The Role of Management Science in Supporting Sustainable Energy Systems and a Carbon-Neutral Society

Dear Colleagues,

Achieving sustainable energy systems and low-carbon development is a complex systematic project, with many challenges and uncertainties. The proposal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality has spawned a series of important basic scientific research issues, including not only natural science and engineering technology issues related to carbon emission reduction and carbon sink construction, but also economic and management issues such as economic transformation, industrial layout optimization, carbon price formation mechanism, carbon trading mechanism design, carbon finance, international cooperation, climate governance, etc.

Meanwhile, management science can serve as an essential tool and guide the development of sustainable energy polices and climate action plans. First, management theories and methodologies can be used to determine the technical routes to use to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the priority of pollutant reduction and emission reduction, and the construction of total carbon emission indicators and decomposition indicators by industries and regions. Second, management science can provide an impetus for micro entities to actively participate in carbon neutrality, encourage low-carbon and zero-carbon business model innovation, and encourage consumers to establish low-carbon and zero-carbon lifestyles by incorporating the micro units of economic life enterprises and individuals into the carbon neutrality process. Third, management science also helps to leverage the role of carbon market mechanisms by revealing the pricing models and underlying logic that form carbon prices, guiding the optimal allocation of carbon emission rights through the market.

Therefore, it is urgent to conduct systematic and in-depth research on key management science issues in promoting carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. If scholars can summarize the corresponding objective laws from these studies, this would help to promote the development of management science theories and methodologies related to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

This Special Issue calls for a deeper discussion about low-carbon development. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. We will give priority to those articles that provide new theories, methodologies, findings, understandings, and perspectives. For empirical analysis, we suggest that authors not only pay attention to the introduction of the research results but also to the case background, interpretation of the results, comparison with other similar studies, etc. In addition, the authors should also explore whether the conclusions of the study are general and can be extended to other cases. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Management science in carbon neutrality: reviews or case studies;
2. Energy policy or energy strategy research under the background of carbon neutrality;
3. Coupling research of economy development–energy consumption–carbon emissions;
4. The role of digitalization in carbon neutrality;
5. Low-carbon and sustainable energy systems studies, including countries, provinces, states, cities, villages or buildings;
6. The impact of organizational or individual energy saving behavior on carbon neutrality;
7. Cultivation of “carbon-related talents”;
8. The implementation path of carbon neutrality in the tourism industry;
9. Issues related to carbon neutrality in ASEAN countries;
10. The role of various disciplines or professions in achieving carbon neutrality.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Linwei Ma
Dr. Chin Hao Chong
Dr. Xiaoyong Zhou
Guest Editors

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• carbon peaking
• carbon neutrality
• CO₂ emissions
• energy
• management science
• sustainable energy systems
• low-carbon
• economy development
• energy systems