Evaluating Whether and How Public Health Event Information Frameworks Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior.

The major public health emergencies (PHEs) represented by the COVID-19 pandemic, while posing a serious threat to human health, have led people to rethink about the harmonious relationship between humans and nature. It is worthy to explore whether and how the framework effect of event information can be used to turn crises into opportunities to promote public pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Through a pre-and post-test control experiment, this study took the COVID-19 pandemic as a case, to explore the effects of four PHE information frameworks on promoting PEB, coupled with two information loss-gain frameworks and two information content frameworks. The results showed that all four information frameworks contribute to the public PEB. However, there are differences: only the environmental gain information effect is significant for PEB in the private sphere. The environmental loss and health gain information are effective for PEB in organizations. However, in the public sphere, all four information frameworks significantly motivate PEB. Further factorial analysis revealed that the interaction between the information content and loss-gain framework was not significant, with the latter playing the dominant role. These findings provide a new approach to how to develop the information framework effect and turn crises into opportunities to promote public PEB in the context of major PHEs.

Analysis of the Cause of Household Carbon Lock-In for Chinese Urban Households.

Household energy conservation is an important contributor to achieve the carbon emission reduction target. However, the actual energy-saving effect of Chinese households is under expectation. One reason for this is because household energy consumption is locked in at a certain level, which has become an obstacle to household carbon emission reduction. In order to reduce this obstacle, this study explored the cause of household carbon lock-in based on grounded theory, targeting newly furnished households. A theoretical model was developed to reveal the formation mechanism of carbon lock-in effect in the purchasing process of household energy-using appliances. NVivo 12 software was used to analyze the decoration diaries of 616 sample households, and the results showed that (1) the direct antecedent of the household carbon lock-in effect was the lock-in of purchasing behavior, and the household carbon lock-in effect was mainly exhibited in the consumption path dependence (of energy-using appliances) and the solidification of energy structure; (2) the willingness to purchase household appliances was the direct antecedent of purchasing behavioral lock-in, and the cost had a moderating effect on the transformation from purchase willingness to behavioral lock-in; and (3) in the process of purchasing household appliances, reference groups, value perception, and ecological awareness can promote purchasing behavioral lock-in by affecting willingness of purchase. Suggestions to promote unlocking of household carbon were also proposed.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Regional Ecological Civilization Policy: Evidence from Jiangsu Province, China.

Evaluating the effectiveness of ecological civilization policies is the basis from which policymakers can optimize policies. From the perspective of the overall effectiveness of regional policies, and taking Jiangsu Province as an example, this study constructed a quantitative evaluation model of eco-civilization policy text and an eco-civilization evaluation index system. Using these tools, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of 53 ecological civilization policies issued by Jiangsu Province during 2004-2019 to promote the construction of ecological civilization in the four fields of resource utilization, environmental protection, economic development, and social life. There are three key findings. (1) During the period of 2004-2019, the effectiveness of the textual content of ecological civilization policies in Jiangsu Province generally showed a fluctuating upward trend. (2) The construction effectiveness indexes of the four fields of eco-civilization all showed a growth trend, but the construction effect varied greatly. The index of economic development had grown rapidly, while environmental protection had grown slowly. (3) Ecological civilization policies in Jiangsu Province were effective in promoting the construction of ecological civilization. However, the effects of different policy dimensions on ecological civilization development in the four fields were significantly different. Finally, based on these results, powerful recommendations are provided for the optimization of eco-civilization policies in Jiangsu Province. Moreover, Jiangsu is the first province in China to launch a provincial-level ecological civilization construction plan. Its policy optimization to promote ecological civilization construction can also provide an example and realistic basis for reference for the construction of eco-civilization in other provinces in China.