Zero Carbon Emissions, Green Environment and Sustainable Energy

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and air pollution are two major challenges in the field of the environment. Greenhouse gas and air pollutants emitted in the process of social development have caused unpredictable impacts on the atmospheric environment and climate conditions and have become a significant topic of concern around the world. The rapid development of the industrialization process has forced the world to confront the double pressure of greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions. However, coal-based energy consumption and the production structure of industry have led to a large amount of CO₂ and air pollutant emissions in the production process, which have a huge impact on the ecological environment. Therefore, it is critical to explore the green development path with low carbon and low pollution in industry worldwide in the future under the existing emission constraints. Taking full consideration of international environmental conditions and climate targets, it is pivotal for the world to realize sustainable development by proposing specific emission reduction measures and corresponding implementation paths and guarantee conditions in industry, to effectively solve the current situation of increasing shortage of fossil energy.

CO₂ and air pollutants are homologous, and their anthropogenic emissions all come from the combustion of fossil fuels. Therefore, the ways to control CO₂ and air pollutants are essentially consistent. Considering the emission reduction in CO₂ and air pollutants as a whole problem, and combining it with energy endowment, economic development, environmental change, policy guidance, and other external factors, the optimal combination of emission reduction measures is explored from the perspective of synergistic emission reduction, which can more effectively solve the control problem of CO₂ and air pollutants and reduce the mitigation cost dramatically. Therefore, for a rapidly developing world, it is possible to coordinate and unify the emission reduction targets of CO₂ and air pollutants in the industry. Through the effective combination of emission reduction measures, the emission reduction effect can be maximized with the least cost, so as to achieve the development goal of improving the ecological environment and reducing air pollution. This kind of prevention and control measure, integrated with synergistic emission reduction, is not only an urgent requirement for the development of industry but also shows the inevitable direction for the optimization and adjustment of the global industry system.

Topics of interest of the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Decarbonization through CO₂ capture, utilization, and sequestration;
• Development of technologies intended for applications to remove air pollutants (such as heavy metals, SO₂, NO_X);
• Efficient energy conversion, storage, and utilization;
• Abatement and recycling of solid/hazardous wastes;
• Synergistic emission reduction between CO₂ and air pollutants.

Dr. Jianping Yang
Dr. Li Jia
Dr. Yue Yu
Guest Editors

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