Against the background of a low-carbon economy and the rising environmental awareness, extensive attention has been paid to carbon emissions in the cold chain in academic research and practice. In cold chain operations, consumers’ preference for freshness is also growing, which motivates the investment in preservation technology to improve the freshness of perishable products. However, further investment in preservation technology also increases carbon emissions. Considering these idiosyncratic features in cold chains, we apply a differential game model to examine cold chain members’ preservation technology investment and carbon abatement behaviors from a long-term horizon and dynamic perspective. The equilibrium strategies of the cold chain were analyzed and compared under four different scenarios, numerical experiments were implemented to verify the theoretical results, and a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify further insights. The results indicate that the trajectory of the supplier’s preservation technology level is monotonic and that the trajectory of the carbon abatement level changes direction no more than once. Furthermore, when the demand for perishable products is less sensitive to environmental friendliness, an increasing preference for freshness is more conducive to improving cold chain profits, but when the demand for perishable products is more sensitive to environmental friendliness, increasing the preference for freshness does not improve such profits. The cost coefficient of the carbon abatement effort has a more obvious impact on the demand and economic profits of a cold chain. An improved bilateral cost-sharing contract is more effective than a unilateral cost-sharing contract, as the former can simultaneously improve the cold chain’s economic and environmental benefits and achieve perfect coordination. Overall, our research provides a theoretical basis for the long-term optimization and coordination of cold chains in low-carbon environments.

在低碳经济和环保意识不断增强的背景下，冷链碳排放在学术研究和实践中受到广泛关注。在冷链运营中，消费者对新鲜度的偏好也越来越高，这激发了对保鲜技术的投资，以提高易腐烂产品的新鲜度。然而，对保存技术的进一步投资也会增加碳排放。考虑到冷链中的这些特殊特征，我们应用差分博弈模型从长期和动态的角度考察冷链成员的保存技术投资和碳减排行为。分析比较了四种不同情景下的冷链平衡策略，进行了数值实验以验证理论结果，并进行了敏感性分析以确定进一步的见解。结果表明，供应商保存技术水平的轨迹是单调的，碳减排水平的轨迹变化方向不超过一次。此外，当易腐产品的需求对环境友好性不太敏感时，增加对新鲜度的偏好更有利于提高冷链利润，但当易腐产品的需求对环境友好性更敏感时，增加对新鲜度的偏好并不会影响冷链利润。提高这样的利润。碳减排努力的成本系数对冷链的需求和经济利润的影响更为明显。改进的双边成本分摊合同比单边成本分摊合同更有效，因为前者可以同时提高冷链的经济和环境效益，实现完美协调。总体而言，我们的研究为低碳环境下冷链的长期优化和协调提供了理论依据。