Search Results (456)

As climate change intensifies, transitioning the construction sector away from fossil fuels is vital to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and localized urban pollution. This paper assesses the economic feasibility of electrifying construction machinery by developing an Annualized Cost of Ownership framework that incorporates mobile charging solutions, internalizes environmental and public health operational externalities (CO₂, PM_2.5, NO_x, and SO₂), and relies on Monte Carlo simulation with Cholesky decomposition to capture the interdependencies among cost drivers. We analyze twenty distinct models of excavators and wheel loaders—the two largest contributors to construction-machinery emissions—comprising functionally equivalent diesel and battery-electric variants. Our results show that several compact electric models are already cost-competitive even without internalizing environmental and public health operational externalities. When these are accounted for, the economic advantage of electric machinery increases, particularly in denser urban areas where local air pollution damages are severe. While projected battery cost reductions further lower electric ownership costs, the magnitude of this effect is modest. However, the weak penetration of electric construction equipment in the US underscores that targeted policy interventions—such as point-of-sale rebates, green procurement mandates, tax credits, charging infrastructure subsidies, or the creation of low-emission zones and noise ordinances that advantage electric construction machinery—are needed to accelerate market adoption. These measures are particularly critical in densely populated urban areas, where internalizing local air pollution and public health externalities significantly amplifies the economic value of zero-emission machinery. Full article

Active labor market policies (ALMPs) targeting self-employment have become a well-established and relevant instrument within employment promotion strategies across many European countries. However, despite their strategic and economic importance, there is limited evidence on their potential performance prior to implementation. This paper aims to address this gap by conducting an ex-ante cost–benefit simulation of different types of ALMPs designed to promote self-employment in Spain. The methodology is based on estimating public costs per beneficiary and quantifiable potential benefits, including avoided welfare payments, additional tax revenues, and the generation of economic activity. These benefits are adjusted using two key parameters: additionality (the proportion of the effect genuinely attributable to the policy) and persistence (the duration of the impact over time). In addition, three sensitivity scenarios (conservative, baseline, and favorable) are developed. The results suggest that financing and access to credit policies exhibit the most robust returns, while direct subsidies, general tax incentives, and emergency policies are more sensitive to intervention design features. Consequently, the effectiveness of ALMPs targeting self-employment depends fundamentally on their ability to align with the specific frictions faced by potential entrepreneurs and on the persistence of their effects. Full article

This study examines the visitor-demand impact of a government-funded payment for ecosystem services policy applied to cultural heritage sites. In May 2023, South Korea abolished cultural heritage visitation fees at national-park temples. This policy shift replaced a decades-long user-pay model with government compensation to temples, effectively transitioning to a government-funded PES framework. The reform aimed to resolve protracted social conflict over fee collection at trailheads serving both religious and recreational visitors. Utilizing monthly visitation data spanning January 2020 to December 2024 (N = 960 site-months), we employed a difference-in-differences design with propensity score matching to compare eight treated temple sites against eight matched controls. The results indicate that fee abolition produced a statistically significant average increase of approximately 14,229 monthly visitors per treated site. The results proved robust across five distinct model specifications, and event-study analysis confirmed that the parallel trends assumption was satisfied. These findings provide quasi-experimental evidence that removing price barriers at heritage sites substantially increases observed visitor demand, a necessary condition for enhanced public accessibility to cultural ecosystem services. Whether this demand increase translates into broader welfare gains, such as regional economic spillovers, improved visitor well-being, or long-term fiscal sustainability of the subsidy, remains an important question for future research. Full article

This study uses data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2020 to 2024. We manually collect green procurement lists from official government procurement websites and match them with firm samples. Employing the two-way fixed effects model and the Bootstrap method, this paper empirically examines the impact of green public procurement on corporate carbon reduction. The results show that green public procurement significantly improves firms’ carbon reduction performance. Mechanism analysis indicates that AI adoption and government green subsidies further strengthen this effect. Heterogeneity tests reveal that the impact is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises, high-tech firms and enterprises in regions with advanced digital economies. Accordingly, we propose suggestions including strengthening the driving role of green procurement, promoting coordination between green procurement and digital technology, optimising the allocation of green funds, and implementing targeted differentiated incentives. This research helps clarify the internal mechanism of green public procurement on carbon emission reduction performance and provides references for improving relevant practices in carbon emission reduction. Full article

Under Article 2135 of the Italian Civil Code, agricultural biogas firms represent a strategic expansion of traditional farming boundaries. By driving corporate diversification, environmental sustainability, and circular economy objectives, these firms are attracting substantial investment within the European Union and particularly in Italy. However, the bioenergy sector is structurally characterized by high capital intensity and low asset turnover efficiency, necessitating extensive external financing. Despite these unique dynamics, empirical evidence regarding their capital structure remains scarce. To address this literature gap, this study analyzes a 10-year balanced panel dataset comprising 350 firm-year observations, representing the most extensive research conducted to date on specialized Italian agricultural biogas firms. To answer the research questions (RQs), financial ratios (FRs) were calculated from financial statement (FINSTAT) data by applying the DuPont decomposition framework. The main findings are that (1) firms exhibit high profitability, but with some cases of loss and equity erosion; (2) firms exhibit low capital turnover and some cases of short-term financial unsustainability; (3) capital structure is often characterized by excessive debt. Our findings reveal a capital-intensive sector that, while profitable, remains vulnerable to financial instability. We provide actionable insights for practitioners and policymakers to foster a culture of financial sustainability. Our findings help mitigate information asymmetries, fostering more transparent market operations and ensuring that public subsidies are channeled into resilient capital structures. Full article

This study investigates the integration of bioeconomy principles in the Greek livestock sector, framing the transition from conventional farming toward a circular bioeconomy as a strategy for resource conservation and reduced environmental pressure. It assesses farmers’ awareness of bioeconomy principles, the adoption of circular practices, and the associated economic and conservation-related performance. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 383 livestock farmers across the main livestock-producing regions of Greece and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Although respondents show substantial awareness, adoption remains incomplete, mainly because of high initial capital costs and insufficient financial incentives. Farmers implementing circular strategies reported gains in resource-use efficiency, waste minimization, and the conservation of soil, water, and biodiversity, particularly reduced greenhouse-gas emissions, while public subsidies and fiscal incentives emerged as the principal drivers of adoption. In applied terms, support should be prioritized for capital-intensive investments such as anaerobic digestion, manure and nutrient recovery, and water reuse, and the awareness–adoption gap is best closed through targeted subsidies and training. The findings offer concrete guidance for conservation-oriented agri-environmental policy supporting the green transition of livestock farming in Greece. Full article

The inequitable redistribution of electricity price cross-subsidies constitutes a critical issue, as it compromises the implementation efficiency of tiered electricity pricing (TEP) policies and impedes the equalization of basic public services in the power sector. Drawing on residential TEP data from Hebei Province spanning 2016 to 2020, this paper employs the Gini coefficient method and reveals that high-income residential users receive substantially larger electricity price cross-subsidies than their low-income counterparts. Overall, the degree of such inequality has been rising annually. Furthermore, both high-income and low-income groups exhibit greater inequity in subsidy allocation relative to the middle-income group. Against this backdrop, this paper proposes a more rational tiering framework for TEP by adopting the rank-sum ratio (RSR) method, thereby identifying a viable pathway for residential users across all income brackets to share electricity costs equitably. This research contributes to the sound management of electricity price cross-subsidies, mitigates the inequity in subsidy distribution, and guides residents toward rational electricity consumption behaviors. Full article

Digital technologies are increasingly promoted as enablers of decarbonization and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance in shipping, yet adoption remains constrained by high upfront costs, uncertain returns, supply–demand mismatch, and the risk of symbolic ESG disclosure and greenwashing. This study develops a collaborative governance framework to explain how technology provision, enterprise adoption, and public regulation co-evolve under ESG constraints. We construct a tripartite evolutionary game involving technology providers, shipping enterprises, and the government, incorporating ESG-driven market preference, technology matching efficiency, supply- and demand-side subsidies, regulatory intensity, greenwashing detection and penalties, and system-wide ESG benefits. Replicator dynamics and equilibrium stability analysis are used to derive convergence conditions, and numerical simulations together with system dynamics are employed to examine adjustment paths and convergence speed under alternative policy scenarios. Results indicate that a high-compliance equilibrium emerges when the net benefits of supply and adoption are positive and regulatory benefits offset enforcement and subsidy costs. Matching efficiency is identified as a key friction that slows diffusion and delays convergence even under favorable ESG market signals. Subsidies reduce cost pressure on both supply and demand sides, while greenwashing penalties and effective detection strengthen compliance incentives and accelerate convergence. Overall, the findings suggest that policy packages combining targeted incentives with credible enforcement are more effective than single-instrument approaches, and that improving technology–business fit is essential for transforming ESG pressure from external compliance into sustained internal adoption. Full article

The European 2035 decarbonisation framework rests on a conditional premise—that higher renewable-electricity penetration accelerates battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption—yet it has not been tested at the panel level. The question is timely: the December 2025 Automotive Package would soften the 2035 target from 100 to 90 percent CO₂ reduction and permit continued production of plug-in hybrids beyond 2035, while the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) imposes binding charging-coverage targets from 2025 onwards. We assemble an annual panel of 31 European economies over 2015–2024 (310 country-year observations) and combine a two-way fixed-effects baseline on five disaggregated powertrain shares, an interaction model with public charging coverage as a moderator, and a Hansen-style threshold panel. The within-country BEV-share coefficient on renewable-electricity penetration is statistically null (β = +0.18, p = 0.247), rejecting the linear premise. The plug-in hybrid share, by contrast, responds positively and unconditionally (β = +0.36, p = 0.001)—a “PHEV paradox” of compositional response. The BEV channel, by contrast, is conditional on infrastructure: its marginal effect rises with public charging coverage and is positive only in the upper part of the charging distribution (interaction β₃ = +0.13, p = 0.027). A formal Hansen-style threshold test in the renewable share does not reject the linear specification (sup-F = 0.73, bootstrap p = 0.97), so the BEV conditionality is identified through the charging-coverage interaction. The findings characterise a two-speed European transition. The first channel reflects compliance-led PHEV hedging; the second reflects BEV charging network complementarity enabled by AFIR-mandated coverage. Subsidy rebalancing away from PHEV eligibility, strict AFIR enforcement, and PHEV utility-factor reform are necessary policy levers for the 2035 framework to deliver full electrification rather than the partial electrification that current incentives yield. Full article

Environmental co-governance depends not only on the local stability of collaboration but also on whether ENGO-based collaborative participation is attainable from a broad range of initial conditions. This study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving local governments, environmental NGOs (ENGOs), and the public, and uses basin-of-attraction analysis to examine the global attainability of high-participation environmental co-governance. The model combines replicator dynamics, Jacobian-based local stability analysis, threshold conditions, numerical simulation, and basin-of-attraction estimation. The results show that collaborative stability is conditional: high-participation co-governance emerges only when institutional support, ENGO participation incentives, and public cooperation conditions jointly exceed critical thresholds. Institutional support is more effective when it improves coordination capacity and reduces implementation friction, whereas unconditional subsidies have ambiguous effects because they increase ENGO incentives while also reducing the government’s relative payoff from strong support. Public cooperation is especially sensitive to participation burden and targeted incentives, while higher passive payoffs for ENGOs enlarge low-participation traps. The analysis is theoretical and simulation-based, informed by China’s institutionally bounded ENGO context, and is not intended as an empirically calibrated prediction for a specific locality. The findings suggest that durable environmental co-governance requires coordinated institutional arrangements that jointly strengthen governmental support, ENGO participation incentives, and public cooperation conditions. Full article

This paper examines the evolution of urban transport policy in Saudi Arabia from a car-dependent paradigm toward sustainability-oriented planning and early implementation between 2000 and 2025. Using a longitudinal qualitative analysis of national strategies, municipal plans, and giga-project documents, this study traces shifts in policy discourse, governance arrangements, and delivery evidence across three phases: an expansionist phase (2000–2015), a vision transition phase (2016–2020), and a sustainability implementation phase (2021–2025). These phases were selected to capture the transition from pre-Vision 2030 automobile-oriented planning to the early implementation of sustainability-oriented transportation reforms. The findings reveal a clear transition from road-expansion-oriented planning—characterized by highway development, fuel subsidies, and limited public transport—toward system performance, decarbonization, and multimodal integration. Recent years have seen the rollout of metro and bus networks, expansion of rail systems, early electrification of vehicles and public transport, and fuel price rationalization. However, persistent behavioral lock-in, low-density urban forms, climatic constraints, and complex multi-level governance arrangements continue to limit modal shift and equitable mobility outcomes. The findings suggest that infrastructure investment alone cannot achieve substantial modal shift without integrated land-use planning, feeder systems, and demand-management measures. By linking policy ambition to implementation pathways over time, this study provides transferable insights for sustainable mobility transitions in oil-dependent and arid urban contexts. Full article

To address the “greenwashing” trust crisis induced by information asymmetry in sustainable supply chains, this study develops a comprehensive game-theoretic model integrating Stackelberg and evolutionary game theories (EGT). We quantitatively investigate the dynamic interactions among multi-dimensional consumer preferences, blockchain implementation costs, and boundedly rational government interventions. Our analysis yields three core contributions. First, we analytically reveal the “double-edged sword effect” of blockchain adoption. While structural transparency unlocks a trust dividend, exorbitant technological costs trigger a “budget crowding-out effect.” Quantitative results demonstrate that breaching the absolute Feasibility Threshold completely cannibalizes the environmental budget, driving substantive green investments strictly to zero. Second, EGT analysis proves that isolated punitive carbon taxes trap supply chains in a suboptimal “shallow greening” equilibrium. A composite tax-subsidy policy is structurally required to expand the feasible cost space and hedge against technological risks. Finally, we formulate a dynamic policy exit mechanism. As blockchain infrastructure matures and the endogenous green premium effectively offsets implementation costs, regulators must systematically phase out subsidies and converge toward a single-taxation regime to prevent corporate policy arbitrage and alleviate long-term public financial burdens. Full article

In the context of the dual-carbon goals and the broader United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, stimulating innovation motivation within environmental protection enterprises holds significant strategic importance for achieving long-term sustainability. Drawing on institutional theory and signaling theory, this study examines how government subsidies influence the sustainable innovation performance in China’s environmental protection industry and investigates the boundary conditions and mechanisms of this relationship from a socio-economic and integrated policy perspective. Using a sample of 121 listed environmental protection enterprises in China from 2016 to 2025, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of government subsidies on both the quantity and quality of innovation output. It innovatively incorporates the market-driven factor of public environmental attention into the analytical framework to test its moderating effect and examines the mediating role of corporate social responsibility. The findings indicate that government subsidies significantly enhance both the quantity and quality of innovation output from environmental protection enterprises, thereby contributing to their sustainability transition. Public environmental attention positively moderates the innovation-incentivizing effect of government subsidies, with a stronger moderating effect on innovation quality than on quantity. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the incentive effect of government subsidies on innovation quantity is significant only in the eastern and western regions of China, while the effect on innovation quality is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and the western region, offering insights for region-specific and ownership-specific sustainable policy designs. Mechanism analysis indicates that government subsidies promote innovation performance by encouraging firms to fulfill corporate social responsibilities, with CSR serving as a partial mediator. These findings extend institutional and signaling theories to the context of environmental protection enterprises and provide a framework for quantifying and monitoring the effectiveness of sustainability policies. Based on the conclusions, relevant policy optimization suggestions are proposed to align industrial innovation with the principles of sustainable development. Full article

To optimize the freight distribution structure of ports and reduce carbon emissions from freight transportation, this paper develops a bi-level programming model for freight traffic shifting between roadway and waterway networks that incorporates carbon emissions. First, a complex freight network based on the roadway–water transport system is constructed, comprising roadway networks, inland waterway networks, maritime networks, and transshipment nodes. A traffic impedance model is then formulated within this complex network framework, integrating the roadway BPR function, the M/M/1 queuing model for lock passage time on inland waterways, and the M/M/c queuing model for port cargo handling into the impedance function. This allows micro-level congestion effects to be combined with macro-level traffic assignment. Next, a bi-level programming model for freight traffic shifting in the roadway–water network system is established, with carbon emissions incorporated. The NSGA-II algorithm is employed to determine the optimal carbon subsidy level, based on which the traffic distribution in the complex freight network is analyzed. Finally, the proposed model is applied to the roadway–waterway bimodal network in the Hangzhou Bay port area of Cixi. The results indicate that without subsidies, the waterway transport share is only 1.74%. The optimal subsidy efficiency frontier is identified at CNY 350,000/day, where the waterway share increases to 22.7% and carbon emissions decrease by 33.27 tons/day. The subsidy strategy evolves through three stages: first, prioritizing maritime shipping; second, jointly promoting inland and maritime shipping; and finally, shifting focus to infrastructure investment once subsidies reach saturation. This study offers a quantitative analytical tool for designing differentiated carbon subsidy policies to facilitate the road-to-waterway modal shift under fiscal constraints. Full article

In the extreme climate of Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, Energy Poverty (EP) has been historically addressed via a gas subsidy for heating and a discount considering the dwelling’s value, reducing the price paid by the homes by around 70% compared to the national average, albeit without intervention measures for the low thermal performance of the housing stock built before 2000. This study sought to evaluate the technical, economic, and fiscal feasibility of replacing consumption subsidies with thermal retrofitting. A representative standard dwelling (V4, 114 m²) was modeled using dynamic simulation in DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus and calibrated against monthly gas consumption (July 2024–June 2025) using normalized mean bias error (NMBE) and the coefficient of variation in the root-mean-square error (CV(RMSE)) according to ASHRAE Guideline 14. The baseline and retrofitted scenarios were compared and extrapolated to the pre-2000 stock of 38,605 homes at coverage levels of 0%, 20%, 50%, and 80%. In the standard dwelling, the annual consumption decreased from 5181.5 to 702.5 m³/year (49,224 to 6674 kWh/year), a decrease of 86.4%. On an overall scale, aggregate consumption fell from 1820 GWh/year (0%) to 1562, 1090, and 608 GWh/year at 20%, 50%, and 80% coverage, respectively. With an investment of US$25,289.00 and annual fiscal savings of US$6458.54, the net present value is US$49,470.36, and the benefit/cost ratio is 2.96 over 20 years (6% discount rate), indicating that investment in the housing stock’s performance consistently reduces vulnerability and fiscal pressure. Full article