Impact investing urges investors to weigh the social and environmental impacts of their investment decisions. However, in practice, it remains unclear whether investors in financial products are driven by ethical motivations, such as environmental considerations, and what factors influence their trust in the non-financial aspects (e.g., green attributes) of these investments. This study investigates the ethical motivations behind investors' decisions to invest in green bonds using a machine learning-assisted causal inference framework based on data collected on all green and conventional bonds issued worldwide from 2007 to 2022. It also explores the underlying factors contributing to investors' trust in green bonds by examining four perspectives: the issuer's environmental performance, the transparency and governance of environmental disclosure related to bonds, and the financing purpose of the bonds. The results indicate that (1) investors are willing to forgo financial gains for environmental causes, with this sacrifice quantified as an 18 basis points (bps) green premium, demonstrating a clear ethical motivation; (2) the credibility of bond information, financing purposes, and issuer's greenhouse gas emission intensity directly influence investors' trust in green bonds, while bond information disclosure and the issuer's environmental (E) scores have only indirect effects; and (3) companies with weaker environmental performance often adopt proactive disclosure or certification policies to bolster investors' green trust. This study is the first to explore the factors influencing investors' trust in green bonds and to analyze the overall causal transmission mechanism among these factors using a causal inference framework.

Solar energy has expanded rapidly in recent years, and China is the largest market in terms of installed capacity. With the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, solar power will play an increasingly important role in China. However, like many other countries, the low energy density of solar photovoltaics is one of the major drawbacks of its further development. The emergence of floating photovoltaic systems (FPV) can not only break this threshold but also generate a series of cobenefits from a brand-new energy-land-water nexus perspective. Using a GIS-MCDA model, an evaporation model, combined with a cost-benefit analysis, this paper estimates the development potential of FPV in China, and its energy-land-water cobenefits are further analyzed. Moreover, to reveal the current land constraint for developing solar photovoltaics in China, the potential of traditional terrestrial solar photovoltaics has also been evaluated. The results show that the potential installed capacity of FPV in China can reach 705.2 GW-862.6 GW with an annual 1164.9 TWh to 1423.8 TWh of potential power output, and most potential FPV stations can obtain positive financial returns. The annual water evaporation reduction is approximately 5.8 km3. In the meantime, around 7117.3 km2 of the land could be conserved, which would alleviate the land constraint for terrestrial solar photovoltaic systems, especially in the highly urbanized eastern and southern coastal areas in China.

As China's electric vehicle (EV) industry shifts from policy-driven to market-oriented development, understanding post-purchase satisfaction and its driving factors becomes imperative. This study compiled objective product attributes and consumer online reviews for 1321 EV models from China's largest automotive website, Autohome, covering the period between 2014 and 2022. By employing data mining and sentiment analysis (SA) techniques, this research extracted consumers' overall satisfaction with EVs and identified the subjective product attributes that garnered the most attention in consumer online comments. Utilizing a machine learning (ML)-SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) framework, the research pinpointed the most impactful objective and subjective product attributes on consumer satisfaction and ranked their impact intensity both statically and dynamically. The findings reveal that Chinese consumers are generally satisfied or very satisfied with their EVs. From a static perspective, distinctive objective product attributes of EVs, such as total motor power and range, play a crucial role in influencing consumer satisfaction. In terms of subjective product attributes, aspects like space, design, handling, and comfort are the most captivating to consumers and significantly shape their satisfaction. However, the dynamic analysis indicates that range anxiety persists, despite gradually increasing consumer satisfaction as the EV market matures. Additionally, price remains a crucial factor, particularly following the widespread implementation of subsidy withdrawal policies, making it the most sensitive factor for EV consumers. This study represents the first application of an explainable artificial intelligence framework to quantify the marginal impacts of various automotive product attributes on consumer satisfaction.

As China undergoes rapid socio-economic transformation, changes in food consumption have happened, necessitating understanding the links between dietary transition, nutritional changes, and climate implications. We mapped dietary pattern transition pathways in China and assessed induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2004 to 2011. We used causal discovery approach to identify influencing mechanisms of dietary transition. We discovered four distinct dietary patterns among the population in China. Notably, two of these patterns emerged as dominant, with one characterized by high animal food intake and the other by low animal consumption. Although the intake of animal-based foods and the associated emissions increase across dietary patterns, plant-based emissions exhibit a fluctuating trend, resulting in differences in total emissions across dietary patterns. GHG emissions resulting from dietary transitions originating from low-animal dietary patterns in 2004 show an increasing trend. Conversely, individuals who previously adhered to high-animal diets in 2004 have experienced reduced greenhouse gas emissions through dietary transitions. Seniors contribute most to cutting dietary-related emissions through dietary transition, implying that China’s future aging society would lead to a less climate-stressed food system. Causal discovery highlights education and health awareness as key drivers for achieving synergistic sustainable outcomes in social, food, and environmental development.

The deployment of new energy trucks is a crucial national strategy in China to achieve deep decarbonization in road transport. Although fuel cell trucks and electric tucks are regarded as alternatives to conventional fuel trucks due to the advantage of zero usage emissions, their applicability for each truck type has not been determined. By developing a total cost of ownership analysis, this study dynamically determines the most economical alternative fuel type for each truck type and identifies when the largescale deployment of new energy trucks is economically achievable. Then, by conducting a life cycle analysis with a localized database, this study quantitively evaluates the green gashouse emission intensities and their possible changes of different types of trucks. Finally, the emission reduction potential in the truck fleet by applying fuel cell and alternative fuel during 2020-2050 is comprehensively evaluated. The main results suggest that electric trucks are economically suitable for mini and light-duty trucks by 2031 and 2026, while fuel cell trucks suit medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks by 2027 and 2032. The application of alternative fuels in the truck fleet could achieve 28% carbon emissions in 2030 and up to 80% in 2050. (c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy efficiency of data center is of great concern globally due to their large amount of energy consumption and the foreseeable growth in the demand of digital services in the future. Advanced control strategies are needed to reduce energy consumption. However, the optimization of data center HVAC control is a challenge task due to the complexity of the thermal dynamic models of buildings and uncertainties associated with both server loads and outdoor temperature. In this paper, we propose a new control strategy called Alternately-Reinforcement Learning-control(ARL), which realizes the alternating control of RL and proportional, integral and derivative (PID) for optimizing the control of air-cooled HVAC systems in data centers. The control object of the ARL is the speed set of the compressor and the condensing fan, and the control goal is to minimize energy consumption while maintaining temperature stability. The applied RL algorithm is Deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) and Proximal policy optimization (PPO). We pre-train the ARL strategy in offline environment firstly and deploy it in real data center environment for online testing. The test results show that the ARL has significant advantages in maintaining temperature stability while reducing energy consumption, and the PPO algorithm performs better than the DDPG algorithm. Compared with the PID algorithm, the PPO algorithm can save energy by 5.27%, and the temperature control effect can be improved by 3.27%,which indicates the feasibility of the ARL for implementation in real data centers.

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has been supported by a variety of policies. However, many of these policies failed to accomplish their objectives from the demand side as expected. Grasping consumers' preferences accurately is of great significance to increase the efficacy of the promotion policies. Using the random coefficient logit model (BLP), this paper quantitatively analyses the preferences of EV consumers in China, with an emphasis on regional disparity and different operational purposes. The results show that the preferences for EVs are significantly heterogeneous among consumers in restricted and non-restricted cities, and in cities at different development stages. The driving range and the density of charging stations are the key influencing factors for consumers to choose EVs, and different purchasing groups have different preferences. The demand for long-range EVs mainly comes from taxis, while private EV buyers prefer high-density charging facilities. Thus, at the current stage, building more charging stations will be more efficient compared to subsidizing high-range EVs.

Global trade not only brings about the exchange of goods and services, but also stimulates the transfer of carbon emissions. Given different economic development stages and industrial structures, global carbon inequality occurs due to the mismatch between trade-related carbon emissions and value added. Combining the multi-regional input-output model and regional environmental index (REI), this paper constructs an integrated research framework to trace the embodied carbon emissions and value-added among six regions from 2010 to 2015 to shed light on global carbon inequality from a multi-regional perspective. The results indicate that major carbon exporters are placed in inferior positions in global trade, rendering them victims of carbon inequality. The EU, Japan and the USA have been favored by global trade from both economic and environmental perspectives, and the advantaged position of the EU has improved whereas the positions of Japan and the USA have slightly decreased. For disadvantage regions, China and ASEAN10 has improved their situations, yet the inequality suffered by the RoW148 has deteriorated. Adjusting the export structure from primary to advanced products is an effective measure to mitigate global carbon inequality. Our major implications help strike thinking on the rationality of global trade and offer integral solutions towards sustainable development.

Identifying the inter-sectoral relationships between the construction sector and other related sectors is crucial to reducing carbon emissions and promoting economic development. Non-competitive input-output models at comparable prices in 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017 were used to conduct this study. The structural production layer difference (SPLD) method was employed in this study and complemented with the results of structural decomposition analysis to identify significant sectors affecting economic growth and carbon emissions in the construction sector. Please check editor name in valid PIT's and styled as title-footnote or misc-text according to JSS Overall, the carbon emissions and economic growth of China's construction sector in 2017 increased by 2.4 billion tonnes and 10,512.4 billion yuan, respectively, compared to 1992 at the 2000 price level. Important sectors influencing economic growth and carbon emissions in the construction sector are identified. Wholesale and retail trade sector (s31) and finance sector (s33) increased the economic growth of the construction sector without the additional emission of CO2, which is economically and environmentally sustainable. Smelting and processing of the metals (s15) and transport and storage (s29) sectors simultaneously restrained economic growth and inhibited carbon emissions in the construction sector. The production and distribution of the electric and heat power sector (s25) stimulates the growth of carbon emissions in the sector of smelting and processing of the metals (s15), reducing the carbon reduction effect of smelting and processing of the metals (s15) on the construction sector. The SPLD results revealed that the direct impact of other services sector (s35) and transport and storage (s29) on carbon emissions in the construction sector has not been highlighted by the structural decomposition analysis (SDA). In terms of economic added value, processing of petroleum coking and the nuclear fuel sector (s12) is a pivotal sector in the supply chain influencing the added value from the extraction of petroleum and natural gas sector (s3) to the construction sector according to the results of SPLD. (C) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fast capacity estimation for retired batteries is necessary when batteries are recycled for echelon utilization. Here, a fast capacity estimation method is proposed for retired LiFePO4 battery. First, a full survey of battery pack and cells degradation after a long period of service is studied. Then the filtered ICA is used to study degradation variation phenomenon of retired batteries, the relationship between IC curve feature and remaining capacity was studied. Finally, a fast capacity estimation using incremental capacity and Gaussian process regression is proposed. Our results show high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.

This study selects the electro-optical equipment manufacturing industry as an example to explore whether participation in the global value chain increases or mitigates a country's carbon emissions and describes the impacting factors. Based on multi-regional input-output tables, a value-added decomposition model is used to decompose forward and backward value-added/final products of the world's electro-optical equipment manufacturing industries in 65 countries from 2005 to 2015. Impacts of several global value chain participation characteristics, including position, forward participation and production length, and backward participation and production length, on a country's carbon emissions, are examined. The results show that Asian countries have the highest participation rate in the global value chain, both forward and backward, of the electro-optical equipment sector with increasing proportions for forward participation, but lowest backward participation, in simple global value chains. An increase in forward global value chain participation contributes to the reducing carbon emission intensity of the electro-optical equipment manufacturing industry, particularly in terms of simple global value chain participation. On the other hand, the production length of the backward simple global value chain is positively correlated with the total imported carbon emission intensity, indicating that the longer the simple global value chain of foreign production is included in the industry's imported intermediate products and the lower the country's position in the global value chain is, the higher its imported carbon emission intensity is. Upgrade in the global value chain is able to reduce the embodied carbon emissions in the intermediate product exports and total imports.

Although hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) are more environment-friendly compared to the conventional vehicles, their energy consumption, emissions, and the economic impacts involved remain unclear from a life cycle perspective.Therefore, these aspects of HFCEVs were investigated herein using the GREET model under operating conditions for China.The results showed that HFCEVs can reduce the life cycle cost by 13.2%, energy consumption by 9.7%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 13.1% in comparison with gasoline internal combustion engine vehicles (GICEVs).However, the life cycle results showed that HFCEVs can increase the acidification potential by 111.7%, aerosol pollution by 273.9%, and human toxicity potential by 87.7%.Therefore, compared with GICEVs, the impacts of energy consumption and environmental emissions of HFCEVs are transferred from the use phase to the production phase of the fuel, and the purchase cost of HFCEVs is shifted from end users to the government.

Reconciling economic development with ecological environmental protection has always been a hot issue of the whole society. However, existing studies only consider the impact of per capita income on environmental pollution, while ignoring the existence of income gap and its possible impact on environmental pollution. Therefore, the paper focuses on the specific analysis of the relationship between income gap and environmental pollution in 48 countries and revising the EKC theory. The empirical analysis results show that: there is an M-shaped relationship between the income gap and the per-capita carbon emissions, and the three turning points are 0.27, 0.36 and 0.52; there is an N-shaped relationship between the per-capita income and the per-capita carbon emissions, and the two turning points are 5218.65 and 13766.50 international dollars; the per-capita carbon emissions increases significantly as the per-capita energy consumption increases; and there is a significant negative relationship between the urbanization rate and the per-capita carbon emissions, which provide theoretical reference for the government to formulate corresponding policy measures.

Global carbon emissions have become a huge problem, which greatly accelerates the process of global warming. However, the flow and exchange of carbon emissions caused by international trade has further increased the difficulty of determining carbon emissions responsibilities and advancing world’s emission reductions. Based on the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model, this study analysed the flow and outsourcing of carbon emissions among six regions of the world in 2014, and applied the regional environmental inequality (REI) index to measure the unequal environmental exchanges among regions. We found that global carbon emissions reached nearly 35Gt, of which more than 20% were outsourced to other regions. Especially developed regions, such as EU 28, USA and Japan, had significantly higher consumption-based carbon emissions than production-based carbon emissions. The unequal environmental exchanges mainly occurred between developed regions and underdeveloped regions. This paper can help to distinguish emission responsibilities of various regions of the world, and contribute to world emission reduction policies.

构建中国交通运输碳排放总量层次和强度层次影响因素模型,使用Johansen协整分析和误差修正模型等计量模型进行实证分析.研究结果表明,交通运输碳排放主要受经济发展水平、交通运输结构、运输装备能效水平、运输组织水平和基础设施密度等因素影响.实证结果显示,国内生产总值、铁路运输占比、乘用车燃料消耗量、百人电话拥有量和公路路网长度对交通运输碳排放影响的弹性系数分别为0.74％,?2.60％,2.01％,?0.68％和0.17％.因此,在经济正常发展情景下,提升铁路等低碳运输方式的比例,推进降低传统汽车燃油消耗水平,推广纯电动汽车等新能源汽车,加快智慧交通发展,有助于控制交通运输碳排放水平.

Environmental problems are particularly prominent in the context of carbon neutrality. The root cause of the environmental dilemma lies in the system. Therefore, this article discusses whether China is an environmental federalist country based on the perspective of environmental management system changes, and portrays China based on the two dimensions of environmental management system and fiscal decentralization. Changes in the system of environmental decentralization. With the help of environmental affairs responsibilities, the overall environmental decentralization is divided into administrative decentralization, monitoring decentralization, and supervision decentralization. The number of environmental protection agencies and the coverage of environmental protection agencies are used to calculate the Chinese-style environmental decentralization index during 1993-2015. The current environment in the western region Decentralization is still at a relatively low level. Through empirical analysis, the results show that the level of environmental governance is negatively correlated with environmental decentralization, which reflects the strengthening of the degree of centralization under the framework of environmental decentralization in China, such as the implementation of vertical management reform of environmental protection agencies, which will further improve local governments. Environmental governance level.

交通运输行业是能源消耗及碳排放三大行业之一,是应对气候变化的重点领域.加快开展低碳交通相关研究,支撑制定交通运输碳减排政策措施,具有重要的理论和现实意义.通过文献综述,梳理分析了低碳交通研究进展,主要分为交通运输碳排放影响因素分析、未来预测与潜力分析、减排措施评估分析、核算方法与评价等研究主题.基于文献梳理分析发现,交通运输碳排放影响因素主要包括经济发展水平、人口规模、交通运输总周转量、交通运输碳强度、城镇化率、城市空间分布、运输结构、交通燃料价格等;交通运输碳排放未来预测和潜力的研究目前以情景分析方法为主;交通运输碳减排措施总体包括技术性、结构性和管理性措施;交通运输碳排放核算方法与评价研究角度和领域跨度较大.目前相关研究存在量化研究影响因素过程中过度聚焦宏观层次因素,部分影响因素研究存在重复解释现象,货运峰值研判、低碳交通投资等主题研究相对有限等不足之处.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have developed rapidly in China, and the issues on where to locate the solar PV stations become critical. In some provinces, the markets are already saturated, and even solar energy curtailment has occurred due to oversupply. Thus, depicting an efficient deployment picture of the solar PV stations in China is in urgent need. To explore this issue, a profit-maximizing model is proposed to optimize the allocation of solar PV stations and interprovincial transmission strategies. The profit of solar PV stations in each province/municipality is evaluated from both economic and environmental perspectives. The economic performance is evaluated by net present value and levelized cost of energy, and the environmental benefits refer to the abatement of CO2 emissions. The results show that the northwestern and northeastern regions are not suitable to further develop solar PV systems in recent years, while the developed regions including the Yangtze River Delta, Tianjin, Beijing, and Guangdong should be encouraged to deploy more solar PV systems, especially the distributed solar photovoltaics for the commercial/industrial sectors. In 2020, the newly-added installed capacity in Zhejiang, Shandong, Beijing, and Henan is supposed to excess 8500 MW. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.