The Scope 3 emissions of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol are widely recognized globally, and it is important to understand the emissions from an entire value chain and to elucidate the opportunities for their reduction. The Scope 3 emissions increase in association with larger deployments of products, even those that have high energy efficiency. Therefore, measuring and estimating the “avoided emissions” that correspond to the difference between global emissions from that product usage and the baseline emissions is crucial in emission reduction activities. This study used an energy systems model to estimate the potential avoided emissions in two key end-use technologies: batteries and the hot water supply and space heating technologies of heat-pumps. The global avoided emissions by 2050 are expected to be approximately 12 and 4 GtCO2, respectively, for meeting the target of restricting air temperature rise to below 1.5 °C. The ex-post assessments on measuring the avoided emissions have issues regarding the definition of the baseline emissions, but the ex-ante assessments, estimated using the energy systems model, can convey clear definition of the baseline emissions and support emission reduction activities.

As Indonesia advances toward its net-zero emissions target, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is emerging as a vital mitigation strategy, especially for coal-based power generation. This study examines the economic feasibility of implementing CCS at the Jawa 9 & 10 coal-fired power plant in Suralaya, Indonesia, through a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) over 30 years. Four CCS scenarios are analyzed based on two transportation methods (pipeline, shipping) and two carbon pricing methods (domestic, international). Results show that domestic price scenarios yield a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 0.5–0.6, signaling financial infeasibility. In contrast, international price scenarios achieve a BCR of 1.1–1.2, reflecting stronger revenues from carbon credits. Pipeline transport consistently outperforms shipping due to lower operating costs. Sensitivity analysis highlights that a 1% increase in carbon price results in about a 1.003–1.005% increase in the BCR, while a 1 %age point increase in the discount rate decreases the BCR by about 3.8–4.3%. The findings suggest that under current pricing mechanisms, CCS remains economically unviable in Indonesia. Policy priorities include enhancing carbon pricing, expanding concessional financing, and fostering public-private partnerships to support large-scale CCS deployment. This study contributes to the literature by modeling project-level financial thresholds and identifying enabling policy conditions for CCS in developing economies.

Southeast Asia’s steel sector faces the dual challenge of expanding production to meet rising demand while reducing carbon emissions. This study develops a bottom-up cost minimization model with 19 steelmaking technologies for six Southeast Asian countries over 2020–2070 and applies a three-dimensional scenario design that varies carbon pricing, technology cooperation, and infrastructure readiness at two levels each, yielding nine scenarios including a business-as-usual scenario (SC0). Rather than treating the three dimensions as strictly independent, we use the design to diagnose how they interact along a combined axis of policy ambition. Without climate policy, BF-BOF expansion locks in rising emission intensity, reaching 1.14 tCO $_2$ /t by 2040, 18% above the 2020 level. Under the most favorable policy combination, emissions fall by 67% from SC0 by 2050. Carbon pricing contributes the largest emission reduction at 27.1 percentage points on average but raises costs. Infrastructure readiness adds 20.9 pp while simultaneously lowering costs. Technology cooperation adds 2.4 pp of emission reduction and delivers a 6 to 9% cost saving, and diversifies the technology mix during the transition. Deep decarbonization at 67% reduction is achieved at no higher per-ton cost than shallow decarbonization at 17% reduction when infrastructure and cooperation accompany carbon pricing, indicating that the perceived trade-off between emission ambition and cost is largely an artifact of incomplete policy packages. These findings suggest that Southeast Asian governments should prioritize hydrogen and electricity infrastructure investment before or alongside carbon pricing, and that regional cooperation frameworks can be used to accelerate technology transfer and reduce transition costs.

Achieving deep decarbonization in industry sector is a central socio-environmental challenge for achieving global climate targets, particularly in countries with large industrial bases. In China, the iron and steel sector is one of the most carbon-intensive industries and therefore plays a decisive role in the realization of the 2030 carbon peaking and 2060 carbon neutrality goals. Electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking is widely regarded as a key technological pathway toward near-zero emissions, yet its large-scale deployment faces critical constraints related to material availability, regional heterogeneity, and infrastructure conditions. In particular, the lack of systematic, province-level assessments of resource constraints and spatial allocation hampers effective planning of EAF-based decarbonization pathways. To address this knowledge gap, this study applies the AIM-China/Steel model to quantitatively assess the provincial production potential of EAF steel in China. The analysis integrates cost optimization with regional scrap availability, inter-provincial scrap transportation, and energy costs to simulate future EAF capacity deployment under decarbonization constraints. The results show that regional scrap supply and the feasibility of scrap transport jointly determine the spatial distribution of EAF capacity. In scrap-scarce regions, EAF expansion is significantly constrained, requiring either cross-regional scrap flows or complementary low-carbon options such as hydrogen-based direct reduced iron (H-DRI). Moreover, energy prices, infrastructure conditions, and policy interventions strongly influence the timing and scale of EAF deployment. These findings demonstrate that Chinau2019s steel decarbonization depends not only on green electricity expansion but also on coordinated planning of scrap recycling systems, transportation networks, and regional resource allocation. This study provides quantitative evidence to support province-level EAF capacity planning and informed policymaking for the steel industryu2019s transition toward near-zero carbon emissions.

The years 2023 and 2024 were characterized by unprecedented warming across the globe, underscoring the urgency of climate action. Robust science advice for decision makers on subjects as complex as climate change requires deep cross- and interdisciplinary understanding. However, navigating the ever-expanding and diverse peer-reviewed literature on climate change is enormously challenging for individual researchers. We elicited expert input through an online questionnaire (188 respondents from 45 countries) and prioritized 10 key advances in climate-change research with high policy relevance. The insights span a wide range of areas, from changes in methane and aerosol emissions to the factors shaping citizens' acceptance of climate policies. This synthesis and communications effort forms the basis for a science-policy report distributed to party delegations ahead of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to inform their positions and arguments on critical issues, including heat-adaptation planning, comprehensive mitigation strategies, and strengthened governance in energy-transition minerals value chains.

The purpose of this study is to examine the global impact of climate change on national-level tourism demand. To this end, a meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize quantitative findings from previous research to estimate the average effect of temperature on national tourism demand. Following the PRISMA guidelines, relevant studies were identified, collected, and reviewed, and their coefficients were extracted and converted into standardized elasticity measures. These temperature–tourism elasticities were used as the dependent variable, while temperature and national-level conditions served as independent variables. The model was applied to countries worldwide and to the 16 regional groupings suggested by the FUND model to evaluate the impact of temperature rise on tourism demand. The results show that temperature rise increases tourism demand in high- and some mid-latitude regions, such as China, Russia, North America, Lower South America, Canada, and Australia–New Zealand, but decreases demand in low-latitude regions, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These findings demonstrate that climate change impacts on tourism demand are uneven, depending on the structural conditions of each country and region. The key contribution of this study is the integration of fragmented empirical findings into a global, national-level model that identifies the macro-patterns of climate change impacts on tourism demand.

China aims to peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060; hence, industrial sectors in China are keen to figure out appropriate pathways to support the national target of carbon neutrality. The objective of this study is to explore near-zero emission pathways for the steel industry of China through a detailed technology assessment. The innovative technology development has been simulated using the AIM-China/steel model, developed by including material-based technologies and optimal cost analysis. Six scenarios have been given in terms of different levels of production output, emission reduction and carbon tax. Near-zero emission and carbon tax scenarios have shown that China's steel industry can achieve near-zero emission using electric furnaces and hydrogen-based direct reduction iron technologies with policy support. Based on these technologies, minimised production costs have been calculated, revealing that the steel produced by these technologies is cost-effective. Moreover, the feedstock cost can play a key role in these technology portfolios, especially the cost of scrap, iron ore and hydrogen. In addition, the feedstock supply can have strong regional effects and can subsequently impact the allocation of steelmaking in the future. Therefore, China can achieve near-zero emissions in the steel industry, and electric furnace and hydrogen-based direct reduction iron technologies are crucial to achieving them.

This study aims to construct composite indices for health sector climate vulnerability in 226 local entities of South Korea from 2011 to 2018 using principal component analysis methods. After calculating exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indices respectively, which comprises a function of vulnerability, the composite indices for climate vulnerability are drawn. GIS maps visualize each index to provide more intuitive information on year-by-year transition in the 226 local entities, as well as to identify the proper local conditions in responding to climate change in the health sector more effectively. The overall tendency from 2011 to 2018 in each local entity is quite consistent without remarkable transition. Therefore, this overcomes the limitation of using cross-sectional data when conducting a measurement study. Local entities in major cities and municipalities in South Korea appear to be low in vulnerability to climate change in the health sector thanks to their low sensitivity with less vulnerable population and high adaptive capacity with a good health infrastructure. Nevertheless, there are quite a few exceptional cases among the cities and municipalities observed. This demonstrates why climate vulnerability assessment should be implemented at the local context, rather than through a top-down manner, as such exceptional cases could be overlooked in top-down approaches. This study provides a policy contribution to both central and local governments to fill gaps in current adaptation plans. In addition, the established micro-level time-series dataset for PCA analysis can contribute to further research in the future.

As energy transition to respond to the global climate crisis has emerged as an important issue not only in developed countries but also in developing countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region is also expanding their efforts to build an energy system centered on low-carbon energy. The ASEAN is facing various challenges in pursuing such energy transition while responding to increasing energy demand arising from rapid economic growth and rising population. In addition, most ASEAN countries currently rely on fossil fuels such as coal and gas for 80-90% of their energy supply, urgently demanding ground-breaking but realistic alternatives for low-carbon energy transition. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the potential for establishing a low-carbon energy infrastructure in the ASEAN region by analyzing the current status of the region’s energy sector, greenhouse gas emission trends, and the member countries’ low-carbon policy goals, and to explore the direction of cooperation in the low-carbon energy sector between the ASEAN and Republic of Korea with focus on areas where cooperation with Korea can be further expanded.

Under the rising pressure for low carbon energy transitions in Northeast Asia (NEA), interconnecting local power grids for interstate power trade allows to share reserve capacity and to redistribute intermittent renewable energy across time zones, contributing to regional sustainability. Using a linear programming model that minimizes total energy system costs to meet hourly power demand, we build a hypothetical electricity transmission model for three urban demand centers interconnecting China, South Korea, and Japan to test economic and environmental competitiveness of the trilateral power trade with carbon pricing. In the economic perspective our results indicate that interstate electricity trade enables cost savings at all levels of CO2 prices tested (0–180USD/ton of CO2 emitted) through more efficient fuel consumptions on an hourly basis at the NEA regional level. However, ambitious carbon pricing (above 90 USD/ton CO2 emitted) is still essential for trade to ensure equitable trade impacts for all participating nodes. While trade utilizes gaps in resource availabilities and technology costs across nodes in cost minimization, results show inadequate carbon pricing leads to extra thermal combustions at the local level although regional total emissions reduce.

Developing Asian economies have been the fastest-growing economies, and their greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly. Recent urgent calls for climate action and achieving Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets (even net zero) require developing Asian economies to achieve the transition towards low-carbon economies. This study applied a global dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium model to analyze the impacts of achieving NDC targets and reaching net zero through carbon pricing on Asian regions’ economies and employment. Four different scenarios (business-as-usual, NDC extension, net zero transition, and orderly net zero transition) were established, and particularly, the orderly net zero transition scenario incorporates carbon pricing for achieving net zero and establishing an international carbon market in Asia. Economically, the mitigation efforts to achieve NDC targets and net zero would cause some economic losses in Asia, but a limited size of economic losses is expected, compared to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in Asia. Also, the study suggests that the introduction of an international carbon market in Asia could support Asian regions in general, though with some mixed results across regions, economically to achieve a net-zero transition. Moreover, the mitigation efforts and net zero transition could have some positive impacts on employment. These transitions would increase both skilled and unskilled labor in Asia but with some mixed results across regions and sectors. From a sectoral perspective, the NDC target achievement and net zero transitions would affect the fossil fueland carbonintensive sectors and the renewable energy sector significantly, while the other sectors would remain relatively stable. Both economic indicators and employment of fossil fueland carbonintensive sectors would be significantly damaged, and the coal sector would experience the largest negative impacts. However, the renewable electricity sector would grow significantly. The results suggested that national and international policy measures, such as technology and finance transfer, would need to be considered to incentivize Asian economies to participate in the international carbon market and to support the countries and sectors that are experiencing negative impacts from low-carbon transitions. Last, the low carbon transitions could provide potential co-benefits, though not considered in this study, to developing Asian economies with environmental problems and large exposure to climate risks.

This paper examines the status of sustainable development in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK; North Korea) by using panel data from 1990-2020. The derivation of sustainable development index (SDI) and the calculation of the contribution of an individual sustainable development goals (SDGs) to the SDI are conducted by employing a factor analysis with the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The main results are as follows: First, a fluctuated SDI is derived. It shows a low value in 2007 followed by an improving trend in 2007. In the 2010s, as GDP per capita decreased after the sanctions against North Korea, the SDI also shows a decreasing trend with fluctuation. Second, Goals 1 (no poverty), 7 (affordable and clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 13 (climate action), and 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions) show improvement over the years while Goals 4 (quality education), 10 (reduced inequality), 14 (life below water), 15 (life on land) have deteriorated. Finally, Goals 5 (gender equality) and 12 (responsible consumption and production) show an inverse U-shaped trend as the situation worsened after the 2010s. And Goal 3 (good health and well-being) show a U-Shaped trend.

This study investigated how three Asian countries-Republic of Korea (ROK), Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore-considered as standouts, responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in terms of governance system, health sector innovation, and social distancing to draw lessons that other countries can learn from. The countries were commonly in success of the response in early stage of the pandemic thanks to their effective and efficient strategies paired with advanced information and communications technology (ICT). Consequently, the three jurisdictions reported lower confirmed cases as well as fatality rate of the infectious disease compared to other high-income countries. In addition, the countries' previous experiences with other pandemics, including influenza A, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and severe acute respiratory syndrome, enabled them to establish resilient public health systems and gain public acceptance to governmental control or surveillance during national infectious disease-related crises outbreaks. Advanced ICT infrastructure and digital technology were used as effective tools for testing, tracing, and treatment of the pandemic in collaboration with the private sector as a crucial player. The ROK, Taiwan, and Singapore adopted different strategies between containment and mitigation policy to flatten the epidemic curves effectively according to their own situation and judgement. Despite the exemplary aspect of the three nations in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, a few limitations were also observed in terms of vaccination and unequal consequences of the pandemic among people. These should be further discussed in order to be prepared for future pandemics.

The government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) has established relevant laws and a master plan for infectious disease control and prevention based on their experiences with past epidemics.In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has designed a standard manual for risk management that involves pan-governmental crisis management systems.This national infectious disease management system is constantly being supplemented and developed in face of infectious disease-related crises.In this study, we set out to present directions for infectious disease prevention and flow of management and governance between central and local governments to ensure systematic quarantine activities in the ROK.During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, public-private partnerships have been established to collect, provide, process, and disseminate information for effective quarantine.This has enabled the development and rapid approval of test kits, the tracking of cases, and the allocation of appropriate resources for patient treatment.Additionally, the Infectious Disease Control Agency has actively utilized information and communication technology platforms to disclose information necessary in real-time for COVID-19 quarantine and management.Overall, these efforts have played an important role in epidemiological investigations, patient management, and quarantine in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study internalizes carbon pricing and other regulatory policy tools for decarbonizing the electricity generation mix of Sri Lanka. Carbon Pricing is shifted to the supply side as a decision-making tool. We consider $10/tCO2, $20/tCO2, $30/tCO2, $44/tCO2, $130/tCO2, and $297/tCO2 as potential carbon prices. Other regulatory policy tools, such as mandatory renewable energy (RE) development, fuel switching, fossil fuel phasing out, fossil fuel development moratoriums, and mandatory RE utilization, are included as possible supporting tools. Three capacity-development scenarios and three optimization models with three objective functions are designed and implemented in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). Six policy options are presented for the Sri Lankan context considering cost, emission, and diversification. Results suggest a carbon price that falls between $10/tCO2-$44/tCO2 as suitable for Sri Lanka. The study contributes to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of carbon pricing by empirically testing the effectiveness of carbon prices in the electricity generation planning of a developing country. The findings support the emerging consensus of adopting other regulatory policy tools along with carbon prices to achieve deep decarbonization. The study also assesses the role LNG could play in a developing country's electricity generation mix. We recommend transitioning from coal to LNG as an intermediate decarbonization policy option until the RE capacities are developed to make the near-zero emission mix a reality.

The demographic changes of East Asian countries have accelerated in recent years. With consideration of the linkage between human behavior and carbon emissions, it is necessary to consider demographic characteristics for the CO2 emission projections of these countries. This study examines how changes in the demographic structure affect the emission projections of three East Asian countries (South Korea, China, and Japan) by comparing two different vintages of population projections. The study constructed a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and applied the most up-to-date dataset of population prospects, GTAP 10, and the labor force participation rate. By comparing UN2010 and UN2019 projections, the study examined the impact of demographic changes on CO2 emission profiles of the three East Asian countries. The simulation result showed that GDP, which represents economic activity along with the population, is the direct channel of CO2 emission projections. Moreover, the scenario analysis suggested the population factor as one of the main drivers of the CO2 emission projection and a clear positive relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions, though CO2 emissions are generally inelastic in response to a GDP decrease in the three East Asian countries. The finding indirectly implies that not only the size of the population but also demographic composition should be considered to project CO2 emissions, as the labor participation rate is an important factor to determine the production function.

South Korea had the highest annual average PM2.5 exposure levels in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2019, and air pollution is consistently ranked as citizens’ top environmental concern. South Korea is also one of the world’s top ten emitter countries of CO2. Co-benefit mitigation policies can address both air pollution and climate change. Utilizing an alternative co-benefit approach, which views air pollution reduction as the primary goal and climate change mitigation as secondary, this research conducts a scenario analysis to forecast the health and climate benefits of fuel substitution in South Korea’s electricity generation sector. Health benefits are calculated by avoided premature mortality and years of life lost (YLL) due to ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI). The study finds that use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead of coal over the 2022–2050 period would result in an average of 116 fewer premature deaths (1152 YLL) and 80.8 MTCO2e fewer emissions per year. Over the same period, maintaining and maximizing the use of its nuclear energy capacity, combined with replacing coal use with LNG, would result in an average of 161 fewer premature deaths (1608 YLL) and 123.7 MTCO2e fewer emissions per year.

This study aims to classify 226 local entities in Korea according to the type of climate vulnerability to provide appropriate climate adaptation policies that consider local characteristics. Using climate impact as the y-axis and adaptive capacity as the x-axis, we can create four types of vulnerability and plot 226 local entities on a quadrant. Unlike previous studies in this field, we consider the concept of uncertainty while calculating the exposure index, which is a climate impact component, by estimating the probability of disaster risk. In addition, using the principal component analysis method to calculate weights for each index increased the statistical robustness to our study. The results indicated that Type 1 areas (those with high climate impact and high adaptive capacity) included coastal regions or geographically vulnerable places that could overcome climatic restrictions through their high adaptive capacity. Type 2 areas (those with high climate impact and low adaptive capacity) were the most vulnerable, and included several local areas on the west coast of the Korean peninsula. Socially vulnerable groups in this area may need support from the central government to avoid negative climate impacts. Local entities in Type 3 areas (those with low climate impact and low adaptive capacity) pay less attention to climate adaptation issues, but they are exposed to the potential risks of climate impacts due to their low adaptive capacity. For Type 3 specifically, further education and enhancing public awareness on climate change adaptation are required. Last, Type 4 areas (low climate impact and high adaptive capacity) include mostly urban areas where vulnerability is the lowest, yet potential risk could be the highest due to large populations and extensive infrastructure. The findings will contribute to map out locally specified climate change adaptation policies in each local entity.

물, 에너지, 식량 자원 간의 연계(Water-Energy-Agriculture Nexus: WEA Nexus)는 기존의 분절된 자원 관리 시스템을 탈피하여 통합적인 사고를 요하는 패러다임 전환을 요구한다. 이 개념은 유엔(UN)이 추구하는 지속가능발전목표(Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs)의 상호연계성에 부합하며, 자원 간의 관계를 파악함으로써 보다 효율적인 자원 관리 시스템을 구축하데 도움을 줄 수 있다. 그러나 WEA 넥서스는 주로 국제적인 수준의 논의 또는 거대담론 및 개념화 단계에 머무르는 경우가 많았다. 따라서 본 연구의 목적은 사회적 연결망 분석과 지표간의 중심성 분석을 통해 WEA 넥서스를 지역 수준에서 분석하는 것이다. 아울러 중요한 의미를 가지는 주요 지표를 색출함으로써 지역에 기반한 지속가능발전목표 달성(localizing the SDGs)을 위한 시사점을 얻고자 한다. 농업 중심 경제이며 기후변화, 인구 증가, 도시화 등 여러 문제로 말미암아 안전한 자원 확보가 필수적인 필리핀의 일로일로(Iloilo) 지역을 대상으로 사회적 연결망 분석을 통해 지역 기반 WEA 넥서스의 지표 간의 관계와 방향성을 살펴보았다. 본 연구의 연구 결과를 통해 다양한 이해당사자 간의 파트너십을 형성하고 연계를 늘려가는 방안이 정책적 함의로 제시되었다. 본 연구의 결과를 통하여 정책 입안자 및 다양한 이해당사자들이 효과적인 지역 기반 발전 정책을 도출하기 위하여 자원 간의 연계성에 대해 이해하고 통찰을 가질 수 있기를 기대한다.