Electric vehicles play a crucial role in the carbon neutrality transformation of urban transportation, provided that they are powered by electricity generated from renewable (rather than fossil-based) generation sources. However, the substantial indirect emissions from electric vehicle air conditioning energy consumption and the significant direct emissions from HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) refrigerants pose considerable challenges. In order to identify low-GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants -such as R1234yf, R744, and R290 - that can effectively minimize carbon emissions while maintaining certain cost-effectiveness, this paper establishes the relevant life-cycle analysis and life-cycle cost analysis models for electric vehicle air conditioning. The results obtained show that, in 2022, the total carbon emissions of China’s automotive air conditioning fleet were approximately 162 million tons CO₂-eq. The nationwide average carbon emissions ranking of various refrigerant heat pumps is R290 < R1234yf < R744 < R134a. The Net Present Value (NPV) of the life cycle cost for R134a electric vehicle heat pump is estimated to be around 11,500 yuan. Among the three low-GWP refrigerants, the life cycle cost of R290 is significantly lower than that of R134a under nationwide average conditions, while R744 exhibits the best life cycle performance in certain cold cities/regions.

Distributed photovoltaic systems (distributed PV) enable rural households to replace traditional energy sources, reduce their household carbon footprint, and generate additional income. Due to the multiple benefits, China increasingly prioritizes developing distributed PV in its rural areas. However, the overall status, primary challenges of distributed PV in rural China, and how regional social and economic factors contribute to adoption choices of distributed PV remain largely uninvestigated. Here, we aim to provide insights into the above issues and offer a basis for policy recommendations that can facilitate the adoption of distributed PV, drawing from Shandong Province’s experience. This study is based on a survey conducted in 2023, encompassing a total of 169 households across 36 villages in Shandong Province. Our results show that 43% of the households have embraced distributed PV with various system standards employed. We also find that rural households in Shandong Province encounter challenges engaging in distributed PV systems, such as inadequate policy support, significant heterogeneity of policy promotion among villages, a predominant emphasis on construction rather than management, and an extended payback period. We suggest that future attention should be paid to households that have not experienced extreme weather events and those that have not yet engaged in related low-carbon environmental activities. Local village officials should take the lead in spearheading policy promotion activities to enhance villagers’ awareness and enthusiasm. Besides, efforts should be directed towards guaranteeing the availability of high-quality distributed PV systems with consistent standards.

All levels of government must prepare for an increase in adverse weather events related to climate change. Developing resilient transportation infrastructure is critical to minimizing disruptions, economic loss, and human health impacts. A challenge for national and regional governments, however, is understanding how to prioritize investments given risk levels and limited resources. This study proposes a framework, using the Region of Peel, Canada as a case study to identify and prioritize key risks in a critical economic sector for the region: intermodal goods movement. The framework integrates projected changes in weather patterns, estimating the damage to infrastructure, interruption of economic activity, and adverse impacts on the workforce, accounting also for impacts on communities, for sound policy formulation. The framework will underpin a data collection plan to inform future policy and investment in strengthening adaptation and resilience to the most likely hazards affecting goods movement. The framework was designed with a view to being easily adapted to other sectors and regions.

The Paris Agreement, with a 2 °C temperature increase baseline and a 1.5 °C target temperature increase, imposes challenges to the sustainability of buildings. However, as an end-user or end-of-the-art, the building sector overlaps with other sectors, such as industry and transportation in building materials manufacturing (such as steel, concrete, cement, etc.) and electricity use (such as building-to-vehicle charging), imposing difficulties in lifecycle carbon footprint quantification in buildings. In this study, the lifecycle carbon footprint of buildings and sustainability pathways in China are provided. Tools and platforms for lifecycle carbon footprint quantification in buildings are reviewed. A global database for lifecycle carbon footprint quantification in buildings is reviewed and compared, together with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, decarbonization technologies in the building operation stage are comprehensively reviewed, including the decarbonization potential, technology readiness level (TRL), techno-economic performance, and current technical status. Pathways on carbon neutrality in building sectors in China are provided. The results indicate that inconsistencies in global databases, unclear definitions of lifecycle carbon emissions, and inaccurate models of building energy consumption are the main challenges for accurate lifecycle carbon analysis in buildings. Various carbon neutrality transformation technologies can be classified into ultralow energy building and near zero-energy building technologies and into efficient heat pump and smart metering technologies. According to the Research Report on Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions of Chinese Buildings (2020), pathways for low-carbon transition in building sectors include building energy saving (330 million tCO₂ with 22%), renewable energy supply (299 million tCO₂ with 20%), building electrification and power sector decarbonization (450 million tCO₂ with 30%), and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology (420 million tCO₂ with 28%). These research results can pave the way for upcoming studies on the lifecycle carbon footprint in buildings and sustainability pathways in China.

Plant factories can potentially enhance the climate resilience of urban vegetable production by reducing the losses from climate hazards but generate high climate burdens - due to consuming carbon-intensive power generated by coal combustion with upstream methane emissions - unlike rural traditional sunlight greenhouses with nitrous oxide emissions. Here, we compared the life cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Technical Warming Potential (TWP) metrics of lettuce production by plant factory and greenhouse, and explored the effect of power grid decarbonization on the climate performance of the cultivations. Results show that in the baseline scenario using the southern Chinese grid, the 100-year GWP of plant factory cultivation (14.9 kgCO₂e kg^-1) is over 50 times higher than that of the greenhouse (0.27 kgCO₂e kg^-1). The nitrous oxide emissions contribute 14% to the GWP of greenhouse, while methane contributes 16% to that of plant factories, which can be reduced to ~4% under a high grid decarbonization scenario in 2050. Electricity consumption (fertilizer and polyethylene film applications) shares 43%-99% (80%-89%) of the GWP of plant factory (greenhouse) cultivations. Grid decarbonization decreases the TWP metrics over time, meaning a rising climate advantage for plant factories. However, plant factories still fail to compete with greenhouses in mitigating climate change (with TWP ranging from 5-66), except if hydropower were fully deployed. Our findings add knowledge about climate-friendly and resilient vegetable supplies under China’s grid decarbonization efforts.