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Point-of-use (POU) devices with satisfying mercury (Hg) removal performance are urgently needed for public health and yet are scarcely reported. In this study, a thiol-laced metal-organic framework (MOF)-based sponge monolith (TLMSM) has been investigated for Hg(II) removal as the POU device for its benchmark application. The resulting TLMSM was characterized by remarkable chemical resistance, mechanical stability, and hydroscopicity (2100 wt %). Importantly, the TLMSM has exhibited high adsorption capacity (∼954.7 mg g

Household consumption carbon footprint and inequality reductions are vital for a sustainable society, especially for rural areas. This study, focusing on rural China, one of the fastest growing economies with a massive population, explored the carbon footprint and inequality of household consumption using the latest micro household survey data of 2018 linked to environmental extended input-output analysis. The results show that in 2018 in rural China, the average household carbon footprint is 2.46 tons CO2-eq per capita, which is around one-third of China's average footprint, indicating the large potential for further growth. Housing (45.32%), transportation (20.45%), and food (19.62%) are the dominant contributors to the carbon footprint. Meanwhile, great inequality, with a Gini coefficient of 0.488, among rural households is observed, which is largely due to differences in type of house built or purchased (explaining 24.44% of the variation), heating (18.10%), car purchase (12.44%), and petrol consumption (12.44%). Provinces, average education, and nonfarm income are among the important factors influencing the inequality. In the process of urbanization and rural revitalization, there is a high possibility that the household carbon footprint continues to increase, maintaining high levels of inequality. The current energy transition toward less carbon-intensive fuels in rural China is likely to dampen the growth rates of carbon footprints and potentially decrease inequality. Carbon intensity decrease could significantly reduce carbon footprints, but increase inequality. More comprehensive measures to reduce carbon footprint and inequality are needed, including transitioning to clean energy, poverty alleviation, reduction of income inequality, and better health care coverage.

Agricultural mulch film pollution has become a prevailing concern. Studies have shown that the thickness of mulch film is a key factor affecting mulch film recycling, but research about farmers' choice on mulch film thickness is lacking. Based on survey data from 2025 households in five Chinese provinces in 2018, the Heckman two-stage model was used to analyze the influencing factors of farmers' choice on mulch film thicknesses. Mulch film had been used by 21.98% of the sample households, and 41.47% of the used mulch film did not meet the national thickness standard. The econometric results showed that farmers' product cognition and market factors were the two most important factors, and there was a significant negative correlation with the choice of film thickness. In addition, the choice of mulch film with different thicknesses was affected by household characteristics, subjective norms, and farmland property rights. Strengthening and stabilizing farmland property rights is a long-term mechanism to promote farmers to choose thicker mulch film. In addition to strengthening the production and sale of substandard film supervision, farmers' choice of film thickness should be included in village regulations and other rural grass-roots governance systems, especially in the mechanism design between agricultural farmland protective subsidies and the prevention of mulch film pollution, rather than just considering the recycling itself.

This paper focused on the intergenerational transmission of poverty in rural China by estimating the intergenerational transmission of earnings and stated its mechanism from the perspective of human capital investment before children participated in the labor market. The data used in this study were longitude data collected in 2 000 households of 100 villages among 25 counties across five provinces in 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2019. Qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted. We found a significant intergenerational transmission of earnings in rural China, especially for the pairs of father–children and parents–children. The intergenerational earnings’ elasticities were much less than those in urban areas, which indicated better social mobility in rural areas than that in urban China. The children with parents who could earn much were more likely to be invested before they participated in the labor market, gain a high education and have more skills. Three cases further showed that the mechanism of human capital investment in children breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and promoting social mobility.

The growing contradiction between protection and livelihood is a common challenge for most protected areas in developing countries. Skill training is an important way to increase household income and alleviate the dilemma between conservation and development. However, its effects on household income around protected areas have rarely been explored. This paper aims to evaluate the effect of skill training on the income of households around four Biosphere Reserves in China and explore its mechanism. Based on the information collected from 381 households through face-to-face interviews, this study adopted descriptive analysis and multiple regression to yield consistent results. The results showed that agricultural and off-farm skill training had no impact on the total household income. The results from the mechanism analysis found that participation in off-farm skill training had a significant and positive effect on the total income of the households outside protected areas and participation in agricultural training had a positive effect on agricultural income. The findings indicate that the local government and protected area administration should increase the publicity for skill training, enrich the types training, appropriately supply livelihood support projects that reconcile conservation and development, and strengthen the infrastructure development around protected areas to promote off-farm employment and the circulation and sale of agricultural products. However, the impacts of any associated intensification should be carefully monitored.

Soil fumigation using 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) and chloropicrin (CP) is an important strategy for agriculture production; however, excessive emissions can cause air pollution and possible human exposure. In this study, solar light-driven CuInS2/ZnS:Al-TiO2 photocatalytic film was prepared through spin-coating on the flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate of 0.1 mm. Using the photocatalytic film, degradation of 1,3-D was inhibited in the Pci-clor 60 formulation of 1,3-D and CP. However, the degradation of CP was accelerated in this formulation, and the half-life was shortened from 0.66 to 0.40 h. Emissions of 1,3-D from soil to the air were reduced by 97.30%, 97.17%, 47.10%, and 7.88%, for treatments of D + Film, D + C + Film, D + PET, and D, respectively. The efficiencies for reducing 1,3-D emission were significantly improved by about 1.1 and 11.3 times using the film, compared with using the PET alone and no film, respectively. Furthermore, fumigation effects on nematodes could still achieve higher than 90%. The findings provided a basis for the practical application of quantum dot films to reduce soil fumigants emissions by photocatalytic degradation.

Ecosystem services (ES) are key to maintaining sustainable regional development. Climate change and land cover and land use change (LULC) are one of the main factors leading to changes in regional ecosystem services. Existing studies have simulated regional ES changes under different future scenarios, providing valuable guidance for regional sustainable management. However, most studies focus on the effects of individual factors (LULC or climate change) on ES, paying insufficient attention to the coupled effects of the two elements. Yunnan Province is a biodiversity hotspot facing challenges in ES in the context of future climate change and rapid socio-economic development. In order to achieve sustainable management, policies must be developed in advance to address possible future ecological risks. In this study, we simulated the coupled effects of climate change and LULC on six types of ES using the SD, FLUS, and InVEST models. The scenario framework of shared socioeconomic pathways SSP245 and SSP585 was combined with LULC scenario dynamics to assess the changes of ES in 2030 and 2050, identifying sensitive areas and providing a scientific basis for local ecosystem management. In 2020, the eastern part of Yunnan Province was the coldspot area for all ES. Under the future scenarios, Yunnan Province's ES show different loss rates and distinct spatial heterogeneity. Future climate change and LULC changes have a more significant negative impact on water conservation and water quality purification. About 66% of its counties will become sensitive areas for water production services, and 37% of counties will endure reduced water purification functions by more than 50%. According to the analytical results, we then proposed several suggestions to improve regional ES management.

Textile industry has yet to be developed beyond low efficiency, high resources consumption, and toxic emissions, with wet processing process a dominant contributor to resources consumption and pollution emissions. Recognition of the environmental impact of the representative wet processing is essential to achieve eco-friendly development of textile industry. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), this study addressed the environmental impacts of wet processing of woven/knitted cotton and polyester fabrics from 4 textile enterprises in China by deploying gate to gate system boundary. One ton of grey cloth was chosen as the functional unit. Eighteen midpoint impact categories and three endpoint impact categories were assessed via ReCiPe 2016 v1.1 (H) method. The results indicated "dyeing unit" as the dominant unit for all the impact categories at the midpoint, which was mainly derived from electricity consumed by cotton wet processing and detergents used in polyester wet processing. Among 4 different fabric wet processing, woven polyester wet processing exhibited the highest impact, while the least impact was assigned to knitted cotton. In the midpoint categories of water use, dyeing unit was also the major contributor in wet processing of knitted cotton (41.20 m

A pilot project for farmland soil remediation was carried out in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (CZX) area of Hunan province, China. However, the pilot project focused mainly on the risk of exposure to heavy metals on grain safety, and little attention was paid to the risk to ecosystem quality. The study selected three areas in counties of in the CZX, and focused on five high toxicity heavy metals—Cd (cadmium), Cr (chromium), Pb (lead), As (arsenic), Hg (mercury) to explore the potential ecological risks of the soil. Probabilistic ecological risk assessment (new method) and traditional methods were introduced to quantitatively evaluate the ecological risk. Two target criteria levels (LC/EC/IC50 and NOEC/LOEC) were employed. Through constructing species sensitivity distribution (SSD) models and joint probability curves (JPC), the predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) derived from the SSD models were 0.21, 1.57, 3.05, 0.86 and 0.16 mg/kg for Cd, Cr, Pb, As and Hg, respectively. Compared with the ecological risk assessment results of the traditional methods, the new method reached a different conclusion, Cr showed the highest risk, at 84.3%, which signified that there was an 84.3% probability that 5% of the species with their NOEC/LOECs exceeded in County C. Despite differences among the risk assessment approaches, all methods indicated that County C was the most contaminated. The case study signifies that traditional methods underestimated the soil ecological risk of exposure to heavy metals and there should be a strong focus on farmland ecosystem security. At the same time, this study provided a scientific basis for goal-setting in species protection and prioritizing ecosystem protection as a management principle for heavy metal contaminated farmland from the perspective of ecological risk.

It is essential to assess the value of nature, as it provides various benefits for human economic development and well-being. It has been 20 years since two prominent publications came out in valuing nature. New concepts and methods have emerged since then. This study aimed to (1) investigate the relationship between the new proposed concept (ecological capital) and the existing two concepts: natural capital and ecosystem services and (2) examine the research trends of ecological capital accounting publications from 1997 to 2017. Bibliometric analysis was used to reveal the research trends. The results showed that the total number of publications has rapidly increased since 1997 and this growth trend will be maintained in the future. The most productive journal, country, institute, and author were Ecological Economics, USA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Verburg, respectively. Ecosystem services and land were the most frequent types of ecological capital. Non-economic evaluation approaches became less of a favorite over time and economic valuation methods were mostly applied in last five years. The integration of different methods has attracted increasing academic attention. The progress, advantages, and limitations of different methods were summarized in this study, including SEEA, ecological footprint, exergy, emergy, LCA, and economic valuation approaches, as well as newly developed modelling approaches. The last part of this study presented three challenges in this academic field – the need to (1) establish a standard framework, (2) consider the transfer/transport of ecological capital, and (3) improve capabilities for decision-making.

Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are of increasing importance for implementing industrial ecology strategies and are facing increasing challenges in terms of environmental pollution and resource scarcity. As a complex adaptive system, an EIP involves multiple sectors and faces various disturbances that influence its evolutionary trajectories. This study adopts an agent-based model to simulate the material flows and industrial symbiosis process in the EIP, considering the initiative of each company and the ever-changing environment. The proposed EIP model emphasises the heterogeneity of companies and attempts to reflect multiple and dynamic factors that have received less attention in previous studies. This model contains two types of agents, companies and the external environment. A company agent makes decisions and interacts with other agents following its own behaviour rules, while the external environment agent functions to coordinate the material flows and exert influence on the companies. The model has been verified and validated by simulating a 20-year-period development of an empirical EIP in China. The simulation results are assessed by three indicators: eco-connectance, eco-efficiency, and industrial symbiosis indicator. Results showed that during the growing phase, the eco-connectance increased from 0.02 to 0.1 for the non-disturbance situation. The eco-efficiency and industrial symbiosis indicator also realised 78.5% and 74.8% of their total increments. The outcome of this research provides insights for the design of the strategies to improve the industrial symbiosis performance and is of high potential to facilitate EIPs in promoting eco-transformation and sustainable development.

Er2O3 nanorods were prepared by a hydrothermal method, and Sr-modified Er2O3 nanorods (Sr-Er2O3) were synthesized using an impregnation method. Their catalytic performance for oxidative coupling of methane was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by several techniques such as XRD, N2 adsorption, TEM, XPS, O2-TPD and CO2-TPD. Compared with Er2O3 and Sr-Er2O3 nanoparticles, Er2O3 and Sr-Er2O3 nanorods exhibit higher CH4 conversion and C2–C3 selectivity. This is caused by higher (O− + O2−)/O2− ratio, a higher number of chemisorbed oxygen species and moderate basic sites achieved on the nanorods catalysts. The Sr-Er2O3 nanorods afford a 23.2% conversion of CH4 with 50.3% selectivity to C2–C3 at 650 °C.

The coastal area of China has faced major strategic planning and environmental pollution, including heavy metals pollution. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of Cd pollution on the ecology in coastal areas of China. A soil Cd pollution database of 300 counties or districts in coastal areas was screened from academic dissertations and academic journal papers. Based on the database, the ecological risk was evaluated using entropy methods and probabilistic ecological risk assessment (PERA), and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods were analyzed. In China’s coastal areas, the soil Cd content in 10.33% of the counties was higher than the minimum of risk control value (1.5 mg/kg), and in 4.00% of the counties was higher than the maximum of risk control value (4.0 mg/kg). The ecological risks were highly compatible with national strategic planning areas. Guangxi Province, Zhejiang Province, and Guangdong Province ranked among the top three coastal areas for soil Cd contamination, and the ecological risks were 18.80%, 17.89%, and 15.77% at the maximum no-effect concentration/lowest effect concentration (NOEC/LOEC) level. This study can provide insights to policymakers regarding the protection of ecosystems threatened by heavy metals in the process of regional strategic planning.

Agricultural mulch film pollution has become a prevailing concern. Studies have shown that the thickness of mulch film is a key factor affecting mulch film recycling, but research about farmers' choice on mulch film thickness is lacking. Based on survey data from 2025 households in five Chinese provinces in 2018, the Heckman two-stage model was used to analyze the influencing factors of farmers' choice on mulch film thicknesses. Mulch film had been used by 21.98% of the sample households, and 41.47% of the used mulch film did not meet the national thickness standard. The econometric results showed that farmers' product cognition and market factors were the two most important factors, and there was a significant negative correlation with the choice of film thickness. In addition, the choice of mulch film with different thicknesses was affected by household characteristics, subjective norms, and farmland property rights. Strengthening and stabilizing farmland property rights is a long-term mechanism to promote farmers to choose thicker mulch film. In addition to strengthening the production and sale of substandard film supervision, farmers' choice of film thickness should be included in village regulations and other rural grass-roots governance systems, especially in the mechanism design between agricultural farmland protective subsidies and the prevention of mulch film pollution, rather than just considering the recycling itself.

Climate change brings uncertainty and challenges to achieving sustainable development goals. The dually vulnerable regions in terms of the environment and economy are facing substantial threats from climate change; particularly, smallholder farmers who heavily rely on natural ecosystems in these regions are being the most affected. Paying attention to the vulnerability assessment of these regions is conducive to precisely improving the ability of their people to cope with climate change. This study aimed to construct an extended framework of climate change vulnerability assessment at the household level by combining the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vulnerability assessment framework with the sustainable livelihood framework. Four typical regions with different climatic and geographical conditions in China, including the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (marked as AOHAN, representing the type of grassland, similarly hereinafter), Qinghai Province (HYMH, plateau), Yunnan Province (YLNL, mountain), and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (NNQZ, coastal zone), were selected to apply the framework. In total, 29 villages from these four regions were selected at random, and 360 face-to-face interviews were conducted in selected villages based on a pretested questionnaire. The results show that AOHAN had the greatest vulnerability, as well as the highest exposure level among the four regions, which was also the major source of differences in vulnerability. Further analysis shows that although the sensitivity and adaptive capacity showed relatively small differences, the sources of sensitivity and adaptation strategies were quite different among the four regions. In terms of sensitivity, YLNL had the highest level of sensitivity in housing, water, and livestock, and AOHAN assumed the highest sensitivity in land. The advantages and disadvantages in terms of adaptive capacity also varied widely among the four regions. More specifically, AOHAN had a balanced adaptive capacity; YLNL largely relied on the advantages in social and human capitals to compensate for the disadvantage in physical capital; and the strengths in physical and financial capitals are the main sources of adaptive capacities for NNQZ and HYMH, respectively. In general, the vulnerability assessment framework proposed in this study provides guidelines for vulnerability assessments at the household level in the face of climate change. In addition, heterogeneous measures to cope with the threats of climate change should be put forward precisely, based on the climatic, geographical and socioeconomic characteristics of each region.

There has been an increasing interest in the pollution caused by meso- and microplastics (MMPs) in terrestrial ecosystems. Mulch film was once considered to be the most important source of MMPs in the mulching cultivated soil. However, the academic community has not given sufficient scientific evidence. In this study, stratified random sampling method was used to selectively interview households in Hebei province, China (400 households, 20 villages, 5 counties). Finally, household characteristics and mulch film use behavior of 41 households were collected, and corresponding soil samples were sampled. The results showed that 1) the abundance of MMPs was 29.3 ± 33.1 items·kg

There is an urgent need to promote a healthy diet in rural areas because of the prevalent malnutrition. However, further investigation is needed to reconcile the debate on whether improving dietary quality for rural residents will increase the environmental footprints or not, especially in developing countries. Applying a life-cycle assessment method, here we investigate the changing trend of multiple environmental footprints of improved dietary quality scenarios for Chinese rural residents. We show that the average score for the China Healthy Diet Index (CHDI) for the rural diet in 2019 is 52.6 out of 100. This is lower quality than that of the Chinese urban diet in 2012. All the food-related environmental footprints and expenditure will decrease if CHDI improves to 70 and 80, further improvement of dietary quality will occasionally increase the environmental footprints. Food-related expenditure will generally increase, but the proportion in total disposable expenditure will decrease, along with improving dietary quality and affluence in the future. We show that the changes of environmental footprints depend on the level of dietary quality improvement, but additional strategies (e.g., reducing food loss and waste, and agricultural innovations) are still required to achieve a win-win outcome for health and the environment.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to severe environmental issues in China. Energy, water, and CO2 are among the most important factors that influence urban sustainability. In this study, we investigated the energy–water–carbon nexus of urban sectors in Shanghai and Beijing in 2012. The energy consumption, water use, and CO2 emissions of sectors in Shanghai and Beijing were estimated by applying the environmental input–output model. Our findings indicated that the service industry, with 8.69 × 1014 kJ embodied energy, 2.60 × 109 m3 embodied water, and 41.72 Mt embodied CO2, was the largest energy and water consumer and the largest CO2 emitter in Beijing. In Shanghai, service industry ranked highest in terms of embodied energy (8.67 × 1014 kJ), embodied water (4.25 × 109 m3), and embodied CO2 (48.72 Mt). We defined the consumption (emission) coefficient and consumption (emission) index to analyze the sectoral energy–water–carbon nexus in Beijing and Shanghai, and proposed sustainable development recommendations for different sectors with various energy–water–carbon characteristics. The consumption (emission) indexes can act as a reference for each city, showing the sectors that need to be emphasized and preferentially managed. In Beijing, policymakers may need to focus on the following sectors: sector coal mining and selecting and sector electricity, gas, and water production and supply. In Shanghai, sector electricity, gas, and water production and supply and sector transport, storage and post should receive the greatest attention. For most of the studied sectors, the environmental pressures per unit output (expressed by the consumption (emission) coefficients) in Shanghai were higher than those in Beijing, indicating that Shanghai is facing greater environmental challenges in the process of urban sustainability. The energy–water–carbon nexus characteristics of each sector may offer new perspectives to tackle the environmental challenges during the achievement of urban sustainability. This approach also provides a way for other cities to determine sectors that should receive the most attention in terms of easing environmental stress during the urban sustainable development process.

The pulp and paper industry, which provides cellulose pulp and paper, bio-based energy and chemicals, is one of the largest energy consumers, greenhouse gases (GHG) and pollutant emitters among manufacturing industries. Although the environmental impact of the pulp and paper industry has been extensively studied, life cycle assessment (LCA) results have not yet reached a consensus. By means of a systematic review and meta-analysis, this article contributes to the quantification and harmonization of the life cycle environmental impacts of pulp making and paper making systems. Based on the screening of 45 cases of paper making and 18 cases of pulp making, we found that 1 t of paper results in about 950 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (CO2-eq) GHG emissions on average. However, there are distinct differences between countries and pulp and paper categories. The dominant factor influencing GHG emissions is energy use. In paper making, the pulp making process is responsible for 62% of energy use, 45% of GHG emissions, 48% of acidification potential, and 49% of eutrophication potential. The kg CO2-eq emissions of three different types of pulp were as follows: Kraft, 508 kg CO2-eq/t; chemi-mechanical, 513 kg CO2-eq/t; and recycled pulp, 408 kg CO2-eq/t. Excluding emissions from electricity and steam production, the convergence of carbon emissions is observed within the same categories of pulp. Straw-based pulp caused far more environmental impact than any other type because of the intensive inputs in agricultural activities as well as in the pulp making process. This research highlighted the inconsistencies in functional units, system boundaries, and methodologies and carbon neutrality assumptions in different LCA studies of pulp and paper making. Future studies should focus on the environmental impact of straw-based pulp making, system boundary unification, and calculation of biogenic carbon emissions.

Straw pulping plays a vital role in virgin pulp supply and regional agricultural residue utilization. However, a significant decrease in its production has been observed. From an environmental perspective, why has there been a sharp decrease in straw pulping? Are there any innovations in straw pulp production that alleviate the heavy environmental burdens of straw pulping? In this study, factors contributing to the decrease in straw pulp are examined. An innovative technique to produce straw pulp is introduced and its environmental performance is analyzed and compared with conventional pulping. The results show that the main reasons contributing to the environmental burdens of straw pulping lie in the difficulties in black liquor extraction and alkaline recovery for the black liquor. Technical processes are changed in the innovative technique of straw pulping through using a rapid displacement cooking process, converting black liquor into fertilizers, utilizing total chlorine-free bleaching, etc. The new technique (Case B) achieves superior environmental performance than that of the conventional technique (Case A) from a carbon metabolism perspective. Specifically, 1022.90 kg and 857.80 kg of biogenic-carbon (bio-carbon), and 594.32 kg and 628.13 kg of fossil-carbon are needed to make 1 ton of bleached straw pulp for Case A and Case B, respectively. The carbon efficiencies for Case A, Case B (when pulp is the only desired product) and Case B (when including other products) are 39.10%, 46.63% and 92.21%, respectively. The carbon factors for Case A, Case B (when pulp is the only desired product) and Case B (when including other products) are 3.66, 3.60 and 1.86 kg CO2-eq, respectively. In addition, the corresponding E factors, which reflect the waste generation level, are 3.20, 2.69, and 1.39 kg, respectively. The new technique for straw pulping, which follows the principle of a circular economy by fully utilizing resources and reducing the generation of waste, achieves both economic and environmental benefits. It is a promising technique for straw pulping.

Rapid and large-scale urbanization can lead to the loss of ecological land and the degradation of ecosystem services. The effective management of urban ecological land is crucial to maintaining urban sustainability. In this study, we first categorized ecological land from two dimensions, i.e. its ecological function and social property. We then put forward a framework of managing the urban ecological land as a property. Dongying City in China was selected as our case to investigate public perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for managing urban ecological land. Our findings showed that 94.8%, 87.1%, and 97.7% of respondents supported improvements of ecological land management in residential, business, and public areas, respectively, indicating that there is a good public opinion base. For residential areas, the management of ecological land by collecting property charges from households is largely acceptable; for the management of the ecological land in business areas, the vast majority supports the enterprise or government funding; for public areas, the vast majority prefers the government funding. Our further analyses of the factors influencing WTP show that the transparency of information on property fees has a significant impact. We also found that higher income levels lead to a higher WTP for managing ecological land in residential areas, but not for business or public areas. Furthermore, neither higher awareness about pollution nor higher level of formal education significantly induces higher WTP. Our finding could provide an evidence-based reference for policy-making and the operational design of the management model that we proposed.

Gold production has significant environmental impacts on ecosystem and human health. China, as the largest gold production country in the world, deserves a special attention. This study assesses the environmental impacts of gold production in China by using life cycle assessment. Key factors contributing to the total environmental burden of gold production were also identified. In addition, uncertainty analysis based on Monte Carlo was conducted to improve the reliability of results obtained in this study. Results show that impact from metal depletion category mainly from gold ore mining was the most contributor to the total environmental impact. Meanwhile, impacts from climate change, terrestrial acidification, human toxicity, particulate matter formation, marine ecotoxicity, and fossil depletion also made contributions. The overall environmental impact was dominated by key factors such as ore mining, energy consumption, and on-site emissions. Policy suggestions (e.g., maximizing resource efficiency, adjusting energy structure, promoting gold recycling, implementing ecological compensation) were proposed to promote the sustainable development of gold production.

Agricultural straw-based pulp making plays a vital role in pulp and paper industry, especially in forest deficient countries such as China. However, the environmental performance of straw-based pulp has scarcely been studied. A life cycle assessment on wheat straw-based pulp making in China was conducted to fill of the gaps in comprehensive environmental assessments of agricultural straw-based pulp making. On average, the global warming potential (GWP), GWP excluding biogenic carbon, acidification potential and eutrophication potential of wheat straw based pulp making are 2299 kg CO2-eq, 4550 kg CO2-eq, 16.43 kg SO2-eq and 2.56 kg Phosphate-eq respectively. The dominant factors contributing to environmental impacts are coal consumption, electricity consumption, and chemical (NaOH, ClO2) input. Chemical input decrease and energy recovery increase reduce the total environmental impacts dramatically. Compared with wood-based and recycled pulp making, wheat straw-based pulp making has higher environmental impacts, which are mainly due to higher energy and chemical requirements. However, the environmental impacts of wheat straw-based pulp making are lower than hemp and flax based pulp making from previous studies. It is also noteworthy that biogenic carbon emission is significant in bio industries. If carbon sequestration is taken into account in pulp making industry, wheat straw-based pulp making is a net emitter rather than a net absorber of carbon dioxide. Since wheat straw-based pulp making provides an alternative for agricultural residue management, its evaluation framework should be expanded to further reveal its environmental benefits.

Climate change-induced extreme weather and disasters have caused severe productivity and life losses, particularly in economically and ecologically vulnerable areas. Tackling climate change in these areas is a critical issue. Energy stability and equal energy distribution are crucial for improving the ability of households to adapt to climate change. However, there has been little research on factors influencing energy stability and inequality at the micro level in economically and ecologically vulnerable areas. Taking the Pan-Third Pole regions as an example, this study used a cross-national household dataset for 2018, which included information from 1060 households in 37 sample villages distributed in 5 countries, to assess the status of energy stability, inequality, and climate change vulnerability. The results showed that cooking energy use has shifted toward a more stable energy-dependent pattern, although there is still room for improvement. Education level of the household head, non-agricultural level, and income were the significant factors influencing stable energy use and focal points for increasing stable energy use. The inequality level was more severe in economically less-developed regions, and providing commercialized energy access to households is effective in reducing energy inequality. Increasing the education level, extracting labor from agriculture activities, increasing household income, and providing essential energy infrastructures could effectively improve stable energy use and reduce energy inequality, leading to climate change adaptation. The study extends its significance in exploring cross-country climate change adaptation measures from an energy perspective, providing insights for climate change-related research and practice in other vulnerable regions.

Although Chinese government has made great efforts to control waste pesticide bottles (WPBs) pollution, improper treatment methods adopted by smallholder farmers have caused serious pollution in rural China. Existing studies have shown that institutional design at the government, market and public aspect has a significant impact on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly treatment methods, while their overall effect and internal relationship remain unexplored hitherto. To address the research gap, 800 households engaged in agricultural production from five representative provinces were used to explore the effect of the current institutional system on impelling farmers to dispose of WPBs ex situ as a whole from three aspects: government environmental regulation, market instrument and personal characteristic, and reveal the relationship between these three aspects of institutional designs, by applying the two-stage Heckman model and moderating effect model. The statistical results showed that among the 670 households using pesticides in agricultural production, 48.80% of households disposed of WPBs in situ, and only 0.30% of households adopted formal treatment method. Other households discarded WPBs with household garbage or sold them to recyclers. The empirical results revealed that regulation stipulations, recycling price, economic compensation and environmental cognition contributed to impel farmers to dispose of WPBs ex situ, among which recycling price had the largest relative effect. However, general village regulations and conventions, specific village regulations on solid waste management, regulation execution and regulation propaganda did not play the role in promoting farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly treatment methods. Besides, only economic compensation exerted synergistic effect on regulation stipulations, and the complementary relationship between economic compensation and environmental cognition was not revealed. Based on the direct and moderating effects of the current institutional system, policy implications were distilled point-to-point to provide reference for policy makers to adjust and optimize the policy formulation and implementation in a timely manner and contribute to the recycling and harmless treatment of WPBs in rural China. Furthermore, the findings also provided first-hand information and new perspective for researchers to understand China's institutional system and internal mechanism.

The biochar-induced catalytic degradation of contaminants produced by environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) has attracted considerable attention; however, its mechanism and influential factors are poorly understood. In this study, the catalytic characteristics of rice husk-derived biochars pyrolyzed at different temperatures (300 °C to 700 °C, R-300 to R-700, respectively.) were investigated during soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) degradation. Results showed that the degradation rate of 1,3-D initially decreased from 0.00152 h−1 on R-300 to 0.00073 h−1 on R-500 and subsequently increased from 0.00073 h−1 on R-500 to 0.00305 h−1 on R-700 with increasing biochar pyrolysis temperature. A U-shaped relationship was observed between biochar pyrolysis temperature and 1,3-D degradation rate. Three degradation intermediates were identified based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology database information acquired through headspace GC–MS technologies. The catalytic efficiency of biochar improved with increasing moisture content or degradation temperature. When the biochar moisture content increased from 0% to 80%, the degradation efficiency of cis- and trans-isomers on R-500 increased from 6.27% to 35.45% and from 8.48% to 36.36%. When the degradation temperature increased from 20 °C to 40 °C, the degradation efficiency of cis- and trans-isomers on R-500 increased from 37.50% to 49.80% and from 35.90% to 53.48%. The different effects of 1,3-D degradation rate on different biochars were attributed to the pyrolysis temperature-induced changes in the biochar pore structures, changes in the pH of biochar reaction solutions, and changes in EPFR-induced hydroxyl radicals. These results suggested that the characteristics of biochar render it suitable for the degradation of organic pollutants.

The development of biogas programs in rural China has led to great economic, social, ecological and environmental benefits. The focus of this study was the identification of the benefit relationship for various stakeholders via the evaluation of relevant policies, an analysis of the costs and benefits and an estimation of the environmental benefits of the livestock manure utilization in a biogas power generation company (BPGC) in Zhejiang province. The results demonstrated that the net present value (NPV) of the project was 8.85 million dollar, and the internal rate of return (IRR) was 36%. Compared to current projects, the BPGC had a higher investment potentiality. The annual environmental benefits of chemical oxygen demand and NH3–N reduction are 2.61 million dollar and 0.21 million dollar, respectively. The environmental benefits of the reduction of greenhouse gas emission is 1.54 million dollar/a. When the environmental benefits were considered in the cost–benefit analysis, the NPV of the project was 42.01 million dollar, and the IRR was 123.98%, and the BPGC exhibited significant social benefits. The government took advantage of a public–private partnership model to reach a common balance of benefits among government, enterprise, hog farms and the residents.

As a result of global climate change, urban flooding has become a global concern in recent years because of its significant negative impacts on cities. To cope with the frequent occurrence of urban flooding in recent years as well as water shortages, China has started a new nationwide initiative called Sponge City intended to increase urban resilience. This study aimed to examine public perceptions of and knowledge about urban flooding and sponge city construction, as well as the public’s willingness to support sponge cities through two options, which includes (1) paying a domestic water fee surcharge and (2) buying government-issued credit securities. We found that most respondents knew about urban flooding and sponge cities, and also supported sponge city construction. Residents believed that government grants and public-private partnerships (PPP) should be the main financial sources for sponge city construction. However, respondents also accepted 17% of the domestic water price as a surcharge to be used for sponge city construction. Meanwhile, the willingness to pay (WTP) for government-issued credit securities for sponge city construction was 55% of the average annual capital surplus. We also found that occupation, education, and income were the main factors affecting respondents’ WTP to support sponge city initiatives. Though increasing water prices by a certain amount will be acceptable to the public, a more properly designed PPP model should be considered and promoted by the government to overcome financial insufficiencies and ensure the sustainability of the sponge city initiative.

Russia is typical of the extensive economic development pattern. Its economic growth greatly relies on natural resources, especially fossil fuels, which can lead to large quantities of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, which is based on the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, we systematically estimated the economy-related GHG emissions in Russia over the period of 1998–2013 in terms of energy consumption emissions, industrial process emissions, animal husbandry emissions, and fugitive emissions. The proportion and variations in the different emission categories were analyzed in the Russian context. The inverted U-shaped relationship between the GDP per capita and economy-related GHG emissions per capita was tested, and the results supported the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis under a business-as-usual scenario. Our estimation indicated that Russia will reach its turning point in 10 years if its economic growth rate remains stable. Since optimizing the energy structure and improving the energy efficiency and changing industrial structure will have a positive effect on GHG emission reduction in Russia, the Russian government needs to guide its economic development to reach its EKC turning point through the implementation of effective policies, instead of waiting for the turning point. This study analyzed the impact of the economic development on GHG emissions in Russia and will serve as a reference for countries and regions that are at this stage of the economic transformation process.

Many countries and regions around the world have experienced severe water shortages and water contamination problems because of population increase and ever-growing water demands combined with climate change and imbalanced rainfall distributions. Consequently, reclaimed water is being increasingly considered as a feasible and reliable alternative water resource that is vital for water supply and management in a sustainable way. As for reclaimed water production, membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology is receiving increasing attention in the wastewater treatment and reuse field. This study presents an overall evaluation of the sustainability of large-scale MBR plants with respect to multiple aspects, namely technical, environmental, and economic sides. As for technical evaluation, the plant performs well on account of a high compliance rate, stable effluent quality, and high removal rate of pollutants over a long-term operation. The plant is also adaptive and responsive to ever-increasing stringent water quality limits. However, from the environmental and economic perspectives, electricity consumption is the main aspect that contributed largely to increased life cycle environmental impacts and costs, accounting for 51.6% of the overall life cycle costs. Consequently, to deal with these challenges, harnessing the best use of energy in the MBR treatment unit and performing strategies on sludge treatment and handling is recommended. The extension of membrane life span also can reduce significantly the life cycle environmental impacts and costs. The results from the study can provide theoretical and applicable information for the operation and management of other MBR plants.

Sustainable development emphasizes the sustainability of natural resources and the environment as well as the development of social welfare. Under the background of resource scarcity and environmental constraints, maximizing social welfare is an inevitable choice to achieve sustainable development. Ecological Wellbeing Performance (EWP) can comprehensively reflect the efficiency of natural capital conversion into social welfare, and improving EWP is a feasible measure to achieve sustainable development. Moreover, island areas are the extremely complicated ecological-social-economic systems due to the traits that are geographical isolation, scarce resources, and frequent natural disasters, so that emphasizing the sustainability of island systems is a key step for achieving sustainable development goals. This study developed the EWP model based on the improved Three-dimensional Ecological Footprint (EF) and urban-scale Human Development Index (HDI), to synthetically evaluate and analyze the sustainable development of four major island regions in China with the data in 2017. Results found that: (1) The four regions are all in ecological deficits, being in exchange for overdraft natural capital for economic development. The EFdepth is greater than the original length 1 indicating the excessive consumption of the natural capital stock. The EFsize reflects the abundance and liquidity of regional natural capital, all the four regions are with the generally low level of flow capital utilization. Hainan with highest EFsize 0.428 is due to its comparatively sparse population density, abundant resources, and strong ecological capacity, while the relatively large population density and more restricted natural capital flows make Taiwan in the lowest value. (2) Judging from the evaluation results of the HDI, Chongming (0.796) and Hainan (0.773) high development level are relatively behind Taiwan (0.912) and Zhoushan (0.827) very high development level, for the impact of income is greater, that is, economic development in Hainan and Chongming is slightly weak. (3) Taiwan, with the highest EWP 3.646, shows the excellent natural resource utilization efficiency and sustainability, followed by Zhoushan, Chongming, and Hainan. In general, increasing HDI while reducing EF can be an ideal way to improve the efficiency of ecological resources and achieve sustainable urban development.

Quantitating the health effects of employment history in factories, especially polluting ones, is essential for understanding the benefits or losses of industrialization in rural areas. Using a traced subset of nationwide panel data from 2005 covering five provinces, 101 villages, and 2026 households (collected recently in 2016) and the econometric models, this study estimated the effect of factory employment history on workers' health. The results showed that: the absolute number of factory workers increased from 1998 to 2015, and the proportion of factory workers was 7.68% in 2015; the absolute number and the proportion of farmers decreased from 63.84% in 1998 to 29.06% in 2015. Given that all the respondents live in rural areas, the HlthPlace (the first place the individual went to for their last illness in 2015) was selected as the main dependent variable of interest, and Hlthexp (Healthcare expenditure per person at last illness in 2015) and self-reported health were used as auxiliary dependent variables. The findings revealed that, after controlling the characteristics of individual, household, hospital and area, a one year increase of factory employment history corresponded to a 0.035 level increase in the probability of people choosing high-level hospital (p