Carbon-Aware Energy System Planning and Market Coordination for Sustainable Low-Carbon Energy Transition

The global pursuit of carbon neutrality and sustainable development is driving profound transformations in energy systems. As renewable energy penetration increases and energy systems become more interconnected, flexible, and decentralized, the need for effective planning and market coordination becomes increasingly critical. However, conventional energy system models and market mechanisms often fail to explicitly account for carbon emissions, limiting their ability to support climate goals and long-term sustainability.In this context, carbon-aware methodologies are emerging as a key enabler of energy transition, providing systematic approaches to embed carbon signals into energy system planning, operational decision-making, and market coordination, thereby supporting climate change mitigation and sustainable development goals. Recent advances in high-resolution carbon emission tracking, carbon-constrained optimization, electricity–carbon coupled pricing mechanisms, policy-driven regulatory strategies, and AI-enabled forecasting and control provide new opportunities to address this limitation. These developments also enable more comprehensive analyses of environment–economy–energy interactions and support sustainable system design.This Research Topic aims to bring together interdisciplinary contributions addressing the theories, methodologies, technologies, and applications related to carbon-aware energy systems. Contributions that bridge engineering methods with sustainability outcomes—such as emissions reduction, system efficiency, long-term energy transition pathways, life-cycle sustainability assessment, and climate change mitigation—are especially encouraged.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Carbon emission flow tracing and carbon accounting methodologies in integrated energy systems;• Carbon-aware planning and optimization of power systems, multi-energy systems, and energy hubs;• Electricity–carbon market coupling mechanisms and low-carbon market design;• Carbon pricing, demand response, and incentive-based energy management;• AI, digital twins, and data-driven approaches for carbon-aware energy operation and forecasting;• Carbon-aware scheduling and coordination in microgrids, virtual power plants, and distributed energy systems;• Low-carbon energy transition pathways and net-zero energy systems;• Integration of renewable energy and energy storage under carbon constraints;• Planning, operation, and lifecycle integrated assessment of CCUS technologies and related sustainable infrastructure;• Policy, regulatory frameworks, and techno-economic analysis for carbon-neutral energy systems;• Environment–economy–energy systems analysis for sustainable development and climate change mitigation. Topic editors: Chongyu Wang, Zelong Lu, Yiyun Yao, QIONG LIU, Linwei Sang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81170/carbon-aware-energy-system-planning-and-market-coordination-for-sustainable-low-carbon-energy-transition