Sustainability in Environmental Policy and Green Economics

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing urgency of climate change and the global commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the nexus of environmental policy and green economics has emerged as a critical area of scholarly and practical significance. This interdisciplinary field explores how economic principles can effectively align with environmental sustainability, driving public policy that supports eco-friendly energy production, consumption, and overall resource management. For example, accurately appraising the value of natural capital and ecosystem services is essential for informing effective environmental policies and shaping economic decisions that promote sustainable energy use. Moreover, policies and economic instruments are fundamental to incentivizing a shift towards sustainable practices, phasing out fossil fuels, and scaling up renewable energy solutions.

The primary aim of this Special Issue is to gather a collection of rigorous academic manuscripts that critically analyze and enhance our understanding of how environmental policy and green economics can synergize to foster sustainability. This Special Issue aims to provide groundbreaking insights and inspire transformative changes in policy-making and economic strategies, ensuring a resilient and sustainable environmental future. It seeks to illuminate the broader implications of integrating ecological valuations into policy-making and economic frameworks, thus aligning them with sustainable development goals. Consistent with the broad scope of the journal ‘Sustainability,’ this Special Issue will feature diverse methodologies and insights that connect the valuation of ecosystem services and natural capital with practical policies and economic mechanisms to facilitate the energy transition. It will include a variety of perspectives, approaches, and data to firmly establish environmental policy and green economics as central to sustainable development discourse and practice.

Suggest themes:

• The role of carbon pricing and taxes in driving the transition to clean energy.
• Economic analysis of renewable energy subsidies and their impacts on green market.
• The effectiveness of international environmental policies in promoting energy use.
• Cross-country comparisons of green economic policies for sustainable growth.
• The intersection of energy security, equity, and sustainability within green economic frameworks.
• Community-based and local government initiatives for green economic transformation.
• Impact assessments of environmental regulation on green innovation and investments.
• Advanced methods for valuing ecosystem services and their integration into green policies.
• The role of natural capital accounting in shaping green strategies for sustainable development.

Dr. Shuai Zhong
Dr. Chao Zhang
Dr. Gan Luo
Dr. Bushra Khalid
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.

• sustainable environmental policy
• energy economy and efficiency
• green development policy and evaluation
• ecological conservation
• natural capital budget
• ecological environment assessment