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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Anthropogenic Circularity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 36829

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Prof. Dr. Jianjun Zhang

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Guest Editor

School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Interests: land use and sustainable development; land economy and real estate valuation; landscape ecology and low-carbon utilization; urban management and land use allocation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Bofeng Cai

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Guest Editor

Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, 8 Dayangfang, Beiyuan Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission inventory; emission pathway modelling

Prof. Dr. Li Wang

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Guest Editor

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: land cover and use change (LCLUC); terrestrial carbon cycle; carbon disturbance; socio-ecological consequence of LCLUC
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is now well established that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are one of the world's most challenging issues and a major impediment to the sustainable development of human societies. The signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015 marked a formal shift in global climate change governance, from an international legal regime that allocates national commitments to address collective action to a catalytic mechanism that promotes a decarbonization transition pathway. According to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) statistics, more than 100 countries and regions have referred to carbon neutrality, climate neutrality, net zero emissions or zero net carbon emissions in official documents. Therefore, achieving carbon neutrality is an important milestone for countries participating in global emission reduction governance. With the intervention of emission reduction and decarbonization policies, how to develop a green economy and achieve carbon neutrality is a major issue in today's world and a key method to ensure that the target of keeping the increase in global mean temperature below 1.5°C is met globally.

The primary objective of this Special Issue will be therefore to investigate the response of carbon emissions in economy, environment, society and policy, and explore the path towards carbon neutralization. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Refined carbon emission and carbon sink;
Carbon neutral policies at the national and local levels;
Regional development and carbon emission reduction;
Impact of decarbonization politics on carbon removal;
Potential and path to achieve carbon neutrality;
Carbon finance and carbon trade;
Urban planning and carbon neutrality;
Land use and carbon mitigation;
Energy structure transformation and carbon neutrality;
Contribution of ecological conservation and restoration to carbon neutrality;
Carbon change under unexpected events;
Socio-economic and ecological benefits of carbon change;
The carbon accounting system;
Carbon emissions and public health.

Prof. Dr. Jianjun Zhang
Dr. Bofeng Cai
Prof. Dr. Li Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

carbon emission
carbon sink
carbon mitigation
carbon neutrality
decarbonization
carbon trade
public policy
socio-economic
sustainable development

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 2546 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial and Temporal Pattern of Net Ecosystem Productivity in China and Its Response to Climate Change in the Past 40 Years

by Cuili Zhang, Ni Huang, Li Wang, Wanjuan Song, Yuelin Zhang and Zheng Niu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010092 - 21 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1994

Abstract

Net ecosystem productivity (NEP), which is considered an important indicator to measure the carbon source/sink size of ecosystems on a regional scale, has been widely studied in recent years. Since China's terrestrial NEP plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, it is of great significance to systematically examine its spatiotemporal pattern and driving factors. Based on China's terrestrial NEP products estimated by a data-driven model from 1981 to 2018, the spatial and temporal pattern of China's terrestrial NEP was analyzed, as well as its response to climate change. The results demonstrate that the NEP in China has shown a pattern of high value in the west and low value in the east over the past 40 years. NEP in China from 1981 to 2018 showed a significantly increasing trend, and the NEP change trend was quite different in two sub-periods (i.e., 1981–1999 and 2000–2018). The temporal and spatial changes of China's terrestrial NEP in the past 40 years were affected by both temperature and precipitation. However, the area affected by precipitation was larger. Our results provide a valuable reference for the carbon sequestration capacity of China's terrestrial ecosystem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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15 pages, 543 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Voluntary Carbon Information Disclosure Mechanism of Enterprises from the Perspective of Stakeholders—A Case Study on the Automobile Manufacturing Industry

by Chensi Guo and Wenyan Pan

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 17053; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192417053 - 19 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2114

Abstract

As the primary source of carbon emissions, enterprises must work hard to save energy, reduce emissions, and disclose timely carbon information to the public. As a key means of communicating carbon management performance to stakeholders, carbon information disclosure is directly tied to the future sustainability of enterprises. Based on panel data of 118 listed firms in the automotive manufacturing industry from 2017 to 2021, this study rates the sample companies’ quality of carbon information disclosure. The impact of the government, creditors, media, employees, and suppliers on such disclosure is also examined from the stakeholders’ standpoint. The findings reveal that: (1) Although there has been a gradual increase in the degree of disclosure, overall levels are still low, and the willingness to voluntarily disclose is insufficient. (2) When other variables are neglected, the government, creditors, media, and employees all assist enterprises in disclosing carbon information, but the influence of suppliers will inhibit such disclosure. In the context of a complex economic system, the level of carbon disclosure is positively correlated with the government, the media, and employees, while negatively correlated with creditors. The influence of suppliers is not significant. These findings may aid in formulating related policies from different dimensions, directing enterprises to publish carbon information actively and strengthening carbon management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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18 pages, 1478 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Simulation of Vegetation Carbon Sink of Arbor Forest and Carbon Mitigation of Forestry Bioenergy in China

by Xiaozhe Ma, Leying Wu, Yongbin Zhu, Jing Wu and Yaochen Qin

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13507; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013507 - 19 Oct 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2072

Abstract

Mitigating carbon emissions through forest carbon sinks is one of the nature-based solutions to global warming. Forest ecosystems play a role as a carbon sink and an important source of bioenergy. China’s forest ecosystems have significantly contributed to mitigating carbon emissions. However, there are relatively limited quantitative studies on the carbon mitigation effects of forestry bioenergy in China, so this paper simulated the carbon sequestration of Chinese arbor forest vegetation from 2018 to 2060 based on the CO2FIX model and accounted for the carbon emission reduction brought about by substituting forestry bioenergy for fossil energy, which is important for the formulation of policies to tackle climate change in the Chinese forestry sector. The simulation results showed that the carbon storage of all arbor forest vegetation in China increased year by year from 2018 to 2060, and, overall, it behaved as a carbon sink, with the annual carbon sink fluctuating in the region of 250 MtC/a. For commercial forests that already existed in 2018, the emission reduction effected by substituting forestry bioenergy for fossil energy was significant. The average annual carbon reduction in terms of bioenergy by using traditional and improved stoves reached 36.1 and 69.3 MtC/a, respectively. Overall, for China’s existing arbor forests, especially commercial forests, forestry bioenergy should be utilized more efficiently to further exploit its emission reduction potential. For future newly planted forests in China, new afforestation should focus on ecological public welfare forests, which are more beneficial as carbon sinks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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14 pages, 3541 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Accessing the Climate Change Impacts in China through a Literature Mapping

by Keke Li, Bofeng Cai and Zhen Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13411; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013411 - 17 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1861

Abstract

In the 21st century, carbon dioxide emissions have led to adverse climate changes; meanwhile, the impact of climate change has imposed challenges worldwide, particularly in developing countries, and China is one of the most affected countries. Assessing the impact of climate change requires handling a large amount of data in the literature comprehensively. In this study, a text-based classification method and literature mapping were used to process the massive literature and map it according to its location. A total of 39,339 Chinese academic studies and 36,584 Chinese master’s and doctoral theses, from 2000 to 2022, with evidence of the impact of climate change were extracted from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database. Our results show that the literature on climate change impacts has exploded during the last decades. This indicates that increasing attention to the intensified impact of climate change in China has been paid. More importantly, by mapping the geolocation of the literature into spatial grid data, our results show that over 36.09% of the land area shows clear evidence of climate change. Those areas contribute to 89.29% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and comprise 85.06% of the population in China. Furthermore, the studies we collected on the climate change impacts showed a huge spatial heterogeneity. The hotspot areas of research were generally located in developed regions, such as the BTH urban agglomeration and Yangtze River Economic Zone, major agricultural production areas such as Shandong and Henan, and ecologically fragile regions including Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. Considering the imbalance spatially of the evidence of climate change can help in a better understanding of the challenges in China imposed by climate change. Appraising the evidence of climate change is of great significance for adapting to climate change, which is closely related to the natural ecosystem services and human health. This study will provide policy implications for coping with climatic events and guide future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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26 pages, 3079 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Driven Carbon Emission Reduction Research: A 14-Year Bibliometric Analysis

by Zhen Liu, Peixuan Li, Fenghong Wang, Mohamed Osmani and Peter Demian

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12820; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912820 - 6 Oct 2022

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5993

Abstract

Governments across the world are taking actions to address the high carbon emissions associated with the construction industry, and to achieve the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement towards carbon neutrality. Although the ideal of the carbon-emission reduction in building projects is well acknowledged and generally accepted, it is proving more difficult to implement. The application of building information modeling (BIM) brings about new possibilities for reductions in carbon emissions within the context of sustainable buildings. At present, the studies on BIM associated with carbon emissions have concentrated on the design stage, with the topics focusing on resource efficiency (namely, building energy and carbon-emission calculators). However, the effect of BIM in reducing carbon emissions across the lifecycle phases of buildings is not well researched. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the relationship between BIM, carbon emissions, and sustainable buildings by reviewing and assessing the current state of the research hotspots, trends, and gaps in the field of BIM and carbon emissions, providing a reference for understanding the current body of knowledge, and helping to stimulate future research. This paper adopts the macroquantitative and microqualitative research methods of bibliometric analysis. The results show that, in green-building construction, building lifecycle assessments, sustainable materials, the building energy efficiency and design, and environmental-protection strategies are the five most popular research directions of BIM in the field of carbon emissions in sustainable buildings. Interestingly, China has shown a good practice of using BIM for carbon-emission reduction. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the current research in the field is focused on the design and construction stages, which indicates that the operational and demolition stages have greater potential for future research. The results also indicate the need for policy and technological drivers for the rapid development of BIM-driven carbon-emission reduction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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18 pages, 631 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Government Trust, Environmental Pollution Perception, and Environmental Governance Satisfaction

by Haibo Ruan, Li Qiu, Jun Chen, Shuo Liu and Zhiyuan Ma

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(16), 9929; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169929 - 11 Aug 2022

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3536

Abstract

Environmental governance is related to the healthy living standard of human beings and the sustainable development of an economic society. It is of great significance to explore the influence of government trust and environmental pollution perception on environmental governance satisfaction to improve the performance of government environmental governance. Based on the CSS2019 survey data, 3872 survey samples were statistically analyzed, and the optimal scale regression model was used to analyze the relationship between government trust, environmental pollution perception, and environmental governance satisfaction. The results showed that 52.27% of the respondents believed that the satisfaction of environmental governance was good, and both government trust and environmental pollution perception had significant positive effects on the satisfaction of environmental governance. The trust level of the central government, district and county governments, and township governments shows a “differential government trust” state, which is pyramidal. However, the impact of government trust on environmental governance satisfaction shows an inverted pyramid structure, and the township government has the largest effect, which is not matched with the distribution of government trust level. The influence effect of air pollution perception is relatively large, and the public is sensitive to air pollution. Government trust has an impact on the satisfaction of environmental governance through the “expectation-response” path. People are close to the township government and have the opportunity to contact and interact with the township government and its staff. They can directly observe the governance performance and share the public goods of environmental governance. Therefore, it is necessary to further improve the trust level of township governments, strengthen the control of air pollution and improve the township government’s environmental governance ability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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16 pages, 2526 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Carbon Sink Capacity of the Proposed Kunlun Mountain National Park

by Li Zhao, Mingxi Du, Wei Du, Jiahuan Guo, Ziyan Liao, Xiang Kang and Qiuyu Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(16), 9887; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169887 - 11 Aug 2022

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 2710

Abstract

National parks, as an important type of nature protected areas, are the cornerstone that can effectively maintain biodiversity and mitigate global climate change. At present, China is making every effort to build a nature-protection system, with national parks as the main body, and this approach considers China′s urgent goals of obtaining carbon neutrality and mitigating climate change. It is of great significance to the national carbon-neutralization strategy to accurately predict the carbon sink capacity of national park ecosystems under the background of global change. To evaluate and predict the dynamics of the carbon sink capacity of national parks under climate change and different management measures, we combined remote-sensing observations, model simulations and scenario analyses to simulate the change in the carbon sink capacity of the proposed Kunlun Mountain National Park ecosystem over the past two decades (2000–2020) and the change in the carbon sink capacity under different zoning controls and various climate change scenarios from 2020 to 2060. Our results show that the carbon sink capacity of the proposed Kunlun Mountain National Park area is increasing. Simultaneously, the carbon sink capacity will be improved with the implementation of park management and control measures; which will be increased by 2.04% to 2.13% by 2060 in the research area under multiple climate change scenarios. The research results provide a scientific basis for the establishment and final boundary determination of the proposed Kunlun Mountain National Park. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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14 pages, 557 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does a Polycentric Spatial Structure Help to Reduce Industry Emissions?

by Shuaishuai Han and Changhong Miao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(13), 8167; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138167 - 3 Jul 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2019

Abstract

City planners are increasingly drawn to ways of transforming urban spatial structure as an important strategy for reducing pollutant emissions. As its main contribution, this paper uses firm-level emissions data to quantify impact mechanisms related to factor flow, firm size, and division of labour. We examine the effects of spatial polycentricity on firm-level industrial emissions, using a pooled cross-sectional model, based on emissions data from individual firms in China. We show that, all else being equal, polycentric spatial structures help to reduce the emissions of industrial firms. This finding is not affected by index measures, changes in industrial structure, or city-sample selection. A mechanism analysis shows that polycentric structures not only enhance the emission-reduction effects of factor flow and firm size, but also reduce firm-level emissions by strengthening the urban division of labour. Our findings support the emission-reduction performance of polycentric spatial structures, promoting the integration of city planning and industrial policies that jointly contribute to reducing firm-level emissions and preventing and controlling air pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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15 pages, 6872 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Visual Analysis of Global Carbon Mitigation Research Based on Scientific Knowledge Graphs

by Na Su and Zhenbo Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5766; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095766 - 9 May 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2937

Abstract

Global temperature change is related to the destiny of all mankind, and carbon mitigation, as well as greenhouse gases control, are key points. In order to explore the basic knowledge, research hotspots and trends in global carbon mitigation research, this paper, based on 15,304 carbon mitigation articles from Web of Science, from 1991 to 2021, conducts spatio-temporal distribution, country distribution, research hotspots and cooperation network analysis, and draws frontier knowledge graphs of carbon mitigation by using CiteSpace, Gephi and other scientific knowledge mapping and literature analysis software. The key scholars, important literature, main contribution institutions and countries/regions in the field of carbon mitigation research were extracted, and the research basis and evolution law were displayed. The study found that: (1) The research on carbon mitigation is increasing every year, which can be roughly divided into four stages: germination, low-speed development, medium-speed development and high-speed development. (2) The spatial distribution of carbon mitigation research is unbalanced, mainly showing a characteristic of “one super and many strong” centered on the United States. (3) The research hotspots of carbon mitigation have gradually evolved from phenomenon analysis, policy guidance, method exploration to mechanism improvement. Further research might focus on ocean carbon sink, carbon trading and carbon-negative technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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20 pages, 3199 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Threshold Effect of FDI on CO₂ Emission in Belt and Road Countries

by Ying Nie, Qingjie Liu, Rong Liu, Dexiao Ren, Yao Zhong and Feng Yu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3523; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063523 - 16 Mar 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2392

Abstract

Under the background of the global “carbon neutrality” goal, it is of great significance to study the environmental effect of FDI in rapid economic development. This paper proposes an original framework to determine the relative influence of five factors on the Belt and Road countries with a strong FDI-CO₂ association. Based on the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model, we establish country-specific and time-specific FDI-CO₂ coefficients for 59 Belt and Road countries during 2003–2018. These coefficients are assumed to change smoothly as a function of five threshold variables, considered the most important in the literature devoted to the FDI-CO₂ correlations. The results show that the degree of GDP per capita, industrialization, openness, and total factor productivity significantly influences the FDI-CO₂ relationship. However, they showed obvious heterogeneity. The coefficient of elasticity of the environmental effects of FDI smoothly transitions between the different intervals, the relationship between GDP per capita and FDI-CO₂ coefficient shows a bell-shaped change, the relationship between degree of trade openness and FDI-CO₂ coefficient also shows a bell-shaped change, the relationship between industrialization level and FDI-CO₂ coefficient shows an inverted N-shaped change, the change of a country’s technological level shows a bell-shaped relationship with the FDI-CO₂ coefficient. The results indicate that PSTR model can be used to study the threshold effect on FDI’s influence on carbon dioxide emissions and the individual and time differences in coefficients of elasticity, to provide a new research perspective and new conclusions on the environmental effect of FDI in rapid economic development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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18 pages, 2183 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drivers of CO₂ Emissions: A Debt Perspective

by Tian Zhao and Zhixin Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1847; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031847 - 6 Feb 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2761

Abstract

CO₂ emissions and debt accumulation are twin threats to sustainable development. To fill the gap that few studies can untangle the reasons behind CO₂ emissions from the debt perspective, we illustrate debt can cause CO₂ emissions through various channels. We then examined how debt-based drivers impact emission trajectories. We use the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method to decompose the emission changes into five factors. We make decomposition analyses between different country groups to identify their respective characteristics. Further, to investigate the potential financial crisis impacts, we consider the full period 2001–2019 and two sub-periods (pre- and post-2008). The results show that the gross domestic product (GDP) is always the biggest contributor to emissions, whose effect on advanced economies saw a bigger decrease after 2008 than that on emerging economies. Debt–GDP is second only to GDP in contributing to emissions. It has a similar impact on emissions before and after 2008 for advanced economies, while it rockets after 2008 for emerging economies. Private debt financing of fossil fuels is the prominent inhibitor for both economies, especially for emerging economies. It has a stronger mitigation impact after 2008 than before for emerging economies, while has the opposite change for advanced economies. Debt structure and fossil CO₂ intensity have relatively smaller effects on emissions. The crisis is an opportunity to promote low-carbon development. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is analogous to the 2008 crisis in terms of debt level and emission change, we provide recommendations for emission mitigation in the post-pandemic context. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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21 pages, 2704 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of Tourism Economy and Its Formation Mechanism: An Empirical Study of China’s 92 Tourism-Dependent Cities

by Yun Tong, Rui Zhang and Biao He

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1824; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031824 - 5 Feb 2022

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 4575

Abstract

The tourism economy is regarded as an effective way to realize regional sustainable development. Hence, it is of great significance to explore whether and how tourism economy can alleviate regional carbon emission intensity. To this end, a structural equation model (SEM) reflecting the multiple pathways of the carbon emission reduction effect of tourism economy was constructed based on 92 tourism-dependent cities in China, and the existence and formation mechanism of the carbon emission reduction effect of tourism economy were empirically tested. The main findings are as follows: (1) The tourism economy has a significant carbon emission reduction effect in China. Although the direct impact of tourism economy on carbon emission intensity is significantly positive, the indirect impact is significantly negative and stronger than the direct impact. (2) The carbon emission reduction effect of tourism economy presents multiple pathways characteristics. There are single intermediary pathways such as Tourism Economy → Environmental Regulation → Carbon Emission Intensity, Tourism Economy → Opening-Up → Carbon Emission Intensity, and dual intermediary pathways such as Tourism Economy → Opening-Up → Industrial Development → Carbon Emission Intensity, Tourism Economy → Opening-Up → Innovation Capacity → Carbon Emission Intensity. (3) The formation mechanism of the carbon emission reduction effect of tourism economy presents obvious spatial heterogeneity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decarbonization Politics, Green Economy and Carbon Neutrality)

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