Industrial decarbonization is rapidly transforming employment structures and regional economies in major carbon emitting countries. Yet both conceptual foundations and empirical work on energy justice remain geographically concentrated in WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) societies. Existing research leaves limited insight into how the Chinese public understands and responds to justice concerns arising during decarbonization. Drawing on a mixed-methods design that combines an original cross-sectional online quota survey (N = 1,042) with 52 semi-structured expert interviews conducted across China, we examine how distributive, procedural, recognition, and cosmopolitan justice are reflected in respondents’ views on industrial decarbonization and analyze the institutional logics underlying these perceptions. The findings show that these views center on visible policy benefits, livelihood-related costs, and responsibility allocation. Procedural concerns extend beyond participation to transparent implementation, reliable enforcement, differentiated policy application, and information that supports oversight. Recognition justice is shaped by the visibility of different forms of vulnerability, while cosmopolitan justice is interpreted through competing narratives of historical responsibility, the right to development, South-South cooperation, and external pressure. These findings suggest that institutional context shapes how respondents translate abstract justice principles into judgments about policy goals, implementation approaches, responsible actors, and affected groups. For policy, the findings point to the need to clarify government and industry responsibilities for transition costs and limit the transfer of these costs to consumers. Public participation may be most meaningful when it informs compensation and support for affected groups.
Literature on multi-system dynamics in sustainability transitions highlight that structural couplings enable novel functional couplings between systems, such as the supply of electricity to decarbonize transport. However, there is limited research on how actors foster the building of structural couplings. To conceptualize such actions, we outline three multi-system intermediary roles: fostering the practical realization of structural couplings (facilitation), shaping the goals and expectations of other actors regarding structural couplings (configuration) and diffusion of structural couplings (brokering). We apply this framework to a qualitative multiple case study of six port organizations in Northern Europe who have fostered the creation of structural couplings that enable, for example, electrification of transport and industrial symbiosis. Our analysis reveals that semi-public actors, such as port authorities, may play a vital role in fostering multi-system interactions, including in hard-to-abate sectors.
Transport electrification erodes fuel-tax revenues and increasingly pressures governments to redesign road-pricing systems while sustaining long-term decarbonization trajectories. Yet existing studies largely examine mileage-based user fees (MUFs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) separately to how policy sequencing interacts with technological heterogeneity in mixed electrification systems. This study develops an agent-based modeling (ABM) framework to examine how MUFs applied to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) interact with PHEVs under different stages of electrification. Using a comparative model parameterized using U.S. market conditions, the analysis evaluates alternative subsidy structures and two MUF implementation thresholds in markets composed of BEVs, PHEVs, and conventional vehicles. Environmental and fiscal outcomes are assessed using emission-retention, fiscal-recovery, and PHEV interaction indicators. Results show that policy sequencing strongly conditions electrification trajectories and fiscal outcomes. Early MUF implementation generates relatively strong fiscal recovery but weakens long-term electrification dynamics by increasing substitution toward PHEVs. In contrast, delayed MUF implementation preserves high environmental performance and stabilizes BEV adoption trajectories, although fiscal recovery remains lower in mixed markets because PHEVs reduce subsidy exposure without contributing MUF revenues. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of distance-based road pricing depends not only on pricing intensity but also on the interaction between policy sequencing and technological composition. The study contributes to the growing literature on heterogeneous electrification transitions by showing how transitional vehicle technologies reshape the environmental and fiscal implications of road-pricing design.
