COP26: more challenges than achievements

Food-Energy-Water Nexus in compliance with Sustainable Development Goals for integrating and managing the core environmental verticals for sustainable energy and circular economy

Food, energy, and water resources are intricately interconnected, and nexus provides a holistic approach for addressing these complex links to minimize inefficiencies and waste. Nexus approach and circular economy are considered as effective solutions for sustainability. Quantification of these relations is the first step towards incorporating nexus modeling which helps sustainable production and consumption. For achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, understanding and effectively managing the FEW nexus becomes imperative. With an integral performance perspective, there is a need to address the interdependencies and trade-offs among food, energy, and water systems and challenges of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the FEW nexus, identify key opportunities and challenges, and propose integrated strategies for managing these core environmental verticals sustainably. The study addresses the accomplishment of these goals through nexus approaches and outlines the need for technological advancements for shared benefits among resources, contributing to conceptual development of nexus and circular economy. The results highlight the critical importance of adopting a nexus approach to advance sustainable development goals, enhance resource efficiency, and promote synergistic solutions across food, energy, and water systems.

Microbial Catalysis for CO2 Sequestration: A Geobiological Approach

One of the greatest threats facing the planet is the continued increase in excess greenhouse gasses, with CO2 being the primary driver due to its rapid increase in only a century. Excess CO2 is exacerbating known climate tipping points that will have cascading local and global effects including loss of biodiversity, global warming, and climate migration. However, global reduction of CO2 emissions is not enough. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will also be needed to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming. Although the drawdown and storage of CO2 occur naturally via the coupling of the silicate and carbonate cycles, they operate over geological timescales (thousands of years). Here, we suggest that microbes can be used to accelerate this process, perhaps by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously producing potentially valuable by-products. This could provide both a sustainable pathway for global drawdown of CO2 and an environmentally benign biosynthesis of materials. We discuss several different approaches, all of which involve enhancing the rate of silicate weathering. We use the silicate mineral olivine as a case study because of its favorable weathering properties, global abundance, and growing interest in CDR applications. Extensive research is needed to determine both the upper limit of the rate of silicate dissolution and its potential to economically scale to draw down significant amounts (Mt/Gt) of CO2 Other industrial processes have successfully cultivated microbial consortia to provide valuable services at scale (e.g., wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion, fermentation), and we argue that similar economies of scale could be achieved from this research.

Wilder rangelands as a natural climate opportunity: Linking climate action to biodiversity conservation and social transformation

Rangelands face threats from climate and land-use change, including inappropriate climate change mitigation initiatives such as tree planting in grassy ecosystems. The marginalization and impoverishment of rangeland communities and their indigenous knowledge systems, and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, are additional major challenges. To address these issues, we propose the wilder rangelands integrated framework, co-developed by South African and European scientists from diverse disciplines, as an opportunity to address the climate, livelihood, and biodiversity challenges in the world's rangelands. More specifically, we present a Theory of Change to guide the design, monitoring, and evaluation of wilder rangelands. Through this, we aim to promote rangeland restoration, where local communities collaborate with regional and international actors to co-create new rangeland use models that simultaneously mitigate the impacts of climate change, restore biodiversity, and improve both ecosystem functioning and livelihoods.

Decarbonizing energy: Evaluating fossil fuel displacement by renewables in OECD countries

Energy transition to greener systems has been a focal point in climate policy agendas across countries as the negative environmental impacts of fossil fuel technologies have become more evident Displacing fossil fuels with clean energy alternatives in this regard is essential for meeting global climate objectives. In this context, the study analyzes the role of disaggregated renewable energy sources on fossil fuel displacement in 36 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the period 2000-2020. The findings demonstrate a discernible trend in the displacement of fossil fuels by various forms of renewable energy sources. It is found that to effectively displace 1% of fossil fuels, it is necessary to achieve an average increase of 1.15% in renewable generation capacity. In addition, a one-to-one displacement of fossil fuels occurs with hydropower, demonstrating its higher level of competitiveness and effectiveness in displacing fossil fuels. Moreover, there is a partial displacement of fossil fuels by solar and wind power. These findings suggest that renewable energy sources are progressively advancing towards effectively displacing fossil fuels.

Utilizing green financing in developing green HRM resources for carbon neutrality: presenting multidimensional perspectives of China

This study examines how green finance may encourage the development of green human resource management (HRM) solutions to help China achieve carbon neutrality. For an empirical estimate, the Chinese data is subjected to DEA analysis, Tobit regression, and a sensitivity analysis model. The findings highlight the significance of green finance in the creation of green HRM solutions that aid firms in enhancing their environmental performance, boosting employee happiness, and getting them closer to their carbon neutrality goals. With the use of tools like green bonds and sustainable investment funds, businesses may raise capital for sustainability projects and encourage the adoption of environmentally responsible HRM practices. Moreover, the study results discussed the need to incorporate environmental sustainability considerations into HRM plans, enabling organizations to cultivate a sustainable culture and engage employees in supporting carbon neutrality through green practices in talent acquisition, training and development, performance management, and employee engagement. Incorporating environmental sustainability into HRM processes, boosting stakeholder involvement, and looking into new funding methods are all points emphasized in the study, which aims to enhance the uptake of green HRM initiatives.

Livestock waste management for energy recovery in Brazil: a life cycle assessment approach

Livestock farming has exerted intense environmental pressure on our planet. The high emissions to the environment and the high demands of resources for the production process have encouraged the search for decarbonization and circularity in the livestock sector. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the environmental performance of two different uses for biogas generated in the anaerobic digestion of animal waste, either for electricity generation or biomethane. For this purpose, a life cycle assessment approach was applied to evaluate the potential of anaerobic digestion as a management technology for three different livestock wastes, related to beef cattle, dairy, and sheep in the Brazilian animal production context. The results suggest that the treatment scenarios focusing on biomethane generation were able to mitigate the highest percentage of damages (77 to 108%) in the global warming category when compared to the scenarios without the use of anaerobic digestion (3.00·102 to 3.71·103 kgCO2 eq) or in the perspective of electricity generation (mitigation of 74 to 96%). In terms of freshwater eutrophication, the generation of electricity (- 2.17·10-2 to 2.31·10-3 kg P eq) is more favorable than the purification of biogas to biomethane (- 1.73·10-2 to 2.44·10-3 kg P eq), due to the loss of methane in the upgrading process. In terms of terrestrial ecotoxicity, all scenarios are very similar, with negative values (- 1.19·101 to - 7.17·102 kg 1,4-DCB) due to the benefit of nutrient recovery, especially nitrogen, associated with the use of digestate as fertilizer, which was one of the critical points in all scenarios. Based on these results, it is evident that proper management of all stages of the treatment life cycle is the key to decarbonization and circularity in livestock waste management. The biogas use does not present different effects on the environmental performance of the scenarios studied, demonstrating that the purpose should be chosen according to the needs of each plant or management system.

Carbon dioxide capture with aqueous calcium carbide residual solution for calcium carbonate synthesis and its use as an epoxy resin filler

Calcium carbide residue (CCR) is a waste obtained from the production of acetylene gas by the hydration reaction of calcium carbide. This residue is generated in large quantities annually and requires appropriate disposal. The main composition of the residue is calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2). Ca(OH)2 can react with CO2 gas and form CaCO3 particles. This process is well known but not very attractive since Ca(OH)2 is obtained from limestone using an energy-intensive thermal conversion process. This paper examined the synthesis of CaCO3 from CCR solutions by capturing CO2 with the aid of triethanolamine (TEA) solutions at doses of 0, 5, 10 and 20% w/w. The precipitated CaCO3 was characterized, and the application of CaCO3 as a filler in epoxy resin was tested. The results showed that the precipitated CaCO3 was mainly calcite, with a 76.6% yield. Cubic calcite was primarily obtained in TEA solutions, whereas small and agglomerated spherical vaterite and cubic calcite particles were formed in non-TEA solutions. The CaCO3-filled epoxy composites showed higher compressive strength than the neat resin. However, the transparency of specimen plates was reduced. These results can serve as guidelines for the application of CCR slurry filtrate obtained from the sedimentation ponds of acetylene plants and help to reduce the amount of wastewater that needs to be treated. CO2 gas from industrial flue gas combined with TEA solution could be applied to precipitate CaCO3 for carbon-neutral manufacturing.

Use of reverse osmosis concentrate for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from pig slurry

Due to the high global warming potential (GWP) in a short time scale (GWP100 = 28 vs. GWP20 = 86), mitigating CH₄ emissions could have an early impact on reducing current global warming effects. The manure storage tank emits a significant amount of CH₄, which can diminish the environmental benefit resulting from the anaerobic digestion of manure that can generate renewable energy. In the present study, we added the reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) rich in salt to the pig slurry (PS) storage tank to reduce CH₄ emissions. Simultaneously, pure NaCl was tested at the same concentration to compare and verify the performance of ROC addition. During 40 days of storage, 1.83 kg CH₄/ton PS was emitted, which was reduced by 7-75% by the addition of ROC at 1-9 g Na⁺/L. This decrease was found to be more intensive than that found upon adding pure sodium, which was caused by the presence of sulfate rich in ROC, resulting in synergistic inhibition. The results of the microbial community and activity test showed that sodium directly inhibited methanogenic activity rather than acidogenic activity. In the subsequent biogas production from the stored PS, more CH₄ was obtained by ROC addition due to the preservation of organic matter during storage. Overall, 51.2 kg CO₂ eq./ton PS was emitted during the storage, while 8 kg CO₂ eq./ton PS was reduced by biogas production in the case of control, resulting in a total of 43.2 kg CO₂ eq./ton PS. This amount of greenhouse gas emissions was reduced by ROC addition at 5 g Na⁺/L by 22 and 65 kg CO₂ eq./ton PS, considering GWP100 and GWP20 of CH₄, respectively, where most of the reduction was achieved during the storage process. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first report using salty waste to reduce GHG emissions in a proper place, e.g., a manure storage tank.

Facile Fabrication of Monodispersed Carbon Sphere: A Pathway Toward Energy-Efficient Direct Air Capture (DAC) Using Amino Acids

Direct removal of carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) from the atmosphere, known as direct air capture (DAC) is attracting worldwide attention as a negative emission technology to control atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. However, the energy-intensive nature of CO₂ absorption-desorption processes has restricted deployment of DAC operations. Catalytic solvent regeneration is an effective solution to tackle this issue by accelerating CO₂ desorption at lower regeneration temperatures. This work reports a one-step synthesis methodology to prepare monodispersed carbon nanospheres (MCSs) using trisodium citrate as a structure-directing agent with acidic sites. The assembly of citrate groups on the surface of MCSs enables consistent spherical growth morphology, reduces agglomeration and enhances water dispersibility. The functionalization-assisted synthesis produces uniform, hydrophilic nanospheres of 100-600 nm range. This work also demonstrates that the prepared MCSs can be further functionalized with strong Brønsted acid sites, providing high proton donation ability. Furthermore, the materials can be effectively used in a wide range of amino acid solutions to substantially accelerate CO₂ desorption (25.6% for potassium glycinate and 41.1% for potassium lysinate) in the DAC process. Considering the facile synthesis of acidic MCSs and their superior catalytic efficiency, these findings are expected to pave a new path for energy-efficient DAC.

Attempt to mitigate marine engine emissions with improved performance by the investigation of alcohol inclusion in sunflower biodiesel-sunflower oil-diesel blend

The quaternary blends (diesel-biodiesel-vegetable oil-alcohol) offer enormous potential for reducing fossil fuel usage and mitigating air pollution caused by marine diesel engines. Biodiesel and alcohol are alternate fuels possessing high oxygen content, ensuring clean combustion. Vegetable oil is beneficial in saving diesel contribution and increasing engine lubrication. The objective of the present work was to reduce the dependency on conventional diesel and to come up with cleaner fuel that can also improve engine performance. This experimental work aims to lower exhaust emissions by fueling a single-cylinder, four-stroke direct-injection diesel engine with novel quaternary blends comprising diesel (50%), sunflower biodiesel (25%), sunflower oil (5%), and alcohol (20%). In order to develop cleaner fuel than diesel, different quaternary blends were prepared by varying the length of the carbon chain of alcohols in the blends, namely, DBOEth20, DBOProp20, DBOBut20, DBOHep20, and DBODec20. The performance emissions of quaternary blends were tested at varied engine loads from 5 to 20 Nm (full load), while engine speed was fixed at 1800 rpm. The results indicate that DBOProp20 resulted in the lowest fuel consumption and highest thermal efficiency. DBOProp20 reduced CO₂, NO_x, and smoke emissions by 19.6%, 9.9%, and 85.7%, as compared to diesel. However, DBODec20 succeed in mitigating CO emission by 41.37% at 100% load. DBOBut20 proved to be most promising in reducing UHC emission by a maximum of 71.69% at 100% load. The highest BTE of 10.98% with lowest BSFC of 13.04% was recorded for DBOProp20 at 100% engine load, in comparison to pure diesel.

On energy transition-led sustainable environment in COP26 era: policy implications from tourism, transportation services, and technological innovations for Gulf countries

The present generation is witnessing the most devastating effects of global warming far beyond what was evident in the pre-industrial era. To forestall further ecosystem destruction, nations are working assiduously toward achieving sustainable global environment in decades to come, specifically by 2050. This ambitious goal prompts the convergence of countries in the last climate conference tagged COP26 which provides the roadmap to global sustainability. The resolutions of COP26 motivate the present study to assess the energy transition-led sustainable environment in Gulf countries, considering tourism, transport services, and technological innovation. The study employs annual data from 2005 to 2019 by relying on advanced second-generation estimators comprising cross-sectional ARDL (CS-ARDL), common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG), and augmented mean group (AMG). The study conducts robustness checks using quantile regression (QR) and quantile plots (QP). The results reveal that nonrenewable energy, tourism, and transport services hinder sustainable environment due to their inducing impacts on carbon emissions. Renewable energy and technological innovations promote sustainable environment by moderating the surge in carbon emissions. The QR results reveal that the regressors' effects are not one-off. For instance, the moderating effects of renewable energy correspond to increasing levels of the quantiles. In contrast, nonrenewable energy posits the opposite, thus confirming the energy transition-led sustainable environment hypothesis in the Gulf countries. Policy implications that drive sustainable environment are suggested based on the findings.

Frequency Stability Prediction of Power Systems Using Vision Transformer and Copula Entropy

This paper addresses the problem of frequency stability prediction (FSP) following active power disturbances in power systems by proposing a vision transformer (ViT) method that predicts frequency stability in real time. The core idea of the FSP approach employing the ViT is to use the time-series data of power system operations as ViT inputs to perform FSP accurately and quickly so that operators can decide frequency control actions, minimizing the losses caused by incidents. Additionally, due to the high-dimensional and redundant input data of the power system and the O(N²) computational complexity of the transformer, feature selection based on copula entropy (CE) is used to construct image-like data with fixed dimensions from power system operation data and remove redundant information. Moreover, no previous FSP study has taken safety margins into consideration, which may threaten the secure operation of power systems. Therefore, a frequency security index (FSI) is used to form the sample labels, which are categorized as "insecurity", "relative security", and "absolute security". Finally, various case studies are carried out on a modified New England 39-bus system and a modified ACTIVSg500 system for projected 0% to 40% nonsynchronous system penetration levels. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on normal, noisy, and incomplete datasets in comparison with eight machine-learning methods.

Induction of a Consumption Pattern for Ethanol and Gasoline in Brazil

Historically, carbon dioxide emissions from transport have been a globally discussed and analyzed problem. The adoption of flex fuel vehicles designed to run ethanol–gasoline blends is important to mitigate these emissions. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the ethanol–gasoline price ratio on different vehicle models, and discuss the opportunities to increase ethanol consumption from this perspective. Our analysis shows that the use of a unique fuel economy ratio for all flex–fuel vehicles in the country significantly reduces the opportunity of some customers to purchase hydrous ethanol. The paper also discusses possible actions to provide adequate information that may increase the possibility of fuelling vehicles with a high-level ethanol blend.

The Role of the Circular Economy in Road Transport to Mitigate Climate Change and Reduce Resource Depletion

The transport sector is responsible for several environmental impacts, including contributions to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and depleting natural resources. A strategy to reduce these issues goes towards the application of a circular economy, a concept that offers a response to increasing concerns about resource scarcity and the associated impacts from their use. Thus, this paper aims to fill a gap in the literature that consists of the scarcity of studies that consider the circular economy application on a micro, meso, and macro level in road transport, including all stages as well as the 7 Rs of the reverse cycle. Therefore, an approach is presented to meet road transport needs, highlighting best practices obtained through a literature review, to promote climate change mitigation and resource depletion. Qualitative data were presented for each circular economy stage with 46 best practices identified, providing invaluable guidance to transport decision-makers. Thus, public policies focusing on all of the CE stages should be taken into consideration, not only those responsible for closing the cycle, such as waste and recycling or disposal and treatment.

COP26: Progress, Challenges, and Outlook

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Glasgow a year later than scheduled, with expected outcomes achieved under a post-pandemic background. Based on the Issue-Actor-Mechanism Framework, this paper systematically evaluates the outcomes achieved at COP26 and analyzes the tendency of post-COP26 climate negotiations. Overall, with the concerted efforts of all parties, COP26 has achieved a balanced and inclusive package of outcomes and concluded six years of negotiations on the Paris Rulebook. It is fair to say that COP26 is another milestone in climate governance following the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, the Glasgow Climate Pact has cemented the consensus on a global commitment to accelerating climate action over the next decade and reached a breakthrough consensus on reducing coal, controlling methane, and halting deforestation. In the post-COP26 era, we still need to take concrete actions to implement the outcomes of the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Pact, innovate ways to speed up CO₂ emissions reduction, and continue to strive for breakthroughs in important issues such as finance, technology, adaptation, and collaboration. In addition to avoiding the escalation of international conflicts, we need to collectively and properly handle the relationship between energy security, carbon reduction, and development and facilitate the efforts of countries to achieve their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including climate-related goals. China will continue to maintain the existing multilateral mechanisms and processes for climate governance, unremittingly take concrete actions to address climate change, promote a domestic comprehensive green transition and global cooperation on carbon neutrality, and contribute constructively to global climate governance.

The vaccine equity crisis is a stress test for all future major environmental challenges

The vaccine equity crisis has an extra element that makes it crucial for our capacity to tackle future major societal challenges. Unlike most of these, including the climate one, the current pandemic causes major damage that is directly observable in the very short term, that is, within the political cycle of the incumbent policymakers. If not even this kind of crisis with directly observable damage is able to influence the incentive structure of policymakers and lead to the adoption of timely and effective measures, there is no reason to expect that this would ever happen for crises whose effects largely materialize in future political cycles. As a consequence, if we fail to tackle this particular crisis effectively now, we are creating an enormous credibility problem for future crises that could seriously undermine our capacity to reach binding agreements in the future.

Sustainability after COVID-19: pillars for a just transition

The vulnerability of the global economy has been starkly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer term thinking and new approaches to development and prosperity are urgently required. In this paper, we forward a series of principles on which economic and development policy for the post-COVID era should be developed. These are outlined as five 'pillars' from which to rebuild the global economy, based on principles of a shared sustainable prosperity. These pillars are: (I) an ecological prosperity; (II) a decarbonized economy; (III) a shared cost burden; (IV) a governance new deal; (V) a just resilience. In outlining the '5 pillars' we explicitly recognize that sustainability cannot simply be a 'green', or environmental concern. Social and economic dimensions of sustainability are key for societal stability and continuity. This is made ever starker in the context of the fundamental economic and societal restructuring forced by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the pillars represent a triple bottom line framing of sustainability, of mutually supportive domains of economic, social and environmental well-being. The five pillars are informed by principles of distributive and procedural justice, recognizing the importance and advantages of real community engagement and empowerment and giving due respect and deference to the ecological carrying capacity of our fragile planet. We argue that the post-COVID-19 re-build represents a once-in-a generation opportunity to markedly shift developed trajectories to more sustainable pathways, to rebalance the domains of sustainability, and in the process, to address longer-term crises including those of climate and biodiversity loss.

1D and Map-Based Modeling Approaches for Railway Compression Ignition Engine in NRTC Application

Internal combustion engine-driven railway vehicles play an important role in the sector even today, due to the incomplete electrification of railway routes. However, stringent COP26 environmental rules are driving manufacturers and the scientific community to study more complex or alternative propulsion systems. Therefore, the design of new powertrains is becoming more challenging. Affordable, along with robust, development tools are fundamental for their development and optimization. In this framework, numerical simulation can represent an effective instrument to face these requirements. The proposed study assesses the accuracy of different modelling approaches for the same engine. In particular, a detailed 1D model, a simplified 1D model and a map-based model are compared. Although studies on engine simulation are available in the technical literature, the novelty introduced with this work is the assessment of accuracy and computational times of the engine models, considered by performing the new emission standard Non-Road Transient Cycle (NRTC), which is applied to a specific field such as Heavy Duty (HD) Compression Ignition (CI) engines for railway applications. This study provides new and quantitative results rarely available in the specific literature. The results show that the simplest model, despite its lower accuracy, maintains good predictive results in terms of cumulative fuel consumption and cumulative nitric oxide (NOx) emissions over the cycle considered. In particular, the difference in terms of fuel consumption for the map-based model is within 5% compared with the more detailed models. Moreover, the computational effort required by the simplest model is three orders of magnitude lower compared with the more detailed model. Therefore, as the simulation run-time is the priority, the simplest modeling approach is suitable for the evaluation of the global performance, in view of a more complex systems simulation, such as a hybrid powertrain.

Strategies to Mitigate the Deteriorating Habitat Quality in Dong Trieu District, Vietnam

Dong Trieu district is a vital connection for territorial ecological security and human welfare between Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam) and Quang Ninh province. Therefore, habitat quality (HQ) is of extraordinary importance to the area’s sustainable development. The ArcGIS platform, Dyna-CLUE, and InVEST models were utilized in this study to assess the spatial and temporal transformations of land use and the changes of HQ in 2030 under various scenarios, with intentions to find strategies that may mitigate the HQ’s deteriorating trend in the district. Simulated results indicated that, assuming the development is maintained as usual, the average HQ of the District at 2030 could diminish by 0.044 from that of 2019 (a four-times decrease compared to the previous decade). Cases comprised of four basic scenarios, including development as usual, built-up expansion slowdown, forest protection emphasized, and agricultural land conversion, were used to identify potential strategies to mitigate the deteriorating trend. Simulated results revealed that keeping the built-up expansion rate lower than 100 ha y−1, the deforestation rate lower than 20 ha y−1, and preferring orchards over agricultural land conversion is required to limit the drop in HQ to within 0.01 in the next decade. Other than the existing population growth control policy, new guidelines such as (1) changing urban expansion type from outward to upward to control the built-up expansion rate, (2) substituting forest-harming industries to forest-preservation industries to reduce deforestation rate, (3) encouraging orchards preferred over agricultural land conversion to increase incomes while maintaining higher habitat quality, (4) practicing better farming technologies to improve crop production and to alleviate potential food security issues due to considerable reduction in cropland, and (5) promoting Green Infrastructure and the Belt and Road Initiative to increase urban green cover and raise residents’ income should be considered in designing the new mitigation strategies.

Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review

The increasing global industrialization and over-exploitation of fossil fuels has induced the release of greenhouse gases, leading to an increase in global temperature and causing environmental issues. There is therefore an urgent necessity to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Only 4.5% of countries have achieved carbon neutrality, and most countries are still planning to do so by 2050-2070. Moreover, synergies between different countries have hampered synergies between adaptation and mitigation policies, as well as their co-benefits. Here, we present a strategy to reach a carbon neutral economy by examining the outcome goals of the 26th summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26). Methods have been designed for mapping carbon emissions, such as input-output models, spatial systems, geographic information system maps, light detection and ranging techniques, and logarithmic mean divisia. We present decarbonization technologies and initiatives, and negative emissions technologies, and we discuss carbon trading and carbon tax. We propose plans for carbon neutrality such as shifting away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy, and the development of low-carbon technologies, low-carbon agriculture, changing dietary habits and increasing the value of food and agricultural waste. Developing resilient buildings and cities, introducing decentralized energy systems, and the electrification of the transportation sector is also necessary. We also review the life cycle analysis of carbon neutral systems.