Treatment of electric vehicle battery waste in China: A review of existing policies

This paper reviews existing policies for supporting the treatment of electric vehicle (EV) battery waste in China, and identifies some of their major shortcomings that policy makers may like to consider while making policy decisions. The shortcomings of existing policies identified in this paper include: 1) no clear provisions for historical and orphan batteries; 2) no target for battery collection; 3) unclear definition of the scope of authority among various central and local agencies involved in the regulation of waste battery treatment; 4) unclear requirements for data auditing and verification for tracking the entire life cycle of EV batteries; 5) limited consideration of the challenges to ensure stakeholder cooperation; and 6) no explicit specification of the mechanisms for financing waste battery treatment. This paper also makes some practical policy suggestions for overcoming these shortcomings

International Research Progress and Evolution Trend of Interpersonal Trust—Prospects under COVID-19 Pandemic

Retrospecting articles on interpersonal trust is of great importance for understanding its current status and future development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially, with the widespread use of Big Data and Blockchain. In total, 1532 articles related to interpersonal trust were collected as research database to draw keyword co-occurrence mapping and timeline mapping by VOSviewer and CiteSpace. On this basis, the research content and evolution trend of interpersonal trust were systematically analyzed. The results show that: (1) Data cleaning by code was first integrated with Knowledge Mapping and then used to review the research of interpersonal trust; (2) Developed countries have contributed the most to the research of interpersonal trust; (3) Social capital, knowledge sharing, job and organizational performance, Chinese Guanxi are the research hotspots of interpersonal trust; (4) The research hotspots on interpersonal trust evolve from the level of individual psychology and behavior to the level of social stability and development and then to the level of organization operation and management; (5) At present, the research on interpersonal trust is in the outbreak period; fMRI technology and Big Data and Blockchain technology gradually become vital research tools of interpersonal trust, which provides significant prospects for the following research of interpersonal trust under the COVID-19 pandemic

Analysis of the Influencing Factors of the Public Willingness to Participate in Public Bicycle Projects and Intervention Strategies—A Case Study of Jiangsu Province, China

In this study, factors influencing the willingness to participate in public bicycle projects were analyzed using the binary logistic model. The study builds on a broad and practical conceptual framework that embraces four dimensions of influencing factors, including household demographic, psychological, external, and public bicycle variables. The empirical results are based on a questionnaire survey that was sent to 520 urban residents in Xuzhou, Taizhou, and Suzhou in Jiangsu province. The survey indicates that environmental responsibility, improvement of the public transport system, health and safety considerations in relation to public bicycles, and environmental crisis consciousness have appreciable impacts upon the willingness to participation in public bicycle projects. The first three of these have a positive impact, whereas the last (environmental crisis consciousness) has a negative impact. Consequently, some policy suggestions are proposed

Diffusion Paths and Guiding Policy for Urban Residents’ Carbon Identification Capability: Simulation Analysis from the Perspective of Relation Strength and Personal Carbon Trading

On the consumption side, the key to carbon emission reduction is urban residents’ carbon capability. As it is the main bottleneck hindering carbon capability enhancement, the promotion of carbon identification capability is very important. This study establishes diffusion models of carbon identification capability from the perspectives of relation strength and personal carbon trading through weighted small-world theory, and it takes Chinese urban residents as the research object to make a simulation analysis. The results show that, at the initial stage, using a knowledge priority strategy to determine the sender of capability can bring about a higher capability growth rate for individuals, and the capability diffusion equilibrium of the network is also the highest. However, in the entire diffusion process, the strength priority model is the best to make the network reach the equilibrium quickly. After the introduction of personal carbon trading, the growth rate of the carbon identification capability increases significantly, and the network equilibrium becomes higher synchronously. More egoistic nodes and fewer altruistic nodes in the network are more favorable for the capability diffusion in the network, but they may bring about the risk that the network equilibrium becomes lower. Finally, the study puts forward suggestions to help with the improvement of residents’ carbon identification capability

Determining Multi-Layer Factors That Drive the Carbon Capability of Urban Residents in Response to Climate Change: An Exploratory Qualitative Study in China

The active promotion of carbon abatement to mitigate global climate change and protect the environment and public health has become the international consensus. The carbon capability is a key index for measuring the potential reduction of the carbon emissions by urban residents, and thus encouraging residents to exhibit normal and autonomous low-carbon behavior has become an important issue. In this study, based on grounded theory, data from in-depth interviews were encoded at three levels to identify the multi-layer factors that drive the carbon capability of urban residents, and we constructed a theoretical model for policy intervention. The results showed that individual factors, organizational factors, social factors, and social demographic variables were the main variables that affected the carbon capability, and utility experience perception was the main intermediary variable that affected the carbon capability. There was an obvious gap between utility experience perception and carbon capability. Low carbon selection cost was an internal situational variable that regulated the relationship between these factors, and the policy situation and technical situation were external situational variables. There were two-way effects on the carbon capability and utility experience perception. Thus, we explored these driving factors and the role of the carbon capability model. The results of this study may facilitate targeted policy thinking and the development of an implementation path for government in order to formulate effective guiding policies to enhance the carbon capability of urban residents

Measurements and Factors That Influence the Carbon Capability of Urban Residents in China

Due to the rapid growth in residential energy consumption, there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions from the consumer side, which requires improvements in the carbon capability of urban residents. In this study, previous investigations of carbon capability were analyzed and classified into four dimensions: carbon knowledge capability, carbon motivation capability, carbon behavior capability, and carbon management capability. According to grounded theory, a quantitative research model was constructed of the carbon capability of urban residents in Jiangsu, which was used to conduct a questionnaire survey. SPSS 19.0 and LatentGOLD were employed to process the questionnaire data and the carbon capability of the residents was evaluated. The results showed that the residents of Jiangsu Province could be divided into six groups based on their different carbon capabilities, where these six major groups accounted for 28.19%, 21.21%, 18.33%, 15.84%, 9.88%, and 6.55% of the total sample. Gender, age, occupation, and educational level had significant effects on the carbon capabilities of residents, whereas the annual household income and household population had no significant effects. According to the characteristics of each cluster based on the four carbon capability dimensions, the six clusters were designated as “balanced steady cluster”, “self-restraint cluster”, “fully backward cluster”, “comprehensive leading cluster”, “slightly cognitive cluster”, and “restrain others cluster”. Quantitative analysis showed that 61.93% of the residents of Jiangsu reached the qualified rate for the carbon capability but the excellent rate was only 15.84%. Relevant policy implications are suggested based on these conclusions

The Evolution and Effect Evaluation of Photovoltaic Industry Policy in China

The large scale of China’s photovoltaic (PV) industry and the great policy support by the Chinese government make it necessary to scientifically evaluate PV industry policy. This study designed an evaluation framework for China’s PV industry policy from four dimensions (policy measure, policy type, policy strength, and policy issuing department) to categorize and quantify China’s 307 PV industry policies from 1994 to 2016. Furthermore, the historical evolution and realistic effect of the policies on the PV industry in China were examined. The results show that, currently, grid support, operation specification, and operation supervision are the main policy measures, while a low-level notice is the main type of policy. The policy issued strength is generally low. The enforcement strength of regional policy presents descending trend from the northern to the southern provinces, and a similar trend from coastal provinces to inland provinces. The policy for grid support, operation specification, and technical specification has had the best effect. The most effective policy types are the sector-specific notices and announcements, and the best policy-issuing department is the National Energy Administration. In terms of policy strength, the policy for grid support, operation specification, and operation supervision has had a positive correlation with the development of the industry, although it did not achieve its desired effect

Impact of information intervention on travel mode choice of urban residents with different goal frames: A controlled trial in Xuzhou, China

In order to assess the degree to which specific groups will adapt their travel behaviors after certain intervention, this study utilized a cluster analysis to discuss three segments’ distinct goal frames, social-demographic properties, travel modes, and habitat, and then carried out an information intervention controlled trial to discover three segments’ modal split shifts. The results indicate that the information have consistent and distinct impacts on travel mode choice by clusters. This consistency is embodied in the simultaneous and significant increase in travel times by green modes (walking, non-powered bicycle, or bus) and in the small but non-significant effects on reducing car use in the three clusters. The distinctness of the impacts is that information have a more effective influence on subjects with gain goal frames because their travel times by all three green modes greatly improved. Subjects with the hedonic goal frame are the least sensitive to information, with the only significant increase in travel times being by non-powered bicycle. This research also addressed the “attitude-behavior gap”, weather impacts, and goal-oriented prompts. The findings suggest that policy interventions should be designed to improve public transit features, especially the bicycle system, rather than only to constrain car use, and that tailored policies should be targeted to specific groups with different goal frames

A Co-Word Analysis of Organizational Constraints for Maintaining Sustainability

A good understanding of organizational constraints is vital to facilitate organizational development as the sustainable development of organizations can be constrained by the organization itself. In this study, bibliometric methods were adopted to investigate the research status and trends of organizational constraints. The findings showed that there were 1138 articles and reviews, and 52 high-frequency keywords related to organizational constraints during the period 1980–2016. The research cores were “constraints”, “learning”, “institution”, and “behavior” in the co-occurrence network, and “constraints” played the most significant role. The 52 high-frequency keywords were classified into six clusters: “change and decision-making”, “supply chain and sustainability”, “human system and performance”, “culture and relations”, “entrepreneur and resource”, and “learning and innovation”. Furthermore, the indicators of organizational development (e.g., innovation, supply chain, decision-making, performance, sustainability, and employee behavior) were found to be significantly related to the organizational constraints. Based on these findings, future trends were proposed to maintain the sustainability of organizations. This study investigated the state of the art in terms of organizational constraints and provided valuable references for maintaining the sustainable development of organizations

Who Has Higher Willingness to Pay for Occupational Safety and Health?—Views from Groups with Different Public Identities and Differences in Attention

Background: Occupational safety and health issues are closely associated with the wellbeing and survival of every worker and family, as well as of society as a whole. It is a type of typical public issue and requires cooperative governance among different governing subjects. Methods: According to the questionnaire investigation on 2179 subjects with different identities, the research explored the willingness to pay (WTP) for occupational safety and health and the degree of attention, with different identities, through the difference analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The research studied the relationship between public attention and WTP through the methods of cross-analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Results: (1) The public show a disregard attitude to occupational safety and health. (2) The public expect the government to fund and solve occupational safety and health problems rather than for themselves to pay directly. (3) Over 50% of questionnaire respondents defined occupational safety and health problems as being classified into two categories, namely, “no attention—government payment” or “no attention—refusal of individual payment”, according to the analysis. (4) The level of attention paid to occupational safety and health can significantly predict the individual income WTP, item WTP, subject WTP, and event WTP. Conclusions: This research aimed to outline the implications for the governance of occupational safety and health