With the increases in residents’ household energy consumption and carbon emissions, to conserve regional energy and reduce emissions, studying the factors affecting residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances and their mechanisms of action is necessary. In this research, based on the theory of extended planned behavior and combined with environmental concern variables and environmental knowledge variables, a model of the factors influencing residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances was constructed and an empirical study of urban residents in Shanxi Province, China was conducted. The research indicates that environmental concern, environmental knowledge, attitude, and perceived behavioral control are significantly positively correlated with residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances. The influence of subjective norms on the willingness of residents to purchase energy-efficient appliances is not significant; environmental concern and environmental knowledge have a positive impact on attitudes and indirectly affect residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances. This study focuses on improvement and research from the perspectives of theoretical expansion, indirect impact test, and analysis of typical underdeveloped energy-rich regions. This study provides corresponding policy suggestions from the perspectives of education and guidance, sales and marketing, and independent improvement for the government, sellers, and residents, to improve the residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances.

An emission trading system (ETS) is a powerful emission reduction tool for achieving low-carbon economic development in the world. Focusing on the industrial subsectors, this paper comprehensively analyzes the environmental and economic effects of the pilot ETS in China from the perspectives of economic development, technological optimization, and innovation-driven development by using the propensity score matching–difference in differences (PSM-DID) model based on 2005–2017 provincial panel data. This paper compensates for the limitations of existing studies on the effects of ETS on different subsectors; furthermore, the triple difference model (DDD) model is used to discuss the impacts of differences in environmental responsibility and economic potential among subsectors on policy effects. The empirical results show that: (1) The pilot ETS produces a 14.5% carbon reduction effect on the covered subsectors while reducing GDP by 4.8% without achieving a low-carbon economy. Thus, production decline is the main reason for carbon emission reductions. (2) Economic development factors have significant positive impacts on carbon emissions, while technological optimization and innovation-driven development are key factors for achieving reductions in carbon emissions. (3) The pilot ETS produces a 60.1% carbon emission inhibition effect and 23.2% GDP inhibition effect on the subsectors with greater environmental responsibility. Therefore, the Chinese government should fully simulate the impact of technological innovation and utilize resource endowment differences in the environmental and economic aspects of different sectors to achieve low-carbon economic development.

The rapidly increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide lead to a threat of global climate change. As one of the major sources of carbon emissions in the Antarctic region, shipborne tourism in the Antarctic is expanding rapidly. Consequently, the carbon emissions of shipborne tourism in Antarctica are rapidly increasing. However, there is not enough attention being paid to this issue. In this paper, a calculation model was established to calculate the carbon emissions of cruise ships from the 2003/04 season to the 2016/17 season. The evolution of the carbon emissions from Antarctic cruise ships was described. An aggregate energy efficiency index was developed to evaluate the energy efficiency performance of Antarctic vessels. The key drivers were analyzed to find the paths of carbon reduction. The results show that: (1) The emissions per passenger-trip did not show a downward trend. The total carbon emissions increased continuously with the increasing number of tourists. The total carbon emissions in the 2016/17 season was double that in the 2003/04 season. (2) The aggregate energy efficiency index of Antarctic tour vessels has not reached an advanced level yet. It is the main reason for the high value of emissions per passenger-trip. (3) Due to the oversupply of Antarctica tour ships, there is a low rate of occupancy, which accounts for the decline in aggregate energy efficiency from the 2014/15 season to the 2016/17 season. This study suggests that the administrators of Antarctica should strengthen supervision of the tourism market, control the rapid growth in the number of cruise ships, improve the aggregate energy efficiency of cruise ships and form an efficient and green Antarctic tourism management system.

A carbon emission trading system (ETS) is an effective market mechanism for promoting the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions and achieving sustainable development between the economy and the environment. To analyze the emissions reduction effect and economic effect of China’s ETS and further discuss the mechanisms of economic development differences and industrial development differences on the final effect of the policy, this study adopts the propensity score matching-difference in differences method and triple difference method. The empirical results show the following: (1) The ETS can simultaneously achieve both the emissions reduction effect and economic effect when key control variables are included. (2) The population, carbon emissions intensity and per capita GDP have significant positive impacts on carbon emissions; the environmental pollution control intensity, research structure, and research intensity have negative impacts on carbon emissions; and the capita stock, employment, and energy consumption have significant positive economic effects. (3) The ETS has a stronger inhibitory effect on the provinces with higher levels of economic and service development compared to the provinces with lower levels of economic and service development. In contrast, the policy has a weaker inhibitory effect on provinces with higher levels of industrial and construction development compared with the lower level provinces.