptive rather than causal given evidence of pre-existing valuation divergence between the two groups. Second, mandatory disclosure is associated with a significant and progressive reduction in Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity, indicating substantive operational decarbonization rather than symbolic compliance. Third, this emissions-reducing effect is significantly amplified among firms with dedicated CSR sustainability committees, while the board independence policy indicator yields no significant moderating effect, a finding attributed to data limitations. These results carry direct implications for policymakers designing climate-related disclosure frameworks and for scholars examining the boundary conditions under which mandatory transparency translates into genuine environmental performance. Full article

In green credit markets, information asymmetry and corporate greenwashing increasingly undermine the efficiency of resource allocation, while traditional assessment models relying on static, self-reported environmental data fail to impose effective constraints. To address this limitation, this paper develops a dynamic corporate carbon credit evaluation framework by integrating multiple sources of physical (hard) signals and embeds it into commercial banks’ credit management systems. Anchored in multi-source power-carbon signals (e.g., carbon intensity and compliance records), the framework integrates verifiable physical metrics with ESG disclosures via a Bayesian AHP–CRITIC weighting scheme to construct a dual-dimensional classification scheme (“Credit Rating–Green Label”). It further embeds carbon credit scores into dynamic adjustments to credit limits and differentiated interest rate pricing, forming an integrated risk management mechanism. Empirically, a stratified validation strategy is adopted. Analysis based on a sample of 3327 firms shows that the proposed framework achieves a classification consistency of 81.3%, significantly outperforming both a financial-only baseline model (46.8%) and models based on voluntary carbon disclosure (61.4%). Ablation studies further confirm that physical (hard) signal indicators contribute substantially to ranking stability. Moreover, panel regression analysis, based on 36,185 firm-year observations from 3327 firms over the period 2000–2023, demonstrates that carbon credit scores have robust predictive power for future financial distress. Overall, the proposed framework offers a sustainable, data-driven approach to green credit risk management. Full article

Sustainability challenges are frequently characterized by a persistent attitude–behavior gap, particularly within competitive frameworks. This phenomenon is exemplified by voluntary carbon offsetting in aviation, where passengers’ stated willingness to pay consistently exceeds their actual transactional behavior. Prevailing strategies in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) typically address this discrepancy by either reinforcing individual value systems or advocating for post-capitalist shifts to circumvent market competition. Given the inherent limitations of both approaches, this paper delineates an alternative conceptual path. By transposing a research framework from the field of institutional ethics to the domain of ESD, we aim to integrate this perspective into the academic ESD discourse and facilitate its practical implementation. We present a simple game-theoretic ESD model from which we derive specific guidelines for practical application. We contend that sustainability issues are best addressed by restructuring the ‘rules of the game.’ Consequently, this necessitates a strategic shift in ESD: prioritizing the analysis of incentive structures, governance mechanisms and their modification over a sole reliance on individual motivational drivers. Full article

This research paper addresses the persistent problem of environmental opacity in sustainable debt markets, exposing a structural flaw that incremental regulation alone cannot remedy. This study advances a radical, physics-grounded solution that fundamentally transforms environmental reporting from voluntary self-disclosure to instrumentally verified, quantum-limited measurement. The method integrates three mutually reinforcing analytical frameworks: the design of Quantum-Verified Green Bonds (QVGBs), the application of cryptographic quantum key distribution (QKD), and the formal apparatus of financial contract theory. The principal conceptual innovation resides in a three-tiered architectural structure—physical, cyber–physical, and financial—that collectively shifts the epistemological foundation of sustainable finance from institutional norms and managerial discretion to the immutable constraints of physical laws. By deploying nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond as primary sensing arrays at industrial emission points, this system achieves environmental parameter estimation bounded by the Cramér–Rao quantum limits, a precision ceiling governed by Quantum Fisher Information, not corporate policy. This architecture acquires high-fidelity, real-time data on CO₂ and CH₄ flux densities, transforming atmospheric pollutant concentrations into physically attested, contractually actionable financial variables. A QKD layer further leverages the no-cloning theorem to render any upstream data manipulation physically self-revealing through statistically detectable elevations in the Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER). The central contribution of this work lies in the algorithmic coupling of bond coupon structures to these quantum-verified state variables, enforced via smart contracts, thereby converting “environmental misinformation” from a viable managerial strategy into a strictly dominated equilibrium outcome. These findings carry substantial implications for bridging the “trust gap” in green financial markets, a gap sustained by chronically undervalued transition risks and deficient accountability mechanisms in air quality and carbon reporting. The QVGB framework stabilizes green asset prices by subordinating capital allocation decisions to physical constraints rather than political or institutional ones, thereby establishing a new ontological baseline for the global sustainable debt market. Full article

Despite two decades of participation in international carbon finance mechanisms and substantial forest carbon endowment, Ecuador lacks an integrated, cross-mechanism assessment of its carbon market trajectory. This study addresses that gap by applying an institutional economics framework to evaluate Ecuador’s experience under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), and the voluntary carbon market (VCM). Methodologically, the study applies a structured descriptive evidence synthesis drawing on four data corpora: UNFCCC/CDM registry records (IGES v13.7), official Ecuadorian legal and policy documents, program documentation for REDD+/GCF/LEAF/PECC, and peer-reviewed literature published between 2022 and 2025. Where figures diverged across sources, official registry values and disclosed payment records were prioritized. The principal findings are as follows: under the CDM (2006–2023), Ecuador registered 34 projects, of which only 14 (41%) issued Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) by 2020, accumulating $2.8 {\mathrm{MtCO}}_2$e—below the global CDM issuance rate of approximately 57% and below ex ante projections for the 34 registered projects (only 8%). Under REDD+, results-based payments totaling approximately USD 49.5 million have been disbursed through the Green Climate Fund and the REDD Early Movers program, with an additional USD 30 million committed under the LEAF Coalition at USD ${\mathrm{10/tCO}}_2$. Ecuador’s domestic voluntary market (PECC) is nascent, constrained by constitutional provisions limiting private appropriation of environmental services and by the 2024 presidential veto of proposed Organic Environmental Code reforms. The study concludes that Ecuador’s carbon market potential is real but contingent on legal certainty, transparent registries, conservative accounting, and credible benefit-sharing. This is the first integrated, integrity-centred cross-mechanism analysis for Ecuador, with implications for constitutional reform design and Article 6 readiness in forest-rich developing economies. Full article

This study investigates how on-chain trading activity influences liquidity and market microstructure in blockchain-based voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) while accounting for the regulation index as a conditioning factor. Using mean-centered MMRM with HAC corrections on daily data for $KLIMA, BCT, and MCO2, the results indicate that liquidity is associated with distinct trading channels across tokens. Transaction value is positively associated with market depth, while fragmented trading intensity is associated with wider bid-ask spreads. Market expansion is further linked to higher price volatility, particularly in structurally thin markets. The regulation index predominantly acts as a homologizer moderator, reinforcing existing relationships rather than fundamentally altering their direction, with stronger conditioning effects observed in thinner markets. Overall, the findings suggest that liquidity in tokenized carbon markets is more closely associated with market microstructure, trading behavior, and token design than with underlying carbon asset fundamentals. By integrating on-chain trading metrics with macro-structural regulatory conditions in a high-frequency framework, this study provides new evidence on how liquidity emerges in decentralized carbon markets under heterogeneous structural constraints. Full article

This paper assesses the role of nature-based solutions as a way to scale sustainability goals, focusing on the use of carbon credits in voluntary corporate climate commitments. To accomplish this, we adapt the DICE23 model by incorporating a demand function for voluntary corporate carbon abatement and by including the costs of supplying nature-based and non-CO₂ credits to that market. Through scenario analysis, we examine how likely current and proposed new commitments are to meet 1.5 °C and 2 °C climate thresholds by 2030 and 2050 with and without the use of nature-based carbon credits. We find that the inclusion of nature-based credits would increase the probability of meeting a 2 °C threshold by 2030 by lowering costs and significantly increasing overall mitigation. A key result of this paper is that allowing companies to utilize nature-based credits to deliver on near-term mitigation targets can provide the same number of emission reductions as efforts to expand corporate commitments three-fold, but is limited to reductions in the energy sector alone. Overall, incorporating forests and other nature-based credits into corporate commitments could provide immediate and substantial climate benefits while also supporting people and nature impacts today, enabling companies to better achieve multiple social and sustainability goals simultaneously. Full article

Mediterranean cork oak forests provide essential ecosystem services but face increasing threats from climate change, ecosystem simplification, and oak decline. Ensuring their long-term sustainability requires governance approaches that integrate regional planning frameworks with international certification standards. This study presents a pioneering case of public cork oak forest management in Alà dei Sardi, Sardinia (Italy), where municipal forest planning was aligned with national and regional regulations and further enhanced through Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) certification. The FSC system offers internationally recognized standards and the Ecosystem Services Procedure (FSC-PRO-30-006 v2-1) to verify responsible forest management and quantify key ecosystem benefits. The Alà dei Sardi forest is the first publicly owned municipal cork oak forest to achieve FSC Forest Management certification, with demonstrated positive impacts of its management activities on biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and storage, water protection, soil conservation, and recreational services. The certification process integrated management planning, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, and adaptive interventions, showing that public institutions can combine legal frameworks with voluntary standards to enhance ecological performance, accountability, and socio-economic value. This case illustrates a potentially scalable and replicable model for sustainable forest governance, linking territorial planning with market-based mechanisms, and provides a practical example of governance for resilient and multifunctional forest systems. Full article

A central goal of carbon (C) management and a critical outcome of sustainable land stewardship is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. Integrating GHG considerations into management can take many forms, but C credit markets are increasingly providing sources of private capital to offset the often high costs of stewardship. In Hawaiʻi, participation in voluntary C credit markets and the establishment of jurisdictional compliance C markets are constrained by a lack of institutional capacity, successful demonstrations, and high-quality data, making private capital for C market-based approaches in Hawaiʻi difficult to access. The State of Carbon in Hawaiʻi Hui (hui translates to partnership in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian language) convened landowners, researchers, federal and state government professionals, and for-profit and not-for-profit organization staff to better understand limitations to implementing C management in Hawaiʻi. This paper describes why the State of Carbon in Hawaiʻi Hui was formed, how we planned for, hosted, and assessed the success of a C-focused summit, and what outcomes resulted from this process. A Pathway Forward document, a decision support tool, and this article are outcomes. These products will serve as resources for those considering Hawaiʻi-based forest C projects, as well as contributing towards the legislated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaiʻi. Our knowledge exchange process is readily replicable and can support a variety of efforts in environmental conservation and beyond. Full article

The transition towards circular economy is now a key strategy to address the environmental issues we are facing. Within this framework, biochar, a carbon-rich material derived from residual agricultural pyrolysis, can represent a sustainable and circular solution. This paper aims at evaluating the possibility of implementing a local biochar-production system as part of an economic and social strategy of the redevelopment of an abandoned rural site, Borgo di Perolla, in Tuscany, Italy. A cost–benefits analysis (CBA) was conducted to evaluate the economic feasibility of three different scenarios of production and strategies: Scenario 1 considers revenues solely from the production and sale of biochar and wood vinegar; Scenario 2 additionally includes potential income from the sale of voluntary carbon credits; and Scenario 3 incorporates biochar credits within the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS). For each scenario, three indicators were calculated: Net-Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Breakeven point (BEP). The most evident result that emerged is that the sale of biochar and its by-products alone is not sufficient to ensure the project’s economic sustainability, mainly due to high production costs. Only through carbon-credit-trading markets biochar becomes not only an environmentally strategic tool but also an economically rewarding one. In this sense, market infrastructures, such as the ETS, are essential for the dissemination of circular models, like biochar, that generate both environmental and economic benefits. Previous studies on biochar have largely focused on its application and associated benefits, while cost–benefit analyses have primarily examined its economic feasibility through the commercialization of biochar as a soil amendment, particularly within the United States context. The present work contributes to this literature in three main ways. First, it provides a site-specific and replicable CBA framework applied to a real territorial regeneration project (Borgo di Perolla), grounded in primary data collected through field surveys, stakeholder interviews, and expert validation. Second, the study explicitly compares multiple market-access scenarios within the same analytical framework, ranging from biochar-only sales to voluntary carbon markets, allowing for a clear identification of the economic thresholds at which biochar becomes financially sustainable. Third, and most importantly, the main contribution of this work lies in the explicit modeling of biochar integration into the EU Emissions Trading System. This paper extends the analysis to a regulated carbon market scenario, assuming the recognition of biochar-based carbon removals within the EU ETS framework. From a methodological perspective, the study quantitatively assesses how ETS price dynamics affect the profitability, internal rate of return, and break-even point of a biochar project over a long-term horizon. From a policy perspective, the analysis anticipates recent regulatory developments, such as the EU Regulation 2024/3012, on establishing a Union certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products, by showing how biochar could function as a fully market-integrated climate technology. Full article