Reducing environmental impacts through socioeconomic transitions: critical review and prospects

Highlights

● Reducing environmental impacts through socioeconomic structural transitions.

● Simulation of looping the dynamic material cycle should be concerned.

● Transboundary effects of socioeconomic transitions need to be analyzed.

● Facilitating interregional cooperation and synergetic control mechanisms.

Abstract

Rapid socioeconomic development has caused numerous environmental impacts. Human production and consumption activities are the underlying drivers of resource uses, environmental emissions, and associated environmental impacts (e.g., ecosystem quality and human health). Reducing environmental impacts requires an understanding of the complex interactions between socioeconomic system and environmental system. Existing studies have explored the relationships among human society, economic system, and environmental system. However, it is unclear about the research progress in the effects of socioeconomic activities on environmental impacts and the potential directions of future research. This critical review finds that existing studies have identified critical regions, sectors, and transmission pathways for resource uses, environmental emissions, and environmental impacts from supply chain perspectives. Moreover, scholars have characterized the impacts of socioeconomic transitions on resource uses and environmental emissions. However, existing studies overlook the dynamic nature of the interconnections among human society, economic system, and environmental system. In addition, the effects of socioeconomic structural transitions on environmental impacts remain unknown. This review proposes four prospects and possible solutions that will contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions among human society, economic system, and environmental system. They can help identify more effective solutions to reduce environmental impacts through socioeconomic transitions.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Environmental pressures / Environmental impacts / Nexus / Supply chains / Trade / Coupled systems

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Sai Liang is a Professor at the School of Ecology, Environment and Resources at Guangdong University of Technology, China. He received a B.S. and a Ph.D from Tsinghua University, both in Environmental Science and Engineering. He completed a four-year postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, USA, before joining the School of Environment at Beijing Normal University, China as a Professor in 2017. In 2020 he moved to Guangdong University of Technology as a Professor and Vice Dean. He is directing the Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education with a focus on environmental systems analysis. The ongoing research topics in his lab include the modeling of the coupled human-natural systems and the effect of socioeconomic transitions on environmental impacts. He has published over 140 papers in journals including Nature Food, Nature Communications, One Earth, Environmental Science & Technology, etc. His papers have been cited for more than 6200 times with an H-index of 47 (Google Scholar). He currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Industrial Ecology Committee under the Ecology Society of China. He also serves as the editorial board members of the Journal of Cleaner Production and Ecosystem Health and Sustainability (Science Partner Journal)

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2022YFF1301200) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71874014). We also thank the comments and suggestions from Haifeng Zhou, Yumeng Li, Xiaohui Wu, Sha Peng, and Jetashree.

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