What influences the performance of carbon emissions in China?-Research on the inter-provincial carbon emissions' conditional configuration impacts.

The severe global warming issue currently threatens humans' existence and development. Countries and international organizations have effectively implemented policies to reduce carbon emissions and investigate low-carbon growth strategies. Reducing carbon emissions is a hot topic that academics and government policy-making departments are concerned about.Through necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA), this paper investigates local governments' configuration linkage effect and path choice to improve carbon emission performance from six dimensions: energy consumption, industrial structure, technological innovation, government support, economic development, and demographic factors. The research findings include the following: (1) Individual condition does not represent necessary conditions for the government's carbon performance. Among the two sets of second-order equivalence configurations(S and Q) (five high-level carbon performance configurations), those dominated by economic development or low energy consumption can produce high-level carbon performance. Therefore, the six antecedent conditions dimensions work together to explain how the government can create high levels of carbon performance. (2)According to the regional comparison, China's eastern, central, and western regions exhibit similarities and differences in the driving forces behind high carbon emission performance. All three regions can demonstrate carbon emission performance when all the factors are combined. However, when constrained by the conditions of each region's resource endowment, the eastern region emphasizes the advantage of economic and technological innovation, the central region favors government support and demographic factors, and the western region prefers upgrading industrial structure based on a specific level of economic development.

Digital economy and carbon emission: The coupling effects of the economy in Qinghai region of China.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the complex relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions, fully drawing on essential principles of environmental economics, coupled economics, and sustainable development theory. Focusing on the Qinghai region in the western province of China, the study employs highly sophisticated methods such as multiple regression analysis and system dynamics modeling to reveal the multidimensional coupling effects between digital economy development and carbon emission dynamics. The study's results clearly show that in the Qinghai region of China, the booming growth of the digital economy is related to carbon emissions. Of particular interest, the study finds that this relationship exhibits a high degree of complexity and non-linearity and evolves gradually over time. Initially, the rapid expansion of the digital economy, accompanied by high energy consumption and increased carbon emissions, posed a significant challenge to environmental protection. However, a clear inverted "U"-shaped relationship has emerged as the digital economy evolves. This key inflection point signals a shift in the landscape as the digital economy begins to deliver some ecological benefits, potentially reducing the trend of carbon emissions in the future. The findings of this study go beyond simple causality and reveal a complex and evolving dynamic relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions. Through such insights, this study provides a solid academic foundation and carefully constructs actionable policy recommendations to drive sustainable development. These insights apply to the Qinghai region of China and provide valuable references and lessons for other areas facing similar challenges.

What determines the performance of low-carbon cities in China? Analysis of the grouping based on the technology-Organization-Environment framework.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions have emerged as shared global objectives. Enhancing the development performance of low-carbon cities has become an urgent and widely acknowledged concern for both government policy-making departments and academics. Drawing upon the complex grouping perspective and resource allocation theory, this study investigates how varying conditions related to technology, organization, and environment in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities can effectively allocate resources to shape the governance performance of low-carbon cities. METHODS AND DATA: This paper employs a comprehensive grouping analysis perspective, treating the research object as a combination of various ways between condition variables. It integrates the advantages of case studies and variable studies, and investigates the collective relationships between elemental groupings and outcomes using the fsQCA analysis method. This approach facilitates the understanding of multiple concurrent causal relationships within the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, accounting for different performance levels in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities, as well as addressing complex causal issues such as asymmetry and multiple scenario equivalence. Data from 30 representative low-carbon pilot cities in China were employed to validate the TOE theoretical framework. CONCLUSION: No single element alone can be considered a necessary condition for low-carbon city governance performance. However, environmental enhancement plays a more prominent role in the governance performance of low-carbon cities. Additionally, the presence of "multiple concurrent" technical, organizational, and environmental conditions leads to a diverse range of governance performance in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities. In other words, the driving paths of low-carbon city performance exhibit distinct pathways. CONTRIBUTION: The findings of this study can assist low-carbon pilot city managers in generating effective governance ideas, facilitating the successful implementation of low-carbon city pilot projects, and drawing valuable lessons from the experience of low-carbon city development in China.

Research on Motivational Mechanisms and Pathways for Promoting Public Participation in Environmental Protection Behavior.

Public participation in environmental protection is an essential component of evaluating the effectiveness of ecological and environmental protection. General awareness, social dynamics, and cognitive preferences frequently impact the protection's impact. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation research on the confluence of mainstream awareness, social factors, and cognitive preferences by building a theoretical model. First, this work employs partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Second, using the mediation model, the research describes and examines the factors that motivate public involvement in ecological and environmental conservation. Third, the research summarizes the suggested path countermeasures to offer practical advice and helpful ecological and environmental protection solutions. The findings demonstrate that mainstream policy leadership substantially impacts environmental conservation. Leadership in policy matters restricts the group's natural awareness of social factors. The subjective quality and competence basis in cognitive preferences are significantly influenced by policy leadership. Policy leadership significantly influences the effectiveness of environmental protection through the mediating factor of cognitive preferences. The ability base has a considerable mediating effect on cognitive preferences.