Abstract: Low-carbon cooperative distribution is a sustainable distribution mode and government subsidy incentive is conducive to low-carbon logistics distribution. It is very necessary to design an appropriate subsidy-based incentive mechanism. Currently, cooperative enterprises prefer to select the low-cost transportation rather than the low-carbon transportation. Government can motivate cooperative enterprises to select the low-carbon mode by setting certain subsidy incentives in order to minimize carbon emissions and achieve low-carbon cooperative distribution. This research first proposes a cost-minimized cooperative distribution model, a carbon-emission-minimized cooperative distribution model and a carbon-emission-minimized hybrid model under cost constraint, and then develops a three-stage heuristic algorithm to solve the models. Based on the above solutions, this research designs the degree of government subsidy incentive and calculates the total amount of government subsidy to cooperative enterprises. Drawing on the cooperative game theory, we suggest allocating the subsidy to each cooperative enterprise, so as to improve their enthusiasm for the low-carbon operation of cooperative distribution. Experiment results indicate that the government subsidy has a positive impact on low-carbon cooperative distribution, and provide a new idea for the government to set the incentive mechanism.

Key words: low-carbon logistics, cooperative distribution, government subsidy