Search

Accelerating the energy transition of rural households in mountainous areas is an important step to improve energy poverty and mountain ecosystems and to help achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This paper explores the transformation of rural cooking energy in mountainous areas based on field investigation data from six villages in Chongqing. It systematically reveals the transformation process, driving factors and carbon emission changes in household cooking energy consumption in mountainous areas in the past 20 years by using mathematical statistics, multinomial logit models and the emission coefficient method. The results are as follows. (1) There has been a significant transition in the consumption of rural household cooking energy in mountainous areas. There has been a significant change in the proportion of different energy sources, including fuelwood (59.2%–1.9%), coal (16.5%–0%), gas (12.6%–15.5%), natural gas (6.8%–51.5%) and electricity (4.9%–31.1%). (2) The main driving factors of the household cooking energy transition in mountainous areas are income per capita, householder age, and householder education level. (3) The average annual household carbon emissions from rural household cooking energy decreased remarkably. The average annual household carbon emissions decreased from 6.80 t to 2.62 t in fuelwood (5.40–0.91 t), electricity (0.19–1.28 t) and natural gas (0.03–0.25 t) emissions during the study period. The contribution of this study is to investigate how the household cooking energy transition contributes to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality from a micro perspective. At the same time, this paper explores the mechanisms between the cooking energy transition and the ecological dividend of urbanization and proposes future reform initiatives for rural energy in mountainous areas to help achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing environmental problems, the rapid urbanization, and the disappearance of the demographic dividend in China has brought unprecedented opportunities to the development of prefabricated housing (PH). However, many barriers are hindering the promotion of PH, for instance, cost, lack of regulations, and the shortage of knowledge, among which cost is identified as one of the most critical barriers. Unlike previous studies focused only on production costs, this research aims to investigate transaction costs (TCs), e.g., searching costs, negotiation costs, and enforcement costs. First, this paper develops a theoretical TCs framework of the PH supply chain, based on an extensive literature review. Secondly, an empirical study was conducted on two cases in Chongqing to validate the TCs framework. Key stakeholders are identified by Social Network Analysis (SNA). Subsequently, 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, both to verify the new TCs framework and to explore stakeholder concerns about TCs. The centrality metrics by SNA identified six key stakeholders who have a significant influence on TCs. It is found from the interviews that both the conceptual phase and the construction phase are stages where the majority of TCs occur. Both the developer and the general contractor are paying for more TCs compared to the other stakeholders. This study contributes to theory by initially introducing the concepts of TCs to the PH field, and the findings bring implications on the governance of PH supply chain to both private stakeholders and the government. • Transaction costs in the prefabricated housing supply chain cause low economic efficiency. • Critical stakeholders include developers, general contractors, architects, local governments, supervisors and component suppliers. • Developers and general contractors are recognized as bearing more Transaction Costs compared with the other stakeholders. • The conceptual phase and the construction phase are where the majority of transaction costs occur. • To improve the governance of projects, both public and private stakeholders can take actions to reduce transaction costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shale gas development in China helps to improve the structure of energy supply and reduce energy dependence on foreign countries. However, the environmental risks of shale gas development, especially groundwater pollution, are non-negligible. The external cost of such groundwater pollution can be estimated by quantifying the increased domestic water consumption before and after shale gas extraction. We implemented a Difference-in-Difference estimation in Fuling, Chongqing of China to obtain the monetary cost of domestic water pollution of shale gas development with the survey data of household water consumption. We found that shale gas exploitation increased the expenditure of domestic water consumption by 16.43–17.00 yuan per household per month, aggregated to 203.94 yuan per household for the annual averting cost and accounting for 2.17% of household annual income in poverty-stricken areas in 2017. The paper contributes to the literature by estimating residents' preference for shale gas development in China with Averting Behavior Theory, thus enriching the literature on evaluating the environmental cost of shale gas exploitation in a region where per capita income and environmental awareness is relatively low. Our estimated results have great policy implications for ecological compensating for the residents adversely affected by shale gas wells and also have profound implications for environmental regulation and protection in China. • We estimated the averting cost of domestic water pollution of shale gas development. • We applied a DID model and Propensity Score Matching for model identification. • Economic cost of groundwater pollution is 16.43–17.00 Yuan per household per month. • The annual averting cost is about 203.94 yuan, 2.17% of household annual income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides insights into the spatial relationships among logistics agglomeration, technological progress, and air pollution in the sub-regions. From the perspective of new economic geography, the positive environmental externality of logistics agglomeration should outstrip its negative externality as the result of technological spillover. However, significant impacts of technological progress on the environment have not been identified in the logistics agglomeration sub-regions of many developing countries currently grappling with various environmental problems. This paper applies spatial econometrics and extended STIRPAT model to explore the roles the logistics agglomeration (LA) and technological progress (T) play in air pollution (I) using panel data from sub-regions of Chongqing in China between 2009 and 2019. The main conclusions are as follows. (1) In a global context, logistics agglomeration is a meaningful way to reduce air pollution under the interaction effect of technological progress. (2) In a sub-regional context: first, the suppressive effect of logistics agglomeration on air pollution gradually rebounds with the increase in agglomeration degree; secondly, the rebound effect of technological innovation is also evident in air pollution, and the rebound area gradually spreads from the metropolitan area to the peripheral sub-regions; finally, the interaction effect of logistics agglomeration and technological progress has a noteworthy suppression effect on air pollution, especially after the occurrence of the rebound effect of the logistics agglomeration and technological progress. In this regard, local governments should suppress the negative externalities of agglomeration with the interaction effects of technological progress while strengthening logistics agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]