Sustainability, an open access journal by MDPI, will publish a special issue entitled Transportation Decarbonization: Advanced Vehicle Technologies and Their Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts. Guest editors for this issue will be Shiqi Ou (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Xin He (Aramco Service Company), and Xu Hao (University of Science and Technology Beijing)
Background
By the end of 2020, more than 110 countries have committed to a net-zero carbon emissions goal to realize the Paris Agreement commitment that limits global warming below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels by mid-century. The transportation sector, especially the on-road vehicle sector, has been one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, achieving far-reaching decarbonization targets will require vast investment in advanced vehicle technologies, a transition in policy orientation, and structural adjustments in industrial strategies. Different countries have explored a variety of powertrain pathways including electrification, hydrogen fuel-cells, and internal combustion engines using zero-carbon fuels. These pathways are paving the way for a revolutionary transition from the current petroleum-based transportation system to a more sustainable and decarbonized transportation system. The transition to a decarbonized transportation system brings both challenges and opportunities to advanced vehicle technologies (e.g., battery materials, connected autonomous vehicles), new transportation mode choices (e.g., shared mobility), and the supply chains of natural resources.
Invitation to Submit
For this Special Issue we seek manuscripts focused on leading research on advanced technologies, industrial strategies and policies for deep decarbonization, and their social and environmental impacts from the vehicle industry. Studies should be quantitative and focus on transportation decarbonization. The deadline for manuscript submittal is March 31, 2022
Relevant topics include:
- Challenges and opportunities in advanced battery materials, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, internal combustion engine using zero-carbon fuels, and other decarbonized technologies in vehicle use;
- Intelligent application and optimization of low- and zero-carbon powertrain technologies combining with electricity (V2X), hydrogen, or other renewable power sources;
- Impacts of autonomous driving and shared mobility on transportation mode choices and decarbonization;
- Lifecycle analysis for improving the measurement of transportation decarbonization; and
- Social and environmental impacts and practices of the industrial strategies and government policies on vehicle decarbonization.
About the Journal
Sustainability is an international, cross-disciplinary, scholarly, peer-reviewed and open access journal focusing on environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability. It provides an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development. The journal is published semimonthly online by MDPI. Author benefits include:
- Open Access:— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High visibility: indexed within Scopus, SCIE and SSCI (Web of Science), GEOBASE, Inspec, AGRIS, RePEc, CAPlus / SciFinder, and many other databases.
- Journal Rank: JCR - Q2 (Environmental Sciences) / CiteScore - Q1 (Geography, Planning and Development)