REVIEW article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1596742
This article is part of the Research TopicA Strategic Nexus for Enhancing System Resilience: Advancing Energy Efficiency, Reducing Carbon Emissions, Managing Water Resources, and Controlling Air Pollution in the Industrial SectorView all 7 articles
Circular Economy under the Background of Carbon and Pollutant Emission Trading Rights
Provisionally accepted
- 1Southeast University, Nanjing, China
- 2Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
- 3School of Finance, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
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In the context of global climate change and resource scarcity, the integration of circular economy principles with carbon and pollutant emission trading rights has emerged as a critical pathway for achieving sustainable development. This review examines the evolving role of emission trading markets in driving technological innovation, reducing environmental degradation, and fostering economic resilience under a circular economy framework. By analyzing global trends in carbon and pollutant emissions, evaluated the economic and environmental synergies generated by emission trading mechanisms. Literature analysis found that while carbon trading systems have demonstrated potential in incentivizing CO2 reduction technologies (e.g., carbon capture and catalytic conversion), pollutant emission trading faces challenges due to complex accounting, policy fragmentation, and immature market structures. The coupling mechanism between emission trading and circular economy was explored, emphasizing how market-driven incentives can transform waste into resources, thereby aligning economic growth with ecological preservation. This review highlights the necessity of integrating emission trading with circular economy practices to achieve dual environmental and economic benefits. Policy recommendations are proposed to address systemic barriers, including standardized emission accounting, cross-sectoral collaboration, and investment in high-value resource recovery technologies.
Keywords: Carbon emission rights, Contaminants emissions rights, Circular economy, Environmental value, Low carbon economy
Received: 20 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Cui, Wang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peng Zhang, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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