Demand for ruminant products (dairy products, beef, and sheep meat) is increasing rapidly with population and income growth and the acceleration of urbanization. However, ruminant animals exert the highest environmental impacts and consume the most resources in the livestock system. Increasing studies have focused on various measures to reduce ammonia, greenhouse gas emissions, and resource depletion from ruminant production to consumption. This review offers supply- and demand-side management strategies to reduce the environmental impact of ruminant products and emphasizes the mitigation potential of coupling livestock production with cultivation and renewable energy. On a global scale, more attention should be paid to the green-source trade and to strengthening global technology sharing. The success of these strategies depends on the cost effectiveness of technology, public policy, and financial support. Future studies and practice should focus on global database development for sharing mitigation strategies, thus facilitating technology innovations and socioeconomic feasibility.
As the spaces for dialogue between the past and the future, museums are essential to human well-being and social sustainability. Here, we collected data from 328 cities in 31 provinces of mainland China from 1980 to 2019 to investigate the changes in number and spatial inequalities of museums. The results showed that: (1) in mainland China, there were only 137 museums in 1980, and while this increased to 5626 in 2019, China still possessed only four museums per million people; (2) the increasing number of museums lagged behind the growth rate of both the population and economy at both the province and city level; (3) the Gini coefficient of museums per million people was only 0.27 in 2019, indicating relative equality of visiting opportunities among the provinces of China; (4) the Gini coefficients of per capita museums in some provinces were higher than that of the whole nation, with the highest ~0.6 in 2010 and 0.4 in 2017; (5) the economic competitiveness and human well-being of a city were promoted by an increased number of museums. We suggest that the central government of China should increase the number of museums in all provinces, while some provinces should pay more attention to the inequality in the distribution of cultural facilities among cities.
Effective regulations of carbon productivity (CP) at the sectoral level offer a practical path to implement cost-effective CO2 reduction measures. To date, few studies on the temporal changes in sectoral CP have identified driving factors that can be regulated through policy interventions. We took Zhejiang Province (P.R. China) as a case study to assess the changes in CP of 41 economic sectors covering primary, secondary and tertiary industries during 2010–2017 and analyze the underlying driving factors of these changes. During the period, 31 sectors increased their CP, 12 of which decreased in energy-related CO2 emissions and increased in economic values and were potentially usable in ‘carbon peaking and carbon neutrality’ pilots. Meanwhile, 10 sectors reduced their CP, which had priority in the promotion of low-carbon technologies and implementation of transformative policies. We identified that the major contributors to the changes of sectoral CP are the factors involving electricity consumption, projects completed and put into use, water use efficiency, foreign investment and floor space of buildings. Our findings recommended improvement in the infrastructures and institutions of electricity consumption, the efficiency of the procedures for project approval, the utilization of water resources and the low-carbon investment in fixed assets on sectoral level.