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Navigating China’s carbon neutrality journey: insights from policy instruments and implementation strategies across provincial regions

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Abstract

China’s critical reliance on well-crafted public policies, coupled with the effective execution of central government directives at the local level, drives the achievement of the “dual carbon” goal including the peaking of CO2 emissions and attaining carbon neutrality. Therefore, examining policy records can unveil the holistic strategy for attaining carbon neutrality during the period of peak CO2 emissions; at the same time, it can also highlight the potential obstacles in policy implementation. In this study, we adopt a policy instruments perspective to investigate data related to policies addressing peak CO2 emissions across 29 provincial administrative regions in China. We apply Nvivo12 software to conduct a quantitative literature assessment and content analysis to establish a theoretical framework for the policy process. This framework encompasses dimensions such as political feasibility, regional coordination, attributes of low-carbon initiatives, and policy refinement. Subsequently, we employ the model to carry out a retrospective analysis of policy documents pertaining to peak CO2 emissions in China. Our research findings underscore the pivotal role of political feasibility in shaping policy effectiveness, while also highlighting the facilitative influence of regional coordination, shedding light on the essential synergy between provinces and cities in achieving emissions reduction goals. Similarly, the estimated results highlight the motivating impact of specific attributes within low-carbon initiatives. Moreover, policy enhancements are identified as a critical driver in advancing the path toward carbon neutrality. Consequently, to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality, it is imperative for every province and city to sequentially reach the peak of CO2 emissions. Our research offers a comprehensive “China strategy,” providing valuable insights to guide future policy formulation and accelerate progress toward sustainable environmental objectives.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the following funders: Research on the Livelihood Recovery of Farmers in the Loess Plateau Coping with Multiple Risks under the Coupling Effect of COVID-19 and Meteorological Disaster, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 2021.1.1–2024.12.31, No. 42075172) (sponsor and host Jianjun Huai); Study on the Countermeasures of Rapidly Improving Community Management and Service Level in Epidemic Prevention and Control, Xianyang Science and Technology Bureau, Project of “Exposing the List and Being in Command” (2022.1.1–2022.12.31, No. JBGS-005) (sponsor and host Jianjun Huai); and Study on the Supporting System of Coordinated Development of Ecological Value Realization and Rural Revitalization in Typical Regions of Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Sciences, 2021 Key Think Tank Research Project on Major Theoretical and Practical Problems of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Shaanxi Province (2022.1.1–2022.12.31, No. 2021ZD1042) (sponsor and host Jianjun Huai).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Yuling Gao, Arshad Ahmad Khan & Jianjun Huai

  2. Department of Economics and Finance, UiS Business School, University of Stavanger, 4036, Stavanger, Norway

    Sufyan Ullah Khan

  3. College of Economics, Shenzhen University, 518055, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Abu Sufyan Ali

Authors
  1. Yuling Gao
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  5. Jianjun Huai
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Contributions

YG: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, modeling, formal analysis, and writing the original draft. AAK: data curation, investigation, formal analysis, review, and editing. SUK: software and methodology, data curation, and investigation. MASA: data curation, investigation, review, and editing. JH: funding acquisition, project administration, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Jianjun Huai.

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Gao, Y., Khan, A.A., Khan, S.U. et al. Navigating China’s carbon neutrality journey: insights from policy instruments and implementation strategies across provincial regions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 115322–115336 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30589-3

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