Cities play a key role in achieving the climate-neutral supply of heating and cooling. This paper compares the policy frameworks as well as practical implementation of smart heating and cooling in six cities: Munich, Dresden and Bad Nauheim in Germany; and Jinan, Chengdu and Haiyan in China, to explore strategies to enhance policy support, financial mechanisms, and consumer engagement, ultimately aiming to facilitate the transition to climate-neutral heating and cooling systems. The study is divided into three parts: (i) an examination of smart heating and cooling policy frameworks in Germany and China over the past few years; (ii) an analysis of heating and cooling strategies in the six case study cities within the context of smart energy systems; and (iii) an exploration of the practical solutions adopted by these cities as part of their smart energy transition initiatives. The findings reveal differences between the two countries in the strategies and regulations adopted by municipal governments as well as variations within each country. The policy frameworks and priorities set by city governments can greatly influence the development and implementation of smart heating and cooling systems. The study found that all six cities are actively engaged in pioneering innovative heating and cooling projects which utilise diverse energy sources such as geothermal, biomass, solar, waste heat and nuclear energy. Even the smaller cities were seen to be making considerable progress in the adoption of smart solutions.

The current study examines the impact that technological innovation, foreign direct investment, economic growth, and globalization have on tourism in top 10 most popular tourist destinations in the world. The information on the number of tourists, foreign direct investment, growth in gross domestic product, GFCF, use of FFE, and total energy consumption were extracted from the World Development Indicators. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) database was used for collecting the statistics about technological innovation.  The source ETH Zurich has been utilized to gather panel data for the time period 2008 to 2022 to calculate the KOF Index of Globalization. Theoretically, FDI and Economic growth are the endogenous variables for the Tourism model. Whereas, TI, Glob, Energy Consumption, and GFCF are the exogenous variables. Hence, the analysis is based on the System Equation—Simultaneous equations, after checking identification that confirms the problem of simultaneity in system of 3 equations. The empirical outcomes suggest that TI, FDI, globalization index, GDP growth, and energy consumption are the most important factors that contribute to an increase in tourism. Likewise FDI as the endogenous variable is favorably impacted by globalization, technological innovation, fossil fuel energy consumption, gross fixed capital formation, and tourism. Nevertheless, the coefficient of GFCF is only insignificant in the study. While, globalization, TI, and FFE are also favorably affecting the FDI. GDP growth is the second endogenous variable in this research, and it is positively influenced by globalization, FDI, and tourism in the case of the top 10 nations that are most frequently visited by tourists.

Catastrophes, like earthquakes, bring sudden and severe damage, causing fatalities, injuries, and property loss. This often triggers a rapid increase in insurance claims. These claims can encompass various types, such as life insurance claims for deaths, health insurance claims for injuries, and general insurance claims for property damage. For insurers offering multiple types of coverage, this surge in claims can pose a risk of financial losses or bankruptcy. One option for insurers is to transfer some of these risks to reinsurance companies. Reinsurance companies will assess the potential losses due to a catastrophe event, then issue catastrophe reinsurance contracts to insurance companies. This study aims to construct a valuation model for catastrophe reinsurance contracts that can cover claim losses arising from two types of insurance products. Valuation in this study is done using the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing, which is the expected present value of the number of claims that occur during the reinsurance coverage period. The number of catastrophe events during the reinsurance coverage period is assumed to follow a Poisson process. Each impact of a catastrophe event, such as the number of fatalities and injuries that cause claims, is represented as random variables, and modeled using Peaks Over Threshold (POT). This study uses Clayton, Gumbel, and Frank copulas to describe various dependence characteristics between random variables. The parameters of the POT model and copula are estimated using Inference Functions for Margins method. After estimating the model parameters, Monte Carlo simulations are performed to obtain numerical solutions for the expected value of catastrophe reinsurance based on the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing. The expected reinsurance value based on Monte Carlo simulations using Indonesian earthquake data from 1979–2021 is Rp 10,296,819,838.

Personal information is a vital productive commodity in the digital economy, and its processing has seen unparalleled transformations in both breadth and depth. This article proposes to enhance the legal remedies for personal information rights in contemporary China. Research has revealed multiple practical challenges in China’s judicial practices, such as hesitance to prosecute owing to an absence of substantial legal foundation, improper distribution of the burden of proof, and inadequate integration of criminal-civil judicial safeguards for personal information. This paper advocates for China to elucidate the definition of personal information rights via legislation, enable the litigation of personal information infringement cases, and establish explicit criteria for their acceptance into judicial proceedings. Furthermore, China must develop an appropriate structure for distributing the burden of evidence. It must also use discretionary judgment to properly tackle the problems related to evaluating damages in instances of personal information violations.

Sustainability is a top priority for municipal administrations, particularly in large urban centers where citizens rely on transportation for work, study, and daily errands. Public transportation faces a significant challenge beyond availability, performance, safety, and comfort: balancing the cost for the city with fare attractiveness for passengers. Meanwhile, bicycles, supported by public incentives due to their clean and healthy appeal, compete with public transit. In Curitiba, the integrated transport system has been consistently losing passengers, exacerbated by the pandemic and the rise in private vehicle usage. To address this, the city is expanding bicycle infrastructure and electric bike rental services, impacting public transit revenue, and prompting the need for financial compensation to maintain affordable fares for those reliant on public transport. Therefore, this study’s objective is to analyze the bicycle’s impact on public transportation, considering the impact of public policies on economic and social efficiency, not just ecological and environmental factors. Data from six main bus lines were collected and analyzed in two separate linear regression models to verify the effects of new bicycles in circulation, bus tariffs, and weather conditions on public transportation demand. Research results revealed a significant impact of bus tariffs and fuel prices on the number of new bicycles that are diverting passengers from public transportation. The discussion may offer a different perspective on public transport policies and improve city infrastructure investments to strategically change the urban form to address social and economic issues.

The provision of clean drinking water is an important public service as more than 700 million people do not have access to this basic need. When it comes to delivering public services in developing countries, government capacity is a crucial element. This study investigates whether state capacity is a significant determinant in the provision of safe drinking water using panel data from 88 developing countries from 1990 to 2017. The paper applies ordinary least squares and fixed effects regression approaches and uses the Bureaucratic Quality Index and the Tax/GDP ratio as metrics of state capacity. The findings indicate that in developing nations, the availability of clean drinking water is positively correlated with state capacity.