• Energy Research
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This research particularly aims to investigate how trust and perceived risk influence citizens’ e-government adoption. The findings of the study reveal that citizens’ trust of the government (TOG) and trust of the internet (TOI) positively affect citizens’ e-government adoption (EGA); perceived risk (PR) is negatively associated with citizens’ EGA. Interestingly, this study also demonstrates the negative moderating effect of PR on the relationship between TOG and EGA, TOI and EGA. The results also indicate that performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), and facilitation conditions (FC) influence citizens’ EGA positively. Lastly, implications for practice and research are discussed.

Whereas the pivotal role of trust in the adoption of e-government was highlighted in prior research, attention was rarely paid thus far to investigate the role of post-use trust and its impact on citizens’ continuous-use intention of e-government. This study develops a comprehensive model, which consists of antecedents of post-use trust, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and citizens’ continuous-use intention of e-government, to explain how interactional, government, and environmental factors influence citizens’ post-use trust as well as how post-use trust influences citizens’ continuous-use intention. Using data collected from a survey of 1867 citizen users living in one direct-controlled municipality and four high-population cities in China, this study tests the proposed concept model using structural equation modeling. The results show that trust in government, trust in the internet, service quality, and information quality have positive effects on citizens’ post-use trust. Factors that do not determine a user’s post-use trust are the perception of privacy and security, as well as system quality. Another finding is that citizens’ post-use trust does not directly influence their continuous intention to use e-government. Post-use trust will impact continuous-use intention through whether or not citizens find using e-government useful and satisfying.

Abstract Carbon policies differentiated according to regional disparities have been recognized and recommended. However, the air quality co-benefits of differentiated policies remain unclear. Here we combine a multi-regional dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and an extend response surface model (ERSM) to investigate the impact of nationally uniform and subnationally differentiated carbon pricing policies on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in China. All policies examined lead to the same accumulated national CO2 emissions (2020–2050), with the 2030 emissions attaining China's national abatement target. We find that, when subnational policies differentiated according to provincial PM2.5 concentrations are implemented, the higher-than-average carbon price over more polluted provinces results in twice as much reduction in CO2 and air pollutant emissions in 2050 as the national policy. As a result, the subnational policies cause larger PM2.5 concentration reductions in these provinces (9%–18%) than the national policy (7%–11%). Also, the subnational policies eliminate high PM2.5 exposure of over 45 μg/m3 which 12% people suffer from under the national policy. The subnational policies substantially reduce regional disparity in PM2.5 pollution and hence improve environmental equity. The results suggest that subnationally differentiated carbon policies are a promising instrument to mitigate severe pollution and promote environmental equity.

Based on policy instrument theory and a case of low-carbon city development (Qihe County in Shandong), this study examined the policy instruments adopted for low-carbon city development in China and the effectiveness of these instruments. All the policies adopted by the piloted city from 2008 and 2014 were collected, coded, and analyzed. A two-dimensional analytical framework was developed based on a trichotomous policy instrument categorization and low-carbon city connotation. The results showed that the key goal of China’s low-carbon city construction is to develop low-carbon technology and low-carbon energy. Compulsory policy instruments are the most used and most effective, while voluntary policy instruments are rarely used. Further results indicated that when the ratio of compulsory instruments and mixed instruments comes to 2:1, the combination of policy instruments can lead to the optimal completion degree. It seems difficult to balance the stability of various policy instruments with the overall high completion degree. Chinese local governments are more accustomed to compulsory policy instruments. This reminds policymakers to pay more attention to the potential of voluntary instruments and mixed instruments in building low-carbon cities.

AbstractMany countries have implemented national climate policies to accomplish pledged Nationally Determined Contributions and to contribute to the temperature objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2023, the global stocktake will assess the combined effort of countries. Here, based on a public policy database and a multi-model scenario analysis, we show that implementation of current policies leaves a median emission gap of 22.4 to 28.2 GtCO2eq by 2030 with the optimal pathways to implement the well below 2 °C and 1.5 °C Paris goals. If Nationally Determined Contributions would be fully implemented, this gap would be reduced by a third. Interestingly, the countries evaluated were found to not achieve their pledged contributions with implemented policies (implementation gap), or to have an ambition gap with optimal pathways towards well below 2 °C. This shows that all countries would need to accelerate the implementation of policies for renewable technologies, while efficiency improvements are especially important in emerging countries and fossil-fuel-dependent countries.

Abstract A search in energetic, high-multiplicity final states for evidence of physics beyond the standard model, such as black holes, string balls, and electroweak sphalerons, is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016. Standard model backgrounds, dominated by multijet production, are determined from control regions in data without any reliance on simulation. No evidence for excesses above the predicted background is observed. Model-independent 95% confidence level upper limits on the cross section of beyond the standard model signals in these final states are set and further interpreted in terms of limits on semiclassical black hole, string ball, and sphaleron production. In the context of models with large extra dimensions, semiclassical black holes with minimum masses as high as 10.1 TeV and string balls with masses as high as 9.5 TeV are excluded by this search. Results of the first dedicated search for electroweak sphalerons are presented. An upper limit of 0.021 is set at 95% confidence level on the fraction of all quark-quark interactions above the nominal threshold energy of 9 TeV resulting in the sphaleron transition.