Focus on Contemporary Low-Carbon Economy Transition, Environmental Neutral Development and the New Normal

Enhanced weathering of soil-applied crushed silicate rocks may remove substantial atmospheric carbon dioxide; however, field testing of this negative emission technology is lacking. Models have suggested that enhanced weathering could, in principle, remove billions of tons of CO₂ each year across global croplands, but methodological limitations have hindered direct measurement of CO₂ sequestration via crushed rock amendments in agriculture. Further questions remain concerning the efficacy of this technology in arid climates. Here we provide direct evidence of rapid CO₂ removal via enhanced weathering in soil pore water samples from a corn (Zea mays L.) cropping system in California. From December through February, during an extreme drought in our study region, we demonstrate a 2.6 to 2.9-fold increase in in situ bicarbonate alkalinity in response to additions of metabasalt and olivine fines. We provide a field analysis of carbon removal via silicate rock amendments and suggest enhanced weathering can remove carbon dioxide even under moisture-limited conditions.

The digital economy is an important driving force for China's economic transformation and upgrading, while 'carbon peak and carbon neutrality' is the target vision to be achieved in China. As an important support area for the rise of central China, it is an urgent question to investigate whether the development of the digital economy in Jiangxi Province can contribute to the realization of carbon emission reduction. Based on the panel data of 11 urban areas in Jiangxi Province from 2011 to 2020, the article empirically investigates the impact of the digital economy on regional carbon emissions and its mechanism of action by using the two-way fixed-effect model, mediated-effect model, and panel threshold-effect model. The study shows that, firstly, the digital economy has a significant carbon emission reduction effect, and the conclusion still holds after a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. Second, the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy differs among different regions, and the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy is more obvious in northern Ganzhou and regions with high carbon emission levels. Again, the intermediary effect suggests that the digital economy can promote carbon emission reduction by strengthening the control of foreign investment introduction. Finally, the panel threshold effect analysis with urbanization as the threshold variable shows that there is a non-linear correlation between the effects of the digital economy on carbon emissions. The findings of this paper provide a feasible path and policy reference for Jiangxi Province's digital economy to contribute to carbon emission reduction goals.

In order to reduce the global carbon emission pressure and improve the energy efficiency of the construction industry, this paper establishes the Un-Super-SBM model to measure the total factor energy efficiency of the construction industry in China, which based on the 2012–2019 Chinese provincial panel data with CO₂ emissions as the non-desired output, and uses the panel data model to empirically analyze the impact of formal and informal environmental regulations on the energy efficiency of the construction industry. The results show that, from the national level, the impact of formal environmental regulation on energy efficiency of the construction industry shows an inverted U-shaped trend of promotion followed by inhibition, while the impact of informal environmental regulation on energy efficiency of the construction industry shows a U-shaped trend of inhibition followed by promotion. From the regional level, there are regional differences in the impact of formal and informal environmental regulations on the energy efficiency of the construction industry. Finally, the paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions to promote the improvement of energy utilization efficiency of China's construction industry and achieve sustainable development.

The subject of the paper refers to the research on beekeepers' perceptions of environmental threats to beekeeping in the Western Balkan region. The following environmental threats were supposed to be the most pronounced: cutting of melliferous perennial plants and clearing of forests, urbanisation and environmental pollution, use of pesticides in agricultural production, pests and agents of bees' diseases, climate changes. The aim of the research was to find out how beekeepers perceived these threats, to determine the presence of the threats and to define their intensity as well as their mutual relationship. For the purpose of this research, the authors created a structured questionnaire which was filled in by randomly selected beekeepers living in the Western Balkans. The research results show that most beekeepers in the studied area evaluated the assumed threats as strong to very strong, while the greatest percentage of beekeepers believes that climate change represents the greatest threat to beekeeping in the region. All assumed environmental threats show the same tendency, while they have the most serious effect on large apiaries with more than 150 bee colonies, located in lowland areas up to 200 meters above sea level with intensive farming. Findings of this research are important in order to adapt the current beekeeping practice in the region to more sustainable solutions, through improvement of the existing beekeeping legislation and advisory services.

Economic development level (EDL) cannot completely explain environmental behavior and participation (EBP) patterns as many other factors affect environmental performances, and the conflict of 'Maslow's Hierarchy Needs model' or 'Affluence hypothesis' and 'Challenge-response Model' hypothesis has been continuously discussed. In the present study, a standardized two-dimensional array (STDA) model is employed to deliberate on the EDL-EBP relationship in different sub-groups with the highest (\$21389.08) and the lowest (\$5216.41) average capita GDPs in Guangdong Province, China. This is the first attempt to investigate the relationships between the regional EDL represented by capita GDP and public environmental behaviors represented by actual resident's resource consumption, pollution emission and environmental participation in areas with similar natural and cultural condition, and an Environmental Effort Indicator (EEI) is established based on the STDA model. The results show that (1) the STDA model is applicable in distinguishing resident's EBPs of 20 prefecture-level cities (PLCs) of Guangdong Province with rather different EDLs; (2) the relationship of EDL-EBP is not liner pattern and is behavior- and region-specific; (3) public participation plays an important role that is most decisive to the EEI; (4) the V-shaped EDL-EEI relationships can be explained each other with the EKC model. The formation of resident's good environmental habits would be a long-term process and environmental education is a key way to accelerate the process and to maintain sustainable developments of the nature and human society.

With the advent of mass tourism, the tourism industry has experienced unprecedented expansion in scale. The relationship between the tourism industry and ecology and society is a key issue in promoting sustainable development of tourist destinations. However, existing research has focused more on the relationship between ecological environment protection and tourism economic development, while neglecting the impact on human well-being in this process. Therefore, based on the concept of ecological welfare, this study explored the coupling coordination degree (CCD) and interaction relationship between the tourism economy development (TED) and ecological wel-being performance (EWP) of 58 major tourism cities in China, providing a more inclusive theoretical perspective and enriching the theory of sustainable tourism and ecological tourism. The results show that: (1) from 2004 to 2019, the EWP and TED of major tourism cities in China showed a steady upward trend. The improvement level of TED was more significant than that of EWP. (2) The CCD between EWP and TED of most tourism cities in China has been improved to varying degrees during the period from 2004 to 2019, especially in many inland tourism cities. (3) There is a dynamic interaction relationship between EWP and TED in major tourism cities in China during the research period, but a virtuous interaction has not yet been formed between the two. The results of this study can also provide practical insights for the sustainable development of urban tourism industry.

Rapid industrialization and ambitious socio-economic targets have presented significant challenges to China's carbon neutrality process. However, digital transformation offers new opportunities for sustainable development. This research examines the influence of digital governance (Digov) on carbon emission performance (Cep) and explores its underlying mechanisms. The study utilizes data from cities in China's Yangtze River Delta from 2011 to 2019. The results show that digital governance has significantly improved carbon emission performance, a conclusion that remains robust even after conducting a series of rigorous tests and addressing endogeneity concerns. The main impact mechanisms of digital governance on carbon emission performance include energy intensity reduction, energy consumption scale reduction, industrial structure adjustment, and energy consumption structure optimization.Furthermore, the results indicate that the variation in carbon emission reduction due to digital governance can be attributed to differences in city administrative level, city size, and government capacity. In particular, digital governance plays a pivotal role in facilitating the sustainable transformation of resource-based cities.From the perspective of digital governance, this study provides effective recommendations and valuable insights for achieving low-carbon targets and promoting sustainable development of cities.

Under the current 'double carbon' policy, the building materials manufacturing industry has seriously restricted the improvement of social and environmental benefits. Digital green innovation (DGI) in photovoltaic building materials enterprises (PBMES) plays a crucial role in solving the problems of high-quality environmental and economic development. In order to make the DGI of PBMES more effective, it is very critical to evaluate the performance of the DGI activities of PBMES. First, the evaluation index system is constructed. Then, it constructs the theoretical framework of the DGI performance evaluation of PBMES. After that, on the basis of combining various evaluation methods, a combination evaluation model based on compatibility and consistency was constructed and the convergence test and consistency test of the combination evaluation results were carried out by means of the variance method and Spearman rank correlation coefficient, which verified the scientificity and validity of the method. Finally, using the evaluation model, 16 PBMES were empirically studied. It reflected that the DGI performance evaluation index system of PBMES is composed of four indexes, namely, technology input, economic output, scientific and technological output, and social effect. The key factors affecting the DGI performance of PBMES are the investment in talent training, the proportion of digital technology in green products, the success rate of digital innovation product development increased by DGI cooperation, and the digital level of adopting environmental management system. This article combines consistency-based evaluation methods to not only obtain reasonable evaluation results, but also fully utilize multi-level methods to better describe the evaluation object. The means provided in this article are a new way to solve the DGI performance evaluation of PBMES.

Digitalization is viewed as a potential solution to environmental sustainability issues. However, existing researches suggest that the environmental impact of digital technology is uncertain. This study focuses on the National Supercomputing Center (NSC) in China, a large-scale computing infrastructure, and expands the correlation between digital infrastructure and green development from a computing perspective. Based on the synthetic control method, we select non-supercomputing cities as the control group and assign appropriate weighting. Through the fitting of a synthetic control group (refer to as the synthetic city) with similar characteristics, the analysis is conducted to compare carbon emissions (CO₂ emission) between NSC city and the synthetic city. The empirical results show that the NSC may worsen regional CO₂ emissions, and this result still holds true after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism examinations show that the NSC does not exhibit significant composition effect (energy structure improvement) and technology effect (green technology innovation), while scale effect (increase in energy demand and consumption) dominate the NSC's carbon emissions. Based on these findings, we consider that in addition to improving the energy efficiency of supercomputing centers, the adoption of cleaner renewable energy and the promotion of knowledge spillovers are crucial for achieving a green transformation for computing infrastructure.

Digitization of the industrial sector is critical to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions. The application of digital technology in traditional high-carbon emission industries can improve energy use efficiency and provide an essential technological path for carbon reduction. This study uses a coupled coordination degree model to measure the degree of integration between China's logistics industry and the digital economy. An environmental Kurtzwarts curve (EKC) panel and a non-linear mediation model was then constructed to analyse the impact of digitization of China's logistics industry on carbon emissions and its driving mechanisms using panel data from 30 regions in China from 2011 to 2020. The empirical results show that: (1) The level of integration between the logistics industry and digital economy led to an evident characteristic of 'high in the east and low in the west.' However, the regional differences are gradually decreasing over time. (2) The influence of the integration between the logistics industry and digital economy on carbon emission is in an inverted U-shape when the integration degree of the two exceeds the inflection point value of 0.76 to play the role of carbon At present, only in Guangdong, the degree of integration crosses the inflection point and plays an environment-friendly digital role. (3) As a crucial external environmental condition affecting carbon emissions, the degree of integration between logistics and digital economy will play an early role in carbon emission reduction under environmental regulation. (4) The degree of integration of the logistics industry and digital economy achieves carbon emission reduction through strengthening energy use efficiency and technological progress, in which the mediating effect of energy consumption intensity accounts for 23.05% of the total effect, ranging from 18.82% to 31.68%; the mediating effect of technological progress accounts for 13.25% of the total effect, ranging from 12.67% to 14.40%.

The attainment of a regionally balanced carbon budget is fundamental for the realization of carbon neutrality. This study involved the quantification of the carbon budget related to land use across Southeast China from 2005 to 2020, which was achieved through the calculation of both carbon emissions and carbon sinks. Subsequently, we scrutinized the mechanisms driving the observed dynamic changes in the carbon budget, pinpointed the impact of land-use efficiency (LUE) on the carbon budget, and proposed sustainable spatial planning and management strategies for diverse functional areas at the county level. The core findings are as follows: The dynamics of the carbon budget were spatially heterogeneous, characterized by a gradual increase in carbon emissions over time, while carbon sinks remained relatively constant. The Gini coefficient (G) manifested a gradual increase throughout the study period, reflecting an imbalanced evolution between carbon sinks and emissions. There was also an observable imbalance in the distribution of the carbon ecological carrying coefficient between coastal and inland regions. Land-use-related carbon emissions demonstrated a substantial spatial spillover effect, whereas a weak spatial spillover effect was noted in land-use-related carbon sinks. The correlation between LUE and the carbon budget varied significantly across different functional areas, as the driving effects of LUE displayed remarkable spatial heterogeneity. A quantification of the spatio-temporal alterations and the driving mechanisms behind the carbon budget can aid in the advancement of urban sustainability and regional carbon neutrality.