About this Research Topic
Ahead of COP26, China updated its NDC targets and pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. China’s climate pledge is bold and encouraging but a faster, lower, and more robust peaking pathway will amplify the positive effects of China’s climate actions and pave a smoother path to carbon neutrality. Achieving these goals will require comprehensive and scientifically sound implementation plans with intermediary targets that ensure progress along the way. The year 2035 is a critical node for three reasons: 1) experts suggest climate actions in the next 15 years are crucial to avoid climate catastrophe, 2) it sits at the pivoting point between China’s carbon peaking and neutrality paths, 3) it is the target year for the Chinese government’s Beautiful China initiative, which primarily concerns with environmental targets with only a tepid and ambiguous climate target.
This research aims to align China’s climate policy and actions with the Beautiful China 2035 vision to identify faster, lower, and more robust peaking pathways while achieving environmental restoration through multi-objective studies. Given the time constraints China is under, it is crucial to understand the implications of achieving these targets on China’s emission pathways, socioeconomic development, energy transition, decarbonization, and climate governance. The process requires an understanding of the interrelationship of the nexus between energy-water-food-ecology-economy. Given China’s broad landscape with regional differences in current development status and resource abundance, it is also necessary to understand how each region would be impacted by China’s low-carbon transition. In addition, the energy transition from fossil fuels to variable renewable energy might threaten the energy system’s reliability and resilience, so it is critical to investigate the role of other non-fossil fuel energy sources that could ensure a safe and sustainable transition.
This research seeks to create a database of scenarios that focus on China reaching carbon neutrality across the economy by 2060. In the context of the multi-objective attribute in the low-carbon transition, this research topic aims to answer the following questions:
1）Economic impact assessment of faster, lower, and more robust peaking pathways: what are the economic trade-offs of peaking emissions early, and its implication on potentially halving emissions from peak level in 2035? what are the long-term impacts of achieving carbon neutrality concerning socioeconomic costs? What are the regional implications of such transitions?
2）Nexus of energy-water-food-ecology-economy: what are the trade-offs between energy transition, water conservation, food production, ecology preservation, and economic development, and to what extent different aspects of the nexus can be addressed in synergy?
3）Low-carbon and resilient energy transition pathways: how will the roles of fossil fuels and non-fossil energy sources evolve considering energy resilience during the transition? How will the marketization of the power sector and the New Electric Market Reforms implicate emission reductions and resilience enhancement?
4）Examining viable and economic-robust technology pathways: how will various models and methods affect the technological portfolio of pathways, what and how are the driving factors/parameters causing the discrepancies, and which options prove to be harmonized across models?
This research aims to align China’s climate policy and actions with the Beautiful China 2035 vision to identify faster, lower, and more robust peaking pathways while achieving environmental restoration through multi-objective studies. Given the time constraints China is under, it is crucial to understand the implications of achieving these targets on China’s emission pathways, socioeconomic development, energy transition, decarbonization, and climate governance. The process requires an understanding of the interrelationship of the nexus between energy-water-food-ecology-economy. Given China’s broad landscape with regional differences in current development status and resource abundance, it is also necessary to understand how each region would be impacted by China’s low-carbon transition. In addition, the energy transition from fossil fuels to variable renewable energy might threaten the energy system’s reliability and resilience, so it is critical to investigate the role of other non-fossil fuel energy sources that could ensure a safe and sustainable transition.
This research seeks to create a database of scenarios that focus on China reaching carbon neutrality across the economy by 2060. In the context of the multi-objective attribute in the low-carbon transition, this research topic aims to answer the following questions:
1）Economic impact assessment of faster, lower, and more robust peaking pathways: what are the economic trade-offs of peaking emissions early, and its implication on potentially halving emissions from peak level in 2035? what are the long-term impacts of achieving carbon neutrality concerning socioeconomic costs? What are the regional implications of such transitions?
2）Nexus of energy-water-food-ecology-economy: what are the trade-offs between energy transition, water conservation, food production, ecology preservation, and economic development, and to what extent different aspects of the nexus can be addressed in synergy?
3）Low-carbon and resilient energy transition pathways: how will the roles of fossil fuels and non-fossil energy sources evolve considering energy resilience during the transition? How will the marketization of the power sector and the New Electric Market Reforms implicate emission reductions and resilience enhancement?
4）Examining viable and economic-robust technology pathways: how will various models and methods affect the technological portfolio of pathways, what and how are the driving factors/parameters causing the discrepancies, and which options prove to be harmonized across models?
Keywords: Carbon peaking, Carbon neutrality, Resilience, Nexus
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