How the digital economy is empowering green strategies for breaking carbon lock-in.

In the era of climate change and carbon neutrality, China is actively coping with its carbon lock-in dilemma. In this context, the development of the digital economy is considered a possible path to carbon unlocking. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of how the digital economy can be leveraged to address carbon lock-in, highlighting the importance of formal environmental regulation and informal environmental regulation in enhancing this effect. Accordingly, following findings are highlighted. (1) Our primary findings provide strong evidence on the negative effect of the digital economy on carbon lock-in; by implication, improving the digital economy is an efficient measure for eradicating carbon lock-in. (2) The digital economy shows the greatest marginal impact on industrial lock-in, while its inhibiting effect on behavior lock-in is the least pronounced. Moreover, the digital economy plays a prominent role in curbing carbon lock-in in provinces with a higher level of physical, human, and social capital. And the asymmetric impacts of the digital economy on carbon lock-in are significant at most quantiles. (3) Environmental regulation is a significant moderator. Put differently, the synergy of formal environmental regulation and the digital economy, as well as informal environmental regulation and the digital economy, are important means to break carbon lock-in. (4) The carbon lock-in mitigation effect of the digital economy is caused mainly by increasing technical market turnover and the efficiency of energy consumption.

The impact of regional policy implementation on the decoupling of carbon emissions and economic development.

The contradiction between economic growth demands and the achievement of the "dual-carbon" goals at the regional level is a pressing issue in China. As a significant economic and cultural center in the western region of China, the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration has experienced rapid development and urbanization, making it one of the key areas for national development. Therefore, greater attention should be given to carbon emission reduction in this region. This study focuses on the dataset from 2010 to 2019 in the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration, utilizing an input-output table to construct a carbon dioxide emission inventory. The research investigates the impact of regional classification on carbon emission levels within the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration. Furthermore, the Tapio decoupling analysis method is employed to assess the decoupling coefficient between regional economic development and carbon emissions. Additionally, the Theil index inequality analysis method is utilized to measure the disparities in per capita carbon emissions among cities within the region. Research findings indicate the following: 1) The regional classification of the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration is an effective policy for reducing regional carbon emissions and promoting carbon emissions reduction. 2) There exist variations in energy and industrial structures among cities within the urban agglomeration, necessitating tailored measures for low-carbon transition based on the specific circumstances of each city. 3) The regional classification of the urban agglomeration significantly influences the degree of decoupling between economic development and carbon emissions, with a trend towards stronger decoupling. The study suggests that cities within the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration should adopt measures aligned with their natural conditions and economic characteristics to achieve a low-carbon transition. Leveraging the regional cooperation capacity of the urban agglomeration is crucial to decouple economic development from carbon emissions, thereby promoting sustainable economic growth and environmental protection in a mutually beneficial manner.

Can industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition both lead to carbon lock-in mitigation? The case of China.

The optimization and transition of the industrial structure help improve the quality of the economy, moving it toward low-carbon development. By using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments model and a city-level dataset covering the period 2006-2019, this paper explores the carbon lock-in mitigation effects of industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition, respectively. The heterogeneity and the synthetic industrial structure adjustment effect are detected, and the potential impact mechanism is also explored. Some findings have been generated. (1) Both industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition realize carbon lock-in eradication. (2) Industrial structure optimization and transition are more effective in inhibiting carbon lock-in in cities with a higher level of economic background. (3) By generating an interaction term of industrial structure optimization and transition and examining the impact of the interaction term on carbon lock-in, this paper detects that industrial structure optimization and transition have a synthetic impact on carbon lock-in, showing a "1 + 1 > 2" effect. (4) Industrial structure optimization and transition both affect carbon lock-in by improving technological innovation level, which is the impact mechanism. Some policy implications, such as sectoral diversification and promoting research and development, are put forward for better industrial structure development and carbon unlocking.

Building a Charge Transfer Bridge between g-C3N4 and Perovskite with Molecular Engineering to Achieve Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells.

Effective defect passivation and efficient charge transfer within polycrystalline perovskite grains and corresponding boundaries are necessary to achieve highly efficient perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, focusing on the boundary location of g-C3N4 during the crystallization modulation on perovskite, molecular engineering of 4-carboxyl-3-fluorophenylboronic acid (BF) on g-C3N4 was designed to obtain a novel additive named BFCN. With the help of the strong bonding ability of BF with both g-C3N4 and perovskite and favorable intramolecular charge transfer within BFCN, not only has the crystal quality of perovskite films been improved due to the effective defects passivation, but the charge transfer has also been greatly accelerated due to the formation of additional charge transfer channels on the grain boundaries. As a result, the champion BFCN-based PSCs achieve the highest photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.71% with good stability.

Emission accounting and drivers in Central Asian countries.

Emerging countries are at the frontier of climate change actions, and carbon emissions accounting provides a quantifiable measure of the environmental impact of economic activities, which allows for comparisons of emissions across different entities. However, currently there is no study covering detailed emissions inventories for emerging countries in Central Asian. This paper compiles detailed and accurate carbon emissions inventories in several Central Asian countries (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) during the period 2010-2020. Using the IPCC administrative territorial approach, we for the first time compile their emissions inventories in 47 economic sectors and five energy categories. Moreover, we also investigate decoupling status based on Tapio decoupling model and examine emissions driving factors based on the index decomposition analysis method. The primary results illustrate that carbon emissions in Central Asian countries are increasing with huge differences. Decoupling results highlight that most of the sample countries still need more effort to decouple the economy and emissions except that Pakistan achieves an ideal strong decoupling state. The results of the decomposition indicate that the economy and population both raise emissions, while energy intensity and carbon intensity are negative drivers in some countries. We propose practical policy implications for decarbonization and energy transition roadmap in Central Asian countries.

Assessing the economic premium of electric vehicle charging points: a hedonic price analysis in Beijing, China.

Electric vehicle charging points (EVCPs) are the foundation of the EV industry and are conducive to low-carbon transportation development. Research on EVCPs mainly focus on operation profits and layout, while no study assesses their economic premium. Aiming at providing a reference for the installation of EVCPs, this study employs a hedonic price model to evaluate the economic premium of CPs, based on apartment transactions and complex data on CPs in 2015 and 2016 in Beijing. The primary findings indicate the economic premium of CPs is significantly positive in both housing sale and rental markets. However, the impact of CPs on housing prices is heterogeneous in terms of complex floor area ratio and location. Specifically, the premium effect of CPs is more significant in larger complex and complex in the suburb. Following the above conclusions, we provide several policy pathways to promote the construction of CPs and their scientific location layout.

Is the key-treatment-in-key-areas approach in air pollution control policy effective? Evidence from the action plan for air pollution prevention and control in China.

The "Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control from 2013 to 2017" (APAPPC) establishes the key treatment for key areas in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surroundings (BTH), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China. Is the key-treatment-in-key-areas approach effective? Except the targeted pollutants, does there exist the synergistic effects of other air pollutants? Are there differences between the north and the south about the effectiveness of this approach? To answer these new and key questions, this study uses the difference-in-difference (DID) model to evaluate whether it is more effective to implement key treatment policies for two targeted pollutants, PM2.5 and PMcoarse (PM2.5-PM10), and verifies the synergistic emission-reduction effects of the policies on eight other emissions: SO2, NOX, VOC, CO, NH3, BC, OC, and CO2. At the same time, the policy effects are evaluated nationwide, in the north, and in the south using data from 2008 to 2017. The results show the following: (1) The APAPPC's establishment of the key treatment in key areas significantly reduces PM2.5 and PMcoarse by 7.25 % and 10.49 %, respectively, compared with non-key areas nationwide. (2) The key-treatment-in-key-areas policy has synergistic effects on six other emissions: SO2, NOX, CO, BC, OC, and CO2. (3) If viewing the north and the south separately, BTH beats other counterparts in the north by a large margin, while there is no significant difference among provinces and/or areas in the south. This margin is much larger than the one between key areas and other provinces nationwide. Therefore, this paper suggests that key treatment policies in key areas should continue to be implemented, especially for cities that have not dropped, but rather increased, their PM2.5 concentrations. Additionally, air pollution goals should incorporate China's carbon peaking and neutrality goals to reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.