In the globalizing world, many factors such as rapidly increasing population, production and consumption habits, and economic growth cause climate changes. The carbon footprint is a measure of CO₂ emissions released into the atmosphere, which increases day by day, causing glaciers to melt and increase sea level, reduce water resources, and global warming. For Turkey, as a country trying to complete its economic development, signed international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement and Kyoto Protocol to reduce the carbon footprint give great importance to the studies estimating carbon footprint and making policies to reduce it. For this reason, in this study it is aimed to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of Turkey in the year 2030 and to determine its damages to the economy. Time series forecasting algorithm in the WEKA data mining software was used for analysis, and population, gross domestic product, energy production, and energy consumption were used as independent variables. As a result of analysis using data from the years 1990–2017, as long as Turkey continues its course of gradually increasing the amount of current greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2030, 728.3016 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent will be reached. It appears that these estimates remain below the rate of Turkey’s commitments at the Paris Climate Agreement that is considered to be promising for Turkey. However, the estimations in other studies should not be ignored; policy makers should determine policies accordingly.

Global warming, energy consumption (EC), and food safety have caused an increase of focus regarding agricultural crop productivity with a principal focus on CEs from crop farming. This study analyzes Pakistan, India, and China’s rice and wheat production rating through the CCR and SBM DEA framework. The recorded rice (0.60) and wheat (1.00) production, through the CCR approach, can be considered the highest productivity. The rating productivity of the parallel DMUs for the CCR (or BCC) framework average degree of technical productivity of SBM model of wheat and rice production, which does not adhere to the degree of 100% amongst all countries. Keeping the area’s efficiency in mind, the average technical productivity rating recorded through CCR is 0.87, and SBM is 0.86 and is significantly lower than the ideal rating in the original DEA. By decreasing tomato output through farmers’ productive operations, energy can be conserved by 21.4% compared to its current level by enhancing the utilization of essential resources, chemical fertilizers, farmyard manure, and water bear comparatively greater trading weights. It is eminent to decrease energy usage and carbon discharge in rice production. Similarly, the high yield and adequate rice plantation methods should be encouraged in the given region

Evidence on the short-term effects of ambient air pollution on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality is still not conclusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between them in Wuhan China. Daily death numbers, concentrations of air pollutants (PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, and O₃), and meteorological characteristics in Wuhan from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2019, were collected. Time-series analysis using generalized additive model was applied. The results showed that a total of 16,150 deaths (7.37 deaths per day) from COPD were observed. The daily average concentrations of PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, and O₃ were 59.03, 90.48, 12.91, 48.84, and 91.77 μg/m³, respectively. In single pollutant model, for every increase of 10 μg/m³ in PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂ levels, COPD mortality increased by 0.583% (95% CI: 0.055–1.113%), 4.299% (95% CI: 0.978–7.729%), and 1.816% (95% CI: 0.515–3.313%) at lag03, respectively. No significant associations were found for PM₂.₅ and O₃. Subgroup analysis demonstrated that females were more susceptible to PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂. The concentrations of PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂ were significantly associated with COPD mortality for older adults. The effects of PM₂.₅ and O₃ on COPD mortality were higher in warm period. In two-pollutant models, the significantly positive associations between SO₂ and NO₂ and COPD mortality remained after adjusting for PM₂.₅ or O₃. In conclusions, short-term exposure to PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂ are significantly associated with a higher risk of COPD mortality. Female or elderly are more susceptible to air pollution. It is urgent to implement the environmental protection policy.

The water scarcity and energy crises are major challenges, particularly for South Asian developing countries. Wastewater resource recovery always remained an untapped potential for South Asian countries, especially in Pakistan. Globally, municipal wastewater’s global generation rate is about 331 km³/year; only a small proportion is treated and safely reused. Wastewater also has high energy content and can be greatly productive, whereas most of the wastewater treatment plants currently employed in developing regions are non-functional or taking high energy inputs. Many global level studies are being conducted for energy use reduction and the production of renewable energy from wastewater. In this review, installation of wastewater treatment plants is suggested in the context of economic and environmental feasibility for South Asian developing countries. Multiple factors showed the need for and high potential to installation of wastewater treatment plants for providing clean water under sustainable development goals and further to recover valuable contents from municipal wastewater. The tremendous need for infrastructure development became obvious to deliver clean water to communities that are using wastewater directly or indirectly for various purposes. Based on technical grounds, economic, social, and environmental challenges can be tackled with viable wastewater treatment plant design options in each country context. With each step of wastewater treatment, control strategies would minimize energy use and enhanced resource recovery will reduce pressure on the current natural resource base. Overall, the cost assessment, funding opportunities, research and development, and social acceptability remained the big factors to energy generation from municipal wastewater in South Asia. Graphical presentation of the study

The use of rice straw for biochar production has been widely proved as a great alternative energy source, which not only is cheaper than other commercial coals but also helps mitigation of climate change. In this study, the rice straw–derived biochar was assessed as a sorption material used for livestock wastewater treatment, which has not much been studied so far. The biochar derived from rice straw had moisture content of 4.9 ± 0.5 %, bulk density of 0.38 ± 0.03 g/cm³, iodine number of 958.0 ± 37.0 mg/g, and pH was determined at 7.6 ± 0.1. The optimal contact time, biochar mass concentration, and pH were determined as 3.0 h, 4.0 g/L, and 9.0, respectively. The COD and BOD₅ removal efficiencies were up to 40.0% via the batch experiment. However, the column test results showed the higher removal efficiencies which were 79.0 ± 6.1% for COD and 84.0 ± 2.5% for BOD₅ with the influent COD concentration of 373.0 ± 8.0 mg/L and BOD₅ concentration of 240.0 ± 3.0 mg/L. The effluent all met the current livestock wastewater discharge standard of Vietnam (QCVN 62-MT:2016/BTNMT). These findings indicate the potential of using straw-derived biochar as a good material for removing organic pollutants from livestock wastewater.

Controlling the emission of urban passenger transport modes has become one of the most important tasks of governing urban air pollution. Most strategies only focused on carbon emission, whereas neglecting the influences of other pollutants (CO, HC, NOx, PM₂.₅), especially for upstream emissions from electricity generation caused by the electricity consumed during the operation of electrified transport modes. Based on the multinomial logit model (MNL), this study firstly calculated and evaluated the emission reduction effects brought about by the implementation of targeted emission taxes on different transport modes from the perspective of whole fuel cycle. Taking Jiangning District as an example, our research found that the policy implementing targeted emission tax for different transport modes can not only bring reduce 13.104 tons of CO, 0.327 tons of HC, 0.568 tons of NOx, and 0.140 tons of PM₂.₅, but also 26,726.82 (euro) of eco-environmental benefits for the treatment of air pollution. Our study can provide useful insights for shifting the structure of urban passenger transport modes, especially promoting the transfer of private cars to the urban green transport systems, to alleviate urban air pollution by formulating effective emission reduction strategies.

Many studies have shown that the rapid agricultural mechanization development in China led to substantial energy consumption and CO₂ emission growth. To better explain the mechanism behind the decoupling between economic growth and CO₂ emissions, this paper extends the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) and production-theoretical decomposition (PDA) considering agricultural decoupling from both structural and technical perspectives. The results reveal that (1) China’s agricultural decoupling performance was not ideal. Investment and investment efficiency were the most important factors influencing the decoupling status. The main decoupling obstacle was a higher investment in productivity rather than in energy conservation and carbon reduction. (2) The decoupling status and investment orientation of decoupling efforts among regions were different. Strong negative decoupling statuses frequently occurred in the eastern region, whose main disadvantage was high potential energy intensity. The decoupling status of the central region exhibited expansive features. The decoupling key is to invest more in energy-saving technology rather than in production. The western region changed from weak decoupling to expansive negative decoupling. Both output technology and energy-related factors should be the main investment targets. (3) Weak decoupling and expansive negative decoupling were the most common statuses among provinces. The influence mechanism of drivers exhibited a high spatial heterogeneity at the provincial level. Therefore, the study offered a convincing basis for local governments to formulate low-carbon agricultural development policies by identifying the main decoupling drivers.

Despite all its advantages and potential, cross-linking enzyme aggregate (CLEA) technology is still not applied at an industrial scale for enzyme insolubilization for bioremediation purposes. In this study, the enzyme polymer engineered structure (EPES) method was used to enhance CLEA stability and reuse. A crude laccase from Trametes hirsuta was successfully insolubilized to form EPES-CLEAs. The polymeric network provided excellent stability (> 90%) to CLEAs after a 24-h incubation in a non-buffered municipal wastewater effluent (WW), and the biocatalysts were recycled using a centrifugation process. While CLEAs activity dropped to 17%, EPES-CLEAs showed a laccase activity retention of 67% after five cycles of 2,2’-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) oxidation. After 8 h of treatment in WW, the EPES-CLEAs were equally as effective in removing cannabidiol (CBD) as the free-LAC (~ 37%). This research demonstrates that the EPES method is a promising alternative for CLEA stabilization and reuse in environmental conditions.

Personal carbon trading scheme has been pulled into the public eye with the increasing urgency of downstream carbon emission reduction, and its feasibility largely depends on public acceptability. This study established a hierarchical framework for urban residents’ approach-avoidance responses to personal carbon trading; adopted Likert scale and manikin task methods to assess the current states of residents’ responses by investigating 1892 respondents in eastern China; employed one-way analysis of variance to identify the demographic differences of their responses; and used regression analysis to explore the influences of psychological factors on their responses. The findings showed that urban residents’ responses to personal carbon trading scheme and participation could be classified into five response hierarchies: deep avoidance, shallow avoidance, uncertain, shallow approach, and deep approach. The average of residents’ responses denoted a shallow approach, with the characteristics of median stability, duration, and noise. Moreover, residents holding deep approach responses to the scheme and participation respectively accounted for 42.365% and 34.275% of the total, which indicated a gap between attitude and behavior. Urban residents’ responses exhibited significant differences with respect to demographic characteristics. Most of the residents with the most avoidance response were young males (i.e., 18–20 years old), older first-line employees (i.e., older than 50 years old), and those on subsistence incomes (i.e., annual individual or household income was RMB 30,000–50,000 yuan). Additionally, residents who held egoistic values, had low senses of social responsibility, knew little about carbon reductions, and preferred comfortable life were likely to avoid the scheme and participation. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed for the enhancement of urban residents’ attitudes towards personal carbon trading, thereby providing valuable references for its implementation.

Increasing the level of energy efficiency and using renewable energy sources in the design and existing buildings is an important aspect in minimizing the carbon dioxide emissions and mitigating the climate changes. One of such solutions may be the application of a heating system using residential thermal stations (RTSs) for heating and hot water preparation individually in the premises of a given building. The main purpose of this paper was to analyze long-term filed research results on the energy consumption and efficiency of heating systems in a dormitory (building B1) and two multifamily buildings (building B2 and B3) equipped with residential thermal stations (RTSs) that are used for supplying individual dwellings with heat, as well as hot and cold water. An additional aspect of the analysis is a presentation of the structure of total energy consumption for particular purposes in the analyzed buildings and the possibilities to increase the share of renewable energy sources using solar thermal collectors for supporting the analyzed heating system.