Pathways to Carbon Neutrality

Carbon neutrality is a state of net zero carbon dioxide emissions, which can be achieved by carbon removal from the atmosphere or reduced emission from its sources. Many countries have pledged to reach carbon neutrality, including the biggest emitters, China, the United States, and the European Union. Failure to curb anthropological carbon emissions is leading us to a warming earth. The Paris Agreement sets out a global goal of limiting temperature increase below 2°C, or preferably below 1.5°C, compared with the pre-industrial levels. To achieve the 1.5°C goal, the world needs to reduce emissions toward net zero by the middle of this century. To reach that objective, a transition of the global socioeconomic system is necessary.

An urgent and thorough transformation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is needed. The decarbonization of economic growth should be based on a deep transition in energy systems and industry structures. Reducing fossil fuel usage in power generation, boosting renewable energy development, and electrifying end-use consumptions are the essential approaches to cut emissions. Consumption patterns would also be switched to accommodate environmental-friendly solutions. Strategies focusing on responsible consumer behaviour will play an important role in this process. Besides emission reduction, natural carbon sinks and carbon capture and storage technologies are essential in absorbing the remaining carbon emissions.

However, the world is not on track to meet the carbon neutrality targets if current efforts in climate change mitigation are not boosted. The earth is now 1.1°C warmer than the pre-industrial level, indicating that all countries should significantly increase their climate ambition and action. The lack of efficient and fair responsibility allocation mechanism is a key problem to reach a global consensus. It still needs to be demonstrated how we can deliver on the carbon neutrality goal while addressing sustainable development goals like poverty and inequality. Thus, ensuring the accessibility of climate financing for developing countries is critical in reaching carbon neutrality. Another problem is how to balance carbon emissions and absorptions. Negative emission technologies are vital but most of them are currently not at a mature stage and not deployed at mass scale. Therefore, huge investment is needed to study their long-term feasibility.

Carbon neutrality is not only related to climate change mitigation, but also delivers unprecedented and tremendous changes to society. The low-carbon economic transition toward carbon neutrality will create green jobs worldwide. Environmental benefits and improved consumer behaviour will also boost people’s health and wellbeing. In addition, technological innovation and structural changes will bring clean energy accessible to more people. Achieving carbon neutrality will lead the world towards greener and cleaner economic development, replacing the carbon- and pollution-intensive development mode. These contribute to the achievement of global sustainable development, especially in developing countries. However, the synergy between social benefits and carbon neutrality are not guaranteed. Thus, research on the balance between socioeconomic targets and climate actions should be conducted for decarbonization strategies.

This Topical Collection invites scholars and experts to a systematic and in-depth discussion on the pathways of achieving carbon neutrality and its impacts at different levels. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Technological approaches for achieving carbon neutrality.

- Economic approaches for achieving carbon neutrality.

- Financial approaches for achieving carbon neutrality.

- International cooperation for achieving carbon neutrality.

- Carbon neutrality of cities.

- Economic impacts of achieving carbon neutrality.

- Health impacts of achieving carbon neutrality.

- Environmental impacts of achieving carbon neutrality.