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Understanding China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emission status is crucial for getting Carbon Neutrality status. The purpose of the paper is to calculate two possible scenarios for CO2 emission distribution and calculated input-output flows of CO2 emissions for every 31 China provinces for 2012, 2015 and 2017 years.

In this study using the input and output (IO) table's data for the selected years, the authors found the volume of CO2 emissions per one Yuan of revenue for the industry in 2012 and the coefficient of emission reduction compared to 2012.

Results show that in the industries with a huge volume of CO2 emissions, such as “Mining and washing of coal”, the authors cannot observe the reduction processes for years. Industries where emissions are being reduced are “Processing of petroleum, coking, nuclear fuel”, “Production and distribution of electric power and heat power”, “Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery”. For the “construction” industry the situation with emissions did not change.

“Transport, storage, and postal services” and “Smelting and processing of metals” industries in China has the second place concerning emissions, but over the past period, emissions have been sufficiently reduced. “Construction” industry produces a lot of emissions, but this industry does not carry products characterized by large emissions from other industries. Authors can observe that Jiangsu produces a lot of CO2 emissions, but they do not take products characterized by significant emissions from other provinces. Shandong produces a lot of emissions and consumes many of products characterized by large emissions from other provinces. However, Shandong showed a reduction in CO2 emissions from 2012 to 2017.

This study aims to use Porter’s hypothesis (PH), which tests whether corporates’ green investment has an impact on their economic performance (EP). The study argues that corporates’ environmental strategy should allow for a “win-win” situation concerning regulatory compliance.

The quantitative methodology used PH to test empirically the economic consequences of corporates’ green investment in China.

This study indicates that there is a U-shaped relationship between green/environmental investment (EI) and EP. When EI is less, corporates’ EP follows a downward sloping curve until the scale of EI increases and exceeds the “threshold.” From this turning point, EP follows an upward-sloping curve as EI increase. This relationship is more significant in high-polluting companies and state-owned companies.

The empirical results extend the research field of EI and EP for listed companies in China and cover 1,324 observations over the period 2008–2017.

First, the authors expand the research on green/EI and EP using firm-level data. Second, the study empirically tests the economic consequences of corporates’ green investment. Third, this study finds a non-linear relationship between green investment and EP due to the heterogeneity of industry attributes and property rights. These findings provide better explanations for the different research conclusions regarding the economic consequences of green investment.

Compared to global research, China’s research on EI has mainly focused on the macro and industry levels. There is still a lack of micro-level research. The paper addresses this research gap as the authors use firm-level EI data to capture companies’ green investment efforts in environmentally sustainable development and its subsequent impact on EP.

This paper aims to explore the future path of agricultural development in China toward 2060 under the dual carbon goals, so as to inform better policy choices for facilitating agricultural and rural transformation toward the goal of maintaining food security, sustainable income growth and low carbon emission.

This study employs a single-country, multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium model, CHINAGEM model and develops eight illustrative scenarios to simulate the impacts of attaining dual carbon goals on agricultural development in China. Additional two scenarios have also been designed to inform better policy making with the aim to offset the negative impact of the decarbonization schemes through facilitating agricultural technology progress.

Dual carbon goals are projected to impose substantial negative impact on agricultural productions and consumptions in China in the coming four decades. Under the assumption of business as usual, agricultural production will reduce by 0.49–8.94% along with the attainment of carbon neutrality goal by 2060, with the production of cereals and high-value being more severely damaged. To mitigate the adverse impact of the decarbonization schemes, it is believed that fastening technology progress in agriculture is one of the most efficient ways for maintaining domestic food security without harming the dual carbon goals. In particular, if agricultural productivity (particularly, for cereals and high-value products) can be increased by another 1% per year, the production losses caused by carbon emission mitigation will be fully offset. This implies that promoting technology progress is still the best way to facilitate agricultural development and rural transformation in future China.

The paper contributes to the literature in better informing the impact of dual carbon goals on China's agriculture and the effectiveness of technology progress in agriculture on buffering the adverse impact of the decarbonization schemes and promoting agricultural development.

The decarbonization of power generation is key to achieving carbon neutrality in China by the end of 2060. This paper aims to examine how green finance influences China’s low-carbon transition of power generation. Using a provincial panel data set as an empirical study example, green finance is assessed first, then empirically analyses the influences of green finance on the low-carbon transition of power generation, as well as intermediary mechanisms at play. Finally, this paper makes relevant recommendations for peak carbon and carbon neutrality in China.

To begin with, an evaluation index system with five indicators is constructed with entropy weighting method. Second, this paper uses the share of coal-fired power generation that takes in total power generation as an inverse indicator to measure the low-carbon transition in power generation. Finally, the authors perform generalized method of moments (GMM) econometric model to examine how green finance influences China’s low-carbon transition of power generation by taking advantage of 30 provincial panel data sets, spanning the period of 2007–2019. Meanwhile, the implementation of the 2016 Guidance on Green Finance is used as a turning point to address endogeneity using difference-in-difference method (DID).

The prosperity of green finance can markedly reduce the share of thermal power generation in total electricity generation, which implies a trend toward China’s low-carbon transformation in the power generation industry. Urbanization and R&D investment are driving forces influencing low-carbon transition, while economic development hinders the low-carbon transition. The conclusions remain robust after a series of tests such as the DID method, instrumental variable method and replacement indicators. Notably, the results of the mechanism analysis suggest that green finance contributes to low-carbon transformation in power generation by reducing secondary sectoral share, reducing the production of export products, promoting the advancement of green technologies and expanding the proportion of new installed capacity of renewable energy.

This paper puts forward relevant suggestions for promoting the green finance development with countermeasures such as allowing low interest rate for renewable energy power generation, facilitating market function and using carbon trade market. Additional policy implication is to promote high quality urbanization and increase R&D investment while pursuing high quality economic development. The last implication is to develop mechanism to strengthen the transformation of industrial structure, to promote high quality trade from high carbon manufactured products to low-carbon products, to stimulate more investment in green technology innovation and to accelerate the greening of installed structure in power generation industry.

This paper first attempts to examine the low-carbon transition in power generation from a new perspective of green finance. Second, this paper analyses the mechanism through several aspects: the share of secondary industry, the output of exported products, advances in green technology and the share of renewable energy in new installed capacity, which has not yet been done. Finally, this study constructs a system of indicators to evaluate green finance, including five indicators with entropy weighting method. In conclusion, this paper provides scientific references for sustainable development in China, and meanwhile for other developing countries with similar characteristics.

Although the tasks of managing carbon peaks and achieving carbon neutrality in China are arduous, they are also of great significance, which highlights China’s determination and courage in dealing with climate change. The power industry is not only a major source of carbon emissions but also an important area for carbon emission reduction. Thus, against the backdrop of carbon neutrality, understanding the development status of China’s power industry guided by the carbon neutrality background is important because it largely determines the completeness of China’s carbon reduction promises to the world. This study aims to review China’s achievements in carbon reduction in the electric industry, its causes and future policy highlights.

The methods used in this study include descriptive analyses based on official statistics, government documents and reports.

The research results show that, after years of development, the power industry has achieved positive results in low-carbon provisions and in the electrification of consumption, and carbon emission intensity has continued to decline. Policy initiatives play a key role in this process, including, but not limited to, technology innovations, low-carbon power replacement and supported policies for low-carbon transformation toward low-carbon economies.

This study provides a full picture of China’s power industry against the backdrop of low-carbon development, which could be used as a benchmark for other countries engaging in the same processes. Moreover, a careful review of China’s development status may offer profound implications for policymaking both for China and for other governments across the globe.

Striving to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality before 2060 indicates that China, as the most extensive power system in the world and a country based on coal power, is imperative to improve the technical level of electric power utilization. This paper aims to explore the nonlinear evolution mechanism of power technology progress under the constraints of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions in China.

This paper, first, based on China’s provincial panel data from 2000 to 2019, uses global direction distance function to measure power technological progress. Second, the threshold regression model is used to explore the nonlinear relationship between carbon emission reduction constraints on electric power technological progress.

There is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between China’s provincial carbon emission reduction constraints and electric power technological progress. Meanwhile, the scale of regional economic development has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between carbon emission reduction constraints and power technological progress.

This paper puts forward targeted suggestions for perfecting regional carbon emission reduction policy and improving electric power technological progress.

Based on the global directional distance function, this paper extracts power as a production factor in total factor productivity and calculates the total factor electric power technological progress. This paper objectively reveals the influence mechanism of carbon emission reduction constraints on electric power technology progress based on the threshold regression model.

This study explores the impact of carbon neutrality policies on Chinese stock market from a supply chain perspective. Specifically, the carbon policy refers to the Action Plan for Carbon Dioxide Peaking Before 2030 (the Plan) in China.

This paper is based on the resource dependence theory (RDT) and applies the event study methodology to explore the impact. It uses the cross-sectional regression model to reveal the moderating effect of supply chain characteristics on the stock market reaction with a data set of 354 listed companies in A-shares (excluding ChiNext and SME board).

The promulgation of the Plan shows a significant negative stock market reaction. Customer concentration, out-degree centrality and smart supply chains (SSCs) have a significant negative moderating effect. In-degree centrality and supplier concentration have a significant positive moderating effect. Furthermore, the conclusions concerning out-degree centrality, supplier concentration and SSCs are counterintuitive.

For policymakers, the study results provide a reference for evaluating the carbon neutrality policy. For managers, this study provides theoretical support for strategically adjusting and designing supply chain structures in the context of advocating peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality.

This paper is the first attempt that includes the supply chain structure factors into the impact of carbon neutrality policies on the stock market.

This study aims to explore the impact of carbon neutral announcements on “stock market value” of publicly listed companies in China.

The event study approach is adopted. Market, market-adjusted, Carhart four-factor model and a cross-sectional regression model are employed to examine the impacts of carbon neutral announcements on “stock market value” of Chinese companies based on data from 188 carbon neutral announcements.

Carbon neutral announcements positively impact Chinese shareholder value. Carbon neutral announcements at the strategic level have a more positive and significant impact on Chinese stock market value. Innovative carbon neutral announcements do not significantly cause Chinese stock market reactions. Companies have more positive and significant stock market reactions when the companies make carbon neutral announcements that reflect high supply chain network resilience and heterogeneity and strong supply chain network relationships.

The findings uncover the business value of carbon neutral activities and provide operations managers in developing countries insights into how to improve enterprises' market value by actively implementing carbon neutral activities.

This paper is the first trial to apply an event study to examine the relationship between carbon neutral announcements and Chinese stock market value from the perspective of announcement level and type and supply chain networks. This paper introduces corporate reputation theory and enriches the application of corporate reputation theory in the field of low-carbon environmental protections and supply chains.

Promoting electric vehicles (EVs) is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. If EVs are widely adopted, this will undoubtedly be good for the environment. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of network externalities and subsidy on the strategies of manufacturer under a carbon neutrality constraint.

In this paper, the authors propose a game-theoretic framework in an EVs supply chain consisting of a government, a manufacturer and a group of consumers. The authors examine two subsidy options and explain the choice of optimal strategies for government and manufacturer.

First, the authors find that the both network externalities of charging stations and government subsidy can promote the EV market. Second, under a relaxed carbon neutrality constraint, even if the government’s purchase subsidy investment is larger than the carbon emission reduction technology subsidy investment, the purchase subsidy policy is still optimal. Third, under a strict carbon neutrality constraint, when the cost coefficient of carbon emission reduction and the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction technology are larger, social welfare will instead decrease with the increase of the effectiveness of emission reduction technology and then, the manufacturer’s investment in carbon emission reduction technology is lower. In the extended model, the authors find the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction technology can also promote the EV market and social welfare (or consumer surplus) is the same whatever the subsidy strategy.

The network externalities of charging stations and the subsidy effect of the government have a superimposition effect on the promotion of EVs. When the network effect of charging stations is relatively strong, government can withdraw from the subsidized market. When the network effect of charging stations is relatively weak, government can intervene appropriately.

Comparing previous studies, this study reveals the impact of government intervention, network effects and carbon neutrality constraints on the EV supply chain. From a sustainability perspective, these insights are compelling for both EV manufacturers and policymakers.