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Decision Models for Sustainable Development in the Carbon Neutrality Era

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 3480

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kevin W. Li

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Guest Editor

Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Interests: logistics and supply chain management; conflict resolution; sustainable operations management; environmental management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Zhi Liu

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Guest Editor

College of Management Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu, China
Interests: sustainable operation management; closed-loop supply chain; corporate social responsibility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Xuemei Li

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Guest Editor

Institute of Marine Development and College of Economics, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
Interests: uncertainty prediction and decision-making methods; quantitative economic analysis and modeling; sustainable development of marine economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global warming caused by excessive carbon emissions has disrupted the Earth’s ecosystem and constantly threatens the living environment of organisms. In response to global climate change, the United Nations reached a series of international conventions, the most important of which was the Paris Agreement after the Kyoto Protocol. In this historical document, countries across the globe recognize their role in climate mitigation and pledge to reduce carbon emissions. For instance, OECD nations have committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The Chinese government has also been actively implementing the Paris Agreement, putting forward specific goals and measures for carbon peaking by 2030 and neutrality by 2060 and taking initiatives to fulfill its international obligations of carbon emission reduction. Current pledges of carbon peaking and neutrality around the globe usher in significant opportunities and challenges for sustainable development of society, the economy, and the environment. This Special Issue aims to contribute to this important topic and welcomes theoretical and empirical research that helps understand decision-making in sustainable development in the carbon peaking and neutrality era from a wide variety of angles. Specific topics include, but are not limited to: ecological and carbon footprint, green product design and remanufacturing, sustainable development, environmental management, road map of zero-carbon and negative-carbon technologies, sustainable operations and supply chain management, carbon trading and green finance, new energy and renewable energy utilization, and national or regional energy policies.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in IJERPH.

Prof. Dr. Kevin W. Li
Dr. Zhi Liu
Dr. Xuemei Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ecological footprint
carbon footprint
sustainable development
environmental decision models
green product design
carbon neutrality
sustainable operations
supply chain management
carbon monitoring
new energy
environment policy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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28 pages, 2645 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Green Innovation Capacity on Urban Economic Resilience: Evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta Region

by Jia Lv, Hao Zeng and Zhi Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15235; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115235 - 24 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1247

Abstract

Urban green innovation plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable urban economic development, and urban economic resilience is an important manifestation of urban economic development. This prese nt study aims to investigate how green innovation contributes to urban economies’ resilience, which is essential for long-term urban agglomeration expansion and sustainable economic development. To decrease subjectivity and achieve comprehensive evaluation, this study first constructs an index system for evaluating green innovation capability on urban economic resilience, which contains 21 indicators in three areas, including innovation input, innovation output, and green innovation foundation, and the performs a scientific evaluation using the TOPSIS method. On this basis, using the Super-SBM model, the green innovation efficiency value of cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is calculated. Finally, ArcGIS 10.8 software is used to classify the economic resilience of the 26 cities in the YRD city cluster and analyze the spatial layout characteristics of urban economic resilience. The results show that: (1) the decision evaluation model used in this study is stable and effective, and it can effectively address the issues of subjective assessment processes and information redundancy; (2) green innovation capacity has a positive contribution to urban economic resilience, and its contribution is more significant for cities with strong economic strength; and (3) the green innovation capacity of the YRD city cluster is unevenly distributed, with Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing having high levels of green innovation capacity and strong urban economic resilience, thus forming the core area of cities radiating outward, showing a “core-edge” spatially. Finally, suggestions for improving the overall economic resilience of urban agglomerations are provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Models for Sustainable Development in the Carbon Neutrality Era)

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18 pages, 1252 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment and Suggestions on Sustainable Development of Regional Ecological Economy Based on Emergy Theory: A Case Study of Henan Province

by Xiaoxiao Si, Cuixia Zhang and Fan Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12495; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612495 - 17 Aug 2023

Viewed by 670

Abstract

A rapid development in regional economy is often accompanied by an increase in energy consumption and the intensification of environmental pollution, which brings great pressure to the social economy and the natural environment. In order to solve the integrated problem of economic, social, and natural factors, we propose an evaluation method for the sustainable development of the regional economy, based on emergy. By analyzing the statistical data of Henan’s economic development from 2010 to 2018, an evaluation index system of regional eco-economic sustainable development was constructed based on four aspects: natural subsystem, economic subsystem, social subsystem, and sustainable development index. The index system was then used to measure and comprehensively evaluate the sustainable development of the ecological economy and the environmental friendliness of Henan Province. The assessment results showed that the emergy self-sufficiency rate decreased, indicating decreased self-sufficiency. Moreover, the environmental load rate was high, indicating high environmental pressure. The emergy currency rate declined with a rise in the emergy investment rate, indicating economic growth. Additionally, the population carrying capacity was consistently > 1, indicating that the population was overloaded. Collectively, the emergy-based evaluation method of regional economic sustainable development in this study provides a comprehensive and scientific evaluation framework, which can help decision makers and researchers better understand and evaluate the problems brought about by the rapid development of regional economy, and provide targeted decision making suggestions. It includes four sub-systems: natural, economic, social, and sustainable, which have important theoretical and practical significances, while also serving as a useful reference for the evaluation of the sustainable economic development of similar regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Models for Sustainable Development in the Carbon Neutrality Era)

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Other

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19 pages, 551 KiB

Open AccessHypothesis

Analysis of Consumers’ Green Consumption Behavior against the Background of “Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutrality”—Based on Survey Data from Anhui Province

by Fagang Hu, Shufen Zhang, Yaliu Yang and Kun Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12296; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612296 - 11 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1033

Abstract

With the proposal of the goal of “carbon peak, carbon neutrality”, the concept of environmental protection has become increasingly popular. To explore the characteristics and influencing factors of consumers’ green consumption behavior against a dual-carbon background, this study proposed research variables and hypotheses about green consumption behavior and influencing factors. With the research purpose, research variables, and hypotheses, a questionnaire was designed. Consumers in Anhui Province were chosen as research samples. SPSS26.0 was employed to conduct reliability and validity analysis, correlation analysis, and stepwise linear regression analysis of the questionnaire data to evaluate the factors affecting consumers’ green consumption behavior; through these measures, it was verified that there existed a significant relationship between green consumption behavior and the influencing factors of purchase motivation, channel factor, consumer innovation, and price factor. And it was also verified that the influence of incentive factors and psychological factors was not significant. Based on this, the current study proposes countermeasures and suggestions for setting up environmental awareness, reducing the price of green products, expanding green consumption channels, and stimulating consumer innovation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Models for Sustainable Development in the Carbon Neutrality Era)

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