Achieving global sustainability hinges on balancing environmental limits with social thresholds, and the safe and just operating space (SJOS) framework provides a critical perspective on this. While traditional SJOS effectively captures the current state of environment and welfare systems, it struggles to reveal the internal structures and dynamic correlations of these systems across countries (e.g., the relationships between performance, balance and correlation across different SJOS systems). Drawing on data from 137 countries worldwide, this study combines the SJOS with an expanded three-dimensional performance-balance-correlation analytical framework to examine the developmental performance, internal balance, and interconnections of environment and welfare systems. The results show that: (1) Five out of six indicators in the environmental system (with the material footprint being an additional planetary boundary) have exceeded their limits, while only one out of 11 indicators in the welfare system meets the threshold. Between 2000 and 2022, global environmental performance declined, while welfare and overall performance improved. (2) The environmental system is becoming increasingly unbalanced, while the welfare and overall systems are more balanced. (3) The positive correlation in the welfare system is higher (r2 = 0.56) than in the environmental system (r2 = 0.16). The correlation in the overall system is −0.08 and decreases significantly as income levels decline (from 0.29 to −0.25), suggesting that high income countries may be better able to balance environment and welfare considerations. (4) In environment and overall systems, a stronger positive correlation may be closely linked to system balance and enhanced performance. However, in welfare systems, a significant positive correlation is observed only in low performing countries. This study establishes an analytical basis for differentiated global governance of sustainable development.

Solid fuel reliance impedes health improvements and health equity in rural China. Against the backdrop of "Internet + Healthcare", this study examines how internet access shapes the adoption of cleaner cooking fuels and thereby affects population health. Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, 2014-2022), we quantify the impact of household internet use on clean cooking adoption, uncover the underlying mechanisms, and estimate associated health gains. Key findings indicate that: (i) Internet use significantly promotes rural households' transition to cleaner cooking fuels. (ii) This transition is primarily driven by two pathways: increased household income and enhanced health literacy. (iii) The effect varies significantly across regions and demographic groups. (iv) Crucially, Internet use improves physical health, mediated by cleaner cooking adoption. This research provides valuable insights for promoting synergistic energy-health policies to accelerate clean cooking transitions and enhance population health in rural China.

The trade-off/synergy relationship among landscape elements exhibit pronounced spatial scale dependence and it profoundly affects the scientific rationality and practical effectiveness of regional ecological management decisions by altering the mechanisms of interactions among ecosystem services. While existing studies have made progress in characterizing multi-scale differences, there is still a lack of research on determining the optimal scale of management to maximize ecological benefits. Therefore, this study constructed a framework for analyzing scale effect resolution and optimal scale identification by integrating wavelet analysis, spatial autocorrelation and semi-variational functions. At the same time, by combining the XGBoost-SHAP model to interpret environmental factors exhibiting trade-off/synergy spatial heterogeneity, we proposed an optimal management scale optimization strategy based on comprehensive error minimization and took the interactive relationships among production, liveling, and ecological land use function (LUF) within the Heihe River Basin as the empirical subject. The research findings are as follows: 1) Spatial scale expansion strengthens the overall synergy between LUFs (by 0.07-0.24) but weakens the trade-off intensity within some grid cells; 2) The optimal ecological management scale in the study area was determined through semi-variogram optimal fitting to be 7 km, at which distance the trade-off/synergy fitting degree among all LUFs was optimal (with the highest r2 reaching 0.959); 3) Both natural and socio-economic factors influence the trade-off/synergy among land-use functions, and the trade-off areas are mainly located in the densely populated central oasis areas (accounting for up to 13.93% of the watershed). This study proposed an integrated spatial governance system comprising core conservation, transitional regulation, and collaborative development. Building upon this, we contended that mitigating land use function trade-off primarily requires differentiated management strategies, including optimizing land use structures (avoiding excessive expansion of construction land), controlling population density, and preventing excessive concentration of economic scale (GDP). This study provides methodological support for resolving the multi-scale ecological management decision and sustainable development dilemma.

The intensifying international trade has promoted overall global economic growth and technological diffusion. However, it has also led to spatial mismatches between resource supply and demand, as well as imbalances in the distribution of environmental governance responsibilities within certain areas. These challenges significantly hinder the coordinated advancement of sustainable development worldwide. Therefore, this study proposed an Efficiency Deconstruction-Dominant Identification-Synergistic Gain assessment framework from an Ecological Wellbeing Performance (EWP) perspective which aimed to reveal the structural contradictions and spatial correlation characteristics confronting global sustainable development within the context of international trade. The results indicate that, between 2000 and 2020, global resource-wellbeing (ET) and resource-economy (E1) transformation efficiencies continued to improve, yet economy-wellbeing conversion (E2) slowed, declining by 16.9 %. International trade has amplified the positive spatial spillover of EWP particularly among neighboring countries and within specific international organizations and notably the most pronounced spillover occurred during the E2 phase (with a spatial lag coefficient as high as 2.679). More developed countries served as central hubs driving transnational EWP spillovers and under their influence, edge countries' ET transformation efficiency growth outpaced that of core nations by 1.26 times, demonstrating a pattern of peripheral dependency on core nations. Nevertheless, owing to structural development constraints, the E1 efficiency of edge countries remains only 82 % of that of achieved by core countries. Furthermore, international trade has indirectly exacerbated environmental governance differences and inequities which to some extent imposed disproportionate environmental costs upon developing countries within economic globalization. These pose challenges to coordinated efforts for the achievement of global sustainable development. Consequently, this study offers a conceptual basis for addressing structural imbalances in global EWP and advancing adaptive, cooperative strategies for sustainable development.

Existing sustainability assessments predominantly focus on the production side while largely neglecting the consumption side, which may lead to systemic biases such as pollution leakage and responsibility shifting. These biases undermine the effective formulation and implementation of sustainable development strategies. To address this gap, this study employs the "Consumption-Pressure-Wellbeing-Performance" (CPOE) integrated assessment framework to examine the sustainability status, patterns, and temporal trends of the Belt and Road (B&R) region (core participating countries) from both consumption-and production-based perspectives. The results show that, compared with the global average and non-B&R core countries during 1990-2020: (1) B&R countries exhibited a lower baseline of per capita biocapacity (BC) but experienced a slower rate of decline, indicating considerable ecological resilience. Per capita ecological footprint (EF) increased at a faster rate, yet remained at a lower absolute level, suggesting substantial room for improvement. Meanwhile, the growth rate of ecological deficit (ED) has markedly slowed since 2013, demonstrating significant potential for sustainability enhancement. (2) Both Earth Pressure (P) and Human Wellbeing (O) in the B&R region grew rapidly, whereas Ecological wellbeing efficiency (E) remained significantly higher but increased at a slower pace. Furthermore, on the production side of the B&R, P consistently exceeded consumption-based levels, while O and E remained lower than their consumption-based counterparts. Non-B&R countries exhibited the opposite pattern, while the global differences between production and consumption perspectives were negligible. The resulting scissors gap-characterised by "high production-side pressure and low consumption-side wellbeing"-resembles that observed in non-B&R countries, indicating that the B&R region has increasingly functioned as an "environmental pressure zone" within the global supply chain. (3) Throughout the decoupling process, carbon emissions and wellbeing in the B&R region have transitioned from an "expansionary negative decoupling" to a "weak decoupling" state, with consumption-side decoupling notably lagging behind. This pattern reflects the relative effectiveness of production side environmental governance alongside insufficient progress in the green transformation of consumption. Research suggests that balancing environmental pressures and welfare gains along B&R corridors can be achieved by deepening green transitions in high pressure, low performance countries and implementing consumer side responsibility sharing management.

How to enhance human well-being while maintaining ecosystem services represents a core concern in achieving the sustainable development goals. Efficiency and fairness are key dimensions during the conversion process from ecosystem services to human well‑being, but prioritizing one often comes at the expense of the other. Therefore, this study develops a comprehensive analytical framework to explore the global synergistic relationship between ecological well‑being conversion efficiency and fairness in the years of 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The key findings are as follows: (1) Global human well-being increased by approximately 12 % whereas ecosystem services declined by approximately 9 % during the study period. High‑income countries exhibited high ecological well-being conversion efficiency but deficit-type fairness, while low‑income countries were trapped in a dual dilemma of low conversion efficiency and fairness; (2) The synergistic development of ecological well-being conversion efficiency and fairness shows an improving trend, with the annual average dynamic local and tele-coupling coordination degree (LTCCD) increasing steadily from 0.48 to 0.51; (3) The spatial correlation of dynamic LTCCD remains weak at the global scale, and social factors demonstrate stronger explanatory power for dynamic LTCCD than other influencing factors. This research provides a new perspective for understanding the interactions between ecosystem services and human well-being, and offers a valuable foundation for designing regionally differentiated policies aimed at enhancing ecological well-being outcomes and promoting equitable ecological well-being distribution.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 aims to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy. Exploring pathways to alleviate rural household energy poverty is crucial for achieving the SDGs. To this end, this paper focuses on the role of internet use, theoretically analyzes its impact on rural energy poverty from a utility maximization perspective, and empirically tests this relationship using China Family Panel Studies data (2014-2020). Results demonstrate that internet use significantly mitigates rural energy poverty, particularly for households with limited-human-capital-a finding robust to various tests. Further analysis reveals that internet use alleviates energy poverty by enhancing non-farm labor supply, facilitating farmland transfer, and increasing social capital. Additionally, significant household and regional heterogeneity exists: the effect is stronger among low-income, non-aging, female-headed, and high-energy-cost households; regionally, it is more pronounced in central, western, and northeastern China. Policy implications include establishing human-capital-oriented digital inclusion systems, deepening internet-driven income-boosting mechanisms, and implementing demographically and geographically targeted interventions.

A rational assessment of the aggregated economic damages and a more effective carbon tax are crucial for climate governance. However, existing studies still under-recognize the utility damages and dynamic carbon taxes. In this study, we construct a multi-regional dynamic general equilibrium model considering both production and utility damages. Then, this paper re-estimates the regional aggregated economic damages reasonably (including utility damages) and compares in detail the role of static carbon tax, dynamic carbon tax and regionally optimal dynamic carbon tax (RCT). We found that: (1) As climate change intensifies, the world will suffer >8 % of production damage and 1 % of utility damage by the end of the 21st century. Of these, the US and China face more pronounced economic damage. (2) If the carbon tax is implemented only in some regions, other regions will have a “free rider” benefit. An environmentally friendly dynamic carbon tax (fast and then slow) would be more effective, giving economies room to adapt to the carbon tax. The risk of exacerbating global inequality needs to be guarded against when using carbon tax. (3) Based on the regional social cost of carbon (R-SCC), implementing RCT is most effective for curbing climate change and achieving warming targets. This paper contributes to improving the understanding of assessing regional economic damage from climate change and recognizing the role of dynamic carbon tax.

In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it is necessary to actively promote a coordinated and balanced relationship between carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e), material footprints (MF) and human development, based on the economic and social development stages of different countries and their material resource endowments. However, the existing research results lack cross-country comparisons and overly focus on the single conclusion of quantifying decoupling while ignoring the impact of coupling coordination nexus. Thus, this study comprehensively evaluated the nexus between CO2e, MF, and human development index (HDI) in 151 countries from 1990 to 2019 based on the modified coupling coordination degree model and the improved decoupling index model. The results show that, both the global MF per capita and HDI have maintained an increasing trend, and the MF per capita has been increasing significantly faster than the HDI. The trend of CO2e per capita is slowly dropping, with very high HDI countries being the main contributors. Besides, global regional differences in CO2e per capita and MF per capita are still expanding. Worldwide differences in per unit of CO2e and per unit of MF for HDI variation are narrowing. Furtherly, there is a more general but short-lived trend of absolute decoupling for very high HDI and low HDI countries, while medium HDI countries show a significant trend of coupling. By combining the endowment characteristics of some typical countries, it can be observed that the net fossil energy importing countries with higher HDI have high degree of coupling coordination, but gradually evolve towards the state of relative decoupling. There is still a significant trend of recoupling between the MF and HDI in the net fossil energy exporting countries with higher HDI, but CO2e is gradually evolving towards decoupling. The coupling coordination state is deepening in some low HDI countries. Due to the huge differences in national endowment characteristics and development stages, targeted energy conservation and emission reduction strategies are important for achieving coordinated development between CO2e, MF and HDI.

Carbon productivity is a better measure of a region's sustainable economic growth since it considers economic development and carbon emissions at the same time. It is crucial to improve carbon productivity through the co-agglomeration of manufacturing and producer services for China. To better understand the effect and mechanism of co-agglomeration, this study uses panel data of 282 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2017 to examine the effect of manufacturing and producer services co-agglomeration on carbon productivity. Further, moderating effects models and panel threshold models are used to investigate the mechanisms of co-agglomeration effect on carbon productivity. The results suggest that the influence of co-agglomeration on carbon productivity is U-shaped with an inflection point of 3.63, indicating that a high level of co-agglomeration is required for carbon productivity to increase. Compared with other cities, cities in the eastern region or with a large scale have lower inflection points. The upgrading of industrial structure, production efficiency, and the production chain has a positive moderating effect on the influence of co-agglomeration on carbon productivity, while upgrading of non-production chains does not. When the levels of capital misallocation and labor misallocation reach the threshold of 1.115 and 1.557 respectively, industrial co-agglomeration has a promoting effect on carbon productivity. This research offers valuable insights for optimizing the urban industrial layout to improve carbon productivity.

Rational assessment of the regional sustainable development level is an important prerequisite for formulating development strategies and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, little literature provides nuanced understanding for national sustainable development from the perspective of county sustainability. Such studies can provide more accurate regional heterogeneity characteristics and policy decision support. Thus, this paper applies the entropy weight method and Chinese county data from 2000 to 2017 to reassess the sustainability of Chinese counties. The results show that China's county sustainability (Sustainable Development Index, SDI) is slowly improving. County sustainability performance is poorer in ethnic minority agglomerations, poor counties, old revolutionary counties, and central and western regions, better in county-level cities and eastern regions. The decomposition results show that economic sustainability and environmental sustainability are the main supporters of SDI growth, and livelihood sustainability is in urgent need of improvement. The regional inequality of SDI in Chinese counties gradually decreases, and inter-group differences are the main contributors to regional inequality in SDI. This paper provides support for China to develop countylevel sustainable development measures and practice the SDGs. The findings could be useful for policymakers.

The ecological protection of cultivated land (EPCL) is of great significance for enhancing its sustainable use and is also a practical material vehicle for maintaining national food security. Using data from a sample of 7,473 rural households from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey, this paper applies an endogenous switching regression model and Fields decomposition method to assess the impact of cultivated land transfer (CLT) on EPCL (i.e., fertilizer and pesticide input intensity, abbreviations is FPII). The empirical results show that farmers' participation in CLT can significantly reduce FPII. When it is assumed that households not participating in CLT participate in CLT, their FPII would be reduced by 52.39% and 17.56% respectively. The study further confirms that CLT has a positive effect on EPCL, contributing 5.74% and 7.47% to the reduction of FPII, respectively. In addition, agricultural subsidies, cultivated land titling, the size of cultivated land, the use of large-scale machinery, pollution of cultivated land, and farm income all positively affect farming households' participation in CLT. Therefore, based on CLT, promoting large-scale and mechanized cultivated land management and deepening EPCL with the goal of reducing fertilizer and pesticide use are important approaches for enhancing the sustainable use of cultivated land.

The Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative is considered as closely aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and could have a huge global impact. Its sustainable development issues have attracted worldwide attention. However, both the existing research and data accumulation on this aspect are seriously insufficient. Starting from the logic of the ultimate goal of sustainable development (namely within the ecological limitations, maximizing human well-being with minimum ecological consumption and minimizing the planetary pressures with maximum resource utilization efficiency), we have constructed a comprehensive evaluation method on sustainable development, namely the Consumption-Pressure-Output-Efficiency method in our previous study. Based on it, we provide a database with five datasets, which includes four core datasets (ecological consumption, planetary pressures, human well-being outputs and ecological well-being output efficiency) and a related dataset (biocapacity, ecological surplus/deficit, population), covering 61 B&R countries, B&R regional average and global average from 1990 to 2018. It can be used for further comprehensive research on sustainable development under planetary pressures and others of B&R.

The ultimate goal of sustainable development is to expand human developmental potential while easing planetary pressures, maximize human well-being with the smallest ecological consumption. However, it is difficult to rely on a single index or a single measure to address all sustainable development issues, which needs to comprehensively evaluate its abilities and levels from ‘sustainability’ and ‘development’. Thus we construct a comprehensive evaluation method, the consumption–pressure–output–efficiency method (the first two reflect ‘sustainability’ and the latter two ‘development’). It combines four progressive composite indices respectively reflecting (1) ecological consumption (ecological footprint), (2) planetary pressures (from carbon dioxide emissions and the material footprint index), (3) human well-being outputs (the planetary pressures–adjusted human development index, or PHDI), and (4) ecological well-being output efficiency (an adjusted ecological well-being performance index, or AEWP). Our empirical verification results show that the same ecological consumption will show different ecological surplus/deficit and development potential due to different biocapacity; the higher the level of human development, the greater the planetary pressure; the human development index (HDI) adjusted by planetary pressure are generally decreased, and the greater the HDI, the greater the dispersion between PHDI and HDI; and there is no necessarily complete consistency between PHDI and AEWP. The Belt and Road regions overall show a greater capacity for, and improvement in sustainable development than the world from 1990 to 2017, due to lower ecological consumption, slower decrease in biocapacity, faster increase in PHDI, and higher AEWP. However, for each country, it needs a comprehensive evaluation on case-by-case analysis to determine the right solutions and the corresponding development plans and pathways.

Since its inauguration, the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative has gained tremendous popularity and become one of great potential international cooperation platforms. Sustainable development is a central issue of this vast project, but current research is insufficient in this regard. This paper evaluated the status of B&R's ecological sustainability and resource utilization efficiency (RUE) from 1991 to 2017, analyzed the driving factors behind ecological footprint (EF) per capita, predicted the ecological sustainability trend for the next 10 years, and compared them with the globe. The results show that EF per capita in the B&R and global regions were always higher than the biocapacity (BC) per capita, and ecological deficit always existed and kept growing. But both the EF and BC per capita of the B&R countries were lower than the global average, with the EF had increased more rapidly and the BC had decreased even less, indicating that B&R had a relatively more resilient eco-environmental background to support its development. For RUE, the improvement in the B&R region was significantly faster than the globe, with the gap between B&R and the globe rapidly narrowing, indicating that there is still considerable room for RUE to improve in this region. For the driving factors, which have a great impact on EF per capita, nevertheless the main factors of each country are different, and the driving direction of each factor also varies among countries. The prediction results show that under the current development model, the future EF growth rate of the B&R region will still be relatively higher, but the decline rate in BC will be obviously lower than that of globe, indicating that the region is still facing huge ecological pressure, substantial improvement potential, and needs to adopt a development model that reduces its EF more effectively. Finally, combined with the analysis of coordinated development and driving factors, we outlined some crucial policy implications for B&R's sustainable development.

Natural resources (NR), play a significant role in determining the strength of countries' economies. Still, at the same time, NR is accompanied by concerns about its impact on the environment. The accelerated economic growth and fast urbanization have increased the consumption of NR in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which in turn leads to fears of a negative impact on the environment. Therefore, this work investigates the impact of NR, represented by total natural resource rents (NRR), energy consumption (EC), human capital (HC), urbanization, and GDP on the ecological footprint (EF) in GCC countries from 1995 to 2017. The research uses the Feasible Generalized Least Squares model to investigate cointegration and correlation. The result con-firms the significant negative connection between NRR and EF. Urbanization is not accompanied by a detri-mental impact on the EF, as an increase of 1% in URB leads to a decrease in EF by 1.5327%. Interestingly, HC does not help in limiting the environmental degradation in the GCC countries, where an increase of 1% in HC is accompanied by an increase in EF by 0.7966%. Analogously, the GDP is linked with EF in a significant positive relationship. EC has a significant positive connection with EF. The results of the Panel Corrected Standard Errors technique as a robustness check for our paper are consistent with the primary model results. Thus, policymakers of the GCC countries must continue to implement stricter policies to prevent the unsustainable use of NR.

该文介绍了河北省国有林场改革及国有林场的基本情况,开展了国有林场管理机制、发展机制、经营活动、收入分配、政策支持等方面的调研工作,指出当前存在经营机制不活、财政经费到位不及时、基础设施建设落后、人才队伍结构不合理等问题,提出今后改革思路及对策建议.

在全球范围内曾多次发生因过量食用山黧豆导致神经中毒事件,使得国内外对于山黧豆的种植和利用存在一定的误解和偏见,山黧豆的优良农艺价值和潜在功能食品利用价值也受到一定限制.但山黧豆适应性强、分布范围广,是全球气候变化条件下农业可持续发展和地力维持的优选作物,在食品安全、生态文明建设和乡村振兴新形势下,进一步研究和挖掘利用这一古老的优良作物具有重要的战略意义.山黧豆相关研究报道可追溯到1861年,距今已有160年的历史.在同行学者的不懈努力下,山黧豆基础研究及种质资源利用等方面均取得了显著的阶段性成果.该文系统回顾了山黧豆研究160年以来的发展历程,依托历史文献进行了梳理和分析.首先,基于山黧豆神经活性物质β-ODAP的分离和鉴定、神经山黧豆中毒机制的探索、β-ODAP生物合成途径解析等重要研究节点将整个山黧豆研究进程划分为山黧豆中毒因素的探索、神经山黧豆中毒机理解析和神经山黧豆中毒及β-ODAP生物学功能的再认识等三个阶段.其次,总结了山黧豆在毒理学研究、种质资源利用、品质改良基础研究等方面取得的重要进展.特别是以兰州大学为代表的中国学者在β-ODAP的分析检测、生物合成途径、山黧豆生理生态学研究及种质资源利用等方面进行了深入探讨,确立了中国在国际山黧豆研究中的主流地位.最后,针对目前山黧豆分子生物学基础研究相对滞后、种质资源缺乏系统利用等问题进行了展望,提出了未来的重点发展方向,为山黧豆种质资源的进一步深入挖掘和应用提供参考.