With the acceleration of China’s urbanization process, the importance of energy conservation and emission reduction in the building sector has become increasingly prominent. The effective control of carbon emissions in coastal provinces has a decisive impact on achieving the carbon emissions peak target nationwide. Based on the analysis of the influencing factors, this study establishes an urban residential buildings carbon emission prediction model by combining the IPAT model and the ridge regression model. In addition, the prediction model is combined with scenario analysis to simulate the evolution of carbon emission trends of urban residential buildings in Fujian Province from 2018 to 2050 under different scenarios. The results show that total population, urban living area, residents’ consumption expenditure, urbanization rate, per capita GDP, and energy structure are key factors affecting carbon emissions from urban residential buildings in coastal cities. Only under the ultra-low carbon model scenario can Fujian’s urban residential buildings achieve the carbon peak goal in 2027 (13.4748 million tons of CO₂), which requires a reduction of 59.67% compared to that under the baseline model scenario. This study can provide an effective reference for energy conservation and emission reduction work of the regional scale and even the national scale.

The transformation and modernization of the construction industry in China has introduced higher knowledge, skill, literacy, and innovation ability requirements for construction workers. Subsequently, more than 53 million migrant workers, comprising the main workforce of China’s construction sector, require transitioning into the roles of high-quality and highly skilled construction industry workers. As an important means to improve human capital, systematic training is the key method for the development of migrant workers into industrial workers within China’s construction industry. This paper constructs and verifies the theoretical model underlying the operating mechanism of the training system for migrant workers within the construction industry. As such, a structural equation model was established for the mechanism of transforming construction migrant workers into industrial workers. The results show that as the driving forces, the government and construction industry play important roles in promoting the operation of the training system for migrants in the construction industry as they provide internal vocational and social training. Construction enterprises have a direct role in promoting professional literacy training as one of the direct beneficiaries of construction workers’ training. Therefore, this paper provides a critical reference for policy promoting the transformation of migrant workers into industrial workers through appropriate training within China’s construction industry.

With the rapid pace of industrialization and the increasing intensity of human activities, the global climate change and energy crisis have reached a heightened level of severity. Consequently, achieving an early peak in carbon emissions has become an imperative in addressing this pressing issue. Particularly, coastal provinces, known for their developed economies, high population density, and substantial building energy consumption, have emerged as significant contributors to carbon emissions. Notably, public buildings, serving as critical constituents of the construction industry, possess immense potential for both energy conservation and emissions reduction. In light of this, the present study focuses on Fujian Province, situated along the coast, and constructs a carbon emission estimation model for public buildings based on the Kaya identity. This model takes into account various factors specific to Fujian Province, including population characteristics, economic conditions, tertiary industry development, public building area, and energy consumption. Through scenario analysis, the study projects that the year of peak carbon emissions for public buildings in Fujian Province is estimated to be 2030, 2035, and 2040 under low-carbon, baseline, and high-carbon scenarios respectively. The corresponding peak carbon emission levels are anticipated to reach 23.62 million t, 24.18 million t, and 24.76 million t CO₂. Lastly, based on local policies and actual conditions, the study proposes a set of policy measures and feasible approaches tailored to Fujian Province, aiming to achieve an early peak in carbon emissions.

City size expansion in China creates substantial economic circulation, which impacts CO₂ emissions. Since CO₂ production primarily comes from human activities, CO₂ emissions are mainly in cities. To achieve China’s carbon neutrality and provide specific implementation guidance for future carbon-reduction policies, it is worth assessing China’s pressure on carbon reduction in the urban aspect. Highly developed social productivity and a market economy lead to a dramatic increase in the interconnection between cities, and the spatial distribution of CO₂ emissions emerges in a spatial association. Therefore, it is of great significance to investigate the interaction of CO₂ emissions with spatial effects. Taking the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) as the research target area, this paper utilizes city-size indices to construct spatial-association networks of CO₂ emissions for the first time. It employs social network analysis to explore the structures of whole networks, clusters, and city nodes. The main results show that: (1) the spatial associations of CO₂ emissions in the YRDUA’s cities have become tighter over time. (2) The networks of CO₂ emissions in the YRDUA’s cities have noticeable spatial-spillover effects, and the interaction of CO₂ emissions between cities is dominant. (3) Nanjing is the paramount “bridge” node in the networks. (4) Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Shanghai, Changzhou, Suzhou, Nantong, and Hefei will be the decisive cities for efficient CO₂ emission control in the future. Overall, this paper reveals the role of carbon reduction in the YRDUA’s cities and proposes suggestions for establishing a transboundary energy-saving mechanism to improve the efficiency of energy conservation and emission reduction.

The development and application of construction have two sides, advanced technology may lead to efficiency improvement and performance improvement, but may also because of the lack of technology itself, resulting in economic losses, security risks, ecological damage and other negative effects. Based on the CMM model, the paper takes construction technology as the research object, constructs the construction technology maturity evaluation system, and takes the data of the National Bureau of Statistics from 1999 to 2018 for nearly 20 years as the analysis sample to evaluate the construction technology maturity grade. On this basis, the paper puts forward some suggestions to improve the maturity of construction technology.