How to achieve a win-win situation between economic growth and carbon emission reduction: empirical evidence from the perspective of industrial structure upgrading

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Over the past 40 years since China’s reform and opening up, the industrial structure has undergone tremendous changes. The rapid...     

Regulatory impediments to carbon emission mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: the impact of a hostile business environment and high tax burden

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Sub-Saharan Africa’s regulatory environment ranks amongst the least business friendly in the world. The difficulty of starting and operating...     

The influence of carbon emission disclosure on enterprise value under ownership heterogeneity: evidence from the heavily polluting corporations

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Under the background that China puts forth the goals of “Emission Peak” and “Carbon Neutrality”, heavily polluting...     

Retailer-driven carbon emission reduction: contract design in the presence of information asymmetry and cap-and-trade

This study considers a supply chain consisting of a dominant brand-name retailer and a manufacturer in the presence of a cap-and-trade mechanism and consumers’ low-carbon preference. The retailer exerts advertising efforts, while lacks of the manufacturer’s private carbon emission reduction effort cost information. We construct the benchmark model with information symmetry and asymmetry respectively. We obtain all members’ equilibrium solutions and analytically examine the impact of the manufacturer’s carbon emission reduction effort cost, the retailer’s advertising effort cost, and consumers’ low-carbon preference on the supply chain members’ decisions. And then, we systematically compare two scenarios to obtain the condition in which the manufacturer would be willing to share the private information. With the aim of improving the manufacturer’s carbon emission reduction effort level and all members’ economic performance, we further propose a two-part tariff contract for information symmetry and asymmetry, respectively.

     

Evaluation of emission reduction targets contributed by BASIC countries from the perspective of global temperature control targets

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this paper, the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) countries, which play an increasingly significant role in combating climate change,...     

Convergence of energy carbon emission efficiency: evidence from manufacturing sub-sectors in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - With China’s economy entering the stage of high-quality development, manufacturing energy carbon emission efficiency has become the focus of...     

Estimating the carbon footprint of household activities in Japan from the time-use perspective

The household sector is a major driver of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, most existing studies have only estimated households’ carbon footprint from their expenditures. Households’ daily activity time, a scarce resource that limits and determines their consumption behavior, has rarely been integrated into the estimation. Incorporating the daily time-use patterns should thus provide a more practical perspective for mitigation policies aiming at promoting sustainable household lifestyles. In this study, by linking household time-use data and expenditure data of Japan, the carbon footprint and the GHG intensity of time of 85 daily household activities constituting the 24 hours in a day are estimated. Compared to the maximal 20-activity disaggregation in existing studies, our detailed 85-category disaggregation of daily time enables unprecedented details on the discrepancies between the carbon footprint from daily activities, many of which have previous been treated as one activity. Results indicate significant carbon mitigation potential in activities with a high GHG intensity of time, such as cooking, bathing, and mobility-related and activities. Average daily GHG emissions were also found to be higher on weekends as time-use patterns shift from paid work to free-time activities, highlighting the need for mitigation strategies on a weekly scale.

     

Impacts of two-way foreign direct investment on carbon emissions: from the perspective of environmental regulation

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - China’s foreign direct investment is an important driving force for economic growth, which also aggravates carbon emissions. Based on...     

Revisiting the convergence of carbon emission phenomenon in OECD countries: new evidence from Fourier panel KPSS test

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis which was developed by Grossman and Krueger implies that clean environment demand increases over a...     

Influence of creating an oligopoly through government intervention to improve partner collaboration intentions in the context of green supply chains

Pollution from supply chains can be controlled through the high level of efficiency realized by green supply chains. However, realizing a green supply chain depends on partners’ collaboration intentions. The purposes of this study are to explore the influence of oligopolies created through government intervention and how they can promote supply chain partners’ collaboration intentions in the context of green supply chains. Spearman’s correlation analysis, partial least squares, and the Sobel test are the main approaches adopted to evaluate the theoretical framework and hypotheses of this study. Our findings indicate that, in addition to a few leaders of the supply chain obtaining market order distribution authority, oligopolies created through government intervention guide consumers to more fully scrutinize these supply chain leaders and their partners. When their partners exhibit a lower collaboration intention in green supply chain improvement and increase the pollution emission risk, it is easy to induce and increase social pressure from consumers and thus pressure these leaders to reduce or even cancel the order distribution of these partners. To avoid order profit loss, these partners will continue to actively maintain their collaboration intentions in the green supply chain. In addition, environmental risk audits by supply chain leaders’ interventions are a common approach to improve green supply chains. However, partners are usually unwilling to cooperate with leaders’ audit interventions and show lower collaboration intentions. However, social pressure can threaten partners’ order profits and thus drive partners to show positive collaboration intentions and further accept leaders’ reasonable interventions in environmental risk audits and will have a positive effect on green supply chain improvement. Based on the above, to expedite the improvement of the green supply chain, oligopolies created through government intervention are not only an important external force but also an important national strategy in green environmental improvement.

     

The dynamic change of energy supply and demand structure within China: a perspective from the national value chain

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The complexity of the national value chain (NVC) has significantly impacted the level of energy consumption embodied in domestic trade. This paper...     

联合钢铁企业原料堆场表面颗粒物起尘速率实验研究

在测定原料颗粒物物性的基础上,采用堆料表面风洞吹扫起尘的实验方法, 研究了某联合钢铁企业原料堆场的8种典型物料表面的PM2.5、PM10的起尘速率和影响因素,为有效控制多物料堆场的颗粒物排放提供支持。研究结果表明,不同物料的起尘速率差异较大,5 m/s的表面吹扫风速条件下, 瞬时PM10起尘速率可在2~1 000 mg/(m2·s)之间波动,瞬时PM2.5起尘速率可在0.4~180 mg/(m2·s)之间。大多数物料的起尘速率靠近下限值。可浸润性差,尘粒细颗粒物含量高,真密度小的物料堆场起尘速率往往较大,是优先控制对象。对于润湿性好的物料堆场,表面增湿或喷洒水是非常有效的抑尘措施。     

Evaluation and dynamic prediction of ecological security from the perspective of sustainable development: a case study of Shaanxi Province,China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - How to measure the overall level of regional social economy, resources, and environment and how to grasp the coordinated development between them has...     

Concentrations of carbon gases and oxygen and their emission ratios from the combustion of rice hulls in a wind tunnel

Rice hulls are widely burnt in agricultural fields in Asia because it is difficult to find other uses for them. Farmers burn rice hulls usually under incomplete combustion conditions to avoid accidental fires. In this study we investigated carbon gas emissions from rice hull fires at controlled wind speeds in a wind tunnel to clarify the effect of wind on such fires. Burning of the rice hulls resulted in relatively incomplete combustion: the ratio of [CO] to [CO₂] was high, >0.2, except when burning occurred at high wind speeds. Distinct differences in the carbon ratios of emitted carbon gases (CO₂, CO, CH₄, and nonmethane volatile organic compounds [NMVOC]) were found between high and low wind speeds: at high wind speeds, flames were usually present, and the CO₂ contribution to total carbon gases was higher; at low wind speeds, the NMVOC and CH₄ contributions to total carbon gases were greater. Therefore, a compensatory relationship existed between NMVOC and CH₄ and CO₂. Additionally, the ratio of [consumed O₂] to [CO₂] was <1 during the smoldering phase of combustion and >1 during the charcoal phase, synchronous with changes in [CH₄] and [NMVOC].     

Greenhouse gas emission from small clinics solid waste management scenarios in an urban area of an underdeveloping country: A life cycle perspective

This study aimed to investigate the effects on the environment of small clinics solid waste management by applying a life cycle analysis approach. Samples were collected from 371 private clinics situated in densely populated areas of Hyderabad, Pakistan. The solid waste from surveyed clinics was categorically quantified on daily basis for 30 consecutive days. The functional unit for waste was defined as 1 tonne. System limitations were defined as landfilling, incineration, composting, material recovery, and transportation of solid waste. The treatment and disposal methods were assessed according to their greenhouse gas emission rate. For the evaluation, three different scenarios were designed. The second scenario resulted in the highest emission value of 1491.78 kg CO₂ eq/tonne of solid waste due to mixed waste incineration, whereas the first scenario could not offer any saving because of uncovered landfilling and 67.5% higher transport fuel consumption than the proposed network. The proposed third scenario was found to be a better solution for urban clinics solid waste management, as it resulted in savings of 951.38 kg CO₂ eq/tonne of solid waste. This integrated design is practicable by resource-constrained economy. This system consists of composting, material recovery, and incineration of hazardous waste. The proposed system also includes a feasible transportation method for urban area collection networks. The findings of the present study can play a vital role in documenting evidence and for policymakers to plan the solid waste management of clinics, as previously no studies have been conducted on this particular case.

Implications: This study aims to highlight the impact of small clinics solid waste management scenarios on the environment in a developing country’s urban area. Life cycle analysis is used for comparison of greenhouse gase emission from different scenarios, including the purposed integrated method. Small clinics play a very important role in health care, and their waste management is a very serious issue; however, there are no previous studies on this particular case to the best knowledge of the authors. This study can be considered as forerunner effort to quantify the environmental footprint of small clinics solid waste in urban areas of a developing country.     

Exploring the embodied carbon flow interactive relationships in China from an ecological network perspective: a model framework and application at provincial level

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Energy-related carbon emissions take a large proportion in China, and the interregional trade caused by provincial disparities has led to significant...     

Global emission of mercury to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources in 2005 and projections to 2020

This paper presents the 2005 global inventory of anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere component of the work that was prepared by UNEP and AMAP as a contribution to the UNEP report Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment: Sources, Emissions and Transport (UNEP Chemicals Branch, 2008).It describes the methodology applied to compile emissions data on the two main components of the inventory – the ‘by-product’ emissions and the ‘intentional use’ emissions – and to geospatially distribute these emissions estimates to produce a gridded dataset for use by modelers, and the results of this work.It also presents some initial results of work to develop (simplified) scenario emissions inventories for 2020 that can be used to investigate the possible implications of actions to reduce mercury emissions at the global scale.     

The impact of age structure on carbon emission in the Middle East: the panel autoregressive distributed lag approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Rapid evolution in the population age structure of the Middle East countries has major economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Therefore, to...     

Spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation in China from 1981 to 2100 from the perspective of hydrothermal factor analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The increased growth of vegetation has the potential to slow global climate warming. Therefore, analyzing and predicting the response assessment of...