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The Tibetan Plateau works as an important environmental and ecological barrier for the Asian continent. The researches on Tibetan environment and ecology are becoming extensive, but there is no systematic summary of research hotspots and trends in this field. Here, we analyzed 9180 publications retrieved from the WOS and CNKI during 2000 ~ 2020. The characteristics of publication, keywords with a 5-year interval and co-occurrence analysis were carried out so as to reveal the evolution and development trends of topics. The results show that articles increase dramatically since 2012. Except for common concerns like evolution, climate change, and precipitation, diversity was been studied more by Chinese scholars, while the USA, Germany, UK, and Australia researchers focused more on adaptability, basin western Tibet, lake, barley, and ore-related themes, respectively. Besides, China closely collaborated with the USA, Australia, and Germany in topics of evolution, climate change and degradation, precipitation, and diversity. The institutions located in Chinese different economic regions focused on different research keywords, such as vegetation, growth, trace elements, and geochemistry. The CAS contributed the most articles with 4254, showed advantages both in quantity and quality. Few articles were published by researchers affiliated to Free University of Berlin but with higher citations. It is the only one institute outside of China in the top 20. Main research hotspots include climate change, geology, and diversity. In future researches, ecological management and rehabilitation of mining area and tailings ponds, waste disposal, and changes of soil and water quality are worthy of attention and funding., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Carbon mitigation in the building sector is crucial for China to fulfill its commitments towards achieving a carbon peak and carbon neutrality. However, the impact of societal development and ecological indicators on building carbon emissions remains unclear. This study employs the panel smooth transition regression model to investigate the complex implications of societal development comprehensive indicators, characterized by harmonious development, decoupling, and technological advances, on buildings' total carbon emissions, based on the evidence from China's 30 provinces for the period between 2007 and 2020. Additionally, the robustness of the model confirms that the conclusion is still valid. The empirical results indicate a strongly non-linear relationship between societal development comprehensive indicators and building carbon emissions. Both the harmonious development and technological advances exhibit two transition functions, and decoupling features a single transition function. Harmonious development is more sensitive to the impact of building carbon emissions, while technological advances have tremendous emission reduction potential. From the time dimension, fluctuation trends and ranges are different. From the spatial dimension, the inhibiting and promoting effects on each province have regional heterogeneity. Our results entail suggestions for reduced building total carbon emissions and practical strategies for regional climate resilience and efficiency in mitigating climate change., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the context of the dual carbon targets, digital trade brings new impetus to China's economic development to achieve low-carbon emission reduction. This article uses panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, and uses a two-way fixed effect model to empirically investigate the impact of digital trade development on regional carbon emissions and its heterogeneity. The results show that the development of digital trade significantly reduces regional carbon emissions, and the conclusion is still valid after conducting the robustness tests. Digital trade can reduce regional carbon emissions by exploiting its effects of expanding economic scale, upgrading industrial structure, and promoting green technology innovation. In addition, the carbon reduction effect of digital trade varies due to differences in regions, trade openness, and carbon emission intensity. The carbon reduction effect of digital trade in central and western regions is larger than that in eastern regions, and the effect in inland regions is greater than that in coastal regions. As the degree of trade liberalization increases and carbon intensity decreases, the carbon reduction effect of digital trade will also weaken. The research conclusions have profound practical significance for achieving the carbon neutrality target, effectively addressing climate change, and promoting high-quality economic development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

One of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the current millennium is the need to mitigate climate change, and one of the most viable options to overcome this challenge is to invest in renewable energy. The study dynamically examines the links between renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, climate change, and economic growth in five emerging Asian countries during the period 1975-2020. Variables selected in the model have long-term cointegration, as explored by the Pedroni cointegration test and the Westerlund cointegration test. The long-term estimated parameters of the augmented mean group (AMG) method show that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces climate change, while non-renewable energy consumption significantly promotes climate change. The results also show that GDP, investment in transport infrastructure, and urbanization can significantly contribute to climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Moreover, the results validate the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis for emerging Asian economies. Country-specific analysis results using AMG estimates shows that renewable energy consumption reduces climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Non-renewable energy consumption and investment in transport infrastructure have had significant progressive impacts on climate change in all countries. Urbanization contributes significantly to climate change, with the exception of Japan, which does not have any significant impact on climate change. GDP contributes significantly to climate change in all countries; however, GDP2 has significant adverse effects on climate change in India, China, Japan, and Korea, validating the inverted U-shaped EKC assumption for all countries except Bangladesh. Moreover, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test confirmed a pairwise causal relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and GDP, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The results suggest that the best option for climate change mitigation in selected emerging Asian countries is to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate change is one of the major threats to coastal fish biodiversity, and optimization of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) is imminent. We predicted fish redistribution under climate change in coastal China Seas with joint species distribution modeling and prioritized areas for conservation with Zonation, for which we used core area zonation (CAZ) and additive benefit function (ABF). Based on our results, we devised an expansion plan of no-take MPAs. Under climate change, fish were redistributed northward along the coast. These redistributions were segmented by the Yangtze River estuary and its adjacent waters, indicating a possible biogeographical barrier. Under CAZ and ABF, significantly more fish habitat was conserved than under random prioritization (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = -0.36 and -0.62, respectively). The ABF better represented areas with higher species richness, whereas CAZ better represented core habitats for species with narrow distributions. Without accounting for species redistribution, the expanded MPAs were mainly distributed in the northwest of the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the north of the Yellow Sea, and the west of the Bohai Sea. When accounting for species redistribution, the proposed MPAs were mainly distributed in the north of the Bohai Sea and southwest of the Yellow Sea, corresponding to the northern species redistributions. These MPAs conserved less habitat for fishes at present but protected more and better quality habitat for fishes in 2050 and 2100 than those MPAs that did not account for species redistribution, indicating improved fish conservation under climate change. Incorporating species redistribution and trade-offs between areas with high species richness and areas that contain habitats for rare species are suggested to address coastal fish conservation under climate change. This work provides valuable information for fish conservation and is a precursor to systematic conservation planning along the coastlines of China Seas., (© 2023 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Background: Under the background of global warming, the intensity and frequency of extreme meteorological events in the maize growing season in northeast China are increasing. In order to clarify the occurrence characteristics of extreme meteorological events in northeast China, this study focused on three extreme agrometeorological events, i.e., high temperatures, drought, and the compound events of high-temperature and drought during the maize growing season (May-September), impacting maize production., Results: Based on historical (1981-2017) and future (2021-2060) climate data, we analyzed the spatial-temporal patterns of these three events with different intensities in northeast China. The results indicated that slight high-temperatures and moderate and severe droughts occurred more frequently in the study area during the historical period. The frequency of the different grades of the compound events of high-temperature and drought will exhibit an increasing trend in the future, as will the frequency of the compound events of high-temperature and drought. This is particularly evident in the northwest of the study area., Conclusion: The compound events of high-temperature and drought mainly occurred in late July and early August, encompassing the flowering stage of maize varieties. It is important to identify the area and time of major extreme weather events to implement the necessary preventive measures. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Clarifying the spatiotemporal variation of crop irrigation water requirement (IWR) under the background of climate change is an essential basis for water resource management, determining the irrigation quota and adjusting the planting structure. Using 61 years of climate data from 205 stations in Northwest China, this study investigated the spatiotemporal variations of climatic factors and IWR during the growth period of five main grain crops (spring wheat, winter wheat, spring maize, summer maize, and rice) and explored the dominant climatic driving factors of IWR variation. Results showed that (1) the IWR of grain crops showed distinct differences. Rice was the highest water consumption crop (mean of 753.78 mm), and summer maize was the lowest (mean of 452.90 mm). (2) The variation trends and average values of IWR of different grain crops have spatial heterogeneity across Northwest China. For most crops, high values and increasing trends of IWR were mainly located in eastern Xinjiang, western Gansu, and western Inner Mongolia. (3) T max (maximum temperature), T min (minimum temperature), and P eff (effective precipitation) showed an increasing trend during the growth period of each grain crop, while U 10 (wind speed at 10 m height), SD (solar radiation), and RH (relative humidity) presented decreasing trends. (4) SD, T max , and U 10 promoted the increase of grain crops' IWR, while P eff and RH inhibited it. The impacts of climatic factors on the grain crop IWR differed among different regions. P eff was the most influential factor to the IWR of all grain crops in most areas. Therefore, under the premise of a significant increase in T and uncertain precipitation mode in the future, it is urgent to take effective water-saving measures according to the irrigation needs of the region. To cope with the adverse impact of climate change on the sustainable development of agriculture in the northwest dry area, to ensure regional and national food security., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The three challenges with the greatest bearing on Australia's security and prosperity each came to a head in 2020, viz. climate change; a novel coronavirus pandemic; and China. The world has become poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly. As we emerge from this crisis year, Australia's ability to project itself globally will start with its strength and vitality at home. Its favourable geography gives it the potential to become a leader in renewables. Given our geopolitical challenges, this is a strategic imperative. Yet, for now, the gap between reality and expectations has never been greater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to investigate the impacts of climate change on cereal production in China over the period 1990Q1-2013Q4. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the results showed that CO 2 emissions, average temperature, and temperature variability have a significant negative impact on cereal production in the long run. However, energy consumption, average rainfall, labor force, and cultivated area significantly and positively influenced the production of cereal crops in the long run. Meanwhile, the study observed that rainfall variability has no significant effect on cereal production in the long run. The study again found that in the short run, CO 2 emissions, average temperature, and temperature variability have a significant negative relationship with cereal production. Besides, energy consumption, average rainfall, rainfall variability, labor force, and the cultivated area had a significant positive association with cereal production in the short run. The results of the Granger causality test showed that there exists a unidirectional causality running from CO 2 emissions, energy consumption, and labor force to the production of cereal crops in China. On the contrary, the study found no causality between cultivated area and cereal production. The study suggests that improved cereal crop varieties ought to be developed and introduced to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change in China. This will help to circumvent Huang et al.'s (2017) prediction of a decline in the total food self-sufficiency of China from 94.5% in 2015 to about 91% by 2025.

Vegetation dynamics is an important aspect for determining climate change trends. The present study delineates to examine spatiotemporal changes of vegetation cover in Pindari valley (Kumaun Himalaya) from the 1972 to 2018 timeline. The study includes the calculation of vegetation spectral indices of normalized vegetation index (NDVI), extraction of different vegetation classes, and statistical analysis of the Mann-Kendall (MK) test on historical metrological data (especially precipitation and temperature) of the study site. For the statistical analysis of metrological data, the power data access viewer datasets have been used. The central feature classes of the study are grassland, scrubland, and forest cover. The results revealed that the region's forest cover significantly decreased by 24.74 sq. km from 1972 to 2018, increased in grassland cover by 17.84 sq. km, respectively, and a slight increase in scrubland class by 3.13 sq. km for the study period. The calculated NDVI shows significant changes over the study location; it has been noticed that the maximum values of the NDVI decreased by 0.24, and the minimum values show growth of about 0.047. The analysis indicates that climatic parameters such as precipitation and temperature are the main limiting factors affecting vegetation growth. The annual mean maximum temperature showed a decreasing trend. The estimated results show an increase in annual rainfall and annual minimum temperature, while the decreasing trend is observed in the case of maximum annual temperature. Objectives of the study are (1) spatiotemporal analysis of the vegetation cover, (2) identification of the main causes of change in the vegetation cover, and (3) statistical trend analysis of long-term metrological data. The outcome of the presented research work would be beneficial for the proper management and monitoring of the forest ecosystem., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The past few decades of extreme drought and flooding caused by changing climate conditions have significantly affected agricultural production globally. This study focuses on two vital crops in China-maize and rice-and provides a comprehensive analysis of how these crops are affected by climate change-induced factors over the periods 1978Q1-2015Q4. Four key findings were obtained. First, using a nonparametric approach to estimate actual and observed trends of climatic variables, the results show a significant positive trend in average temperature from February to October. On the other hand, seasonal temperature increases during spring, summer, and autumn. Second, the results show no significant change in the monthly, seasonal, and annual rainfall patterns when examined over the study period. Third, using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, we find that while temperature and rainfall do not significantly support rice production in the long and short run, they play a substantial role in maize production in China. Finally, we find no significant difference in the results for rice when the quantile regression (QR) technique that controls for distributional asymmetry effects is employed. However, the impact of temperature on maize decreases at higher quantiles. Given the outcomes of our study, we argue that an advanced irrigation system is crucial and must be encouraged to minimize the effects of climate change on crop production., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China has always tried to maintain multilateralism and advocated working together to deal with global climate change through multilateral mechanisms. Although China’s announcement to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 comes as no surprise, its commitment to carbon neutrality does. As the period between its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is far shorter than that in the developed countries, China’s economic and energy structures need to be adjusted toward the low-carbon and carbon-free end with unprecedented efforts. To that end, China should define the responsibilities of local authorities and industrial entities to promote the orderly accomplishment of carbon peaking in all regions and industries. To supply the huge investments needed to achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China has an urgent need to accelerate the development of green finance and a national carbon emissions trading market, guide the rational allocation of resources, and channel resources to eco-friendly projects for green and low-carbon development. At the same time, China and the international community should strengthen dialogue and coordination, promote international cooperation on the way to carbon neutrality, formulate widely acceptable policy guidelines as soon as possible, and avoid unilateral measures that may cause conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide since 2006. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, social scientists must become involved in China's deep decarbonization process. However, Chinese social scientists have given little attention to climate change in their bibliometric research. Based on the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index journal catalog of the four essential social sciences, namely, management, economics, politics, and sociology, we used the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database to quantify the extent to which Chinese social scientists are concerned about climate change. The results showed that from 1978 to 2020, 1179 articles on climate change were published in management, economics, politics, and sociology journals, which represented only 26.8% of the 4397 articles published on pollution in the same journals. Politics journals published the most articles (38.76%), while sociology journals published the fewest (2.37%). Thus, Chinese social scientists rarely considered climate change, mainly because this topic remains controversial in some fields and because of the influence of international politics in addition to the promotion and incentive mechanisms for researchers. We analyzed the keywords and evolution of climate change research in the four social sciences and our results show that social scientists should give greater emphasis to climate change in their research., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With the increase in global temperature, the global change situation dominated by climate warming is becoming more and more serious. Climate change will cause differences in the suitable areas of species in different periods. Ginkgo biloba L., a rare and endangered wild plant protected at the national level in China, is the oldest relict plant in the world. Because of severe climate change, only China's wild Ginkgo biloba has been preserved, yet China's wild Ginkgo biloba population is facing extinction risk. Ginkgo biloba has rich ornamental value, application value, economic value, medicinal value and ecological value. Not only can it produce economic and ecological benefits, but it can also produce huge social benefits. Based on the data of Ginkgo biloba sample distribution, bioclimatic variables and soil variables, this paper uses the MaxEnt model to simulate Ginkgo biloba suitable area under current and future different climate scenarios, and analyzes the changes in the potential suitable area of Ginkgo biloba in the future through ArcGIS 10.6. The results are as follows: (1) the results simulated by the MaxEnt model are AUC > 0.9, showing that the simulation results have a high accuracy; (2) the min temperature of the coldest month, precipitation of the wettest month, elevation, and temperature seasonality are the main environmental variables affecting the change in the Ginkgo biloba suitable area; (3) under future climate scenarios, the suitable area of Ginkgo biloba is predicted to expand in the future, covering most of the south and some northeast regions, and moderate temperature and precipitation changes under climate change are conducive for the growth of Ginkgo biloba; and (4) in the future, the distribution center of the suitable area will move to the northeast. According to the conclusions in this paper, it is expected to provide theoretical reference for cultivation and management, sustainable utilization and solution of ecological environment problems of Ginkgo biloba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are critical to climate change, and land-use change is an essential source of growth in carbon emissions. Research on land-use carbon emissions has become one of the hotspots in academic research. To explore the research hotspots and development trends of land-use carbon emissions in the last 20 years, CiteSpace software was used to conduct a quantitative analysis of relevant literature. This paper was based on the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WoS) database literature on land-use carbon emissions from 2001 to 2020. The scientific research cooperation network CiteSpace software, with keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and burst word detection, was used to systematically analyze the main research strengths, hotspots and frontiers and clarify the research progress. The research results are as follows: (1) the amount of literature and the depth of research on land-use carbon emissions have increased yearly. However, there is little cooperation between research institutions and scholars, and there is still a lack of large-scale and stable research teams. (2) At the research hotspot level, the English literature focuses on building models and theoretical frameworks to study the internal mechanisms and driving factors of carbon emissions and climate change. The Chinese literature focuses on achieving regional carbon emissions reductions and carbon cycle goals and optimizing a low-carbon economy, transportation and land-use structure. (3) Research frontiers and trends show that the English literature first explored carbon sequestration, organic carbon, and carbon accounting. In China, the research frontiers are gradually becoming focused on influencing factors, decoupling analysis, and the built environment. The study will strengthen the intensity and depth of global carbon emission research and provide a reference for improving global climate change, protecting ecology and balancing economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces papers published within the issue which were presented at the 6th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) in Amherst, Massachusetts in May 2011, including one on state-owned enterprises (SOE) in China, another on the implications of the need to prevent major climate change for the developmental strategies of China and India and a paper on the influence of neoliberalism on the reform of emergency services in Great Britain.

As two major powers that are willing to lead the design and evolution of the global climate regime, the EU and China have maintained a dialogue on climate change and biodiversity while clashing over other economic and political issues. This paper investigates EU-China relations in the global climate regime by briefly analysing three main areas that are key for the global green transition: standardization, green taxonomy, and the renewables sector. The paper claims that EU-China relations in the global climate regime develop within the dialectical collaboration-competition nexus, showing moments of consensus as well as contention between the two major powers in the three selected cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-standing development pattern dominated by international circulation makes China face the risk of "low-end lock-in" and "being decoupling". In addition, the current global climate change and environmental crisis are becoming increasingly severe, coupled with the COVID-19 impact. Chinese enterprises must actively build a green development system for domestic industries in a mutually reinforcing manner in the context of the domestic general circulation, in order to adapt to the new dual circulation environment as soon as possible. This paper analyzes the specific coupling and coordination relationship between the two systems based on the relevant data of China's three major industries from 2008–2014 using Index DEA, entropy value method, gray correlation analysis and coupling coordination model. The results of the study show that: the two systems of dual circulation pattern and industrial green development have a strong correlation and basically present a coupling relationship, but within the industry, there is a problem of the collapse of the tertiary industry. In terms of the type of coupling, the domestic and international circulation in general gradually present the green development leading state, except for the primary industrial segment of the international circulation. On the whole, the coupling quality of the two systems needs to be further improved. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: (1) coordinate the internal and external development of the industry; (2) take innovation as the driving force to promote the green transformation of industries; (3) take green sharing as the goal to strengthen the policy orientation of green development; (4) take the opportunity of mutual promotion of dual circulation to stabilize the steady state of green development coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively shift from economic growth based on high levels of energy expenditure and pollution and to actively address global climate change, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether environmental regulation in developing countries helps promote TFP from a credit resource allocation perspective. This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on firm TFP and the underlying mechanism of TFP using data on Chinese listed A-share companies from 2011 to 2018. The relationship between ERS and enterprise TFP is found to exhibit a clear U shape, that is, it shows the characteristics of inhibition followed by promotion. The mechanism analysis indicates that credit allocation is a significant mediator between environmental regulation and its effect on firm TFP through such allocation, while the heterogeneity analysis shows that in the central and western regions and in highly competitive industries, environmental regulation significantly affects firm TFP through credit allocation. The empirical results, which indicate that ERS in China is still at the left-hand side of the U-shaped curve inhibition area, suggest that government regulation should be strengthened, differentiated regional environmental regulation should be implemented, the bank credit system should be improved, and the U-shaped inflection point must be crossed if high-quality economic development is to be achieved in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]