Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Amid intensified global climate mitigation efforts, integrating rail freight into carbon emissions trading schemes became critical under China’s “Dual-Carbon” strategy. Despite rail’s significantly lower emissions intensity compared to road transport, existing pricing frameworks inadequately internalized its environmental externalities, which limited its competitive advantage. To address this gap, the study systematically reviewed international and domestic practices of integrating transport into carbon trading systems and developed a novel "four-layer, three-dimensional" ETS framework tailored specifically for China’s rail freight sector. This framework encompassed emission caps, allowance allocation, monitoring–reporting–verification (MRV), and regulatory coordination, reinforced by effective market participant interactions, trading mechanisms, and digital infrastructure. Employing a Stackelberg bilevel optimization model, the study analyzed how carbon quotas and pricing influenced rail operators’ pricing and investment decisions. Results showed that under optimized quotas and carbon prices, railway enterprises were able to generate surplus carbon credits, creating new revenue streams and enabling freight rate reductions. This “carbon revenue–freight rate feedback loop” not only delivered environmental benefits but also enhanced rail’s economic competitiveness. Overall, the study significantly advanced the understanding of carbon-based pricing mechanisms in railway freight, providing robust theoretical insights and actionable policy guidance for achieving sustainable decarbonization in China’s transport sector.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su17125265
Authors: Xiaoyong Wei, Huaixiang Wang
Institution: China Academy of Railway Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Funder: China Railway
OpenAlex ID: W4411089792