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Sustainability in Environmental Policy and Green Economics

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1667

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: environmental and resource economics; green and sustainable development policy; regional low-carbon transition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Center for Ecological Civilization Research, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Interests: green development policy and evaluation; ecological conservation; regional ecological civilization strategy

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Guest Editor
Development and Research Center, China Geological Survey, Beijing 100037, China
Interests: natural capital budget; ecological environment assessment; ecological geological survey

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Guest Editor
China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences, CAS-HEC, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Interests: sustainable development; green economy; environmental resource management; environmental economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing urgency of climate change and the global commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the nexus of environmental policy and green economics has emerged as a critical area of scholarly and practical significance. This interdisciplinary field explores how economic principles can effectively align with environmental sustainability, driving public policy that supports eco-friendly energy production, consumption, and overall resource management. For example, accurately appraising the value of natural capital and ecosystem services is essential for informing effective environmental policies and shaping economic decisions that promote sustainable energy use. Moreover, policies and economic instruments are fundamental to incentivizing a shift towards sustainable practices, phasing out fossil fuels, and scaling up renewable energy solutions.

The primary aim of this Special Issue is to gather a collection of rigorous academic manuscripts that critically analyze and enhance our understanding of how environmental policy and green economics can synergize to foster sustainability. This Special Issue aims to provide groundbreaking insights and inspire transformative changes in policy-making and economic strategies, ensuring a resilient and sustainable environmental future. It seeks to illuminate the broader implications of integrating ecological valuations into policy-making and economic frameworks, thus aligning them with sustainable development goals. Consistent with the broad scope of the journal ‘Sustainability,’ this Special Issue will feature diverse methodologies and insights that connect the valuation of ecosystem services and natural capital with practical policies and economic mechanisms to facilitate the energy transition. It will include a variety of perspectives, approaches, and data to firmly establish environmental policy and green economics as central to sustainable development discourse and practice.

Suggest themes:

  • The role of carbon pricing and taxes in driving the transition to clean energy.
  • Economic analysis of renewable energy subsidies and their impacts on green market.
  • The effectiveness of international environmental policies in promoting energy use.
  • Cross-country comparisons of green economic policies for sustainable growth.
  • The intersection of energy security, equity, and sustainability within green economic frameworks.
  • Community-based and local government initiatives for green economic transformation.
  • Impact assessments of environmental regulation on green innovation and investments.
  • Advanced methods for valuing ecosystem services and their integration into green policies.
  • The role of natural capital accounting in shaping green strategies for sustainable development.

Dr. Shuai Zhong
Dr. Chao Zhang
Dr. Gan Luo
Dr. Bushra Khalid
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable environmental policy
  • energy economy and efficiency
  • green development policy and evaluation
  • ecological conservation
  • natural capital budget
  • ecological environment assessment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 1310 KiB  
Article
Cost Estimation for the Operation and Maintenance of Automated Monitoring and Early-Warning Equipment for Geological Hazards
by Gan Luo, Mingqi Tao, Baohe Wu, Mingzhi Zhang, Shuai Zhong, Junfeng Li and Xiaodi Yang
Sustainability 2024, 16(23), 10505; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310505 - 29 Nov 2024
Viewed by 963
Abstract
Geological hazards impede regional economy sustainability. To limit their destructive impacts on human life and property, the Chinese government has independently developed automated monitoring and early-warning equipment, which has been deployed in over 250,000 locations nationwide, yielding effective early warnings. The smooth operation [...] Read more.
Geological hazards impede regional economy sustainability. To limit their destructive impacts on human life and property, the Chinese government has independently developed automated monitoring and early-warning equipment, which has been deployed in over 250,000 locations nationwide, yielding effective early warnings. The smooth operation of this equipment necessitates substantial human, material, and financial resources for its maintenance. To allocate funds rationally, the Ministry of Finance of China has mandated the urgent establishment of budget standards for the operation and maintenance of automated monitoring and early-warning systems for geological hazards. Addressing the research gap in this area, this study meticulously develops a cost model, subcategorizing operating costs, maintenance costs, and management costs. Addressing the intricate issue of maintenance expenditures, this study ingeniously breaks down routine operations and urgent repairs stipulated in technical standards into personnel, materials, and vehicular needs for each equipment type. Considering the total manpower involved in equipment maintenance, the per-unit maintenance cost is determined. This method allocates costs to individual pieces of equipment, thereby sidestepping the quantification hurdle created by varying types and quantities of monitoring equipment at each monitoring site due to various geological disaster types and magnitudes, and technical personnel’s maintenance responsibility for multiple equipment types in a single operation. Finally, incorporating regional adjustment coefficients, we have formulated theoretical costs for the operation and maintenance of automated monitoring and early-warning equipment for geological hazards. By contrasting theoretical costs with actual project budgets, the error margin is within 2%. Following nationwide consultation, these theoretical costs have been officially endorsed as the budget standard. These standards will lay the groundwork for project budgeting and review, facilitate efficient fund utilization, and ensure the financial sustainability of monitoring and warning systems for geological hazards. Concurrently, this paper bridges the global lack in budget norms for the operation and upkeep of automated geological disaster monitoring systems. The cost calculation model introduced serves as a pivotal reference globally for the evaluation of analogous system’s operations and maintenance expenses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Environmental Policy and Green Economics)
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