Decarbonization Policy Engineering
Description
Climate change represents one of humanity's most profound and uncertain challenges-demanding innovation, cooperation, and systemic transformation. Decarbonization Policy Engineering: Energy Transition and Regional Cooperation in East Asia provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework for navigating this transition.
Structured around three core themes:
1. Strategies and Prospects for Carbon Neutrality in East Asia: This section analyzes decarbonization pathways, policy frameworks, and challenges specific to China, Japan, and South Korea. It explores national strategies, energy security, climate policy philosophy, and the potential for regional cooperation, including a joint carbon market.
2. System Evaluation of the Optimal Energy Mix: The focus here is on the technical and engineering aspects of the energy transition. Research includes optimizing integrated energy system design, conducting scenario analyses for future pathways, and evaluating the impacts of climate change on energy consumption.
3. Innovations for a Decarbonized Society: This segment broadens the scope to cross-cutting enablers of decarbonization. It covers climate finance, carbon accounting, technological breakthroughs, consumer behavior, carbon border mechanisms, life cycle assessment, and sector-specific strategies for waste management and residential energy use.
By treating uncertainty not as a barrier but as a catalyst for innovation, this book redefines the future of energy policy. It serves as an essential compass for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners striving to engineer a sustainable, carbon-neutral future for East Asia-and beyond.
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Person
WeiSheng Zhou Ph.D. in Engineering (Kyoto University), Emeritus Professor and Specially Appointed Professor at Ritsumeikan University; Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University; Director of the Global 3E Research Institute; and Foreign Member of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ).
Dr. Zhou has held various positions, including Researcher at the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO); Senior Researcher and Research Advisor at the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE); Specially Appointed Professor at Osaka University; Visiting Professor at Kyoto University; and Founding Director of the Ritsumeikan Research Center for Sustainability Science.
His main fields of teaching and research include Earth Environmental Studies, Environmental Economics and Policy, Energy Systems Engineering, Sustainable Development Studies, and Policy Engineering. His key research topics encompass the East Asian Low-Carbon Community (EA-LCC), Global Resource Recycling System (GRS), East Asian Nuclear Power Safety System (EA-NPSS), East Asian Emissions Trading System (EA-ETS), Quantitative Happiness Studies, and Policy Engineering.
Dr. Zhou has published numerous monographs, including The Earth Regeneration Plan: CO² Reduction Strategy (Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, 2000); East Asian Low-Carbon Community (Springer, 2021); Sustainable Development Studies in the Era of SDGs (Horitsu Bunka Sha, 2022); Nuclear Power Safety and Governance in East Asia (Routledge, 2023); Creep-Fatigue Fracture: Analysis of Internal Damage (Springer, 2024); and Foundations of Quantitative Happiness: Economic Growth vs Life Satisfaction (Springer Nature, 2025), among others, including co-authored works.
Content
Part I: Strategies and Prospects for Carbon Neutrality in East Asia.- The Framework of Decarbonization Policy Engineering and the Challenges in East Asia.- Various Pathways to realize Carbon Neutrality.- The Realization of Carbon Neutrality by 2050 and Energy Security.- An Analysis of Japan's Climate Policy Based on the Economic Philosophy of "Sustainable Development".- Status and Prospects of Decarbonization in China: Energy Transition Progress, Policy Drive, and Carbon Market.- Attributing Historical Radiative Forcing and Temperature Change by Climate Forcer and Sector: Methodology and Global Assessment (1850-2020).- Integrated Analysis of Carbon Reduction Strategies at the Regional Level: Evidence from Zhejiang, China.- Decarbonization Policy Cooperation Toward a Carbon Neutral Society in China, Japan and South Korea: Toward the Establishment of a CJK Joint Carbon Market.- Local Carbon Neutrality Scenarios and Social Acceptance: Evidence from Tochigi, Japan.