Application of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Policy in Urban

Governance: A Literature Review

Liyuan Ling

, Gan Liu

, Tianzhi Peng

and Yihan Xu

Wenzheng College, Suzhou University, Suzhou, 215104, China

College of Global Liberal Arts, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka, 567-8570, Japan

Sun Wah International Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang, 110036, China

School of Public Administration, South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan, 430074, China

Keywords: Dual Carbon Policy, Urban Governance, Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutrality.

Abstract: Taking the "National Carbon Peak Pilot (Hangzhou) Implementation Plan" issued by the Hangzhou Municipal

People's Government as the core policy, this paper systematically compiles the research on the practical

application of the "dual-carbon" policy in urban governance, and analyzes its background, current situation

and future development direction. Although dual-carbon policies have achieved significant results in

optimizing industrial structure, promoting energy transformation and achieving regional low-carbon goals,

their implementation still faces challenges such as insufficient regional policy coordination, high cost of low-

carbon technology innovation and low public participation. This paper points out that in the future, the

researchers should focus on improving the carbon trading market mechanism and green financial system,

enhance the effectiveness of policy implementation through regional policy synergy and technical support,

and strengthen the public's awareness of environmental protection and the construction of participation

mechanisms.

1 INTRODUCTION

China's goal of achieving carbon peak by 2030 and

carbon neutrality by 2060 requires cities and regions

to find a balance between economic development and

environmental protection, and Hangzhou, as an

important economic center of the Yangtze River

Delta, is under tremendous environmental pressure

from its high-speed economic development. At the

same time, Hangzhou, as a pioneer city in the

development of digital economy, has a fairly

complete digitalization industry chain, and the dual-

carbon policy provides an opportunity for it to

combine digital economy and green development. In

addition, the demands of urban residents for a livable

environment, and the international community's

current concerns about the relationship between

urban governance and environmental protection, have

raised the need for the application of dual-carbon

policies in urban governance.

The dual-carbon goal has been put forward for

nearly five years, the academic field of dual-carbon

research has been very in-depth. However, most of

the academic articles concerned by researchers in this

paper focus on the relationship between dual-carbon

goals and energy, economy and other aspects, and the

important part of dual-carbon policy and future urban

governance lacks existing articles. Therefore, this

paper provides a comprehensive review of academic

papers related to the practical application of dual-

carbon policy to urban governance in the current

academic field, aiming to explore how the

multidimensional governance of cities can follow the

guidelines of dual-carbon policy, and provide certain

theoretical guidelines for the academic community to

further study the specific application of dual-carbon

policy.

This paper takes the Circular of Hangzhou

Municipal People's Government on the Issuance of

the Implementation Plan of National Carbon Peak

Pilot Program (Hangzhou) as the central policy

(hereinafter referred to as the "Policy"). The Policy

points out that Hangzhou needs to give full play to the

three advantages of digital, science and technology,

and system, to promote the construction of a digital

and intellectual governance system, to improve the

policy and institutional system of health care to

achieve the goal of "dual-carbon", and to create a

Hangzhou model of the national carbon peak pilot in

terms of scientific and technological innovation, and

Ling, L., Liu, G., Peng, T. and Xu, Y.

Application of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Policy in Urban Governance: A Literature Review.

DOI: 10.5220/0013983900004912

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development (IESD 2025), pages 311-316

ISBN: 978-989-758-779-5

311

institutional innovation. In that case, Hangzhou

Municipal People's Government encourage all people

to take action, sort out green and low-carbon

demonstration projects, and ensure the smooth

establishment of the pilot carbon peak city by

strengthening organizational leadership,

responsibility and financial security. The policy puts

Hangzhou's urban governance under the guidance of

the dual-carbon policy from multiple dimensions,

responding to the call of the state, matching the needs

of the city, and actively promoting the construction of

peak-carbon pilot cities. This paper explores the

practical application of the dual-carbon policy in

urban governance, centering on the key points

involved in the policy.

2 CURRENT SITUATION OF

DUAL CARBON POLICY

2.1 Dual Carbon Strategy Goals and

Implementation Status

China has clearly set the "dual carbon" separately

before 2030 and 2060, which is an important direction

for China's low-carbon transformation. The relevant

policies have been systematically deployed through

the 14th Five Year Plan and national level strategic

documents. For example, in the working opinions on

the dual carbon targets issued by the Country ’ s

Council, the "1+N" policy system is the core and

clarifying the target orientation and policy path

(Zhuang et al., 2022).

Since 2010, China has launched three projects for

testing areas, committed to promoting low-carbon

development. Subsequently, in June 2015, China

submitted a report to the International Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC), which clearly stated that

China would achieve peak carbon emissions around

2030 and further deepen various low-carbon pilot

projects. In this context, how urban governance

responds to the development issues of "carbon

neutrality and carbon peak" has become a focus of

attention for many scholars and has achieved fruitful

research results.

In specific implementation, China gradually

breaks down the "dual carbon" target to provincial,

local, and industry levels. Some provinces such as

Beijing and Shanghai have already achieved carbon

peak and become demonstration areas for nationwide

promotion, while other regions have formulated

differentiated goals and paths based on regional

resource differences and industrial characteristics

(Wang et al., 2021). In addition, the binding

indicators for green and low-carbon development

have been incorporated into the regional economic

assessment system to ensure the comprehensiveness

and strictness of policy implementation.

2.2 Current Status of Policy Support

for Industrial and Energy

Transformation

The adjustment of industrial structure and

optimization of energy structure are the core areas for

achieving goals. Current policies emphasize

achieving low-carbon transformation by promoting

the usage of non-fossil energy, significantly reducing

coal consumption, and promoting green technology

innovation. In addition, some scholars pointed out the

challenges faced by Chinese cities in the process of

peaking carbon emissions. These challenges cover

multiple aspects such as population and urbanization,

industrial structure and so on (Qi & Cai, 2021).

In addition, some policies focus on

decarbonization pathways in high energy consuming

industries, such as upgrading steel, chemical and

other industries through electrification and green

technology, significantly reducing the carbon

emission intensity per unit product (Guo & Wang,

2021). These measures not only achieve structural

optimization of energy production and consumption,

but also provide a market demand foundation for

promoting low-carbon technological innovation.

In terms of technological innovation, Ouyang and

others suggest adopting the "dual substitution" and

"dual decoupling" strategies, that is, replacing fossil

energy with non-fossil energy and traditional

technology with low-carbon technology, to achieve

the dual decoupling of economic growth and carbon

emissions. For example, high-energy efficiency

recycling technologies and negative emission

technologies such as carbon capture and storage

(CCUS) have shown significant potential in

industries and transportation, providing technical

support for promoting low-carbon transformation

(Ouyang et al., 2021).

2.3 Current Status of Low Carbon

Governance in Regions and Cities

For example, pilot projects in major low-carbon cities

and other dual carbon policy practices are important

ways for China to achieve its dual carbon goals. In the

research field of exploring China's achievement of

carbon emission reduction goals, scholars such as

Guo have conducted in-depth analysis of the role of

IESD 2025 - International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development

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low-carbon construction in achieving China's goals or

reducing carbon emission. The research explored

related policies’ mechanisms, design and

implementation effectiveness in context of various

regions (provinces). Developed eastern regions such

as Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hangzhou have become

typical examples by implementing strict low-carbon

policies (Guo & Wang, 2021).

Regional policies’ effectiveness also ties with

factors as energy structure adjustment and industrial

transformation. For example, by optimizing the

regional energy network and load management, the

goal of decoupling carbon emissions from economic

development can be better achieved, thereby

enhancing the implementation efficiency of policy

tools (Yu et al., 2021).

3 APPLICATION OF

“DUAL-CARBON” POLICIES

TO URBAN GOVERNANCE

3.1 Promotion of New Energy and

Optimization of Urban Energy

Structure

Under dual-carbon policy, the promotion of new

energy has become an important part of urban

governance. Some cities have actively promoted

renewable energy sources such as solar energy and

wind energy to reduce their dependence on fossil

energy by formulating and implementing a series of

policies and measures. For example, some cities have

established solar power stations and wind farms,

which not only provide cities with clean and

sustainable energy supply, but also effectively reduce

carbon emissions. At the same time, cities also use

smart grid technology to improve energy utilization

efficiency and achieve optimal energy allocation. In

addition, the popularization of new energy vehicles is

also an important direction for the promotion of new

energy. Cities encourage citizens to use new energy

vehicles by building charging facilities networks and

providing car purchase subsidies, thereby reducing

vehicle exhaust emissions and improving air quality.

3.2 Establishment of Special Funds and

Support for Green Projects

In order to support the implementation of dual-carbon

policies, some cities have set up special funds to

support green projects and environmental protection

technology research and development. These funds

are mainly used to support projects in the fields of

energy conservation and emission reduction, clean

energy, green buildings and other fields to promote

the green transformation of cities. The use of special

funds not only promotes the development of green

industries, but also drives the improvement of related

industrial chains. Through the guidance of funds,

cities have attracted more social capital to invest in

green projects, forming a good market atmosphere

and incentive mechanism.

3.3 Corporate Carbon Reduction Tax

Reduction Policies and Incentive

Mechanisms

Under dual-carbon policy, enterprises are encouraged

to actively participate in energy conservation and

emission reduction by formulating corporate carbon

reduction and tax reduction policies. For enterprises

that meet energy conservation and emission reduction

standards, the city government provides preferential

policies such as tax exemptions and financial

subsidies to reduce the operating costs of enterprises

and improve their market competitiveness. At the

same time, the city has also established a carbon

emissions trading market to promote corporate

emission reductions through market mechanisms.

Enterprises can optimize the allocation of carbon

emissions and maximize economic benefits by

purchasing or selling carbon emission rights. This

incentive mechanism not only promotes the green

development of enterprises, but also effectively

promotes the modernization of urban governance.

3.4 Green Building and Ecological City

Planning

Dual-carbon policy has put forward new

requirements for urban planning and architectural

design. In the planning process, researchers pay

attention to the integration of green ecological

concepts and promote the development of green

buildings and ecological cities. Green buildings

achieve energy conservation and emission reduction

in buildings by using energy-saving materials,

optimizing building structures and energy utilization

methods. At the same time, ecological city planning

also focuses on the construction and protection of the

urban green space system, and improves the city's

ecological carrying capacity and environmental

capacity by increasing the area of urban green space

and optimizing the urban ecological layout.

Application of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Policy in Urban Governance: A Literature Review

313

3.5 Public Education and Participation

Mechanism Construction

The implementation of dual-carbon policy cannot be

achieved without extensive public participation and

support. Managers improve citizens’ environmental

awareness and participation by strengthening public

education. For example, the authors guide citizens to

develop good habits of energy conservation and

emission reduction by holding environmental

protection publicity activities and carrying out green

life education. In addition, the city has also

established a public participation mechanism to

encourage citizens to actively participate in urban

governance and environmental protection actions. By

setting up a team of environmental protection

volunteers and carrying out environmental protection

public welfare activities, the authors provide channels

and platforms for citizens to participate in urban

governance.

4 THE CONTRIBUTION AND

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE

RESEARCH OF THE

DUAL-CARBON POLICY IN

URBAN GOVERNANCE

4.1 Contribution

Based on existing research, remarkable results have

been achieved in the realisation of the carbon

emission reduction goal and the development of

urbanisation. It provides a comprehensive analytical

framework involving multiple dimensions such as

technology, politics, economy, science and

technology, and has also put forward a series of

specific policy recommendations for the realisation of

the "double carbon" goal. In terms of technology, Tan

Xianchun (2022) believes that the development of

zero-carbon energy sources, including hydrogen

energy, can not only meet the demand for emission

reduction, but also provide transitional solutions for

the gradual replacement of traditional energy sources

such as coal. Ouyang Zhiyuan et al (2021) propose it

will combine the response to global climate change

with domestic reality. It is recommended that China

should adopt the path of "double substitution" and

"double decoupling" that is, replacing fossil energy

with non-fossil energy and replacing traditional

technology with low-carbon technology to achieve

the results of energy, economy and carbon

decoupling. In addition, to a certain extent, draw on

international experience to formulate a low-carbon

development model suitable for the country.

In terms of policies and planning, most of the

existing documents emphasise the need for global

consideration and planning to solve the "dual carbon"

problem in urban governance from the perspective of

systematic thinking. Wang Wenju & Kong Xiaoxu

(2022) starting from the classification and application

of policy tools, it discusses the path to achieve the

goal of "dual carbon", including financial subsidies,

carbon trading markets and other means, and

emphasises the differentiation of regional policies to

improve energy efficiency. On this basis, Yu Biying

et al. (2021) further points out that the effectiveness

of regional policies is inseparable from the support of

energy structure and industrial transformation. These

scholars believe that energy restructuring should be

combined with industrial transformation, which

requires the improvement of energy efficiency and

the decoupling of carbon emissions to achieve refined

emission reduction in the region. For example,

through regional energy network and load

optimisation, the effectiveness of policy tools can be

maximised at the same time.

In terms of urbanisation and decoupling carbon

emissions, Qi Ye et al. (2020) from the unique

perspective of the development process and trend of

China's urbanisation, they put forward the concept of

"big flow" that deeply decouples China's economic

development from carbon emissions in the next 40

years. They used the MPC-IC model of urban

governance based on the government's perspective to

make a comparative analysis of the development of

urbanisation in the past 80 years. . Through an in-

depth analysis of the problems faced by urban

governments and the institutional environment, the

development stages of high-carbon and low-carbon

urbanisation have been successfully distinguished,

which provides a new perspective for understanding

the relationship between urbanisation and carbon

emissions in China's future.

Ye & Deng (2023) also put forward the

importance of building an urban green governance

model. They believe that in the process of building

this model, it is necessary to study and integrate

multiple dimensions such as value rationality and tool

rationality in depth. Value rationality emphasises the

moral and ethical basis of governance goals, while

instrumental rationality focusses on the effectiveness

and efficiency of governance means. By organically

combining the two, the scientificity and operability of

urban green governance can be further improved. The

research of these scholars provides new perspectives

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and ideas for the public to deeply understand the path

and strategy of China to achieve the goals of carbon

peaking and carbon neutrality. Their views and

suggestions are of important theoretical and practical

value for promoting the systematic transformation of

China's economy and society, promoting urban green

development and building an urban green governance

model.

4.2 Insufficient

Although the existing literature has put forward a

series of countermeasures, in terms of difficulties and

challenges in implementation, there is a lack of

specific implementation details on how to balance the

relationship between development and emission

reduction between different regions and industries,

and how to overcome the resistance of local

protectionism and industry interests. Some literatures

mention the importance of technological innovation,

but technological innovation itself is uncertain. How

to ensure that technological innovation can keep up

with the urgency of the "dual carbon" goal in time is

a challenge. In the process of achieving the "dual

carbon" goal, it may bring economic costs and social

impacts. To this end, it is necessary to develop an

effective policy implementation and supervision

mechanism to ensure the effective implementation of

the policy. At the same time, it is also crucial to raise

public participation and awareness, because public

participation can promote the acceptance and

implementation of policies. When balancing long-

term goals with short-term economic development

needs, SMART goals can be set to ensure that short-

term actions do not compromise the achievement of

long-term goals. In addition, strengthening

international cooperation is an important way to

overcome the uncertainty of international relations.

5 CONCLUSION

By systematically combing and synthesizing the

relevant academic literature on the practical

application of dual-carbon policies in urban

governance, this paper explores the background,

current status and future development direction of

policy implementation. It is found that by optimizing

energy structure, promoting low-carbon technologies

and improving policy tools, the existing policies have

achieved regional target decomposition and industrial

structure optimization to a certain extent, and the

results of low-carbon governance in some pilot cities

have provided valuable experience for nationwide

promotion. At the same time, scholars have

emphasized that the combination of technological

innovation and institutional optimization is the key to

achieving the dual-carbon goal, but the current

problems of high technological costs and imperfect

policy implementation mechanisms are still

constraints. Domestic policies have drawn on

successful international experiences, but the

localization of practices tailored to local conditions

still needs to be deepened, especially in terms of

regional differences and optimization of resource

allocation, which require further research and

improvement. The core objective of the current dual-

carbon policy is to achieve a balance between

economic development and environmental protection

through top-level design, technological innovation

and institutional safeguards.

Although research shows that important progress

has been made in the promotion of dual-carbon

policy, there are still problems with the policy's lack

of balance between different regions and industries,

the high uncertainty of technological innovation, and

the enhancement of public participation and

awareness. In the future, further optimizing the

carbon trading market and green financial

mechanism, and strengthening regional policy

synergy and technical support will be the key

directions to promote the implementation of dual-

carbon policy. The dual-carbon policy has opened up

a new path for urban governance, and multi-

dimensional urban governance needs to continue to

explore and innovate under the guidance of the

policy, so as to realize the long-term goals of carbon

peaking and carbon neutrality.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed equally and their names

were listed in alphabetical order.

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