The contradiction between limited resources and rapid development in the automobile industry has been driving society to seek the supply of recyclable resources from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs). It has become an urgent need for vehicle recycling policymakers to have an overall understanding of the end-of-life (EoL) vehicle population, as well as for vehicle producers to note what and how they can benefit from ELV recycling. This paper estimated the potential population of EoL passenger vehicles, all recyclable resources from them, as well as the economic values of these recyclable resources. The results show that in 2030, with a lighter-weight trend of passenger vehicles, more than 26.3 million passenger vehicles will be retired with 19.1 million tons of recyclable steel and 6.2 million tons of plastics. The theoretical economic value of all recyclable resources will reach 101.3 billion yuan ($14.4 billion) in 2030, which is an average of approximately 2.4 thousand yuan ($341.8) for each EoL passenger vehicle. It is time for the vehicle producers to shift to a manufacturing mode considering such large potential of ELV recycling. The scenario analysis suggests that in the context of a light-weighting trend, ELV resource recovery in the future calls for improvement in the recycling and reuse technologies of plastics and rubbers.

The sustainable development of the western region of China has always been essential to the national development strategy. The Western region has undertaken an industrial transfer from the Eastern and Central regions. Therefore, the CO₂ emission intensity in the western region is higher than those of the Eastern and Central regions of China, and consequently its low-carbon development pathway has an important impact for China as a whole. Sichuan Province is not only the province with the highest CO₂ emissions, but also the most economically developed province in Western China in 2018. In order to promote low carbon development in the western region, it is important to understand the features of emissions in Sichuan Province and to formulate effective energy strategies accordingly. This paper uses the IPCC regional emission accounting method to calculate the carbon emissions of 15 cities in Sichuan province, and to comply with the city-level emission accounts. The results show that the total carbon emissions of Sichuan province over the past 10 years was 3258.32 mt and reached a peak in 2012. The smelting and pressing of ferrous metals, coal mining and dressing were the leading sectors that contributed to the emissions, accounting for 17.86% and 15.82%, respectively. Raw coal, cleaned coal, and coke were the most significant contributors to CO₂ emissions, accounting for 43.73%, 9.55%, and 6.60%, respectively. Following the above results, the Sichuan provincial government can formulate differentiated energy structure policies according to different energy consumption structures and carbon emission levels in the 15 cities. By controlling the level of total emissions and regulating larger industrial emitters in Sichuan province, some useful information could be provided as an essential reference for low-carbon development in Western China, and contribute to the promotion of emissions mitigation from a more holistic perspective.

The burgeoning demand for zirconium, driven by the rapid development of smart devices, low-carbon energy technologies, and other emerging industries, underscores the importance of understanding the dynamics of its global trade network. However, the evolutionary patterns of the international zircon ore trade network and its resilience to disruptions remain unclear. This study constructs the international zircon ore trade network from 2013 to 2022, analyzes its structural evolution at both the network and node levels, and evaluates its robustness in 2022 using five attack strategies: random node removal, random edge removal, edge degradation, targeted removal based on node degree, and targeted removal based on node betweenness centrality. Our findings reveal that: (1) the international zircon ore trade network exhibits a shift in the import market towards Asia, with the export market dominated by Spain, the United States, and Brazil. China plays a crucial role as a bridge connecting various countries, while Japan exerts significant influence within the network; (2) the network is particularly vulnerable to targeted attacks based on node degree and betweenness centrality, highlighting the potential for significant disruption following the removal of key nodes. This study provides valuable insights for ensuring the stable and sustainable supply and consumption of zirconium resources, informing the development of targeted policies for countries and relevant industries.