Towards Carbon-Neutral Cities: The Crucial Role of Social Participation

Nowadays, the significant contribution of urban areas to global greenhouse gas emissions is highlighted, and cities’ objectives to address climate change are discussed. This has prompted most cities to act toward achieving a sustainable future in the direction of carbon neutrality. This article explores the relationship between carbon neutrality, carbon-neutral cities, and social participation, and presents a theoretical framework that synthesizes these concepts. The methodology employed in the article includes four phases. First, the article reviews the literature on carbon neutrality and social participation, recognizing the relationship between the concepts in pairs and chains. Then, it integrates the findings to develop an integrated conceptual framework, which conceptualizes a framework of carbon-neutral cities and describes the relationship among the derived concepts. It argues that social participation is a critical element in achieving carbon-neutral cities and that achieving carbon-neutral cities is a complex process. The article emphasizes the importance of social participation in this process and highlights the need for future research to explore novel ways to achieve this.