Navigating the carbon policy landscape: Integrating science, economics, and ethics for sustainable solutions
Published in Earth & Environment, Economics, and Law, Politics & International Studies
Carbon Balance and Management is calling for submissions to our Collection on navigating the carbon policy landscape, integrating science, economics, and ethics for sustainable solutions, edited by Pedro Cabral, Zhongju Liao, and Jiachao Peng.
The global urgency to address climate change has intensified the need for robust carbon policies that harmonize scientific insights, economic viability, and ethical considerations. Current policy frameworks often struggle to balance emission reduction targets with socioeconomic equity, technological feasibility, and cross-border cooperation. This Special Collection aims to bridge disciplinary divides by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on carbon governance, emphasizing actionable pathways for achieving carbon neutrality while safeguarding sustainable development. Amidst the critical threshold of global warming (the 1.5 °C target under the Paris Agreement), carbon policies must urgently address climate justice, multilateral governance, and technology transfer. International collaboration—through bodies like the UNFCCC, IPCC, and regional blocs—is essential to reconcile divergent national interests and accelerate equitable decarbonization.
This Collection innovates by synthesizing three critical dimensions—science (climate modeling, carbon sequestration), economics (cost-benefit analysis, market mechanisms), and ethics (distributive justice, intergenerational equity)—to evaluate carbon policies holistically. It will explore emerging topics such as:
• Carbon policy design: Regulatory instruments, carbon taxation, and international agreements
• Carbon market mechanisms: Emissions trading systems, offset protocols, and market liquidity
• Energy transition: Renewable integration, fossil fuel phase-out, and green technology adoption, transition justice and equity
• Dual carbon goals (peaking emissions & achieving neutrality): Sectoral strategies, regional disparities, and timeline optimization
• Policy impacts: Economic growth, energy security, environmental co-benefits, and Sustainable development goal (SDG) alignment
• Climate thresholds & Policy alignment: Strategies for aligning national carbon policies with 1.5°C pathways, including carbon budget allocation and resilience planning
• Transnational cooperation: Case studies on cross-border initiatives (e.g., EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement) and the role of multilateral institutions in scaling climate finance.
Associate Publisher in Environmental & Earth Sciences - Fully OA Journals
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Carbon Balance and Management
This is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of research aimed at developing a comprehensive policy relevant to the understanding of the global carbon cycle.
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20th Anniversary Collection: Global Change and Carbon Cycle
The year 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Carbon Balance and Management. Over the past two decades, the journal has played a pivotal role in advancing scientific understanding of the global carbon cycle, including the dynamics, controlling processes and feedback mechanisms governing the carbon-climate system, as well as strategies for sustainable carbon management. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Carbon Balance and Management, we present a special Collection that highlights major emerging and established research frontiers, including global carbon cycle patterns and processes, greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation, climate variability and change, land-use change and carbon dynamics, multi-source remote sensing for carbon monitoring, and policies supporting low-carbon economies.
This special Collection will feature a broad range of review papers, a limited number of commentaries, and selected research papers. Review papers are expected to provide comprehensive syntheses of the current state of knowledge, highlight major conceptual and methodological advances, evaluate key scientific challenges and limitations, and offer forward-looking perspectives for future research and policy development in the field of carbon balance and management. Commentaries are encouraged to present innovative, thought-provoking and potentially controversial perspectives that stimulate constructive scientific debate and interdisciplinary dialogue. Selected research papers will emphasize interdisciplinary approaches, frontier technologies, and applications of artificial intelligence and data driven science to carbon and climate research.
This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 13: Climate actions and SDG 15: Life on Land.
All submissions in this collection undergo the journal’s standard peer review process. The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member or Guest Editor who has no competing interests. As an open access publication, this journal levies an article processing fee (details here). We recognize that many key stakeholders may not have access to such resources and are committed to supporting participation in this issue wherever resources are a barrier. For more information about what support may be available, please visit OA funding and support, or email OAfundingpolicy@springernature.com or the Editor-in-Chief.
Publishing Model: Open Access
Deadline: Mar 24, 2027
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