Abstract
The article identifies key principles of the important role played by low-carbon generation for ecosystems, which explores studies from perspectives of technology, strategy, and policy. In doing so, it provides a scientific basis for policymakers to formulate efficient and feasible plans to reduce emissions via low-carbon generation to revive ecosystems. Various situations are designed for the development path of low-carbon power generation via adaptive and systematic policies with advanced technologies and appropriate strategies. The article goes on to introduce and discuss a collection of papers that explore the restoration of ecosystem by low-carbon power generation. They discuss how to use technology to optimize low-carbon power generation system, analyze the impact of policies on low-carbon power generation, and explain the mechanism of strategies on low-carbon development of ecosystems.
Introduction
Low-carbon generation, as one of effective paths achieving carbon neutrality worldwide, 1 plays an important role in ecosystem restoration by halting and reversing the decline of the natural world. Ecosystems, as places where organisms live together to form the web of life, are crucial to human societies, providing people with a host of essentials as well as providing climate protection and biodiversity conservation. However, in recent decades, humanity's hunger for resources has pushed many ecosystems to the breaking point. Researchers and scholars need to provide a scientific basis for policymakers to formulate efficient and feasible plans to reduce emissions via low-carbon generation to revive ecosystems.
Achieving the goals will produce extensive, important, and sustained benefits, including reducing air pollution, improving health and safety, facilitating long-term development in the field of new technologies, promoting environmental protection, and making contributions to global and regional ecosystem governance. It is not only one of the main climate tasks for the country to clearly propose a long-term decarbonization target, but also another important milestone in participating the ecosystem governance. An increasing number of evidence and studies show that tackling risks of ecosystem has reached the point of urgency, and the whole world will jointly face the arduous responsibilities and major challenges of energy conservation and emission reduction by low-carbon generation. 2
Ecosystem restoration synthesizes evidence of the state of degradation of ecosystems and details the economic, environmental, and social rewards that restoration can bring. Following the rules, it can be understanding why the low-carbon generation development paths via appropriate policies are different for different scenarios. Hence, the advice for the general rule of the policy design is to be adaptive and systematic, to be appropriately adjusted with the development of technologies. A carefully designed and dynamically evolved strategy is suggested to outperform a rigid one, where successful cases might be proved so.
Given this circumstance, we initiated this collection, focusing on how to restore the ecosystem via the low-carbon generation, and how countries or regions would achieve those targets from perspectives of technology, policy, and strategy. The remainder of this paper is organized as following, the second section shows the papers included in this issue from three perspectives, i.e. technology, strategy, and policy, and then the third section concludes the editorial paper.
Collection of articles
This special edition is an anthology of scholarly articles that investigate the revitalization of ecosystems via the implementation of low-carbon energy generation, scrutinized from the vantage points of technology, strategy, and policy. Presented in Table 1 is a synthesized digest of the seven articles contained within this issue, delineating their investigative focus, methodological approaches, and principal discoveries. The first pair of articles delves into the utilization of technological innovation to amplify the efficacy of low-carbon energy generation systems. The ensuing three articles provide an assessment of the repercussions of policy enactments on the facilitation of low-carbon energy modalities. The final triad of articles elucidates the strategic underpinnings that catalyze the progression towards a low-carbon paradigm within ecosystem development.
Summary of papers included in this topical issue.
Technology
The provision of sustainable energy is fundamental to a nation's development, with green transition of heat and power consumption being a significant indicator of such progress, especially under the carbon neutrality vision.1,3 This edition features one scholarly article that investigate technological advancements designed to enhance the efficiency of low-carbon energy generation systems.
Actually, the role of district heating systems (DHS) is scrutinized as a tactical solution to the growing energy dilemmas in urban centers with high population densities. These systems, which distribute heat from a centralized production facility to local buildings, contribute significantly to the amelioration of air quality by diminishing CO2 emissions, increasing the share of renewable energy sources, and decreasing energy exports through effective demand management. 4
District heating networks present strategic interventions for addressing the intensifying energy demands within highly urbanized locales. 5 These infrastructures are subject to thermal losses that span from 5% to 20% of the aggregate energy conveyed, a figure that is substantial when juxtaposed with other forms of loss in the thermal system. An investigative study in Tehran scrutinized these thermal losses in conduits, taking into account variables such as thermal and mechanical energy, exergy, fiscal considerations, and ecological ramifications. The research employed the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) approach to assess the efficacy of insulation within district heating networks over successive generations, utilizing energy sources including natural gas, fuel oil, and coal. Principal conclusions drawn from the study are as follows. Firstly, the most considerable thermal energy conservation was noted with the use of fuel oil, whereas the utilization of natural gas resulted in the minimal conservation of energy. Secondly, the transition from the first to the fourth generation of DHS witnessed a diminution in thermal and mechanical energy as well as exergy losses in the conduits, an outcome influenced by the temperatures of the supply and return water. Thirdly, the ideal thickness for insulation applied to supply and return conduits, alongside hot water and circulation pipes, was determined to range between 0.025 m and 0.105 m, and 0.020 m and 0.050 m, respectively. Furthermore, the investigation reported on the annual thermal energy conservation and the periods required for investment recovery concerning the insulation of supply and return conduits. The savings were quantified to range from $7.80 to $98.86 per meter, with the periods for investment recovery spanning from 0.028 to 0.38 years. The optimal insulation thickness for these conduits was ascertained to be between 0.025 m and 0.0105 m.
Policy
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has actively pursued the development and utilization of non-fossil energy sources to drive the green and low-carbon transformation of its energy sector, resulting in significant achievements. In this context, three research papers investigate the impact of policies on low-carbon power generation.
Zhu et al. constructed an Economy-Energy-Emissions (3E) System Dynamics Model for the megacity of Beijing, China. Their study aims to estimate the effects of various policy scenarios on the core variables within Beijing's 3E system from 2021 to 2035. 6 The findings highlight two key points, the first being economic trends and energy consumption. Despite effective control of total energy consumption, the share of fossil energy in the overall energy mix is projected to reach 57% by 2035. This trend impedes efforts to achieve a cleaner energy consumption structure and may prevent the targeted inflection point in CO2 emissions by 2025. The proportion of Beijing's GDP attributed to the added value of advanced high-precision industries (Gao Jing Jian in Chinese) is expected to be only 43% by 2035. This limited contribution to economic growth underscores the need for diversified strategies beyond industrial development. The second key point is comprehensive policy implementation. A singular focus on individual policies related to industrial structure optimization, energy transformation, or emissions control falls short of achieving high-quality, coordinated development within Beijing's 3E system. Demonstrably effective outcomes emerge when policies are holistically implemented across all three dimensions, emphasizing the interconnectedness of economic, energy, and environmental considerations. Notably, while PM2.5 control efforts yield positive results, Beijing still faces a gap compared to other world-class cities in this regard.
China's carbon emissions have consistently been the highest globally, making it crucial to investigate the factors influencing these emissions. The electric power system is a major contributor to CO2 emissions in China. Understanding the evolution of power-related CO2 emissions is essential for both emission reduction and achieving a sustainable energy transition. Li et al. 7 quantify the CO2 emissions embodied in power transmission and use decomposition analysis to identify influencing factors. Their findings indicate that China's embodied CO2 emissions from power transmission increased from 315 to 523 Mt between 2008 and 2017, driven largely by increased electricity consumption and reliance on power transmission networks. Nationally, power transmission reduced CO2 emissions by 78 Mt, primarily because the west of China, compared to the east, generally has a higher CO2 emission factor.
Tourism development, supported by various policies, also impacts energy consumption and pollution emissions. 8 Using provincial data from 2000 to 2017, Zhou and Lin assess energy and carbon emission performance with the non-radial distance function (NDDF) and analyze the impact of tourism industry agglomeration on energy and carbon emission efficiency using panel fixed effect models, mediation effect models, and quantile regression. 9 Their research reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between tourism industry agglomeration and energy and carbon emission efficiency. Currently, tourism industry agglomeration enhances energy and carbon emission efficiency, although this impact varies regionally. Upgrading the industrial structure is pivotal in this process. Moreover, as energy and carbon emission performance improve, the effect of tourism industry agglomeration changes. These findings suggest that policymakers should encourage tourism industry agglomeration to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction. The Chinese government should tailor regional policies to leverage local tourism resources and advantages, thereby enhancing ecological performance.
Strategy
Sustainable development has become a strategic priority globally. The following three papers explore mechanisms for low-carbon ecosystem development.
Enevoldsen et al. 10 examine the synergies and trade-offs between the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and future climate protection strategies such as greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies and solar radiation management (SRM) approaches. Through a large-scale expert-interview exercise (N = 125), the study finds that GGR deployment can enhance the achievement of 16 out of 17 SDGs, but it also presents potential trade-offs with 12 of the SDGs. Similarly, SRM deployment can promote 16 SDGs but may result in trade-offs with a different set of 12 SDGs.
The protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin have emerged as key national strategies for China. Yang et al. 11 introduce a new ecological total factor productivity (TFP) indicator, the modified input-oriented Luenberger productivity indicator (MIL). Using panel data from 78 cities in the Yellow River basin from 2003 to 2019, the study measures urban ecological TFP. Employing geographic information system tools and kernel density estimation, the authors analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of the indicator, as well as its spatial effects and influencing factors, using the global Moran's I index and dynamic spatial Durbin model (SDM). The results indicate an average annual growth rate of 0.627% in the region, driven by technological progress. The growth rate follows a decreasing trend from downstream to midstream to upstream areas. Factors such as fiscal decentralization (FD), industrial structure (IND), financial development (FIN), urbanization level (URB), and research and development (RD) investment positively influence growth rates directly and indirectly. In contrast, environmental regulation (ER), city openness (OPEN), and population density (POP) hinder TFP growth.
The final paper by Liu et al. develops an indicator to assess the catch-up effort of different regions, utilizing a temporal-spatial production-theoretical decomposition analysis. 12 The study reveals that the impact of catch-up effects related to technological factors can be captured by meta-frontier and global frontier analyses. The main findings show that regional carbon emissions and their spatial variations increased from 2007 to 2018. Economic activity, potential carbon factors, carbon-abatement technology efficiency, and regional carbon-abatement technology gaps were identified as the primary drivers. Efforts to improve advanced technology and potential energy intensity helped reduce regional disparities, though the impacts varied significantly across different regions in China.
Conclusion
This special issue brings together studies exploring the restoration of ecosystem by low-carbon power generation from perspectives of technology, strategy, and policy. By considering the important role of sustainable energy, especially the electricity, papers focus on how to use technology to optimize low-carbon power generation system for ecosystems. In terms of policies, scenarios matching environmental, energy, and economic systems are designed and discussed to promote the green transition by estimating the impact of policies on low-carbon power generation. Simultaneously, the sustainable development also requires the strategic consensus worldwide by analyzing the underlying mechanism.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Author contributions
H.D. designed the framework of this research. J.Z. processed the data, and analysed the results. H. D. and J.Z. prepared the initial draft. S.W. provided team supervision to this study. All the authors were involved in revising the manuscript.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72243011, 72325008, 71874096, 71988101, 72104197), the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (2022QNRC001), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0608603).
