Flexible strategy of carbon tax is an important chip for the government to promote the implementation of carbon emission reduction. However, low-carbon technological innovation of enterprises is bound to produce market competition problems with traditional production technology. Based on this, in order to explore the relationship between heterogeneous objectives, carbon tax pricing strategy of government and decision-making of heterogeneous enterprise in the market, and how the government can make better use of carbon tax to promote the implementation of carbon emission reduction, this paper constructs and analyzes a three-stage dynamic game model between the government and heterogeneous enterprises. It is found that higher carbon tax pricing is not necessarily conducive to promote the implementation of carbon emission reduction. When the government's primary goal is to promote low-carbon technology innovative enterprise to increase innovative investment, the government should adopt the unified pricing strategy of carbon tax and improve carbon tax pricing; when the primary goal of the government is to promote the promotion of low-carbon products, the government should adopt the differentiated pricing strategy of carbon tax and reduce the carbon tax pricing of low-carbon technology innovative enterprise. In addition, this paper also studies the impact mechanism of different government pricing strategies on heterogeneous enterprise decision-making under heterogeneous objectives of government.

Existing researches verify Porter hypothesis mainly through one of its core establishment paths, innovation compensation, but ignore the other one, first-mover advantages. This paper considers both these paths and further distinguishes environmental R&D and non-environmental R&D in empirical study. Based on the smooth transition principle of “charge to tax” in China, this paper, taking Chinese A-share listed companies that have disclosed environmental R&D from 2008 to 2017 as sample and predicting environmental tax by pollution charge, analyzes the relationship between environmental tax and firm performance and its transmission mechanism. First, our results show that environmental tax can improve firm performance, and this influence remains in long term. After introducing instrument variable (IV) to deal with endogeneity and conducting a series of robustness tests, we then find that the relationship between environmental tax and firm performance is a robust causality. Eventually, we apply mediating effect model to further confirm the two core paths of Porter hypothesis by manifesting that environmental tax can affect firm performance through both innovation compensation and first-mover advantages. Our contributions are revealing the micro mechanism of environmental tax on firm performance, providing evidence from China to support strong Porter hypothesis, and offering some key points regarding environmental tax reform and corporate green strategy.

In order to achieve the goal of sustainable green economic development, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the efficiency of the green economy and compare it with emission reductions. The green economy idea is a much-discussed solution to economic growth. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of government spending on the performance of the green economy of various countries under the “Belt and Road” (BRI) initiative project. The data were analyzed using the BRI economy panel data from 2008 to 2018. The generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to estimate the effect of government expenditures on education and research and development (R&D) on green economic performance index (GEE) in BRI countries. The results reveal that during the study period, BRI countries have experienced an upward transition towards green development, except for Pakistan and Bangladesh; their GEE decreased gradually from 2010 to 2018. Further, the findings of the system GMM revealed that both education and R&D have a positive impact on the green economy. Moreover, the compositional and technological effects of the overall sample were verified with the GMM process. Nevertheless, the sub-sample results revealed a heterogeneous impact on countries with a high per capita GDP. Following the results, useful policy measures for promoting sustainable green economic development have been proposed.

Adolescent females are often environmentally exposed to pesticides by living near agricultural fields, by using pesticides at home, or by having contact with contaminated clothes and pesticide application work tools. This study assessed respiratory, hepatic, renal, and hematological health disorders that might arise due to environmental exposure to pesticides among adolescent females. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 100 adolescent females environmentally exposed to pesticides that had one or more of their family members working as seasonal pesticide applicators and 50 nonexposed (control) adolescent females from Menoufia governorate, Egypt. The studied period of pesticide application season of the cotton crop was from May 1 to September 1, 2017. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire about pesticide exposure and respiratory, hepatic, renal, and hematological disorders. In addition, serum acetylcholinesterase (AChE), spirometry, complete blood count, and liver and kidney function tests were measured pre and post-pesticide application season. The control adolescent females had a higher AChE activity, a lower prevalence of respiratory symptoms, and higher means of spirometric measurements than the exposed group. During the pre- and postseason, the exposed group presented a prevalence of (6%, 24%) for cough, (4%, 11%) for rhinitis, and (6%, 26%) for dyspnea during the pre and postseason, respectively. In addition, there was a decrease in means of spirometric measurements (FEV₁%, FEV₁/FVC%, FEF ₂₅–₇₅%, and PEF%) in the postseason compared to preseason among the exposed group. Also, there were significant associations between (AChE) activity and both the prevalence of respiratory manifestations and spirometric measurements among the exposed females. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant increase in red blood corpuscle (RBC) and lymphocyte counts, and a statistically significantly lower mean hemoglobin level among the exposed group (postseason) than each of their pre-season values and the control group (P < 0.05). AChE level, total protein, albumin, and albumin/globulin (A/G) ratio levels were statistically significantly lower, while SGPT, SGOT and globulin, blood urea, and serum creatinine mean levels were statistically significantly higher among the exposed group (postseason) than either of their preseason or the control group (P < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the AChE level and all studied CBC parameters for the exposed group reaching a statistically significant level with basophils (P < 0.05). Also, there was a negative correlation between the AChE level and each of SGPT, SGOT, ALP, globulin, blood urea, and serum creatinine for the exposed group reaching a statistically significant level with each of SGPT and SGOT (P < 0.05). At the same time, a nonsignificant positive correlation was found between AChE level and each of total protein, albumin, and A/G ratio (P > 0.05). So, environmental exposure to organophosphorus pesticides has a detrimental impact on respiratory, hepatic, renal, and hematological systems of adolescent females living in rural districts at the Menoufia governorate. Educational and training intervention programs on pesticide handling and safety precautions are recommended for protecting both pesticide workers and their family members who might be exposed.

Developing nations are rushing towards economic developments; however, this development is increasing the ecological footprints. In this regard, it has become important to identify the factors of environmental degradation. For sound economic growth, countries are enhancing their human resources with sound financial institutions. Therefore, this work examines the effects of human capital (HC), financial development (FD), and institutional quality (IQ) on ecological footprints (EF) in the group of 11 countries. This work also checks the interactional effect of FD, human capital, and IQ on ecological footprints. This work employs the annual data of 1984–2017 and utilizes the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag approach for panel data analysis (CS-ARDL). The findings show that FD is degrading the environmental quality by 0.04%. Furthermore, IQ and HC are improving environmental quality by 0.07% and 0.01%. The findings also reveal that FD is lowering ecological footprints through the channel of HC and IQ. Based on the findings, these countries need to extend human capital with an efficient institutional network for environmental sustainability. These countries need to allocate funds to the health and education sector to develop human capital. Moreover, human resource management tools should be strengthened to cope with the challenges of environmental problems.

This study presents the experimental results of the flow characteristics, such as the flow adjustment, velocity profiles, mixing layer, and the momentum exchange, in the partially vegetated channel with homogeneous and heterogeneous layouts. Three cases are considered, including two homogeneous canopies with uniform sparse and dense vegetation patches respectively, and a heterogeneous canopy consisting of alternating patches of both densities. Results show that heterogeneous canopy requires a longer adjustment distance to reach the quasi-equilibrium region, compared with the homogenous canopy of the same density. In heterogeneous canopy flow, the mixing layer width and the momentum thickness fluctuates with the alternation of vegetation density. The increased values for these two parameters compared to those values for the homogeneous canopies indicate that the greater resistance and momentum loss occur for the heterogeneous layout. A wavy region of the enhanced in-plane turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) is observed in the heterogeneous canopy, suggesting a comparatively more chaotic flow condition, whereas the contours of in-plane TKE are smooth in homogeneous canopies. The presence of the coherent structures in heterogeneous canopy is identified by spectral analysis and the quasi-periodic fluctuations of velocities. The Reynolds stress associated with the coherent structures is found to be the dominator of the contribution to the total Reynolds stress. The comparison between the homogenous canopies of different density is also conducted. These results will be of practical importance for the design of vegetation layouts in water ecological restoration projects and for river management.

This research intends to identify influential factors in adopting and diffusing solar energy technology (SET) by micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in two tehsils of Multan district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. To this end, the influential factors are identified through studying literature surveys and conducting questionnaires. Following that, partial least squares-based path modeling is employed. The results showed that (1) enterprises’ size, perceived SET’s ease of use, and perceived SET’s reliability are the top three driving factors. (2) The perceived SET’s price, perceived level of competition’s pressure, and MSME’s energy cost intensity are the barriers to the adoption and diffusion of SET, while the lack of technical knowledge about SET is a neutral factor. (3) Perceived SET’s price, MSMEs’ energy cost intensity, and enterprises’ size are among the most important factors based on the effect size and path coefficients, while the lack of technical knowledge about SET, preferences of MSMEs’ customers, and eco-labels and green stickers have lower importance. Since the adoption of SET is a rational decision that is concretely dependent on economic incentives, it is recommended to lower the price of SET to scale up the adoption and diffusion of SET by Pakistani MSMEs.

Forecasting the electricity consumption has always played an important role in the management of power system management, which requires higher forecasting technology. Therefore, based on the principle of “new information priority”, combined with rolling mechanism and Markov theory, a novel grey power-Markov prediction model with time-varying parameters (RGPMM(λ,1,1)) is designed, which overcomes the inherent defects of fixed structure and poor adaptability to the changes of original data. In addition, in order to prove the validity and applicability of the prediction model, we have used the model to predict China’s total electricity consumption, and have compared it with the prediction results by a series of benchmark models. The result shows that the can better adapt to the characteristics of electricity consumption data, and it also shows the advantages of the proposed forecasting model. In this paper, the proposed forecasting model is used to predict China’s total electricity consumption in the next six years from 2018 to 2023, so as to provide certain reference value for power system management and distribution.

The energy storage application plays a vital role in the utilization of the solar energy technologies. There are various types of the energy storage applications are available in the todays world. Phase change materials (PCMs) are suitable for various solar energy systems for prolonged heat energy retaining, as solar radiation is sporadic. This literature review presents the application of the PCM in solar thermal power plants, solar desalination, solar cooker, solar air heater, and solar water heater. Even though the availability and cost of PCMs are complex and high, the PCMs are used in most solar energy methods due to their significant technical parameters improvisation. This review’s detailed findings paved the way for future recommendations and methods for the investigators to carry work for further system developments.

Mineral-associated soil organic matter (MAOM) is seen as the key to soil carbon sequestration, but its stability often varies with types of exogenous organic materials. Fulvic acid and manure are ones of the exogenous organic materials used for the improvement of degraded soil. However, little is known about if and how fulvic acid and manure affect the stability of MAOM. Using a field experiment of four fertilization treatments (no fertilization, mineral fertilizers, fulvic acid, and manure) and a comprehensive meta-analysis using relevant studies published prior to January 2020, we investigated effects of exogenous fulvic acid and manure applications on four MAOM stability indexes: association intensity, humus stabilization index, iron oxide complex coefficient, and aluminum oxide complex coefficient. Exogenous fulvic acid and manure applications increased soil organic carbon fractions by 26.04–48.47%, MAOM stability by 12.26–387.41%, and complexed iron/aluminum contents by 16.12–20.01%. Fulvic acid application increased MAOM stability by promoting mineral oxide complexation by 20.33% and manure application improved MAOM stability via increasing humus stabilization by 21–25%. Association intensity was positively correlated with contents of soil carbon fractions and the metal oxide complex coefficients were positively correlated with iron/aluminum oxide contents. Moreover, stable-humus exerted significantly positive direct and indirect effects on association intensity and humus stabilization index, while amorphous iron/aluminum content had significantly negative influences on metal oxide complex coefficients. The meta-analysis verified that long-term fulvic acid application improved MAOM stability more so than manure application in acidic soils. We recommend that strategies aiming to prevent land degradation should focus on the potential of fulvic acid as a soil amendment because it can significantly increase MAOM stability.