With the global concern for environmental issues, studies of footprints, especially multi-factor footprints, have received great attention worldwide. This study aims to offer an overview of this research domain of multi-factor footprints, based on a sample of relevant literature published from 1992 to 2023, and to analyze the research trends, basic characteristics, and research hotspots of multi-factor footprints through bibliometrics. This study not only sorts out multiple combinations of common objects of research and main research methods, but also analyzes the information on the countries and authors with a large number of publications by using VOSviewer and CiteSpace, and carries out keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and burst analyses to uncover the evolution of the research hotspots. Finally, this study concludes that multi-factor footprint research has great potential for development, the combination of carbon footprint and water, energy, and other footprints provides a more comprehensive and deep perspective for assessing environmental impacts, diverse research methods drive breakthroughs, and the research hotspots have been extended to interdisciplinary and multiple fields. This study offers scholars a literature review of research perspectives in the field of multi-factor footprints and provides a reference for future research directions.
This study investigates the allocation of carbon responsibility within the entire supply chain, utilizing a comprehensive traceability framework. Using the electric vehicle battery industry as a case study, it examines the transfer and allocation of carbon responsibilities across upstream raw material production, the power battery industry, downstream industries, and end-users, resulting in a more equitable distribution of carbon responsibility. The electric vehicle battery industry bears only 6.6%-18.9% of its original carbon responsibility, with the remainder shared among related industries and consumers. Industries such as the computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry, the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry (except the electric vehicle battery industry), the automobile product manufacturing industry, and the transport and storage industry bear a heavy carbon responsibility. Notably, the carbon responsibility of end-use categories such as exports and urban consumption is significantly higher, highlighting the substantial role of final consumers. The analysis demonstrates that a collaborative allocation strategy, integrating market-driven mechanisms, technological innovation, and policy support, can effectively drive emission reductions across the entire supply chain. This approach promotes equitable carbon reduction targets and fosters global cooperation for sustainable development.
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is regarded as a promising distributed energy storage solution that can help address grid challenges arising from the integration of renewable energy and the large-scale uncoordinated charging of electric vehicles. However, issues such as additional battery degradation and energy efficiency losses induced by V2G may lead to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in providing energy storage services, thereby reducing its overall potential to contribute to power system decarbonization. Existing studies on the additional GHG emissions of energy storage technologies have largely overlooked V2G technology. To fill this research gap, this study develops a comprehensive life cycle assessment model for V2G technology in China. The model first simulates the charging and discharging processes of EV batteries in V2G applications, as well as the additional battery degradation caused by V2G participation. Building on this technical modeling and incorporating multidimensional geographic heterogeneity data, a high-resolution assessment of V2G’s lifecycle additional GHG emissions is conducted across 337 cities in China. The results reveal that V2G’s additional GHG emissions for frequency regulation (FR) and peak shaving and valley filling (PSVF) services range from 0.046-0.152 and
As a key sector characterized by high energy consumption and carbon emissions, the low-carbon transition of the iron and steel industry is crucial for achieving national emission reduction targets. Although China's iron and steel industry has made some progress in reducing total energy demand through capacity control, it still faces challenges in terms of technological paths toward industrial decarbonization. Financing low-carbon technologies during the transition process will have to deal with significant funding gaps and a capital structure mismatched with technological development. We propose policies and methods to promote financing for the iron and steel industry’s low-carbon transition. We suggest strengthening public investment guidance, promoting green financial policies, and innovating carbon finance instruments. Emphasis should be placed on the role of policies such as green credit, carbon pricing, and R&D subsidies, while highlighting the importance of integrating financial policies with technology and flexibly adjusting them throughout the "financing lifecycle".
Promoting carbon labels for agricultural products has crucial practical value in reducing carbon emissions. Based on the binary logit model, this paper studied the different motivations of consumers in eastern, central, and western China to purchase carbon-labeled eggs. Based on the choice experiment method and mixed logit model, this paper investigates the preferences and willingness of consumers in different regions to pay for different attributes of carbon-labeled eggs. The results show that the motives driving consumers in different regions to buy carbon-labeled eggs vary but are mainly taking a wait-and-see approach. Consumers in the eastern, central, and western regions all strongly prefer low-carbon labeled eggs. In contrast, consumers in the western region have no significant positive preference for medium-carbon labels. The combination of low-carbon labels and free-range labels has a complementary effect on consumer groups in the eastern, central, and western regions. Low-carbon labels and organic certification labels have a substitutive effect on consumer groups in the eastern region. Medium-carbon labels, organic certification labels, low-carbon labels, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) -enriched egg labels have a complementary effect on consumer groups in eastern and central regions. In contrast, medium-carbon labels and DHA-enriched egg labels have a substitutive effect. The willingness to purchase carbon-labeled eggs is lower for older consumers in the eastern region and families with a heavier burden of elderly care and children in the central region.
The study examines the delivery of climate change mitigation and sustainable development goals (SDG) in Surat’s passenger transport sector. The SDGs selected are 1-no poverty, 3-health and well-being, 5-gender equality, 8-economic growth, 11-sustainable cities, and 13-climate action. Over and above the Base Scenario, the three scenarios presented are: Scenario I involves recalibrating Surat’s available Comprehensive Mobility Plan, Scenario II - a Deep Decarbonization Scenario, aligning with the global 1.5 °C temperature stabilization target via technology, and Scenario III - an SDG-adjusted Deep Decarbonization Scenario addressing social transformations applying assumptions derived from the primary survey in the city on Scenario II. Scenario II has the lowest motorized vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) and, thus, the lowest GHG emissions. Scenario III has a higher motorized VKT and thus the emissions than Scenario II. Nonetheless, GHG emissions improve in Scenario III by 84.3% compared to Scenario I and push forward the SDGs.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are pivotal for electric vehicles and energy storage, yet their sustainability assessment is hindered by methodological limitations. Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform lifecycle assessment (LCA) paradigms for LIBs. This study employs strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis to comprehensively examine the role and prospects of AI for LCA in LIBs. The objective is to capitalize on the technology's strengths, mitigate its weaknesses, and identify potential opportunities and threats. Furthermore, this research proposes future studies to enhance the application of AI in the LCA of LIBs, including the establishment of unified standards for data collection, processing, and sharing, improving data transparency, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and developing more robust AI models. This study will provide a scientific reference for the research on efficient, scalable, and automated sustainability assessment methods in LIBs, driving the battery and transportation toward more sustainable development.
As a critical element for energy transition and carbon neutrality, climate finance is receiving increasing attention from policymakers. However, existing studies mainly focus on the environmental economic performance of individual climate finance policy instruments, with limited discussion on the policy mix rationale. To uncover the evolutionary dynamics of public climate finance policy mix and understand its underlying mechanisms in facilitating low-carbon transition, this paper systematically examined the policy documents released from 2006 to 2023 in China. The results indicate that since the enactment of the Renewable Energy Law, China has introduced 121 public finance policy documents to support renewable energy development, marking a gradual shift from government-led subsidy policies to a market-based green electricity trading scheme. The policy mix dynamics vary across different phases: Phase I (2006-2010) witnessed a predominant utilization of special funds, Phase II (2011-2016) focused on the establishment and implementation of feed-in tariffs, while Phase III (2017-2023) marked a transition toward market-based policy instruments. Overall, China's experience shows that a comprehensive array of policy instruments, rather than relying on a single tool, is necessary for facilitating a low-carbon transition. Instead of prescribing an optimal combination of policy instruments once and for all, it is crucial to dynamically adjust and calibrate these instruments over the long term. This study not only assists China in exploring an appropriate policy mix for energy transition and carbon emission reduction, but also provides valuable references for other countries with similar development modes.