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China is a country with substantial differences in economic development, energy consumption mix, resources, and technologies, as well as the development path at the provincial level. Therefore, China’s provinces have different potential and degrees of difficulty to carry out carbon emission reduction (CER) requirements. In addition, interprovincial trade, with a large amount of embodied carbon emissions, has become the fastest growing driver of China’s total carbon emissions. A reasonable CER allocation plan is, therefore, crucial for realizing the commitment that China announced in the Paris Agreement. How to determine a fair way to allocate provincial CER duties has become a significant challenge for both policy-makers and researchers. In this paper, ecological network analysis (ENA), combined with a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO), is adopted to build an ecological network of embodied emissions across 30 provinces. Then, by using flow analysis and utility analysis based on the ENA model, the specific relationships among different provinces were determined, and the amount of responsibility that a certain province should take quantified, with respect to the embodied carbon emission (ECE) flows from interprovincial trade. As a result, we suggest a new CER allocation plan, based on the detailed data of interprovincial relationships and ECE flows.

Due to interregional carbon emission (CE) transfer, the CE reduction allocation approach is crucial to the overall CE reduction effect. The prevalent allocation mode applies the production-based principle (PBP) and causes equity and efficiency losses of CE reduction. The exploration of a CE reduction policy under the consumption-based principle (CBP) is highly demanded. In this article, by studying the transfer of CEs embodied in interprovincial trade (CEs-PT) in 1997–2007 within China, we propose a CE reduction allocation approach under the CBP. We found that net CEs-PT were huge and had increased from 172.22 million tons (Mts.) to 425.94 Mts. The main transfer flow was from the resource-based provinces to the economically developed provinces, from North China to South China. Under the PBP, the transfer of CEs-PT caused serious equity and efficiency losses of CE reduction in China. Then, we propose a CE reduction allocation approach under the CBP that considers the long-term dynamic change of regional CEs. The approach can eliminate equity loss, improve CE reduction efficiency, and avoid the impact of short-term fluctuations of regional CEs. Based on this approach, we calculated China’s provincial CE reduction responsibility and found that compared with the allocation approach under the PBP, the CE reduction responsibility of most net exporters of CEs-PT decreased, while that of most net importers increased. To accomplish CE reduction efficiently and economically, we propose a CE reduction trading system. The research can provide support for CE reduction allocation policy and CE reduction trading system for China and other countries.

Though interfirm collaboration on carbon emission reduction, the cross-enterprise flow of emission reduction resources and improved efficiency in greenhouse gas reduction can be realized. Especially in the context of big data, enterprises can find suitable partners for emission reduction faster and more accurately through interfirm collaboration. However, similar to other cooperative modes, revenue allocation is the key to ensuring the stability of the collaborative emission reduction system. Based on the premise of carbon trading, this paper discusses revenue allocation among enterprises participating in the collaborative emission reduction process under complete information in a big data context. Specifically, we constructed a Shapley value analysis model of revenue allocation for interfirm collaboration on carbon emission reduction, and amended this model with investment cost and risk-bearing. Consequently, this research provides not only a theoretical basis for solving the problem of revenue distribution in the process of collaborative emission reductions among enterprises but also a theoretical guide for enterprises countermeasures following the completion of China's future carbon trading mechanism.

The reality of climate change associated with anthropogenic emissions is now widely acknowledged by the scientific community. Its potential devastating future harms are equally well perceived and as stated in the Copenhagen Accord major nations agree on the need to jointly and urgently combat climate change. The international community is also quite aware that stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of green-house gases (GHG) at supportable levels will require a drastic reduction in GHG emissions within a limited period of time. Undertaking such an enormous effort triggers several interlinked challenges: (1) technically mitigating GHG emissions to the required level; (2) implementing these solutions in countries where the required amount of emission reduction is most realistically and efficiently achievable in particular through involving and using in full the large potential of developing countries; and (3) mobilizing the large amount of financing needed to ensure that the corresponding projects and programs can be effectively implemented. Furthermore, these challenges must be simultaneously addressed in a way that is acceptable to all the parties involved. This means in particulars that any arrangement designed to meet the global GHG emission reduction challenge must be consistent with the principle of the common but differentiated responsibilities of developed and developing countries.

Biochar is the carbon-rich organic matter that remains after heating biomass under the minimization of oxygen during a process called pyrolysis. There are a number of reasons why biochar systems may be particularly relevant in developing-country contexts. This report offers a review of what is known about opportunities and risks of biochar systems. Its aim is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of current knowledge regarding biochar science. In that sense the report also offers a reconciling view on different scientific opinions about biochar providing an overall account that shows the various perspectives of its science and application. This includes soil and agricultural impacts of biochar, climate change impacts, social impacts, and competing uses of biomass. The report aims to contextualize the current scientific knowledge in order to put it at use to address the development climate change nexus, including social and environmental sustainability. The report is organized as follows: chapter one offers some introductory comments and notes the increasing interest in biochar both from a scientific and practitioner's point of view; chapter two gives further background on biochar, describing its characteristics and outlining the way in which biochar systems function. Chapter three considers the opportunities and risks of biochar systems. Based on the results of the surveys undertaken, chapter four presents a typology of biochar systems emerging in practice, particularly in the developing world. Life-cycle assessments of the net climate change impact and the net economic profitability of three biochar systems with data collected from relatively advanced biochar projects were conducted and are presented in chapter five. Chapter six investigates various aspects of technology adoption, including barriers to implementing promising systems, focusing on economics, carbon market access, and sociocultural barriers. Finally, the status of knowledge regarding biochar systems is interpreted in chapter seven to determine potential implications for future involvement in biochar research, policy, and project formulation.

In this study, an improved gravity model and social network analysis (SNA) are applied to analysis CO 2 emissions in China’s power sector, uniquely incorporating electricity and fossil fuel trade flows. It further explores the dynamic effect of energy transition on networks using a panel model, and clarifies the provincial roles in emission abatement and resource allocation. According to the findings, significant regional heterogeneities in CO 2 emissions from 2007 to 2022 can be observed. Coal-dependent provinces, such as Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, face high emissions and challenging transitions, while developed areas such as Beijing and Shanghai have decreased emissions through clean energy integration and enhanced power efficiency. Network analysis identifies Beijing and Jiangsu as central to resource management, empowered by robust policy and information-sharing capabilities, while most provinces demonstrate weaker coordination owing to constrained intermediary functions. In addition, the study observes that energy transitions increase network density (0.3512) and contacts (0.3545) yet decrease efficiency (− 0.1464), suggesting technical and coordinative obstacles. An increasing degree of transition strengthens interprovincial CO 2 connections, establishing provinces experiencing more rapid transitions as critical nodes. Greater closeness centrality (0.0186) signifies shorter collaborative pathways, accelerating the transition. These findings derive practical guidance for regional power collaborations and sustainable growth, offering novel perspectives for a green transition toward carbon neutrality.

The carbon quota allocation rules of China’s pilot carbon emissions trading (CET) regions are various, which mainly include benchmarking, historical carbon intensity reduction and auctioning. When the allocation rules change, it is unresolved how to achieve the optimal product prices and effectively allocate the carbon emissions reduction profits of CET-covered enterprises in the cooperative supply chain. Thus, this paper uses the Stackelberg game, Nash equilibrium and the Shapley value based on cost modification to investigate these issues. The results indicate that: (1) The increasing carbon prices can always improve the retail prices only under the auctioning rule. Meanwhile, the growing low-carbon awareness of consumer cannot be always conducive to improving the wholesale and retail prices, and the similar product prices of non-CET-covered enterprises have greater impact on the wholesale prices than that on the retail prices. (2) Only under the free carbon quota allocation rules, can the optimal wholesale and retail prices under the Stackelberg game be always higher than those under the Nash equilibrium. Meanwhile, the auctioning rule can better reduce carbon emissions than the free allocation rules. (3) Improving carbon emissions reduction contribution and emission reduction costs can be conducive to increasing the carbon emission reduction profits of the supplier and retailer, while the impact of carbon emission reduction contribution on improving the carbon emission reduction profits is not always greater than that of the carbon emission reduction costs.

County is the center of China’s socio-economic development and the key node for urban–rural integration. Also, the county is an important carrier for promoting urban and rural green development. Improving green and low-carbon development capabilities and formulating county-level low-carbon standards will play a significant role in promoting China’s new people-oriented urbanization and rural revitalization. Although there have been extensive studies on low-carbon benchmarks, over half of the benchmarks tend to ignore the development stage of the evaluated region and its needs. When the region’s economy reaches a certain level, constraints from low-carbon targets may limit the local development process. This study firstly allocated county carbon intensity reduction targets (CIRT) by considering the differences in county carbon reduction capacity and responsibility. Secondly, a dynamic benchmark system of per capita carbon emissions (PCCE) in counties in China is constructed. Finally, we took Changxing County in Zhejiang Province as a research case to verify the dynamic benchmark of PCCE. According to the carbon intensity target reduction rate (CITRR), China’s counties can be divided into three categories: low carbon emissions reduction capability-responsible counties (L-CERCRC), medium carbon emissions reduction capability-responsible counties (M-CERCRC), and high carbon emissions reduction capability-responsible counties (H-CERCRC). The results show that (1) due to the national CO 2 emission reduction target in 2030, the carbon intensity will be 60% lower than in 2005, the CITRR for China’s 1510 counties range from 8.36 to 137.83%; the average CITRR is 48.40%. (2) Changxing County’s CITRR is 57.71%, which belongs to the H-CERCRC. The PCCE of Changxing County will be much higher than the benchmark when the carbon peak is reached in the future. (3) For reaching the aiming benchmark, Changxing County is suggested to adjust its relevant influencing factors of PCCE for converting local’s PCCE reaching to the benchmark within a certain time period. The dynamic benchmark system for PCCE in China’s counties established in this study is economically sensitive, which not only takes the differences of counties into account, but also meets the needs of counties’ diverse development form stages. This system provides counties a few coordinated directions which can improve the local’s economic development and reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions through the development progress.

With the official national unified carbon market launch on July 16, 2021, the allocation and trading of initial carbon quotas between regions will become the focus of research in the future. Based on a reasonable regional initial carbon quota allocation, introducing the concept of carbon ecological compensation and formulating differentiated emission reduction strategies according to the characteristics of different provinces can better guarantee the realization of China’s carbon emission reduction goals. Based on this, this paper first analyzes the distribution effects under different distribution principles from the perspective of fairness and efficiency. Secondly, the Pareto optimal multi-objective particle swarm optimization (Pareto-MOPSO) algorithm is used to build the initial carbon quota allocation optimization configuration model to optimize the allocation results. The optimal initial carbon quota allocation scheme is determined through the comparative analysis of the allocation results. Finally, we explore the combination of carbon quota allocation and the concept of carbon ecological compensation and formulate the corresponding carbon compensation scheme. This study not only reduces the relative sense of exploitation of carbon quota allocation in different provinces but also contributes to the realization of a carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060 (the “30.60” double carbon target).

This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of “carbon peaking and carbon neutral,” this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance.