Call for papers

Toward carbon neutrality: Innovative energy and resource management

1. Call for papers for a Special Issue of Frontiers in Energy

Carbon neutrality refers to net-zero anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mostly CO₂ emissions. Achieving carbon neutrality by the middle of the 21st century is critical for limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Carbon neutrality has attracted global attentions. More than 120 countries have set their carbon neutrality targets. These countries contribute more than half of the global CO₂ emission in total.

Currently, energy system contributes about two thirds of the global GHG emission, which indicates that efficienct energy system management is the key to achieve carbon neutrality (International Energy Agency, 2018). Many relevant studies have been published, covering energy efficiency improvement, renewable energy, etc. Several of them indicate that the lock-in effect of the existing energy system jeopardizes the 1.5°C target (Cui et al., 2019; Tong et al., 2019). The International Energy Agency also illustrates that although it is feasible, achieving the 1.5°C target is extremely challenging and requires all the countries to take immediate actions (International Energy Agency, 2021). Consequently, it is critical to reform the existing energy system so that it can facilitate the implementation of carbon neutrality targets.

To date, many energy system transition pathways at regional or global levels have been proposed based on different socio-economic and technological scenarios (Guan et al., 2012). However, there is a lack of consensus on these pathways. It is difficult for policymakers to choose a suitable one from very different pathways. Especially, some of them lack feasibility, or even have conflicts each other. These differences or contradictions can be explained by different assumptions and treatments for key factors such as resource constraints, conflicts of different goals, and uncertainties in future technological progress (Duan et al., 2021).

In order to address these concerns, more comprehensive studies should be initiated to facilitate innovative energy and resource management so that appropriate transition pathways can be identified. However, both low carbon technologies and negative emission technologies rely on a large amount of virgin materials and may be limited by sufficient material supply. For example, several rare earth elements are necessary for renewable power technologies (e.g., wind power and solar power), but their supply has been restricted due to imbalanced and scarce geological concentrations (Li et al., 2020). Economic cost is another factor influencing carbon neutrality. Achieving carbon neutrality requires large investment in energy infrastructure, technologies, etc (Wei et al., 2021). Most developing countries may not be able to provide sufficient financial support. Meanwhile, to pursue sustainable development goals (SDGs) is another global effort. However, sevel SDGs may have conflicts with the carbon neutrality targets (Xu et al., 2020). How to make the tradeoffs between carbon neutrality and SDGs deserves more academic studies. In addition, achieving carbon neutrality requires a profound transformation of economic and technological development, leading to a need of joint efforts from governments, enterprises, and individuals (Geng et al., 2019; Geng et al., 2013). But how to coordinate different interests, benefits and ethical considerations among different stakeholders is still a big challenge.

In order to address these issues, this special issue aims to provide a platform for researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and the general public to share their outstanding research outcomes so that valuable insights can be obtained for preparing appropriate mitigation policies. Authors are invited to submit their papers to present their innovative strategies, policies, methods, and behavior aspects for achieving carbon neutrality.

2. Topic areas

The Editorial Team encourages submissions with a target-oriented research framework, which focuses on pathways, policies, and models for carbon neutrality at both regional and global levels. The Editorial Team welcomes review papers, research papers, and case studies that include but are not restricted to the following topics:

Ÿ   National and regional carbon neutrality policies

Ÿ   Energy demand forecasting, and energy system modeling toward carbon neutrality

Ÿ   Resource and material constraints towards carbon neutrality

Ÿ   Resource efficiency improvement and circular economy in the context of carbon neutrality

Ÿ   Energy security in the context of high-penetration renewable energy

Ÿ   Impact of energy system transition toward carbon neutrality

Ÿ   Behavioural changes toward carbon neutrality

Ÿ   Investment for carbon neutrality and corresponding environmental impacts

3. Tentative schedule for this Special Issue

Ÿ   Call for papers published in July 2021.

Ÿ   Submission of 500 words, extended abstracts to Professor Yong Geng (ygeng@sjtu.edu.cn)  by August 31, 2021.

Ÿ   Responses from the Special Issue Editorial Team to the prospective authors will be sent to them by September 15, 2021.

Ÿ   Authors will be invited to submit their ‘peer-review ready’ documents via the ScholarOne system by December 31, 2021.

Ÿ   Peer review/paper revision process until March 31, 2022.

Ÿ   Submission of final version of all revised papers will be due by June 30, 2022.

Ÿ   Publication of this Special Issue is expected to be September, 2022.

4. Contributions

Full papers are invited for potential publication in this Special Issue of Frontiers in Energy. Submissions should be between 9000 and 13,000 words for comprehensive reviews, between 7000 and 8500 words for full research/theoretical papers with broad empirical studies and between 4000 and 5000 words for case studies. All should be developed based upon the editorial and formatting guidelines provided in the instructions for authors for Frontiers in Energy, which can be accessed from the website: http://journal.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/column/column257.shtml.

Upon receipt of the completed documents, three to six independent reviewers will be selected to provide peer reviews for each document. Upon receipt and acceptance of the author’s revised or re-revised documents, all documents will be published in this Special Issue of Frontiers in Energy titled: ‘Carbon Neutrality’.

Papers must be written in good English. Authors with limitations in the command of written English are recommended to have their papers edited by a Native English Science Editor before the first submission because poorly written pieces can compromise the decisions during the review process. Similarly, they should have their final document edited by a Native English Science Editor before they submit it to the journal.

Guest Editor Team:

Professor Yong Geng, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

E-mail: ygeng@sjtu.edu.cn

Professor Raimund Bleischwitz, The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, University College London, UK

E-mail: r.bleishcwitz@ucl.ac.uk;

Professor Anthony S.F. Chiu, Industrial & Systems Engineering Department, Gokongwei College of Engineering, De La Salle University, Manila, Phillipine

E-mail: anthony.chiu@dlsu.edu.ph

Dr. Wendong Wei, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

E-mail: wendongwei@sjtu.edu.cn;

Dr. Han Hao, Tsinghua-Rio Tinto Joint Research Center for Resources Energy and Sustainable Development, Tsinghua University, China

E-mail: hao@tsinghua.edu.cn

References

Cui, R.Y., Hultman, N., Edwards, M.R., He, L., Sen, A., Surana, K., McJeon, H., Iyer, G., Patel, P., Yu, S., et al. (2019). Quantifying operational lifetimes for coal power plants under the Paris goals. Nat Commun, 10, 4759.

Duan, H., Zhou, S., Jiang, K., Bertram, C., Harmsen, M., Kriegler, E., Vuuren, D.P.v., Wang, S., Fujimori, S., Tavoni, M., et al. (2021). Assessing China’s efforts to pursue the 1.5°C warming limit. Science, 372, 378.

Geng, Y., Sarkis, J., and Bleischwitz, R. (2019). How to globalize the circular economy. Nature, 565, 153-155.

Geng, Y., Sarkis, J., Ulgiati, S., and Zhang, P. (2013). Measuring China's Circular Economy. Science, 339, 1526-1527.

Guan, D., Liu, Z., Geng, Y., Lindner, S., and Hubacek, K. (2012). The gigatonne gap in China’s carbon dioxide inventories. Nat Clim Change, 2, 672-675.

International Energy Agency (2018). CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion highlights (2018 Edition).

International Energy Agency (2021). Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.

Li, J., Peng, K., Wang, P., Zhang, N., Feng, K., Guan, D., Meng, J., Wei, W., and Yang, Q. (2020). Critical Rare-Earth Elements Mismatch Global Wind-Power Ambitions. One Earth, 3, 116-125.

Tong, D., Zhang, Q., Zheng, Y., Caldeira, K., Shearer, C., Hong, C., Qin, Y., and Davis, S.J. (2019). Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5°C climate target. Nature, 572, 373-377.

Wei, W., Li, J., Chen, B., Wang, M., Zhang, P., Guan, D., Meng, J., Qian, H., Cheng, Y., Kang, C., et al. (2021). Embodied greenhouse gas emissions from building China’s large-scale power transmission infrastructure. Nature Sustainability.

Xu, Z., Chau, S.N., Chen, X., Zhang, J., Li, Y., Dietz, T., Wang, J., Winkler, J.A., Fan, F., Huang, B., et al. (2020). Assessing progress towards sustainable development over space and time. Nature, 577, 74-78.