For curb global warming, different countries have made their political decision on the carbon neutrality deadline. For example, the carbon neutrality year for Japan, USA and England is before 2050, and the year for China is before 2060. However, how to made this announcement into action should be an even-harder work for most of the countries. Can they achieve this aim?

From an island perspective, these approaches need to be viewed with caution:

1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.08.004

2. http://www.urbanislandstudies.org/UIS-2-Grydehoj-Kelman-Island-Smart-Eco-Cities.pdf

3. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12300

4. http://www.shimajournal.org/issues/v8n2/c.-Baldacchino-&-Kelman-Shima-v8n2-1-21.pdf

5. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1619825

-From a technological perspective the participatory role of renewable energy technologies should be seriously considered in future energy production.

-From an environmental perspective the Ecosystem Services Valuation (ESV) should be proven beneficial to environmental policies and strategies.

-From an economics perspective the Circular Economy (CE) can save vital raw sources from excessive exploitation, while appreciating and valuing depreciated-used materials through the 5R's actions.

-From a socio-cultural perspective the environmental education, the sustainable agriculture, as well as the sustainable transportation and smart logistics can also determine the success of carbon neutrality goals.

Ilan Kelman ， completely agree with your idea. Some aided project is a look-like carbon neutrality, but actually it is not. How can we avoid such things happended? Possibly, official-intergovermental-aid fund is very important for some coutries. do you have some idea on that?

Grigorios Kyriakopoulos , Circular Economy should be very important for CN, given that the recycling need less carbon cost. At the moment, some steps for example reutlization of food waster to fertilizer, has been recognized as a cost-effective method. Hope more discussion on the suitable techniques or practices for carbon neutrality.

M.K. Tripathi

China will make a new law and people who waste food will be charged.

https://www.zaobao.com/realtime/china/story20210422-1141365

The standing committee of the National People's Congress at the press conference said, after the first review and revise the draft of the food waste laws.

The draft will also improve regulations on charging consumers who cause obvious waste to dispose of kitchen waste, improve operability, protect consumers' rights, and strengthen anti-food waste publicity and education.

It look like quite nice and How to implement this law into action is also a problem.

Wenjie Wang

Perhaps the best way to avoid the problems is to think comprehensively, rather than focusing on climate change:

1. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-02-2017-0043

2. http://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v4i4.729

3. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8959-2_2

4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imic.2015.04.001

Climate change is a symptom of over-consumption: we are happy to produce pollution at rates the ecosystem can't handle in order to increase our standard of living. Treating climate change alone will make no difference to the parallel problems of micro plastics in the ocean, soil erosion and decarbonation, the financial crash coming with the end of cheap oil, etc. Treat the underlying cause, and you can address all of these issues at once; treat one symptom a a time and you don't address any.

To answer your questions: the time constant for GHGs in the atmosphere is something like 140 to 180 years - what effects we are seeing right now started in the age of coal. Even if we stop burning all fossil carbon right now, the new normal won't be revealing itself for 7 generations.

The whole 'ignore-the-problem-as-long-as-possible' is a political approach that is as old as civilization. The 'lets-fix-the-symptom-with-a-new-gadget' is an engineering approach that is only slightly younger. What we are being forced to do is bring the two together and find out what the obstructions are within our communities that are preventing us from meeting our needs, and remove them. In some cases, that will be political; in some cases it will be technological; in a lot of cases it will be neither, and will be able to be addressed with sufficient foresight at no real economic cost.

Only by addressing the actual obstructions in one's own community in a way that does not create a burden on other communities will we have a chance to get through the coming transitions without some very morally-disturbing choices.

Unfortunately, it still happens that the pro-ecological transformation of the economy, including decarbonization, is too slow. Short-term thinking and current private interests still dominate, instead of long-term strategies and priorities for the public good, of entire societies and the long-term care of the condition of the biosphere and climate of planet Earth. For example, the process of decarbonising the economy is slowed down by the political lobbying of trade unions operating in hard coal mines, which are state-owned companies. the effects of this slowing down of the decarbonisation of the economy will be borne by the next generations, who will have to deal with the increasingly faster global warming process and the climate crisis, which, according to long-term prognostic models of climate change, will occur in several decades. It is very sad that narrow social spheres implement anti-social strategies that do not meet the expectations of entire societies. Currently, another Climate Summit is underway, at which many declarations will be made for the needs of national and international media and to improve the image of the environmental policy being implemented. Let us hope that this time it will not be declarations, but also facts of pro-ecological activities carried out, effective and rapid transformation of the classic economy into a zero-emission, sustainable, green and circular economy.

Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Ilan Kelman

A deep thinking on climate changes from the view point of risk managment! In most cases, avoiding the risk before your eye will be very important. In some cases, climate changes is slow in the rate, and some times the dange will come after several generation. So, long-term risk from climate changes via carbon neutrality practice implementation is welcome. do you think so?

Douglas Nuttall

Thank you for your sharing your viewpoint. By political decision with cost-effective technologies are very important for carbon neutrality. and the most important things is the implementation from each people from the society, possibly generation and generation for decade years. Usually, some political leader did not like it owing its effect is far out of their governance. Possibly not related to their performance evaluations today, but long time later in history.

Dariusz Prokopowicz

pro-ecological transformation of the economy is very important. USA this times has made declaration on the reduction of CO2 efflux by over 50% before 2030. It is excited and it is much better than last goverment. and HOPE IT WILL NOT CHANGE in next presidency. How about in EUROPE, do your goverment has make new declaration of carbon neutrality?

Wenjie Wang

Yes, which is what the references given above suggest. A set of work (some repetition from above) on connecting climate change action with wider contexts:

(a) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disaster-by-choice-9780198841340

(b) https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-02-2017-0043

(c) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-015-0046-5

(d) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-015-0038-5

(e) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2294-0

(f) https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Disaster-Risk-Reduction-Including-Climate-Change/Kelman-Mercer-Gaillard/p/book/9781138924567

(g) http://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v4i4.729

The most important factor in global warming is the growing greenhouse gas emissions. The best and most economical way to reduce the effects of carbon dioxide emissions is to develop forests. Trees with carbon sequestration can help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Leila Vatani

Yes, increasing the carbon sequestration from vegetation should be a anti-measures for global warming. Here in China, over 700Mha forests have been afforestated. At the moment, another problem faced is that no space for new afforestation owing to that the good land should be left for farmland for growth grains for the large population in China (1.4billion). So, the policy has changed to improve the quality of nature forests by proper management, although the effectiveness of managment is lower than new afforestation. How about the situation in Iran? how many forests has been afforested in Iran, and do you think forest management-induced carbon sequestration can be used in carbob neutrality?

In China, forest management-induced carbon sequestration increase can be used in carbon market within China. The attached file is the methodology for calculation of this sink. The duration should be 20-year or more. The carbon should consider all components of carbon in biomass and litters at forest floor etc. Hope some discussion on this from expert. Do you have this kind of carbon neutrality practices in your country? and what you opinion on this?

I am so sorry the methodology is only in Chinese and possibly, if want to understand the detail, it can be translated by some software into native language.

Dear Wenjie Wang

In Iran, the highest level of reforestation and afforestation is related to Hyrcanian forests located in northern Iran. Iran is at a low level in terms of forest cover, and certainly the development of plantation alone will not lead to carbon sequestration, and other strategies should be used to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide in industries and factories.

Leila Vatani

Thank you for your information. How low is it in Iran in case of forest canopy coverage? does government encourage afforestation practices? is there any references for this data?

China is also a low forest coverage country. Today's forest coverage (forest area/total land surface area) is about 23%(which is about 2-fold of that in 40-year ago). Only half or one-third or even lower of the coverage in the USA, Japan and some Europe countries.

Check https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620327864

Also check https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3731-z

Carbon neutrality can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "post-carbon economy"). It is used in the context of carbon dioxide-releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, agriculture, and industry. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_neutrality

Reducing carbon emissions can be done by moving towards energy sources and industry processes that produce less greenhouse gases, thereby transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Shifting towards the use of renewable energy such as hydro, wind, geothermal, and solar power, as well as nuclear power reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Although both renewable and non-renewable energy production produce carbon emissions in some form, renewable sources produce negligible to almost zero carbon emissions. Transitioning to a low-carbon economy would also mean making changes to current industrial and agricultural processes to reduce carbon emissions, for example, diet changes to livestock such as cattle can potentially reduce methane production by 40%. Carbon projects and emissions trading are often used to reduce carbon emissions, and carbon dioxide can even sometimes be prevented from entering the atmosphere entirely (such as by carbon scrubbing). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_neutrality

• SCIENCE reports: Carbon Neutrality aims-China will have to pay a huge price to curb the rise in global temperatures
• https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6540/378

The 2016 Paris Agreement set the ambitious goals of keeping global temperature rise this century below 2°C, or even better, 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. Substantial interventions are required to meet these goals, particularly for industrialized countries. Duan et al. projected that China will need to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 90% and its energy consumption by almost 40% to do its share in reaching the 1.5°C target. Negative emission technology is an essential element of any plan. China's accumulated economic costs by 2050 may be about 3 to 6% of its gross domestic product.

It is really hard to say how can achieve the aim with so large huge efforts. Many people in this country still in a poor life. Many people only found a good life just like that in western countries in mega-cities. Hope more fucus on the poors in remote village!

ٍDear Wenjie Wang

Thanks for your attention. Iran's forest cover is about 7% of the total area. The Forest Organization in Iran proceeds to increase the level and rehabilitate forests every year.

Leila Vatani

Thank you !

Management of the carbon from sources and try to improve the carbon sink

Gopal Shukla

Yes, for green vegetation, increasing its carbon sequestration capacity, while for some techniques, reducing its carbon-related efficiency, should be the basic idea for carbon neutrality. People do not like to change this habit or tradition at all when no new stimuli is there. Is there any political policy for the carbon neutrality in your countries from local and central government?

It is not difficult as demonstrated by a small country - Bhutan which is Carbon Neutral by virtue of its vegetational cover maintained well. The disadvantage with others is indiscriminate erasing of vegetational cover for developmental activities (including Reserve Forests/Protected Forests). One hectare of new forest sequesters 6.24 tons of carbon dioxide and you can imagine the potential of mature forests. All the best.

How Many forest-carbon was traded in China? certification of forest carbon sink and traded in market is very important to made idea into practice.

The volume and volume gap between the pilot carbon markets has widened further.In 2019, about 447 million tons of carbon quota were traded, making Guangdong the only carbon market in the pilot market with a trading volume of more than 10 million tons.Due to its huge leading advantage in trading volume, Guangdong's carbon market ranked first among the eight provinces and cities in terms of annual trading volume, which reached about 847 million yuan, accounting for more than half of the total trading volume, despite its low transaction price.

Please refer to the link DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30451.86568/3

Terrestrial ecosystems are facing a number of environmental changes, such as, increasing temperature, changes in climate, increased frequency of climatic events and global warming.

Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere resulted in global warming and climate change. To mitigate climate change and cope with its consequences several strategies has been proposed. Tree planting and organic matters decomposition management, respectively, propose to sequestrate carbon and mitigate atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle and is a large carbon and nitrogen pool in terrestrial ecosystems.

Nowadays, forests are being degraded so, developing forests through forest management, including reforestation, afforestation and plantation, is one of the key tools proposed to mitigate climate change consequences.

Yes, the ongoing global warming process is a fact. Civilization greenhouse gas emissions are a key factor responsible for the global warming process. If we do not stop this process or significantly slow it down, a global climate crisis will appear in several dozen years, which will threaten the existence of many species of flora and fauna and also the existence of man on planet Earth. Therefore, it is necessary to implement various solutions, eco-technologies, eco-energy innovations in a systematic way, increasing the scale of achieving sustainable development goals in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and reduce environmental pollution. Climate neutrality should be achieved as soon as possible, much earlier before 2050. The future of biodiversity of natural ecosystems and the survival of humanity on planet Earth depend on this.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

A news from China, Sichuan Province. The southwest province has announced a state-level carbon neutrality Plan. It is the first in China. It seems that all the people think the carbon neutrality before 2050 seriously. Hope all the world do it seriously, not only by politician mouse, but by action and action.

https://www.zaobao.com/realtime/china/story20210410-1138383

Dear everyone.

Policy is very important for carbon neutrality. So, if your country has some new policy anouncement. Please give a short introduction to others and hope this exchange can persuade more people, policy-maker to do sth for our planet.

The following is another news.

From this Jul. 16th, China's carbon market starts trading online. The price was 48 Chinese dollar/ton, and finished at 50. The market was mainly on electricity quota. Unfortunately, vegetation trade, especially forest carbon were not the priority in this market.

Detail can be found in the following.

https://www.zaobao.com/realtime/china/story20210716-1169665

I regret as I am not able to refer any link related to policy, however, I can share some knowledge about the fundamental and applied sciences on your question as given below;

The graphitic carbon is perhaps the only means of carbon neutrality. Different states of carbon along with their binding mechanisms can be found at link DOI: 10.20944/preprints201801.0036.v16. To keep graphitic state, carbon atom still requires the fixed position of electrons in occupied energy knots. To be a graphitic state, electrons keep half-length above and half-length below from the middle of their occupied energy knots as a graphitic atom is related to semisolid. For this, the link can be referred; https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-88120/v7.

But, by having the provision of electrons to move freely within the occupied states, a graphitic carbon atom can convert into gaseous carbon atom (under the application of electron transfer mechanism). Under that provision, a converted gaseous carbon atom develops affinity with one oxygen atom or two oxygen atoms, thus a molecule of CO or CO2 is formed under the tree roof at night. For this, please refer the study at link DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30451.86568/3. However, the affinity between C and O atoms breaks in the daytime/sunshine, where C atom gets the ground surface by again introducing the electron transfer mechanism. In this way, excessive oxygen is gathered under the tree roof and the one sleeping in the shadow of tree at daytime breathes healthy, so COVID-19 persons can also improve their breathing level by resting in the shadow of tree, especially who are living in the rural areas.

To gain a permanent neutrality in graphitic carbon, a good structural formation in graphitic atoms is required. New procedures, designs and processes can be developed to keep graphitic carbon under neutrality when necessary for specific requirement/application. The suitable concentration of carbon (gaseous and graphitic) can also help to keep nature eco-friendly and sustainable, thus, maintaining the cycle of formation of CO and CO2, and their dissociations.

I hope the shared detail can be pivotal in the policy-making.

Mubarak Ali ，Thank you for your sharing the graphitic state of carbon storage. Althrough it is so chemical-science-related, it is interesting to combine different discipline into the carbon neutrality programe. We really need some new techniques, not only biomass carbon sequestration, but also some industrical carbon efficient way to make our life more carbon-efficiently!