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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geoscience and Society
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1488223
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploration, Development, and Protection of Earth’s Resources and Environment: Methods, Techniques, Applications, Prospects, Insights, and Problems View all 27 articles

Quantitative evaluation study of lithium sustainable development policies in China based on the PMC index model

Provisionally accepted
Jie Gao Jie Gao 1*Wei Liu Wei Liu 2*Mao Xu Mao Xu 3*Bo Wang Bo Wang 3*
  • 1 Key Laboratory of Strategic Mineral Resources of the Upper Yellow River, Ministry of Natural Resources, Lanzhou, China
  • 2 School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing, China
  • 3 Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The sustainable development of lithium is crucial for supporting low-carbon energy transition and promoting sustainable economic development. To assess the effectiveness of China's sustainable development policies for lithium, this study constructed a policy evaluation system using content analysis and the PMC index model. We evaluated 12 representative policies and visualized their performance through PMC surface diagrams. The results show that among the 12 representative policies, 2 were rated as "excellent", 9 as "good", 1 as "acceptable", and none as "poor". The result indicates that China's sustainable development policies for lithium are generally well-designed and scientific, but there is still room for improvement. Specifically, the timeliness of policies is generally low, lacking long-term planning and dynamic adjustment mechanisms; policy coordination is insufficient in some regions; and the quality of policies in non-major lithium-producing areas is relatively low. Based on these findings, we recommend optimizing future policies by improving policy timeliness and flexibility, enhancing regional coordination, refining policy tools, and increasing public participation.

    Keywords: Low-carbon energy transition, Lithium, Sustainable development policies, PMC index model, Quantitative evaluation, China

    Received: 29 Aug 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Liu, Xu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jie Gao, Key Laboratory of Strategic Mineral Resources of the Upper Yellow River, Ministry of Natural Resources, Lanzhou, China
    Wei Liu, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing, China
    Mao Xu, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China
    Bo Wang, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.