Carbon mitigation represents a typical complex system characterized by long‑term cycles, cross‑regional scope and multi‑agent participation. It poses tough coordination dilemmas between short‑term and long‑term goals, partial and overall interests, government and market roles, as well as development and emission reduction. These challenges have long hindered academia from effectively addressing core scientific questions in carbon‑mitigation roadmap design: how much to abate, when to abate, how to abate, who should abate, and what outcomes can be achieved.

Drawing on more than 30 years of theoretical research and practical application in carbon mitigation, Professor Wei Yiming from the Beijing Lab for System Engineering of Carbon Neutrality at Beijing Institute of Technology and his research team have put forward an innovative methodology for carbon‑mitigation roadmap design — the Time‑Space‑Efficiency‑Benefit Coordination Methodology, abbreviated as the TSEB Methodology.

From four dimensions — temporal coordination, spatial coordination, efficiency coordination and benefit coordination — the methodology characterizes dynamic feedback mechanisms within the complex carbon‑mitigation system and reveals its multi‑agent evolutionary rules. The team has established a TSEB modelling system for carbon mitigation, which offers effective solutions to long‑standing bottlenecks in carbon‑mitigation pathway design. This methodology integrates interdisciplinary theories and technologies spanning engineering, system science, management science, economics and environmental science.

Recently, the relevant outcomes were published in Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, an international SSCI Q1 journal, under the title A Time‑Space‑Efficiency‑Benefit (TSEB) Mix Approach to Carbon Mitigation Roadmap Design. The paper systematically introduces the TSEB coordination methodology and its modelling framework, as well as its practical applications including the development of China’s Integrated Climate‑Assessment Model (C3IAM) platform, formulation of China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality timelines and roadmaps, comprehensive evaluation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and planning for global and national‑level CCUS engineering deployment.

This research was supported by the Basic Science Center Program and Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as the Beijing Lab for System Engineering of Carbon Neutrality.

Citation: Wei, YM., Chen, W. A Time‑Space‑Efficiency‑Benefit (TSEB) Mix Approach to Carbon Mitigation Roadmap Design. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2026.02.006