Rural domestic waste classification (RDWC) is one of the main strategies for waste management, which plays a significant role in the circular economy and sustainable management. As one of the first pilot cities of waste classification in China, Hangzhou took the lead in promoting the classification and recycling of rural domestic waste. Based on the probability sampling procedure, this study focuses on the influencing factors of residents' awareness and behaviors toward RDWC in Hangzhou rural areas. The results of the questionnaire survey show that the perception of the importance of RDWC is weak in rural areas of China. Moreover, regression analyses show that the public's RDWC awareness is positively influenced by the cleanliness of waste rooms, age, and educational level. And their RDWC behaviors are negatively influenced by human supervision but positively influenced by the attitude to waste classification, satisfaction with the situation of RDWC and environment. Besides, exploring the relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and the waste classification performance shows cities with better waste classification performance have fewer confirmed cases. These results imply that the proper waste classification methods and supporting infrastructure facilities could be fitted to other rural areas.
The digital economy has been considered a powerful weapon in addressing global warming. However, the "win-win" effect of the digital economy on economic development and carbon reduction is still unclear. With China's provincial panel data from 2012 to 2019, this paper intends to explore the direct and spatial effects of the digital economy on total factor carbon productivity (TFCP), further revealing the influencing mechanism from the perspective of energy intensity. The results show that the digital economy contributes to boosting TFCP and this conclusion is robust after adopting some robustness tests and solving the endogeneity problem. Moreover, the impact of the digital economy on TFCP has significant positive spillovers. Finally, the digital economy can significantly boost TFCP through reducing the energy intensity. Considering the regional heterogeneity, the impact of the digital economy on TFCP is significantly positive in Mid-Eastern China, however, the impact is not significant in other areas. The above findings provide strong policy guidance for the region to boost the digital economy and TFCP comprehensively, thus stimulating the green transition of the economy.
Technological progress has been considered as the essential backbone of reducing energy consumption and achieving low-carbon transmission. It is universally accepted that the technological level and energy structure change with time, indicating a significant characteristic of regime switching. From the perspective of regime switching, this paper considers the saving and rebound effect of technological progress and uses MSIH-VAR model to empirically analyze energy consumption changes in Zhejiang Province from 1990 to 2019. The results show that technological progress restricts the growth of energy consumption. Specifically, in the whole period, the variables show significant characteristics of double regimes, whose attributes are different. Moreover, the boundary between regimes is clear, and the state is stable. Technological progress in regime 1 positively promotes the increase of energy consumption, while in regime 2 decreases energy consumption. The saving effect is stage or lag under different regimes.
Recent decades have witnessed the rapid development and application of information and communication technology (ICT). Many previous studies have shown a significantly positive impact of ICT on economic growth [1-4] and productivity [5,6]. Recently, a growing number of scholars have paid close attention to explore the relationship between ICT and environmental sustainability. However, different from the influence of ICT on economic growth and productivity, the effect of ICT on the environment is contradictory. ICT can have both unfavorable
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