Sustainable strategies for marine plastic waste remanufacturing systems under diverse carbon reduction policies.

In order to cope with the climate problem of global warming and respond to the call of the United Nations to reduce carbon emissions, China has put the goals of carbon peaking in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060 forward and has promoted the transformation and upgrading of the economic development mode and the green, low-carbon development path. In international practice, various countries have widely adopted the carbon trading market and tax policy as effective carbon emission reduction mechanisms and tools. In 2012, China implemented a carbon trading pilot project and established a national unified carbon trading market in 2021 based on accumulated experience, but the carbon tax has not yet been introduced. According to the international carbon tax practice and the current situation in China, the introduction of the carbon tax is conducive to the establishment of a sound carbon emission reduction system and the promotion of green and low-carbon development from the macro-control level. In this paper, we analyzed the necessity and theoretical research of carbon tax policy in China and explored the feasibility of a carbon tax in China by combining the internationally advanced carbon tax practice. By establishing a CGE model at the carbon-tax level and using the social accounting matrix (SAM) as the database, we simulated the impact of implementing carbon tax policies under different carbon tax prices on China’s environmental and economic benefits and whether the double-dividend effect of a carbon tax can be effectively realized. The results show that the carbon tax will help reduce carbon emissions and significantly affect carbon reduction. However, in the short term, it has a negative effect on economic development. Accordingly, it is suggested that a scientific carbon tax system should be established according to national conditions, and a carbon tax should be introduced at a lower carbon tax price. The carbon tax should be supplemented by carbon tax subsidies to ensure effective carbon emission reduction so as to alleviate the inhibiting effect on economic development. At the same time, the compound carbon emission reduction mechanism of carbon trading and tax should be improved to lay the institutional foundation for the early realization of the carbon neutrality target.

Coordinated carbon reduction mechanism and policy design to achieve carbon peak and neutrality goals in the Yangtze River Delta

With the rapid growth in carbon emissions from transport, reducing these emissions is becoming as important as reducing emissions from production. We took a transporter as a member of the supply chain system and constructed a three-echelon supply chain composed of a manufacturer, transporter, and retailer. This study applies the Stackelberg game and Nash game to research the optimal carbon emission reductions, pricing, and social welfare when the government imposes a carbon tax on carbon emitters and consumers are environmentally conscious. The four scenarios were designed as follows: 1) non-cooperative decision-making (NN model), in which neither carbon emission reduction cooperation nor pricing cooperation takes place; 2) local-cooperative decision-making Ⅰ (CN model), in which only cooperation in the field of carbon emission reductions takes place; 3) local-cooperative decision-making Ⅱ (NC model), in which cooperation in the field of pricing without cooperation in the area of carbon emission reductions takes place; and 4) overall-cooperative decision-making (CC model), in which both cooperation in the field of carbon emission reductions and cooperation in the area of pricing take place. The results show that economic (as profit of the supply chain system), social (as pricing and social welfare), and environmental benefits (as the optimal carbon emission reductions) for the three-echelon supply chain will improve with the deepening of cooperation among the supply chain members. Carbon tax policies have different impacts on clean and polluting supply chains. High carbon tax can encourage clean supply chain to increase carbon emission reduction, but will lead to the reduction of carbon emission of polluting supply chain. A cross-shareholding contract is designed to coordinate the supply chain and achieve the optimal state of the overall cooperative decision. Finally, the paper provides suggestions on carbon emission reductions for enterprises and policymaking for the government.

The Chinese visional goal of achieving the "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" puts forward higher requirements for low-carbon development in the transportation industry. Seeking appropriate mitigation strategies to develop low-carbon transportation has been an important part of low-carbon economic development. This study develops a CGE model to analyze the impact of carbon-tax implementation on the transportation industry. It designs four carbon tax-recycling scenarios and simulates for double dividend of carbon tax policy. Then, it designs three scenarios including improved energy efficiency and a carbon tax to explore appropriate mitigation strategies combination. The carbon tax will reduce carbon emissions but it will also reduce sectoral outputs. However, carbon tax recycling can alleviate the negative impact on sectoral outputs, meanwhile achieving reducing carbon emissions. The energy rebound effect brought by improved energy efficiency will greatly reduce the carbon emissions reduction effect, but the carbon tax can promote the awareness of emission reduction of consumers and inhibit the energy rebound effect in the transportation industry. Therefore, at the same time of improved energy efficiency, carbon tax policies should be timely formulated to better promote the sustainable development of the varied transport sectors.

Carbon tax for energy-intensive enterprises: A study on carbon emission reduction strategies

Malaysia, as a small and developing country, must reduce carbon emissions because the country is one of the top CO2-emitting countries in the ASEAN region. Therefore, the current study implements two environmental tax policies; carbon and energy taxes, in order to examine the impacts of these policies on the reduction of carbon emission in the whole of the economy by applying a computable general equilibrium model. Since the whole of the government revenue from these tax policies is transferred to all household and labor types through two schemes, a lump sum tax, and a labor tax, respectively, it is assumed that there is revenue neutrality in the model for the government. The findings from simulated scenarios indicate that the carbon tax policy is the more efficient policy for reducing CO2 emission, in both transferring schemes, while its impact on macroeconomic variables is almost lower than the equivalent energy tax. The carbon tax is more effective than the energy tax for Malaysia to achieve 40% carbon reduction target in comparison with its 2005 level. The carbon tax, compared to the energy tax, also leads to more decrease in consumption of fossil fuels. The carbon tax policy, in comparison with the energy tax, due to revenue recycling causes much more increase in the welfare of rural and urban households in Malaysia, especially the welfare of rural (lower income) households.

To achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the low-carbon transformation (LCT) of high-carbon firms is inevitable. We construct game models of a supply chain with different dominant types under a mixed carbon policy that embraces carbon cap-and-trade and carbon tax. Solving each dominant model, we derive the effective area and optimal threshold of the mixed carbon policy to guide LCT. We find that the selling price, market demand, and profit of the supply chain system are equal in different dominant models due to the mixed carbon policy, but when a company dominates the supply chain, its profit is higher than when it is a subordinate. In addition, the high-carbon manufacturers (HCM) will pursue LCT only when the sum of the carbon tax rates and carbon trading prices is within a certain threshold, and the subordinate HCM are more likely to be driven to pursue LCT. Therefore, the government should adopt a differentiated hybrid carbon policy, setting a high (low) carbon tax rate for the HCM in a dominant (subordinate) position.

Impact of energy structure on carbon emission and economy of China in the scenario of carbon taxation

Great expectations are placed in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Governments adopt carbon tax policies to discourage manufacturing that is not eco-friendly, and subsidies to encourage low-carbon production methods. This research investigates which carbon reduction incentive policy is more viable for the supply chain under CCUS application. The most significant finding is that carbon tax and low-carbon subsidy policies are applicable to high-pollution and low-pollution supply chains with the goal of maximizing social welfare. Both policies play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions. However, it is very important for the government to set reasonable policy parameters. Specifically, carbon tax and low-carbon subsidy values should be set in the intermediate level rather than being too large or too small to achieve higher social welfare. We also find that the higher the value of carbon dioxide (CO2) in CCUS projects, the higher the economic performance and social welfare, but the lower the environmental efficiency. Governments should properly regulate the value of CO2 after weighing economic performance, environmental efficiency and social welfare. The findings yield useful insights into the industry-wise design of carbon emission reduction policies for CCUS and similar projects.

In this paper, we focus on China's power sector to investigate ways to improve emissions reductions in the context of global warming and rising carbon emissions. This paper reviews the current state of adapted carbon emission reduction policies in China's power industry and assesses the potential effectiveness of two mechanisms, carbon taxation, and carbon trading, in achieving substantial emissions reductions. China's power sector is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, and the paper explores the balance between short-term carbon tax policies and long-term carbon trading strategies aimed at promoting an early peak in carbon emissions as well as carbon neutrality within the country. This research finds that the carbon tax can have positive impacts in the short term, whereas carbon trading exhibits higher efficiency in the long term. The paper addresses this by proposing a combination of the two mechanisms to achieve effective emissions reductions in the power industry, supporting China's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the time of 2060. Finally, we explore the feasibility and benefits of implementing a carbon tax, highlighting its suitability for near-term implementation in the power industry. We conclude that a combination of carbon taxes and carbon trading can make a significant contribution to China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets.

Achieving the dual goals of improving water quality and reducing carbon emissions requires a systematic study of the combined effects of economic and environmental policies on industrial systems. A CGE-IWCR model is developed to examine the long-term evolution of industrial economic and environmental responses in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) under varying levels of carbon and water pollution taxes. The CGE-IWCE model offers several advantages: i) under the dual tax (carbon and water pollution tax) interventions, it can effectively forecast industrial CO2 and water pollution emissions driven by both macro and local factors from 2025 to 2060; ii) it quantitatively captures the interactions between various policy interventions, thereby providing guidance for comprehensive regional policy formulation. It is discovered that in the double-tax scenario, various combinations of carbon and water pollution taxes significantly impact direct carbon emissions and direct water pollution emissions, and from local consumption, imports, and exports in industrial sectors. Among them, the dual pressure of high carbon and water pollution taxes, which significantly raise production costs. In addition, increasing the carbon tax from 10 ¥/tonne to 50 ¥/tonne, the water pollution equivalent (WPE) reduction rate rises from 20.79% to 52.67% with the increase in the carbon tax from 2050 to 2060, when the water pollution tax is low. Between 2025 and 2060, the carbon tax plays a significant role in influencing the total industrial output change rate in YREB. from 2025 to 2060, the water pollution tax will play a more significant role in CO2 reduction in YREB’s industrial sector. The results will offer decision-making support for water pollution reduction and carbon mitigation in the YREB’s industrial sector, quantitatively identify the interactions between the dual taxes, and provide new insights for analyzing the impacts of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation policies.

The government is exploring carbon tax on logistics providers (LCT) to realise an environmental-friendly society. However, few existing studies explore the implications of carbon tax on logistics providers on firms’ decisions and profits. To fill this gap, we examine the impacts of LCT on firms’ pricing and carbon reduction decisions in a three-tier supply chain. We obtain some interesting findings. First, the implementation of LCT does not always increase firms’ pricing decisions and carbon reduction efforts, which is mainly contingent on the cost factor of the carbon reduction (CFCR). Second, all firms can achieve Pareto improvements under LCT and a large carbon tax will extend the region of Pareto improvements. However, the implementation of LCT is sometimes detrimental to consumers, the environment and society. Finally, we extend the basic model to the two scenarios where the retailer invests in the logistics provider and the retailer conducts carbon reduction behaviours. We find that all firms and society can benefit from retailers’ participation in emission reduction actions, irrespective of the implementation of LCT policy. Our findings have significant value for companies’ practices and government policies.

Japan's carbon tax policy: Limitations and policy suggestions.

The need for government intervention and appropriate public policy to protect environment is the most agreed issue among today's economists. It is apparent that any carbon- reduction policy such as carbon tax, regulations to modify productions or changes in emission permits will involve economic costs. However, the short-term economic costs should not be looked at as disincentives and cannot be a justification for inaction. Recognising this point, the intention of this chapter is to investigate economy-wide impacts of unexpected variation in carbon emission (such as imposing a carbon reduction policy, or increased pollutants) by empirically developing and implementing a Post Keynesian open multi sector model. This chapter first will provide an overview of the environmental effects of economics growth and industrialisation with special indication of carbon emission, and then aims to recognize historical relationships between carbon emission and macroeconomic indicators. Later in the chapter, we depart from the literature on carbon emission – growth nexus and for the first time examine the reaction of key macroeconomic indicators to shocks in CO2 emission. Theoretical framework used in this study follows the Post-Keynesian theory of growth and distribution. The outcome of post-Keynesian assumption is that more investment and accelerated endogenous technological change leads to higher employment rate, increased export volumes, and consequently achieves higher economic growth. Empirical analysis in the study is conducted for Australia by using time series data covering the period of 1980-2011, and by employing Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model and impulse response functions. In the conclusion, we summarises the results and we argue about dynamic impacts of carbon and related reduction policies on the economy.

Carbon tax and low-carbon credit: Which policy is more beneficial to the capital-constrained manufacturer's remanufacturing activities?