Global climate change is regarded as one of the great challenges facing human society in the 21st century (Mallapaty, 2020). It is not only related to the change of human living environment, but also involves the changes from global economic and geopolitical pattern. Countries around the world urgently advocate to take aggressive measures to achieve "net zero" emissions of greenhouse gases around 2050 (Salvia et al., 2021). And it is the time to build a shared future for mankind, which is recognized in the recent 2021 G20 Rome and UNFCCC COP26 meeting.

However, fossil-based energy systems should be transformed to a clean and low-carbon energy future. When coal is the fossil energy with the largest carbon emissions, the sustainable development of coal-based energy is a major issue related to the long-term sustainable and stable development of the world economy and society (Wang et al., 2021a). Technological innovation should promote the transformation and upgrading of this industry, improve energy efficiency, reduce water consumption and pollutant emissions, protect the ecological environment, and realize the transformation of coal enterprises to the integrated development model of energy, electricity, and chemical industry. Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology has the characteristics of great carbon emission reduction potential and high degree of integration with coal-based energy system (Wei et al., 2021). CCUS is essential for the emissions removal of coal industry and non-energy sector emissions that are more difficult to eliminate.

Furthermore, hydrogen energy is important as a substitution for oil consumption in the transportation sector and coke in the iron industry. However, the hydrogen market is still in its infancy, and there is a shortage of fuel cell vehicles and supporting facilities such as hydrogenation stations (Siddiqui et al., 2019). It is necessary for the government to implement incentives to achieve a wide deployment and increase the hydrogen energy demand.

Therefore, building innovative energy systems integrating renewables, nuclear, CCUS, and hydrogen energy sources is vital for low-carbon management under the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. It is the role of technology innovation to improve the flexible adjustment ability of power system, the overall arrangement of the energy storage sources, energy demand response as well as increase electrification rate (Wang et al., 2021b). This special issue provides an academic and technical platform for worldwide researchers and engineers to exchange innovative and systematic interdisciplinary research ideas, framework, and solutions for constructing an efficient, resilient, low-carbon energy systems towards carbon dioxide peaking and carbon neutrality. Both original research and review articles on innovative energy systems management are highly welcome.

Literatures

Mallapaty S. How China could be carbon neutral by midcentury. Nature, 2020, 586: 482-483.

Salvia M, Reckien D, Pietrapertosa F, et al. Will climate mitigation ambitions lead to carbon neutrality? An analysis of the local-level plans of 327 cities in the EU. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021, 135: 110253.

Siddiqui O, Dincer I. A well to pump life cycle environmental impact assessment of some hydrogen production routes. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019, 44(12): 5773-5786.

Wang B, He L, Yuan X C, et al. Carbon emissions of coal supply chain: An innovative perspective from physical to economic. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021a, 295: 126377.

Wang B, Deng K, He L, Sun Z. Behaviours of Multi-Stakeholders under China’s Renewable Portfolio Standards: A Game Theory-Based Analysis. Energy Engineering, 2021b, 118(5), 1333–1351.

Wei Y M, Kang J N, Liu L C, et al. A proposed global layout of carbon capture and storage in line with a 2 °C climate target. Nature Climate Change, 2021, 11, 112–118.