Back Cover: Carbon Neutralization, Volume 1, Issue 3, December 2022

Abstract

Back cover image: The dramatic increase of spent lithium‐ion batteries (SLIBs) has led to resource waste and environmental pollution. In article number https://doi.org/10.1002/cnl2.31, the current challenges and future directions in the field of SLIBs recycling are clarified by systematically explaining current advanced recycling processes and industrial application examples, as well as the introduction of emerging concepts such as intelligent and sustainable recycling, providing ideas for achieving energy efficiency and environmental protection while also achieving significant economic benefits.

A Comparative Study of China’s Carbon Neutrality Policy and International Research Keywords under the Background of Decarbonization Plans in China

“…To address various environmental governance issues and related political and economic issues triggered by climate change, the governments, United Nations, and other relevant agencies of various countries have been continuously taking measures to encourage countries around the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance defense against climate change, environmental issues, the COVID-19 epidemic, and a series of issues, and promote the improvement of global environmental issues and sustainable development through a series of agreements, conventions, and cooperation mechanisms such as the Paris Agreement [5,[16][17][18][19]. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has released many reports to study addressing climate change and related crises, attracting attention from both the political and academic communities [1, [20][21][22][23]. Numerous studies and reports from various organizations show that the Earth system has experienced severe climate shocks, and the overall situation is not optimistic due to various environmental governance issues and a series of public health governance issues such as the COVID-19 epidemic [20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has released many reports to study addressing climate change and related crises, attracting attention from both the political and academic communities [1, [20][21][22][23]. Numerous studies and reports from various organizations show that the Earth system has experienced severe climate shocks, and the overall situation is not optimistic due to various environmental governance issues and a series of public health governance issues such as the COVID-19 epidemic [20][21][22][23][24]. Many countries in the world have successively formulated the targets and paths of carbon peak and carbon neutrality and responded to the impacts and challenges brought by climate change and the COVID-19 epidemic through academic research, policy initiatives, and practices on environmental protection and public health governance [1][2][3][4][5][6][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…What are carbon peak and carbon neutrality? Peak carbon dioxide emissions or carbon peak means that at a certain time, carbon dioxide emissions reach the historical peak, and then stop growing and begin to decline gradually; this indicates the peak point of carbon dioxide emissions, which gradually decreases and adapts to human social and economic development; carbon neutrality means the removal of manmade carbon dioxide to neutralize and balance manmade carbon dioxide emissions globally, which can also be called net-zero carbon emissions [21][22][23][24]. When a country, organization, enterprise, group, or individual wants to achieve carbon neutrality or net zero emission of carbon dioxide, it must completely offset the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions measured within the specified period, thus achieving a balance between the overall quantity of carbon dioxide emissions and the overall quantity of carbon dioxide removal [22][23][24].…”

“…How to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality and move towards the vision of carbon neutrality is an urgent question for all countries in the world, especially China [16][17][18][19]. Since entering the new century, China has attached great importance to and implemented actions related to global environmental governance and climate change response, and gradually established an increasingly complete supporting policy system and promotion programs at home, making important contributions to promoting the realization of the carbon neutrality goal vision and promoting global climate response and sustainable development [21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Many scholars around the world have conducted research on environmental governance and carbon neutrality, and China's statements, actions, and visions on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have attracted the attention of the academic community [3][4][5][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

“…Since entering the new century, China has attached great importance to and implemented actions related to global environmental governance and climate change response, and gradually established an increasingly complete supporting policy system and promotion programs at home, making important contributions to promoting the realization of the carbon neutrality goal vision and promoting global climate response and sustainable development [21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Many scholars around the world have conducted research on environmental governance and carbon neutrality, and China's statements, actions, and visions on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have attracted the attention of the academic community [3][4][5][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][30][31][32][33][34][35]. For example, some research reports from the School of Environment at Tsinghua University suggest that China's carbon neutrality goals are in line with the recognition of many international organizations [36,37].…”