Russia has considerable experience in the development of winter sports and ski resorts. The region around Lake Baikal possesses unique landscapes and cultural unity, making it a hot spot for winter tourism in Russia. The ski resorts around Lake Baikal are among the most attractive tourist destinations during the winter season, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists. Based on the experience of the Northeast Asia Sustainable Development Research Centre, this study includes a survey of experts from China and Russia. The study focuses on five major ski resorts near Lake Baikal. A comprehensive competitiveness assessment index system and a quantitative evaluation model for winter tourism resorts have been established, which enable a scientific evaluation of the level of comprehensive competitiveness of winter tourism regions near Lake Baikal. The study showed that the Sobolinaya ski resort has excellent competitiveness among the resorts studied, while Bychya and Istland have average competitiveness and Davan and Mamai have low competitiveness. Local natural resources and the level of infrastructure development make the most significant contributions to the overall competitiveness of a resort. The study proposes development measures, such as the creation of a winter tourism complex with the Sobolinaya resort as its core and the establishment of an international special zone for winter tourism along the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor. The research results can serve as a basis for decision making to improve the overall competitiveness of the winter tourism industry around Lake Baikal and provide scientific and technical support for cross-border international cooperation in the winter tourism industry between China and Russia.

The potential of cross-border regional cooperation development is important for evaluating the present and future capacity for regional development. Primorsky Krai (Russia) and Jilin (China) share borders and complementary advantages. China and Russia have growing intention to strengthen cooperation, with geopolitical considerations. This study constructs a regional development potential assessment index system from the perspective of cross-border cooperation, and it establishes a multilayer cross-border regional development potential assessment (RDPA) model with three layers: target, factor, and indicator. By coupling four modules (economic, social, transportation, and resource environment), this study builds a development potential value system. The results illustrate that Primorsky Krai and Jilin have potential for cross-border cooperative development. The results reveal that Primorsky Krai has comparative advantages in port logistics, agriculture, fishery, and mining, which are all complementary to Jilin. These are important directions for cross-border international cooperation. Additionally, this study provides suggestions on decision-making and strategy consultation for the international cooperation between Jilin and Primorsky Krai and creates references for the study of cross-border cooperation opportunities and challenges for other neighboring regions around the world.

On account of the long-term dependence on energy trade and the phenomenon of embodied carbon emissions in interprovincial trade (ECEs-IPT), energy supply bases (ESBs) in the economic integration regions (EIRs) are under unprecedented dual pressure of achieving carbon emissions (CEs) reduction targets and ensuring security and stability of the energy supply. This problem has attracted more and more attention and research by experts and scholars. This paper took Anhui, the coal ESB of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), as an example and took the key stage of rapid development of regional economic integration (REI) and accelerated the realization of CEs reduction targets in YREB from 2007 to 2017 as the study period. From the perspectives of regions and industry sectors, we calculated the transfer amount of ECEs-IPT in Anhui among the YREB, analyzed the spatial–temporal evolution pattern of ECEs-IPT, and revealed the industrial characteristics of ECEs-IPT. Then, we classified the industry sectors and proposed the direction of industrial improvement measures. The results showed that, during the decade, the amount of provinces undertaking the net ECEs-IPT outflow from Anhui increased significantly and spatially expanded from only Jiangxi Province to almost all of the YREB. In addition, 39.77% of the net ECEs-IPT outflow of Anhui was concentrated in petroleum processing, coking, and nuclear fuel processing (RefPetraol), metal smelting and rolling processing (MetalSmelt), and electricity and heat production and supply (ElectpowerProd) that trade with Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. The analytical model and results will provide a useful reference for the global similar coal ESBs, especially the coal ESBs within the EIRs, to formulate improvement measures for regions or even the world to ensure stability of the energy supply and achieve regional CEs reduction targets.

Export embodied carbon emissions (EECE) and their domestic spillover effects (DSE) are typical interregional carbon transfer phenomena. They have diversified impacts for different regions within a country, and result in the associated effect on the economy and environment. From 2007 to 2017, the EECE of China was mainly concentrated in five provinces, and EECE intensity mostly decreased. Liaoning Province had the largest EECE intensity and EECE growth from 2012 to 2017. Based on the multi-region input-output tables of China, we applied the Multi-region Input-output Model and constructed the Coupling Relationship Model for trade value and carbon emission, quantitatively assessed the EECE and its DSE for Liaoning Province, depicted the spatial-temporal evolution patterns, proposed sectoral adjustment countermeasures, and evaluated the adjustment effects. The research found that the EECE and its DSE of Liaoning Province was 32.08 MtCO₂ and 5.43 MtCO₂ in 2017. It was mainly concentrated in the metal smelting and rolling processing sector (MetalSmelt) and the petroleum processing, coking and nuclear fuel processing sectors (RefPetral). The spatial agglomeration effect was obvious, and Jilin Province was the largest DSE region. According to the Coupling Relationship Model of export trade value and export embodied carbon emissions, the sectors were divided into four types, and different adjustment countermeasures were proposed, such as encouragement, control, targeted promotion and targeted reduction. For the MetalSmelt and the RefPetral, if the export value reduced 100 million CNY, the EECE would be reduced by 21.57 ktCO₂ and 23.35 ktCO₂, respectively, and the DSE would be reduced by 1.59 ktCO₂ and 1.65 ktCO₂, respectively. The conclusions could provide a decision-making basis for the case area to formulate lower-cost and better-effective carbon reduction adjustment countermeasures. It could also provide reference and scientific support for the achievement of “Carbon Neutrality” and sustainable development in similar regions of the world with the rapid growth of EECE.