Rural tourism has been developing vigorously, and rural community functions are becoming diversified in China. Therefore, this paper takes China as an example to explore how sustainable rural tourism affects rural community development in the long and short run over the period 1994–2020. Sustainable rural tourism can be measured using two indicators: total rural tourism revenue and number of rural tourists. Rural community development is measured by the number of rural community service institutions. Then, by incorporating other variables and using the autoregressive distributed lag bounds co-integration technique to perform an empirical analysis, we found that, whether in the long or short run, sustainable rural tourism always plays a positive and significant role in promoting rural community development. In particular, in the long run, rural infrastructure construction, rural ecological environment, agricultural fiscal expenditure, agricultural technological progress, and rural human capital are identified as the major forces behind rural community development. Meanwhile, in the short run, rural infrastructure construction, rural ecological environment, agricultural fiscal expenditure, agricultural technological progress, and rural human capital are also major drivers of rural community development. This paper contributes to the current literature by filling in the existing gaps in several aspects.

With the continuous promotion of China’s new rural construction, rural tourism is considered to be an important driving force to promote the sustainable development of rural economy. Sustainable farmers’ income is a major part of the sustainable development of rural economy. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the effect of rural tourism on sustainable farmers’ income. Using China’s provincial panel data over the period of 2003 to 2020 and employing the mediation effect model to perform empirical analysis, four results are obtained: (1) rural tourism positively and significantly affects sustainable farmers’ income. However, among five kinds of farmers’ income, the coefficients in magnitude are different. (2) A mediation effect of rural ecological environment on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income exists. (3) A mediation effect of urbanization on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income also exists. (4) On the whole, the mediation effect of rural ecological environment on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income is less than that of the mediation effect of urbanization. Based on the evidence this paper provides, corresponding suggestions are raised to promote sustainable farmers’ income.

Understanding pore structure evolution in lacustrine shale systems provides critical insights for marine shale reservoir characterization. This study presents an integrated petrological and petrophysical analysis of a representative lacustrine shale succession, employing low temperature nitrogen adsorption (LTNA), whole rock X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The study shows that (1) Clay-dominated pore systems evolve through distinct pathways compared to marine shales, with illite/smectite mixed-layer minerals generating abundant mesopores through diagenetic transformation. (2) Organic matter- dominated pores display limited connectivity due to Type III kerogen characteristics and hydrocarbon generation-induced pore occlusion, contrasting with marine shale systems dominated by Type II kerogen. (3) Comparative analysis demonstrates that lacustrine shales preserve 30–40% higher micro-mesopore volumes than their marine counterparts under similar thermal maturity conditions, attributed to enhanced clay mineral diagenesis in freshwater environments. These findings provide a new framework for understanding pore structure development in non-marine depositional systems and provide valuable analogs for marine shale reservoir evaluation, particularly in transitional marine-lacustrine basins.

This article investigates the interplay between renewable energy utilization and the implementation of circular economy frameworks and its role in shaping environmental sustainability across 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2023. When employing panel data methodologies, including fixed effects, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least squares, the results reveal that both the circular economy strategy and renewable energy utilization play significant roles in reducing CO₂ emissions. Renewable energy utilization has a strong negative association with CO₂ emissions, highlighting its transformative potential to decrease the reliance on fossil fuels and advance decarbonization. The circular economy strategy effectively enhances resource efficiency and minimizes waste, underscoring the efficacy of China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law in driving sustainable practices. The inclusion of control variables—industrialization, economic growth, urbanization, population density, and foreign direct investment—provides deeper insights into the diverse regional factors influencing emissions. These findings highlight the importance of implementing region-specific policy measures that integrate renewable energy transitions and the circular economy strategy to achieve environmental sustainability. While presenting robust evidence, this study acknowledges the need for future studies to overcome its limitations, such as studies exploring the function of technological advancements and the interprovincial spillover effects of policies, to further refine the strategies for sustainable development in rapidly industrializing economies.

As the detrimental effect of greenhouse gas emissions becomes increasingly significant, it has been a worldwide concern. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of sustainable financial development on greenhouse gas emissions via heterogeneous technological progress, using 162 countries as a sample. Empirical assessment is conducted using panel data from 2000 to 2019 and the mediation effect model as well as the country and year fixed-effect model. The findings are shown as follows: (1) Greenhouse gas emissions are increased as a result of sustainable financial development. (2) Environmental technology progress and technology choice progress have a dilution effect. Together, they have the ability to lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by sustainable financial development. However, these two dilution effects do not completely cut down on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from global sustainable financial development, even though they do help. (3) The direct and indirect effects of sustainable financial development on greenhouse gas emissions are heterogeneous among countries with different income levels. Through technological progress, sustainable financial development in middle-income countries significantly cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable financial development, on the other hand, increases greenhouse gas emissions in both high- and low-income countries, although there are distinctions between them. (4) Environmental technology progress in high-income countries has a dilution effect. Meanwhile, technological choice and progress in low-income countries have a mediating effect on greenhouse gas emissions. To conclude, the evidence provided in this paper may provide some potential solutions to the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, and also enrich the existing literature.

Unconventional oil and gas exploration and development are entering an era of interdisciplinary technological revolution