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Green production in agriculture is a critical project for achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using pesticide safety as an entry point, this paper explores safe agricultural production and proposes initiatives from the origin source, which are essential to address multiple SDGs, including food security, health, and the environment. Using research data encompassing 612 peasant households in Sichuan province, China, this paper examines the mechanisms of social learning on farmers' safe pesticide use behavior employing exploratory factor analysis, Oprobit model, and Bootstrap method. The results show that social learning has significantly positive effects on farmers' safe pesticide use behavior, with each additional point of social learning contributing to a 3.411% increase in the chance of taking 6 safe pesticide use behavior. The effect sizes of different social learning styles were in the order of role demonstration, neighborhood communication, and participation in training, but proactive learning by consulting did not work significantly. Furthermore, perceived value has a positive mediation effect in social learning to impact farmers' safe pesticide use behavior, accounting for 34.53% of mediation effect. Finally, the market conditions can positively moderate the mediation effect of perceived value on farmers' safe pesticide use behavior, i.e., the better the accessibility to green production materials, marking and pricing stabilization, the stronger the effect of perceived value on safe pesticide use behavior. However, information access doesn't work that way. Therefore, in the future, the government must encourage farmers to participate in social learning and improve their perceived value, as well as play a macro-control role and fulfill market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgent need to address climate change, driven by the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, has made it imperative for the world to focus on enhancing carbon emission mitigation and carbon utilization. Consequently, carbon-negative technologies have garnered significant attention, such as Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS). In order to achieve the circular utilization of carbon and improve the economic viability of conventional carbon-negative technologies, this paper proposes the innovative concept of Carbon Capture, Circular Utilization, and Sequestration (CCCUS). This multifunctional carbon-negative technology couples underground biomethanation of carbon dioxide and hydrogen-rich industrial by-product gases with geothermal energy production. CCCUS also offers several additional functions, such as renewable natural gas storage, natural gas displacement, and carbon dioxide geological sequestration. Furthermore, a preliminary assessment of the techno-economic feasibility of CCCUS is undertaken. A numerical case study, conducted using the XGS gas storage in the Sichuan Basin, China, unveiled that over a 425-day period, the conversion ratio of carbon dioxide to methane in the working gas can achieve 98.9%. Moreover, the net present value (NPV) of CCCUS over a 30-year period is estimated to be approximately 4.67 × 108 CNY under the base scenario. These findings, along with field monitoring and laboratory experiments, preliminarily present evidence supporting the potential techno-economic feasibility of CCCUS. This paper offers a fresh perspective on the development of the circular carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower is an essential resource for the future clean energy transition, in which an accurate assessment of the hydropower cost is vital for promoting its share in the energy market. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively reassess the cost of hydropower from a new perspective, in which the total static investment cost of a hydropower base is allocated among multiple functions. An allocation coefficient is proposed based on indicators of economic value and physical volume of multi-function hydropower bases. The economic value of each function is evaluated using approaches including the shadow project, market valuation, and emergy evaluation methods. Meanwhile, the physical volume is obtained through a multi-objective optimization of cascade reservoir operation considering an ecological constraint. Four main functions consisting of hydropower generation, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and residential water supply of hydropower bases in Sichuan are investigated. The results show that the allocation coefficients under both economic and physical indicators vary significantly among hydropower bases, and change slightly over the years. The average comprehensive allocation coefficient of hydropower is 57.26% (range from 29.83% to 77.41%), and the hydropower cost can be reduced by 59% from the current level. The reassessed hydropower cost can lay a solid foundation for market pricing. Attention should be paid to the multi-functionality characteristics of hydropower bases to achieve fair sharing of cost and benefit. • A new approach is proposed from the perspective of allocation among multiple functions for hydropower cost assessment. • A comprehensive allocation coefficient combining economic and physical indicators has been developed. • The indicator of storage capacity is expanded based on the multi-objective optimization of cascade reservoir operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupled human and natural system research is an urgent issue in the Anthropocene. However, this has not yet been conducted from the perspective of multiplex networks, which are a powerful tool to elucidate the interactions in human-natural systems. This paper establishes a framework of human-water multiplex networks (HWMNs) to explain the combined effects of human-water interactions in the Yangtze River basin. The spatial linkages and the status of each province in the Yangtze River basin can be characterized through the index of network flow and topology. Research demonstrated that the highest import flow of the virtual water environment capacity flow in the Yangtze River Basin is to Jiangsu Province, at 16.2 thousand t. The highest export flow in the Yangtze River Basin is from Shanghai city, at 33.2 thousand t. The control power of Shanghai city over Sichuan Province accounts for 56.59% of the water resources, which is the highest value and can be recognized as one type of telecoupling of water resources. The provinces in the delta of the Yangtze River basin, including Shanghai city, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province, benefit the most from economic trade. The community structure of the virtual water environment capacity flow is highly consistent with the geographical distribution of the Yangtze River basin. Comprehensive research methods combined with network flow analysis and network topology analysis provide more general results. The microenvironmental effect of indirect pollutant discharge is uncovered through HWMNs. This research can provide a more connected view of integrated water management. Image 1 • A framework of HWMN is established to reveal the combined environmental effects. • The key provinces are revealed through the network flow analysis and topology analysis. • The provinces in the Yangtze river delta obtains most of the water environment benefits. • The environmental effect of the indirect pollutant discharge through HWMN is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]