Rural tourism is a new point of growth for tourism and the economy in the context of the new normalization of the economy and is of great significance in achieving the complementary coordination and integration of urban and rural areas, promoting rural transformation, and increasing farmers’ incomes. The trends of rural tourism development mechanisms studied on a spatial scale can be used to interpret the sustainable development of rural tourism from different perspectives. Based on the data of key rural tourism villages in China’s Yellow River Basin (hereinafter referred to as the Yellow River Basin), kernel density estimation and spatial hot spot clustering methods were used in the present study to analyze the spatial distribution pattern and sustainable development mechanisms of these villages. The results showed that the spatial distribution of the key villages presents greater concentrations in the west and south than in the east and north, respectively. The spatial distribution of the key villages was found to be primarily affected by factors such as historical culture, transportation locations, economic level, and topography. Finally, the sustainable development mechanisms of rural tourism are proposed, and corresponding suggestions are provided from the perspectives of sustainable livelihoods, operation management, and marketing.

According to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC 2006) and based on the production technology and products, this paper has calculated CO₂ emissions from industrial processes and product use (IPPU), which involves the individual and the summation of five major IPUU CO₂ emissions industrial departments. As there is a classic environmental Kuznets curve between IPPU CO₂ emissions and the economy, this paper discusses the relationship based on the calculation results and the actual situation. The results show that the overall emission level is indeed rising yearly, and that steel and iron alloy manufacturing and nonmetal manufacturing occupy about 80% of the total emissions. The IPPU CO₂ emissions and the corresponding gross industrial output value do not present a classic Kuznets curve in most industrial sectors due to the increasing industrial employed population. The year 2002 appears to be the boundary instead, where prior to 2002, there is a relatively stable function-type growth curve and after 2002, gross industrial output value (GIOV) per employed person remained within a certain interval while IPPU CO₂ emissions per employed dipped slightly then increased again. Some, but not all, industrial departments and the combined emissions of per employed person reached maximum values in 2012.

In this paper, a two-stage dynamic game model of China’s iron and steel industry is constructed. Carbon tax levy, product subsidy, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other factors are included in the emission reduction mechanism. The effects of emissions reduction and the economic impact of China’s overall steel industry (and that of its six main regions) are investigated for the first time under different scenarios. As new findings, we report the following: (1) Not all factors declined. The overall social welfare, consumer surplus, output and emissions decrease with a gradual increase in the reduction target, whereas the carbon tax value, unit value of product subsidies and total subsidies show a rising trend; (2) A combination of multiple emissions reduction policies is more effective than a single policy. With the implementation of a combined policy, regional output polarization has eased; (3) Steel output does not exceed 950 million tons, far below the current peak. These results will help the industry to formulate reasonable emissions reduction and output targets. In short, in effort to eliminate industry poverty and to alleviate overcapacity, the industry should not only adopt the various coordinated reduction policies, but also fully consider regional differences and reduction needs.

To study the emission reduction policies’ impact on the production and economic level of the steel industry, this paper constructs a two-stage dynamic game model and analyzes various emission reduction policies’ impact on the steel industry and enterprises. New results are observed in the study: (1) With the increasing emission reduction target (15%–30%) and carbon quota trading price (12.65–137.59 Yuan), social welfare and producer surplus show an increasing trend and emission macro losses show a decreasing trend. (2) Enterprises’ reduction ranges in northwestern and southwestern regions are much higher than that of the other regions; the northeastern enterprise has the smallest reductions range. (3) When the market is balanced (0.8543–0.9320 billion tons), the steel output has decreased and the polarization in various regions has been alleviated to some extent. The model is the abstraction and assumption of reality, which makes the results have some deviations. However, these will provide references to formulate reasonable emissions reduction and production targets. In addition, the government needs to consider the whole and regional balance and carbon trading benchmark value when deciding the implementation of a single or mixed policy. Future research will be more closely linked to national policies and gradually extended to other high-energy industries.

Environmental problems such as CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) emissions have seriously affected the development of the steel industry, which has urged the industry to adopt a more effective emission reduction policy. This paper aims to analyze the impact of various CO₂ emission reduction policies combinations on the economic benefits and environmental changes of the steel industry and to determine the scope of application. To compare the impact and applicable implementation conditions, a production decision game model that incorporates these two policies has been constructed. Short-, medium- and long-term constraints are set on the emission reduction indicators and the indicators’ changes under various scenarios are compared. In the case of a single emission reduction policy, the carbon trading (CT) mechanism is better than the carbon tax mechanism. The mixed carbon trading mechanism is superior to the mixed carbon tax mechanism in terms of total output and subsidies, but worse in terms of overall social welfare, producer surplus and macro losses. This paper constructs multiple emission reduction and production backgrounds and discusses the impact of the comprehensive implementation of these policies, which is practically absent in previous studies. It is in line with the current industrial policy for stable production and environmental protection and also provides a reference for the formulation of detailed policies in the future.