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This paper, through a case study of the Gengche Township in north Jiangsu (Subei), unveils how a less-favored region breaks out of the old industry path of waste recycling and processing and embarks on a green new one specializing in E-commerce. Drawing on key concepts in evolutionary economic geography, we propose a conceptual framework that addresses how entrepreneurial agents enact the processes of asset modification at multiple scales for new green path development in a rural context. Based on on-site interviews and survey, our analysis reveals that rural lead entrepreneurs and state elites pioneered and opened windows of opportunities for change, then legitimized by the state with wider support towards old path breaking. These state interventions enforce the bottom-up process of new green path development. In this process, extra-regional knowledge linkages and assets help facilitate the E-commerce development. It is concluded that rural new path development processes are not only contingent on local pre-conditions but are tempo-spatially dependent on collective actions of entrepreneurial multi-actors in identifying, transplanting and modifying local and non-local assets. The Gengche case demonstrates that rural new green path development in China requires the formation of strong system-level rural agency engaging in multi-scalar asset modification. • The transformation trajectory of Gengche, a previous poverty township, was investigated. • Rural lead entrepreneurs and state elites pioneered and opened windows of opportunities for change. • State interventions enforce the bottom-up process of new green path development. • Extra-regional knowledge linkages and assets help facilitate the E-commerce development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's largest inland shipping channel, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is strategic to China's sustainable development where policymakers are increasingly emphasizing not only this region's economic development but also its CO 2 emission reduction targets. To achieve emission targets in the YREB region, it is essential to identify the driving forces of its CO 2 emissions. However, existing studies are not very refined and only examine the overall effects of drivers on CO 2 emission changes, while neglecting the sub-regional and sectoral level effects across China. More refined research, therefore, will provide better-targeted policies for emission reduction relevant to regional levels such as the YREB region. Towards this end, this paper integrates the methods of structural decomposition analysis and attribution analysis to demonstrate the driving forces, at both sub-regional and sectoral levels, for YREB's emission changes from 2002 to 2012. Our results reveal the following: (1) Jiangsu Province has always been the main regional source of increasing CO 2 emissions in the YREB, accounting for more than 20% of total CO 2 emission growth. (2) The Electricity and Heat Production and Supply sector is responsible for most of the increases in CO 2 emissions, both in 2002–2007 (609.8 Mt, 54.8%) and 2007–2012 (287.6 Mt, 34%). (3) During the period of 2007–2012, changes in per capita final demand were the primary driving force for the increases in CO 2 emissions, while changes in CO 2 emission intensity were the largest driving force for decreasing CO 2 emissions, respectively accounting for 179.9% and −119.4% of total emission changes in the YREB region. (4) Moreover, the effect of emission intensity mainly exists in the Electricity and Heat Production and Supply sector in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, accounting for respectively, 10% and 10.4% of the total effects across all economic sectors. Considering the diverse impacts of driving forces in different sub-regions and economic sectors, policymakers should apply more refined measures to utilize varying driving forces in different sub-regions and economic sectors towards sustainable development. • We analyze drivers of CO 2 emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). • Drivers of CO 2 emissions are decomposed into both sub-regions and sectors. • Jiangsu province and three main sectors dominated CO 2 emissions in the YREB. • Intensity changes in Jiangsu's three sectors largely reduced YREB's emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource utilization of crop straw is related to the green development of agriculture and the development of the rural ecological environment. Given a background of tightening agricultural environmental constraints, realizing the effective utilization of straw resources has become a real-world problem in China urgently requiring a solution. Straw incorporation is an effective way to effectively utilize straw resources. This paper quantitatively analyzed the impact of household land endowment and environmental cognition on farmers' willingness to implement straw incorporation (FWSI) by using household survey data from Jiangsu Province in China and an ordered logit model. The results reveal that straw incorporation not only needs to be considered at the technical level but also needs to start with household land endowment and environmental cognition. There is a close relationship between household environmental cognition and FWSI, and thus improving environmental cognitive ability can promote FWSI. In contrast to farm size, plot area is an important factor influencing FWSI, and scale farmers are also more concerned about straw incorporation cost than other farmers. The government should provide relevant training to clarify the positive effect of farmers' environmental cognition on straw incorporation and enhance farmers' cognition of the value of straw incorporation in China. Considering the plot area and cost, the government should also vigorously encourage the transfer and integration of adjacent plots, expand the plot area, reduce the cost of straw incorporation for a single plot, and guide social funds toward research on straw purchasing and storage technology. Attention should also be paid to the demonstration role of scale farmers in straw incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]