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Farmers and their energy saving behaviors make significant sense for long-run sustainability and enacting effective energy policies, particularly in the fragile eco-environment and non-developed rural area. This study investigates the rural household energy-saving behaviors and influencing factors in the loess hilly region of China by taking Qin'an county in Gansu province based on a total of 506 households by adopting the participatory farmer assessment method. Most peasant families pay close attention energy conservation in their daily lives. Most farmer households (88.74%) were conscious of energy saving in their daily lives, and consider energy saving as a self-acting behavior (68.58%) and good habit (87.94%); electricity is the main clean energy for farmers; the price of energy-saving products is the key factor for farmers, and the female and the younger householders have better performance in energy conservation. Farmers' energy-saving behaviors are negatively correlated with the altitude of their dwellings but positively correlated with the education level of householders, family size, income. We argue that continuous training on energy saving is necessary and should be tailored to local conditions and supported by the government. • A rural household survey of 506 households was conducted in the loess hilly region of China. • Female, younger, and higher education level shows positive impacts on energy saving. • Energy-saving behaviors positively correlated with income, health conditions, environmental concerns, and energy availability and prices. • The training efforts for promoting energy saving of rural households should be enhanced. • We argue that government subsidies should integrate into the promotion of energy-saving products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) exert great potential in reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing the dependence on petroleum products, and are also essential in realizing the social transformation toward a low-carbon society. Since public are the principal users and stakeholders of NEVs, it's vital to understand their acceptance of NEVs and discuss the influencing factors of public acceptance, so as to promote the development of NEVs. Based on the survey data of Gansu Province, this paper analyzes the public perception and acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions, and explores main factors affecting their acceptance by adopting Structural Equation Model. The results show that the public acceptance of NEVs is relatively higher, with only 51.99% residents are willing to accept NEVs. And there are differences of public acceptance of NEVs among different groups. The acceptance of females, young and less educated public are relatively higher, decreases with aging and increases with education attainment. Perceived risk and perceived cost are significantly negative correlated with public acceptance of NEVs, while subjective norm and the quality of NEVs positively correlated with public acceptance. In addition, support policy is significantly positively correlated with perceived cost while perceived cost is positively corelated with perceived risk. Finally, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions on improving the public acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions. • We conducted the NEVs acceptance of 1356 residents in Chinese underdeveloped regions. • 51.99% of the public in underdeveloped regions of China were willing to accept NEVs. • Perceived risk, perceived cost, and NEVs' quality are the key influencing factors. • Support policy, knowledge have significant indirect impact on acceptance of NEVs. • Enhancing subsidies and supporting facilities were effective ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]