Qinghua Pang

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry takes on critical significance in promoting economic development and reducing carbon emissions. From the agglomeration perspective, how the ICT industry agglomeration affects carbon emission efficiency (CEE) in 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020 is innovatively investigated. We measured CEE using a dynamic directional distance function-based DEA model. Then, based on the research hypotheses, the specific impact and transmission mechanism of ICT industrial agglomeration on CEE are revealed using a spatial Dubin model and a threshold panel model. The results show that: (1) the ICT industry agglomeration exerts a remarkable inverted “U-shaped” effect on CEE. This non-linear effect is significant in the eastern and central regions, but not in the western region. (2) ICT industry agglomeration can affect CEE in neighboring regions. The spatial spillover effect shows an inverted “U-shaped” in the central region, positive in the western region, and insignificant in the eastern region. (3) when green technology innovation exceeds the threshold value (4.948), ICT industry agglomeration positively affects CEE, and when energy structure exceeds the threshold value (0.389), their marginal effects are significantly negative. The threshold effect also shows regional heterogeneity. This research proposes policy recommendations focusing on accelerating the ICT industry transformation, leveraging the spillover and technological advantages of agglomeration, and enhancing regional cooperation.

The coupling coordination between industrial water use (IWU) and industrial green development (IGD) systems is crucial for achieving sustainable development goals. This paper measures the coupling coordination degree between IWU and IGD systems, and the spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of the degree are discussed. Here, the IWU system is assessed by adopting a dynamic slacks-based measure model, and the IGD system’s performance is evaluated using an entropy-weighted TOPSIS model. The results showed that: (1) The provincial IWU efficiency showed a rising trend from 2009 to 2018 in general, while its spatial dimension showed a distribution of high in the eastern region and low in the western region. (2) The IGD performance in the eastern region was better than that in the central and western regions; the gap in industrial innovation and industrial resources was the main factor. (3) The spatial structure of the coupling coordination degree between IWU and IGD systems was gradually stable. It also had a strong spatial dependence and its evolution volatility has been enhanced. (4) The coupling coordination was improving but exhibited a dynamic local spatial dependence and volatile process, and its spatial agglomeration had a relatively higher path dependence and locked spatial features.

As one of the main grain-producing areas in China, urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River plays an important role in the development of agricultural production for China’s grain supply. The existing studies about agricultural production efficiency lack of regional coordination analysis at both macro and micro levels, and only few studies consider the impact of agricultural production environment pollution and other undesirable outputs. Based on the input–output index system of agricultural green production, Slacks-based model (SBM) was adopted to measure the agricultural green production efficiency of 31 prefecture level cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from 2008 to 2018, and the Tobit model of panel fixed effect was used to analyze the driving effect of external factors that affect the agricultural green production efficiency of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. At the same time, the research methods at both macro and micro levels provide ideas for the research of transregional production efficiency. The results showed that: (1) the agricultural green production efficiency of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze river is relatively low, with 2009 and 2013 as the inflection points, showing a stable trend of rise and decline; (2) The green agricultural production efficiency of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River presents the spatial distribution characteristics of “high in the west and low in the east”. The regional efficiency difference is obvious, the gap gradually expands, develops from the equilibrium to the polarization; (3) Urbanization development and government intervention has a significant restraining effect on the improvement of agricultural green production efficiency, and opening to the outside world produces a remarkable influence on the improvement of agricultural green production efficiency, however, economic development and industrial structure have little impact on the improvement of agricultural green production efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to increase investment in technological innovation, promote agricultural transformation and upgrading, promote rational factors allocation and promote coordinated development of agriculture based on regional production differences.

Objectively evaluating the decoupling status of water resources utilization and economic development is an important sign of judging the sustainability of regional economic development. From the perspective of water footprint (WF), this paper expands the scope of water resources accounting by assessing agricultural blue WF, green WF and gray WF. The Tapio decoupling index was used to explore the decoupling status of agricultural WF and economic development in Gansu Province from 2006 to 2015, and the logarithmic mean divisor index (LMDI) decomposition model was used to identify the main driving factors of agricultural WF changes and explore the degree of divergence between agricultural economic development and water resources utilization. The results showed that agricultural economic growth was a main factor for the increase of WF; the improvement of agricultural production technology had a restraining effect, and the population effect and structural effect had a lesser effect. During the research period, the relationship between agricultural WF and economic growth in Gansu Province changed from weak decoupling to strong decoupling, and the contributing factors to decoupling were in descending order: economic, technological, structural and population. Finally, this paper puts forward suggestions on optimizing planting structure, improving agricultural technology and economic development mode to promote the sustainable development of local agriculture.

Supply Chain Coordination with Carbon Trading Price and Consumers’ Environmental Awareness Dependent Demand: Carbon emissions reduction in supply chain is an effective method to reduce the greenhouse effect. The paper investigates the impacts of carbon trading price and consumers environmental awareness on carbon emissions in supply chain under the cap-and-trade system. Firstly, it analyzes the centralized decision structure and obtains the requirements to coordinate carbon emissions reduction and order quantity in supply chain. Secondly, it proposes the supply chain coordination mechanism with revenue-sharing contract based on quantity discount policy, and the requirements that the contract parameters need to satisfy are also given. Thirdly, assuming the market demand is affected by consumers environmental awareness in addition form, the paper proposes the methods to determine the optimal order quantity and the optimal level of carbon emissions through model optimization. Finally, it investigates the impacts of carbon trading price on carbon emissions in supply chain. The results show that clean manufacturers optimal per-unit carbon emissions increase as the carbon trading price increases, while nongreen manufacturers optimal per-unit carbon emissions decrease as the carbon trading price increases. For the middle emissions manufacturer, the optimal per-unit carbon emissions depend on the relationship between the carbon trading price and the carbon reduction coefficient.

This paper aims to research the driving effect of the urbanization development speed on water resources conflict by building the risk stress coupling analysis model of urbanization development speed and water conflict. Firstly, we use the nonlinear fuzzy comprehensive adjustment (FCA) measure model based on entropy weight method to determine the level of urbanization and water resources conflict risk, then construct the coupling coordination degree function of urbanization speed and water conflict risk pressure, and calculate the coupling coordination degree. Secondly, we determine the level of water resources conflict according to the coupling coordination degree to obtain the trigger threshold value of water resources conflict and analyze the coupling results. Lastly, we start the instance analysis with Beijing City, Tianjin City, and Hebei Province region in Haihe river basin of China, as an example, by analyzing the influence of the urbanization speed on water resource conflict and by obtaining the threshold value of water resources conflict caused by the effect of water consumption of gross domestic product (GDP) per 10 thousand Yuan and annual per capita domestic water consumption on the urbanization development speed, expressed in interval number.