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In the domain of global socio-economic dynamics, the pivotal role of food production (FP) cannot be overstated. It constitutes the bedrock of fundamental human necessities while being inexorably linked with critical aspects such as economic expansion, societal equilibrium, and geopolitical interplays. The multifaceted nature of FP appears through its direct impact on macroeconomic indicators and its latent influence on international relations and policy-making. This critical nexus underscores the imperative for a comprehensive understanding and strategic management of food production processes to sustain and enhance global socio-economic stability and growth. Investigating the nexus between green finance (GF) and FP is pivotal for ensuring national security and promoting sustainable economic development. This research thus paper examines GF's impact on FP in China as outlined in the 2017 green finance policies. It employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method and analyzes a balanced panel dataset comprising 282 cities in China from 2009 to 2020. The results show that GF has an inhibitory effect on FP, and this remains valid after a range of reliability checks, including parallel trend assessments and placebo tests. Further findings of transmission mechanism analysis indicate that non-agricultural factors and financial exclusion are critical for GF's inhibitory effect on FP. Heterogeneity analyses show that GF's inhibitory effect on FP is more pronounced in the main food-producing areas, the main food-marketing areas, and cities with better infrastructure. The empirical results of this paper comprehensively illustrate GF's impact on FP and how it contributes to the achievement of food security objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 county-level sustainable development measures and practice the SDGs. The findings could be useful for policymakers. [Display omitted] • Based on the entropy weight method and the Chinese county data, the sustainable development levels of 1533 counties in China from 2000 to 2017 are estimated. • Analyses of spatial-temporal dynamic heterogeneity, Linear decomposition, and Dagum decomposition are conducted to study the features of sustainable development in Chinese counties. •The influence of natural features and national concern preferences on county sustainable development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty remains one of the long-term chronic dilemmas facing the sustainable development of human society during the 21st century. The spatiotemporal dynamics of poor regions, particularly in developing countries, is crucial for realizing fundamental sustainable development goals (SDGs). For decades, many scholars have sought to accurately measure, identify and alleviate poverty at different geographical scales. However, reliable data about the estimation of poverty remain scarce for developing countries, hindering efforts to accurately identify poverty. This paper utilizes the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) sensor nighttime light imagery to identify poor counties in China from 1992 to 2013. Using 16 statistical and spatial features extracted from this nighttime light imagery and using 96 poor counties and 96 nonpoor counties from 2010 as the classification sample, we describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of poor counties based on a random forests approach. Our study finds that the number of poor counties is decreasing in a fluctuating pattern and that contiguous poverty-stricken areas are becoming fragmented. The reduction in poor counties exhibits a manner of moving horizontally from the eastern regions to the central and western parts of China, while the number of poor counties in the central and western regions has decreased around the central cities or areas. The Aihui-Tengchong Line is not the dividing line in the distribution of poor counties in China, which means that China's poor can also be found in areas with relatively high population density. Together, the findings reveal that the key to reducing regional poverty is the development of regional economies and the implementation of national macro policies. This paper provides references for formulating antipoverty strategies for each county and offers new insights into poverty estimation and regional sustainable development for other developing countries. Image 1 • A new research framework is proposed to identify poverty. • Imagery and random forests are used to classify poor counties. • Spatiotemporal dynamics of poor counties are monitored in China. • Poverty dynamics generate implication for poverty policy and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metal industry (MI) in China is energy and emissions intensive. This paper tries to provide guidance for the green development transformation of China's MI, by investigating the green total-factor productivity (GTFP) and its influencing factors using a global data envelopment analysis and a spatial Tobit regression model. The estimation results show that: (1) from 2000 to 2015, GTFP of China's MI enjoyed a considerable improvement. However, the current value of GTFP of China's MI is still less than 0.5, indicating that GTFP of China's MI is far from efficient; (2) the spatial correlation test shows that GTFPs of China's provincial MIs have positive spatial correlations. Most of the provinces scattered in "high-high" and "low-low" agglomerations; (3) GTFP of China's MI is significantly positive related to the degree of marketization, fiscal decentralization, environmental regulation, industrial scale, is significantly negative related to resources endowment and product structure, and has "U" shaped relationship with the level of economic development. The above results suggest that China already has made remarkable achievements in promoting green development of its MI. However, there is much room for further improvement. Policy options for the green development transformation of China's MI include but are not limited to promoting market-oriented and financial system reforms, strengthening environmental supervision, and optimizing industrial scale and product structure. Finally, recommendations for the effective implementation of these policies are provided at the end of the study. • This paper analyzed the historical performance and influencing factors of GTFP of China's MI. • Results show that GTFP of China's MI achieved considerable improvement in the past few years. • However, the current level of GTFP of China's MI is still very low. • There are many effective policy options for further promoting GTFP growth of China's MI. • Some implications for the implementation of these policies are provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Wastewater discharge is a burden on environmentally sustainable development, especially in the water-deficient area. Existing Studies on wastewater discharge is not comprehensive for lacking analysis of mutual flow and necessary components. In this study, a wastewater metabolism input-output model is developed to achieve sustainable development through a novel perspective to depict the industrial wastewater flow among sectors. Since chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen are indicators for studying the degree of wastewater pollution, this paper also considers their wastewater to make the research synthetic and systematic. A case study of Guangdong Province, China, is conducted to further illustrate the potential benefits of the model in investigation of the sectors interactions. The results show that the wastewater discharge of Guangdong Province is considerable, with industrial wastewater, chemical oxygen demand wastewater and ammonia-nitrogen wastewater being 7.53 billion tons, 852 thousand tons and 69 thousand tons respectively. Some typical sectors have been distinguished based on ecological network analysis and input-output analysis for mitigating wastewater discharge, such as electronic equipment manufacture, chemical materials and paper manufacture, and tertiary industry. The implementation of the "Replace Subsidies with Rewards" policy is conducive to the discharge reduction of the system. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Establishing a wastewater metabolism input-output model for Guangdong, China. • Industrial wastewater discharge is large and exploitation relationship is dominant. • Comparing the discharge status of cod wastewater and ammonia nitrogen wastewater. • Proposing some policies and regulations for main sectors to optimize the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable development, Chinese governments have introduced "1+N" "dual-carbon" policy system aimed at reducing CO 2 emissions, transforming energy structures and controlling pollution. An effective policy mix and synergy is crucial for achieving the emission reduction targets and for ensuring the effectiveness of the policies, and it is therefore of great practical importance to provide a pathway for policy synergy based on assessing policy effectiveness. This paper selects three policies, namely the carbon Emission Trading System (ETS), Coal Control and Clean Utilization (CCCU), and Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFPZ), sets up ten scenarios, adopts difference-in-differences (DID) models to evaluate the impact, and give a pathway for policy synergy. The results show that ETS, CCCU, and GFPZ policies have significant positive effects on carbon emission reduction, energy structure transformation, and industrial environmental pollution control, respectively; CCCU has synergistic effects with ETS and GFPZ policies in controlling coal consumption and increasing the completion of industrial pollution control investments, respectively; while GFPZ policies have conflicting effects with CCCU and ETS in reducing carbon emissions and coal consumption, the GFPZ policy has conflicting effects with CCCU and ETS in reducing carbon emissions and controlling coal consumption. Finally, the study proposes a phased policy support system around carbon emission reduction in the power generation industry, energy structure transformation, and industrial environmental pollution control before 2030 and from 2030 to 2060. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of the digital economy and green development strategies, exploring the impact of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation becomes an importantly urgent issue. Based on the perspectives of asymmetric effects and structural breakpoints, this paper empirically analyses the effect of digital transformation on green technology innovation, as well as its heterogeneity and non-linear characteristics, using fixed effect models and panel threshold model with a sample of Chinese A-share-listed corporates from 2011 to 2021. The findings suggest that digital transformation of corporates can significantly promotes green technology innovation, which remains valid after a series of endogenous and robustness tests. Heterogeneous regression results shows that digital transformation exhibits an asymmetric impact on green technology innovation, with greater incentive effect for state-owned corporates, manufacturing corporates, and corporates located in areas with stricter environmental regulations. Additionally, threshold effect analyses prove that a positive non-linear relationship between digital transformation and green technology innovation, when corporate human capital, industry competition and regional institutional quality exceeded their respective structural breakpoints, the marginal contribution of digital transformation is further strengthened. This research provides clearer policy insights for corporates to promote cleaner production and low carbon development through digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization growth during the past decades which has highly promoted its affluence has induced various challenges for the countryside. The problem of rural decline of quite many villages which are suffering depopulation in turn challenges the urbanization sustainability in China. By way of in-depth historical and literature review, the paper finds distorted urban-rural relationship and the tendency of village decline owing to China's long time urban biased policy. By further investigating China's new-type urbanization strategy, the paper draws concerns about future rural development which is less mentioned in the plan. It calls for ruralization and actions to revitalize the countryside so as to be adapted to China's new-type urbanization plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the onset of industrialization over the past several decades, the rural areas are undergoing considerable changes in China. Optimal rural industrial land use distribution provides a spatial foundation for sustainable development in rural areas. Moreover, the importance of appropriate rural industrial land use adjustment is evident in rural spatial restructuring. This paper investigates rural industrial land use patterns and its impact on rural areas in Pinggu District of Beijing based on a combined method of “landscape indices” and the “geospatial analysis.” Subsequently, this paper proposes a rural industrial land use adjustment. The results show that according to the relevance of township and village enterprises (TVEs) to rural development, rural industrial land can be classified as rural industry land (RI-land) and non-rural industry land (NI-land). “Small scale, spontaneous dispersion” is the overall rural industrial land use pattern in China, and the spatial patterns between the two types of rural industrial land are quite different: the pattern “dispersion inside rural settlements” is usually observed in RI-land, while “agglomeration around regional central towns” and “linear sprawl” are common on NI-land. Considering the peculiarity of TVEs, the dispersion for RI-land is designed to absorb the surplus labor and raw materials nearby in the countryside to enhance their output-efficiency, whereas the agglomeration for NI-land is to pursue the efficiency of agglomeration economies. This paper also revealed that current disperse rural industrial land use pattern has generated polluting effects on the environment. Therefore, following the “classification principle,” rural industrial land use adjustment should not merely pursue economic efficiency and agglomeration efficiency but should also engage in labor absorptivity and environmental benefits. The formation and development of rural industrial land in China is quite different from traditional industrial land; these differences are largely attributed to their unique driving mechanisms and historical backgrounds. In particular, the traditional Theories of the Location of Industries directed by “agglomeration,” are unsuitable for rural industrial land in China. Therefore, the results in this paper can help form a basis for sustainable planning of rural industrial land and contribute to rural transformation development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HE-D and DE-D were stable; most regions showed a relatively concurrent development of DE and HE. • D of the two subsystems differed in different regions with "high in the east and low in the west." • CCD fluctuated relatively steadily with differences of "high in the northern and coastal regions". • "HE benefits" and number of academic papers are the primary influencing dimension and factor in HE. • "DE input" and popularity rate of mobiles are the primary influencing dimension and factor in DE. Analyzing the coupling coordination interactions of higher education (HE) and digital economy (DE) to achieve sustainable growth is crucial. Thus, we constructed the coupling coordination interaction mechanism and the comprehensive evaluation system of the two subsystems to measure their coordination interactions; then, we processed the temporal-spatial analysis of the development status and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) in the case of China. Furthermore, we used the gray correlation model to determine the primary influencing factors and proposed differentiated policymaking suggestions. We found that: (1) the development status of higher education (HE-D) was more stable than that of the digital economy (DE-D), which showed a slight upward trend; besides, there were noticeable spatial differences for HE-D and DE-D. (2) The temporal changes of CCD were not noticeable. (3) Expenditure on research activities in HE and the number of patents were the significant factors affecting DE; the popularity rate of mobile phones and the number of employees in the DE industry were the significant factors affecting HE; besides, HE's output benefits and DE's input was more influential in the coordination relations. Furthermore, we also put forward targeted, specific, and differentiated policymaking suggestions, which can guide policymakers to formulate regional sustainable development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the goal of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" in China, it is significant to explore whether green finance contributes to carbon emission reduction. Therefore, based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of green finance on carbon emissions and its mechanism using the FE model, GMM model, DID, and the mediating effect model. Results find that green finance can significantly promote carbon emissions reduction, and this promotion remains still after robustness tests. The heterogeneity analysis shows that green finance's carbon emission reduction effect is more significant in developed and western regions. Moreover, the results of policy intervention effects confirm that green finance reform and innovation pilot zones (GFRIs) for carbon emission reduction are more pronounced than in other regions. Finally, the mediating effects reveal that industrial structure and green innovation are the core transmission channels through which green finance influences carbon emission reduction. These findings offer meaningful implications for formulating reasonable carbon emission reduction plans and determining the future development direction of green finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late 1990s and early 2010s witnessed China’s efforts to reform its coal industry towards sustainability. A series of rigorous initiatives were launched to consolidate its coal resources and upgrade its mining sector. The “mine closure and production reduction campaign” (MCPRC) and “coal resources consolidation campaign” (CRCC) were among the notable. This paper conducts a general review of the policies and regulations relating to these initiatives with Shanxi, one of the key coal-producing provinces and one of the pilot areas for reform, as a case study. The paper argues that the “one-size-fits-all” approach may have brought short-lived political and economic benefits. However, in the long run, a rationally-designed, stable, socio-economically and environmentally co-ordinated regulatory framework for both large and small coal mines is needed for the sustainable development of China’s coal sector. This finding would be helpful for the potential similar reform initiatives for the coal sector and for the wider energy sector across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of environmental degradation, sustainable development has become a common goal across the globe. Making a scientifically based investment scheme is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of China's economy. However, there is scarce research related to such an investment scheme of sustainable development. This paper proposes a new inverse data envelopment analysis method with undesirable outputs to make several scientifically based investment schemes from different perspectives, namely, the natural, regulation, and optimal perspectives. By this method, decision makers can scientifically forecast the specific amount of investment based on their actual sustainable development objectives, which is conducive for reducing the blindness of investment in the future. In addition, a new ideal perspective is defined to guide a definite direction for improving the level of sustainable development. Combined with the gray forecasting model GM(1,1), the methods proposed by this paper were then applied to analyze the investment problem for China's sustainable development during the 2015–2024 period. The results show that: the unbalanced distribution of labor investment and the excessive investment in capital and energy are serious barriers to China's sustainable development in the short term; and in the long term, the demand for investment in labor and capital will continue to increase along with a lower demand for energy investment, and that appropriately strengthening environmental regulations will not affect the overall demand for investment. Meanwhile, improvement directions for improving China's sustainable development are discussed, and the results show that most of developing and undeveloped regions in China have great potential for improvement. Finally, some suggestions are proposed in order to create better conditions for China's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable consumption (SC) is key for sustainable development, but only limited studies have examined how to motivate SC among consumers in developing countries. Younger consumers tend to more sustainable consumption while whether they really understand the SC concept is not clear. To explore the role of SC understanding for motivating SC behaviors, this paper develops a concept model with hypotheses to propose that SC understanding mediates relationships between influencing factors and SC behaviors. Based on 623 usable questionnaires collected from junior high schools and senior high schools in three eastern cities of China, five influencing factors for SC behaviors are identified, they are, education, awareness & attitude, social influence, effectiveness of energy saving and emission reduction for sustainable products, and differentiation of sustainable products from regular products. Statistic results through hierarchical regression analysis demonstrate that SC understanding is necessary to motivate SC behaviors with certain influencing factors. Chinese adolescents can understand the SC concept through education and then purchase sustainable products. Only if sustainable products can show benefits of energy saving and emission reduction, Chinese adolescent would like to use these products. Environmental awareness and attitude can bring environmental treatment and disposal of products, but SC understanding is necessary. This paper contributes to extend the TPB to develop a conceptual model including education as one influencing factor for SC behaviors. It also develops three factors for SC behaviors from the product life cycle perspective. Besides, it also contributes to extend the previous studies about motivation of SC consumption to adolescents in an emergent economy of China to examine the role of SC understanding. Statistic results reveal the low implementation level of SC behaviors, and the government should highlight sustainable education to improve sustainable awareness and SC understanding. It is also shown that adolescents would like to purchase sustainable products if environmental performance of such products can be demonstrated, which also provide insights for enterprises to achieve win-win opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China provides a stark and globally significant illustration of how changing patterns of food production and consumption (especially related to increased intake of animal protein) are creating negative impacts on biodiversity, climate, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles and the use of freshwater. However, China's rapidly growing innovation capabilities and dynamic pattern of development also offer a unique opportunity for transitions towards more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. Applying a ‘food practices in transition’ framework (Spaargaren et al., 2012), this paper discusses the technological, political and socio-cultural factors central to such systemic changes, with a focus on maize as a core case study. In particular it presents and discusses two contending (but not mutually-exclusive) pathways towards more sustainable maize production and consumption. One, which we call the ‘indigenous innovation’ pathway is framed by ‘systemic rationalities’ and characterised by a focus on R&D-intensive technologies for agricultural intensification, including the controversial use of transgenic phytase maize. The second, which we term the ‘alternative’ pathway, is framed by ‘lifeworld rationalities’ and focusses on improved management practices, shorter supply chains, agro-ecological and participatory research. The two pathways claim different environmental benefits and present different risks and political implications. This paper analyses the food practices in transition in each pathway, identifying links with shifting political conditions and pointing to the increasingly significant role of consumer agency in steering patterns of maize production and consumption in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy vehicles (NEVs) have been recognized as a sustainable eco-innovation to address China's energy and environment problems. As a strategically emerging industry, China's NEV manufacturing industry has been prioritized by governments and manufacturers, significantly impacting its spatial distribution pattern and stimulating the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. China, the largest NEV producer and consumer and with distinctive regional diversity, has experienced a new round of capacity expansion. Therefore, the literature on the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of NEV industry in provincial level is vital for the transformation of manufacturing industry and transportation sector, while to date, the related studies is few. In this paper, considering the number and location of key enterprises/production bases, the spatial distribution and influencing factors of China's NEV industry were discussed by an empirical study. The results are gained from a spatial perspective. Firstly, in general, China's NEV industry presents a "T" spatial distribution pattern. Secondly, a point-axle spatial exploration pattern is proposed, which includes "four points and one axle" namely Bohai rim, Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hubei-Chongqing clusters and Eastern Coastal NEV industrial belt. Thirdly, different types of NEV enterprises show various location preferences and spatial distribution characteristics. Fourthly, the influencing factors on China's NEV spatial distribution are concluded from five aspects of supporting policy, infrastructure condition, economic drivers, technical capacity, and industrial foundation, and the degree of factors is different considering varying enterprise classification and industrial development stage. The findings of this paper provide a reference for rational layout in China's NEV industry, and are expected to stimulate the sustainable development of NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy vehicles (NEVs) have been recognized as a sustainable eco-innovation to address China's energy and environment problems. As a strategically emerging industry, China's NEV manufacturing industry has been prioritized by governments and manufacturers, significantly impacting its spatial distribution pattern and stimulating the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. China, the largest NEV producer and consumer and with distinctive regional diversity, has experienced a new round of capacity expansion. Therefore, the literature on the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of NEV industry in provincial level is vital for the transformation of manufacturing industry and transportation sector, while to date, the related studies is few. In this paper, considering the number and location of key enterprises/production bases, the spatial distribution and influencing factors of China's NEV industry were discussed by an empirical study. The results are gained from a spatial perspective. Firstly, in general, China's NEV industry presents a "T" spatial distribution pattern. Secondly, a point-axle spatial exploration pattern is proposed, which includes "four points and one axle" namely Bohai rim, Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hubei-Chongqing clusters and Eastern Coastal NEV industrial belt. Thirdly, different types of NEV enterprises show various location preferences and spatial distribution characteristics. Fourthly, the influencing factors on China's NEV spatial distribution are concluded from five aspects of supporting policy, infrastructure condition, economic drivers, technical capacity, and industrial foundation, and the degree of factors is different considering varying enterprise classification and industrial development stage. The findings of this paper provide a reference for rational layout in China's NEV industry, and are expected to stimulate the sustainable development of NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The spatial distribution of manufacturing plants has a significant impact on resource use and the environment. This paper examines the impacts of the scattered geographic distributions of manufacturing plants on groundwater withdrawal in Hebei Province, China, which is a region with severe groundwater overexploitation. Instead of using traditional methods to measure urban sprawl, we proposed a factory scatter index (FSI) that incorporates the latitude and longitude of each plant to characterize the degree to which plants are scattered throughout Hebei Province. We also conducted a regression analysis using groundwater withdrawal as the dependent variable, FSI as the independent variable, and other traditional variables as controls. The results reveal that FSI is large in developed regions and has a significant impact on groundwater withdrawal that exceeds impacts from the number of high water-consuming factories in a region, total population, and urbanization. This study highlights the impact of geographically scattered manufacturing plants on water use and may provide a new geographic perspective for regional sustainable development. Highlights • Developed an index to quantitatively describe the spatial distribution of factories. • Factories are very highly dispersed in Hebei Province. • The scattered distribution of factories exacerbates groundwater withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been experiencing a rapid urbanization process. Various relevant policies and strategies have been implemented for sustainable urbanization. For a better understanding of sustainable urbanization, many research efforts have been made on urban sustainability assessment. The traditional indicator index is normally used to evaluate the urban sustainability performance. However, the urban development is a complex system, and the existing methods cannot reflect the systemic interactions among variables. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a system dynamics model for simulating urban sustainability performance. The system dynamics model comprises four sub-systems, namely, the economic sector, social sector, environment sector and resource sector. Then, the system dynamics model is used to simulate the sustainability performance of the city, Beijing, with three scenarios. The results indicate that the system dynamics modelling is a useful tool for simulating urban sustainability performance and can help policy makers formulate relevant strategies for a better sustainable development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agenda 2030 poses critical elements regarding the transition towards a more sustainable development. This paper aims at exploring and comparing the path of sustainable development within the United States and China at the subnational level. An index of Integrated Sustainable Development is introduced to measure local sustainable development on an internationally-comparable scale. This Index is computed both at the national and subnational level and the resulting scores are compared within and across the two countries, also through the adoption of convergence and cluster analysis, allowing to answer four questions: Are the US and China moving towards a sustainable development agenda? Are the current achievements uniformly distributed within the two countries? Are states/provinces converging towards a more uniform level of sustainable development? Do the existing differences and analogies between states and provinces give rise to common clusters across the two countries? The results lead to one robust conclusion: while the US can claim a better result in the national and subnational rankings of sustainable development, China exhibits a more balanced achievement in terms of synergies across Goals and spatial distribution. Nonetheless, both countries are characterized by subnational disparities and scarce achievements of Planet-related Goals. Policy recommendations are discussed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bicycles are a desirable form of transportation for many reasons, including the fact that taking a bicycle is environmentally-friendly, economically cost-effective, a way to keep fit and healthy and, on occasions, an enjoyable social activity. This paper explores the characteristics and commonalities between particular bike-sharing systems in urban areas, with a view to deriving influences on the sustainability of such systems. The empirical study is China and the paper analyses bike-sharing systems in five Chinese cities. China is suffering from the severe negative consequences of high private vehicle usage in large and densely populated cities. Nevertheless a long history of bicycle usage in the country provides great potential for such a green form of travel to be part of public and private transportation. The findings show that bike-sharing systems have varying degrees of success. The configurations which seem the most sustainable consider and integrate elements relating to transport planning, system design and choice of business model. Key conclusions are that those responsible for developing policy and practices in relation to bike-sharing systems need to understand the diverse aspects of value for the stakeholders wishing to engage with such a system. Public bicycle sharing, as a Product Service System, needs to be carefully developed to appreciate the quality and timely interplay between the physical design of the system and the provision of services being offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building resource-conserving and environmental-friendly society (referred to as “two-oriented society”, TOS) is an important way proposed by the Chinese government to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, a pilot city of constructing TOS in China-Wuhan is taken as a case to evaluate the performance of TOS from 2005 to 2012. Treating the indicators of TOS as multi-dimensional vectors, this paper proposes a methodological framework by integrating the methods of vector angle and Euclidean distance to measure the angle and distance between the vector of annual status of TOS and the vector of planning target of TOS. Based on this, the paper employs coordination (the angle between the two vectors) and effectiveness (the distance between the two vectors) to describe the performance of TOS and its subsystems, including economic development (ED), social and people's well-being (SW), resource consumption (RC), resource recycling (RR), environmental quality (EQ) and pollution control (PC). Moreover, grey relational analysis approach is used to analyse the core factors influencing TOS construction. Results reveal that the performance of TOS in Wuhan is continually improved in the study period while the performance of its subsystems shows several differences: (1) both coordination and effectiveness of TOS, ED and SW keep on improving, while those of EQ fluctuate; (2) the effectiveness of both RR and PC shows a downward trend while the coordination of them fluctuates; (3) the actual value of RC indicators reaches the planning targets. Based on the analysis of determinants, we suggest that strengthening technological ability and adding investment are extremely important to improve the performance of RC and PC. For the sake of improving RR, it is critical to provide more government public expenditure and encourage financial institutions to provide more loans to stimulate and support the businesses. Moreover, increasing the amount of R&D funding and maintaining steady external economic environment are proved to be effective to improve all subsystems of TOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlation between urbanization and environmental pollution is a major focus of study in geography, environmental science, and economics. Particulate matter is the primary pollutant of air pollution and made up of heavy metal, organic carbon and aromatic hydrocarbon and complicated chemicals. PM 2.5 are fine particulate matter with diameters that are less than 2.5 μm. The aim of this study on the relationship between urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is to achieve a win-win situation of both economic development and environmental protection, which is of great significance to sustainable development in China. This paper uses PM 2.5 remote sensing data and statistical yearbook data from 2000 to 2011 to build four panel data models within the urbanization-PM 2.5 concentration Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. The goal is to find out the correlations between PM 2.5 concentration and economic urbanization, population urbanization, and space urbanization. Furthermore, scenario simulations are set to predict when China will reach inflection point and achieve its target concentration. Results show that the relationship between economic urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is an inverted N-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve. Most cities in East China have reached the second inflection point of inverted-N curve to step into the win-win stage while many cities in Middle China still need 10–15 years to arrive at the inflection point of the inverted-U curve. Therefore, China is under great pressure to prevent PM 2.5 pollution and pursue more targeted PM 2.5 -reduction policies for air quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the iron and steel industry (ISI) accounts for more than 16% of China's total energy consumption. Improving energy efficiency (EE) and promoting energy savings in this industry have vital significance for China's further sustainable development. Using provincial panel data from 2000 to 2014 and meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper investigates EE and the energy-saving potential (EP) of China's ISI by considering regional technology heterogeneities. The results show that (1) from 2001 to 2014, EE in China's ISI achieved significant improvement. Technological progress is the most powerful driving factor, while the declines in scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency are two obstructive factors; (2) the sources of energy inefficiency (EI) show distinct spatial difference characteristics. EI in the eastern region mainly stems from scale inefficiency and pure technical inefficiency, while that in the central and western regions stems from three aspects of scale inefficiency, pure technical inefficiency, and technology gap; and (3) there is considerable EP in China's ISI, which represents nearly 80% of ISI's current total energy consumption. Because the sources of EP vary across regions, the focus of future work for China's regional ISI should also vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction industries have significant impacts on the economy, society and environment. To transform construction industry towards sustainability, construction enterprises' perceptions and performance on sustainability needs to be understood and evaluated, which has not be fully explored by existing studies. This paper holistically examines the Chinese construction enterprises’ attitude towards and performance on various aspects of sustainability (e.g. the economic, social and environmental aspects) in order to identify those aspects the firms perceive to be the most and least important and those aspects the firms perform best and worst on. The associations among the sustainability attitude, sustainability performance, and firm size are also explored. The findings show that quality management and customer service are perceived as the most important as well as the best-performed aspects by the firms while supporting community development is the least important and worst-performed aspect. Sustainability attitude is positively correlated with performance, and larger firms tend to have better sustainability performance than that of small ones. However, larger construction firms do not necessarily perceive sustainability more important. This study provides a useful reference for policy makers and researchers to understand how sustainability is perceived and implemented by the Chinese construction firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade has accelerated the trend of globalization, giving consumers and countries the opportunity to reach new markets and products. However, it also brought negative externalities in the forms of pollution and environmental degradation. Plus, the large amounts of resource flows among different countries may aggravate resource depletion. Thus, it is necessary to uncover the embodied resource flows and corresponding environmental impacts so that sustainable trade policies can be raised. Under such a circumstance, this paper accounts environmental and resources footprints embodied in the China-EU trade for the year of 2008 by employing a multi-regional input-output model, including both the global and sectoral environmental and resource footprints which caused by the trade between China and the EU-27 countries. Research results show that from the global footprints perspective, the total environmental footprints of China and EU countries are 4.73 Gt and 4.53 Gt in 2008, respectively. The total resource footprints of China are 8.19E+07 TJ of energy, 0.66 Bha of land, 14.5 Gt of materials, and 1.47 Tm 3 of water, while such figures for EU countries are 1.17E+08 TJ of energy, 0.66 Bha of land, 12.1 Gt of materials, and 1.26 Tm 3 of water, respectively. The transfer trend of environmental and resources footprints between China and EU was also analyzed, indicating that EU countries caused 8.21 times of emission footprint than China's, and China provided 6.25 times of energy footprint, 16.76 times of land footprint, 12.26 times of material footprint, and 17.38 times of water footprint for EU countries' final consumption. In addition, the sectoral footprints between China and the five selected EU countries were analyzed. Finally, policy implications from environmental and resources management perspectives are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because industrial sectors in China are energy-intensive, improving energy efficiency and promoting energy savings in these sectors are of great importance for the further sustainable development of China’s economy. Using a proposed meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the total-factor energy efficiency and energy savings potential in China’s provincial industrial sectors for the years 2000–2014 from three perspectives, namely, the technology gap, management, and scale. The results indicate that (1) driven by technological progress, energy efficiency during the sample period was greatly improved, though the expansion of technology gaps between regions and the decline in scale efficiency represented two significant handicaps; (2) the current energy efficiency in China’s industrial sectors remains extremely low, indicating that there is considerable potential for energy efficiency improvement and energy savings; and (3) the sources of energy inefficiency and energy savings potential in China’s industrial sectors exhibit spatially distinct characteristics. Accordingly, it is determined that most of China’s eastern provinces should focus on improving scale and management efficiency, whereas most of its central and western provinces should concentrate on three factors: narrowing the regional technology gap, improving management efficiency, and optimizing the industrial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of remanufacturing is gaining popularity in practice, its effect on environmental protection and energy saving is significant, which has attracted widespread concerns, especially in the automotive components field. Automotive components remanufacturing (ACR), as a prominent part in automotive life-cycle development, can dramatically reduce resources-waste and mitigate energy-crisis, which has become a prominent direction to promote sustainable development of Chinese economy. Thus, influence factors analysis and enterprise operation patterns assessment which primarily contribute to ACR industry development are of paramount importance. This paper elaborates the criteria influencing the ACR industry operation and analyzes the main operation patterns for ACR in China. To overcome the uncertainty of the evaluation process, a new hybrid multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) model that combines fuzzy AHP (analytical hierarchy process) and fuzzy G-TOPSIS (combining gray relation analysis and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) is proposed to determine weights of influence criteria and evaluate ACR production operation patterns. In addition, sensitivity analysis is applied to monitor the robustness of the method. The study refers to the experience of Chinese end-of-life vehicle (ELV) laws and implementation requirements of extended producer responsibility (EPR). The obtained results provide the new guideline to revise the regulations of Chinese ACR industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been very successful in creating conditions for industry localization in solar and wind energy manufacturing. In terms of their competitiveness in foreign markets, however, Chinese solar photovoltaics firms have shown significantly greater achievements than their counterparts in the wind energy sector. Moreover, the success of China’s solar photovoltaics industry has come in spite of significantly lower levels of domestic market support. The paper argues that technology-related factors and their implications for international technology transfer are critical for explaining the different speeds with which Chinese firms have been able to catch up in the two sectors. This is supported by a comparative analysis of technology transfer in the two sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A "Load – Carrier" perspective evaluation method has been introduced. • Overall tourism resource carrying capacity performance in China has been raised. • The performance in Northeast China has been Low-Medium Interval. • The performance of Eastern China has fallen in High Risk Overload Interval mostly. • The performance of the Central and Western provinces has been improved. Rapid development of the tourism industry has brought various challenges by causing unbalance between tourism resource load (TRL) and tourism resource carrier (TRC), such as the decline in tourist satisfaction, and the destruction of tourist attractions. The concept of tourism resources carrying capacity (TRCC) can be used to describe the relationship between TRL and TRC. Due to the vast territory, different provinces in China have different resource endowments and socio-economic environments, and their TRCC performances are different. Therefore, this paper investigates the temporal-spatial evolutionary performance of TRCC at provincial level in China. The theory of "Load-Carrier" is used to select evaluation indicators, the Entropy Weight Method and the Linear Weighted Summation Method are used to calculate the performance value, and the Quartile Method is adopted to classify the TRCC performance. Data used in this study were collected from 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2019. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) From a temporal evolution perspective, the overall TRCC performance in China has been improved, due to the implication of various tourism development policies. (2) From a spatial differences perspective, the TRCC performance of Northeast China has changed from High Utilization Interval to Low-Medium Interval; TRCC performance of Eastern China maintained in High Utilization or High Risk Overload Interval, and TRCC performance in Central and Western China has been continuously rising. This study provides valuable references for both central and local governments to take appropriate policy measures to improve their TRCC performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sustainability is receiving increasing amounts of attention in higher education in terms of how it can best be integrated with university curricula. Sustainability is closely related to complexity, innovation, and interdisciplinarity; therefore, it requires alternative approaches rather than traditional, lecture-based pedagogy. This paper reports an educational initiative and research project based on collaboration between Beijing Normal University, China and Aalborg University, Denmark: developing a sustainability curriculum using the methodology of Problem and Project Based Learning (PBL) in a Chinese context. A theoretical framework is established to understand and analyze the culture's change toward a sustainability curriculum that employs PBL methodology. Empirical work is drawn upon first year results from the implementation of this methodology in an engineering and science curriculum. Data generation is based on multiple collection methods, such as survey of students' feedbacks, interviews with students, and analysis of students' project reports and reflection essays. This paper summarizes that a sustainability curriculum as proposed in this research can attract students' interests in not only mastering relevant knowledge, but also in developing necessary skills and competencies. PBL as a teaching and learning method can successfully facilitate participative learning, critical reflection, systemic thinking, creativity, and cultural awareness, which are the core values of sustainability. However, implementing a new curriculum with new teaching and learning methods can be more complex than expected. Many issues impact the implementation process and are therefore remain challenges to further development; for example, how to change the existing grading system, how to provide both teaching staff and students' with prior knowledge about the new PBL methods, how to gain institutional support, and how to change the broader societal and cultural values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to pursue sustainable development, appropriate sustainability measurement at the local scale is critical. However, few efforts have been made in this regard. This paper aims to fill such a gap by introducing the development of China National Demonstration Sustainable Communities (CNDSCs) and reviewing its indicator system. Research findings indicate that the current indicator system did provide valuable guidance on help different communities to move toward sustainable development as it reflects political tendency and evaluates effectiveness of public policies. However, this system is insufficient to evaluate the holistic nature of sustainable communities because it lacks integration among different aspects, such as the adequate consideration on regional disparity, lack of universal methods on data collection and calculation, as well as the linkage with local officials' performance. Further improvements should be made by involving more stakeholders so that their different concerns can be addresses. In addition, region-specifi Indicators should be developed with clear official guide on how to implement them in the realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine if the “strong” version of Porter Hypothesis is supported in China by investigating how different regulatory instruments and the relative stringency impact “green” productivity. We use a slacks-based measure (SBM) and Luenberger Productivity Index, accounting for undesirable outputs, to evaluate the industrial “green” productivity growth rates of China's 30 provinces. The estimates imply an unsustainable development model in China with significant regional differences. By employing a panel threshold model and a province-level panel dataset during 2000–2012, empirical results show that both command-and-control and market-based regulation have a non-linear relationship with and can be positively related to “green” productivity but with different constrains on regulation stringency: there are double thresholds with the command-and-control and exists an optimal range of stringency for productivity improvement; while a single threshold has been found with the market-based regulation and its current stringency is reasonable for most of provinces. Moreover, based on China's reality, the productivity effect driven by market-based regulation is much stronger than that of the command-and-control. The mechanism of informal regulation is much more complicated. Consequently, we find evidence to support the “strong” Porter Hypothesis that reasonable stringency of environmental regulations may enhance rather than lower industrial competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various theories and approaches have been introduced in the debate on how to address sustainable consumption. In this study, we first discuss different theoretical perspectives on sustainable consumption, particularly developed in the fields of economics, social psychology and environmental sociology. We argue that neither an ‘individualist’ nor a system- or structural perspective alone is sufficient for understanding and analysing the transition towards sustainable consumption. Therefore, we propose to apply the Social Practices Approach (SPA) that combines both human agency and social structures to understand sustainable consumption issues. Following the SPA framework, we review and summarize research on sustainable consumption in China in particular on three consumption fields: food, housing energy and mobility. It is found that introducing more efficient production technology is commonly taken as the focal point in these sectors when sustainable consumption was introduced to China. Despite a rising interest in consumers' perceptions of products' sustainability in recent years, research has rarely paid any attention to consumers' behavioural change or to the transition dynamics towards sustainable consumption. In general, ‘individualist’ perspectives have largely dominated Chinese sustainable consumption research. This paper proposes to move attention to a better understanding of Chinese consumption issues by emphasizing the link between the provision of sustainable products and the diverse sustainable consumption practices. Also, images of food, energy, mobility and other consumption products that are undergoing transitions need to be considered in future research as these have consequences for socio-technical changes, material infrastructures and for ‘lifestyle’ innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Volume focuses on Sustainable Production and Consumption, and especially on transformation processes in the Built Environment. More than 50% and rising of the world population is now living in cities that are both centers of technological and social innovations in sustainable life styles; and carriers of unsustainable lifestyles. In this Special Volume contributions can be found on Grassroots Innovations; Sharing; Food, Energy and Waste systems associated with cities; The role of corporations in realizing transitions towards sustainable living; Consumer Activism, Behavioral Change and Consumer Values in driving change; and on Governance and Indicators for measuring all such transformations. Many of the papers were presented at the second conference of the Global Research Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption (GRF-SPaC) in Shanghai in June 2014; and thus a substantial number of them report on research on Sustainable Production and Consumption in Cities in China. The authorship also reflects growing collaboration between researchers from developing and industrialized countries. The great diversity of contributions on the topic reflects the wealth of insights generated on the topic in recent years, but also the need for a better understanding of change processes at the intersection of social and physical systems and at multiple levels of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is a serious global issue, affecting every continent at least one month out of every year. How to ensure the sustainable development of the water resources has become a critical topic and received increasing attention from researchers. Sustainable development is the desired future for water resources in China, but it is complicate to define and quantified. In this paper, our motivation is to develop a water strategy based on China's circumstances, which can fall into the framework of sustainable development. An overview of current freshwater resource in China is provided, based on which the future water demand and storage capacities are appropriately predicted by using the grey model. Then an integrated water strategy consisting of four measures (desalination, price control, storage and water transfer) has been well developed accordingly. These four measures are aligned under the consideration of efficiency, feasibility and implementation cost through the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Thus, for different provinces in China, different water strategies are proposed by practicing these four measures in the priority order. The goal is to guarantee that the balance between water supply and demand is reached. In order to validate the mathematical models, a sensitivity analysis of desalination decline rate is carried out. In addition, a discussion is made to assess the sustainability of our proposed strategy. In this study, we have demonstrated that our approach can guarantee the balance of supply and demand of water resource in China from now to year 2025 if the proposed integrated strategy will be taken into practice between years 2013–2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that China’s economic miracle has been achieved at the expense of its natural capital and environment. In order to deal with this problem, the circular economy (CE) has been chosen as a national policy for sustainable development. National laws and regulations have been enacted to facilitate the implementation of CE and national CE demonstration projects have been initiated such that national benchmarking activities could be completed. China is the first country to release nationally focused CE indicators so that objective and credible information on the status of CE implementation can be recognized. These CE indicators are valuable metrics for policy and decision-makers and can help achieve CE goals and outcomes. This unique indicator system has not been communicated to international communities. This paper aims to more broadly introduce this unique national CE indicator system. China’s CE efforts are first detailed with various provisions of the national indicator system. A critical analysis of such an indicator system is presented. We show that certain benefits can be gained, but substantive revision is also needed due to the lack of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators which should include social, business indicators, urban/industrial symbiosis, absolute material/energy reduction, and prevention-oriented indicators. Concerns related to barriers on implementation are also presented in this paper. The knowledge gained from Chinese efforts on CE indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces a new approach for conducting project feasibility study by embracing the principles of sustainable development. Construction projects, in particular, infrastructures have major influence on the attainment of sustainable development, thus project sustainability needs to be considered. This becomes a pressing issue particularly in those developing countries or regions, such as China where a huge amount of construction works are currently performed and remain to happen in the future. Previous study has addressed little on the relevance of project feasibility study to project sustainability performance. The importance of incorporating sustainable development principles in conducting project feasibility study is not effectively understood by project stakeholders. This paper addresses major challenges of undertaking project feasibility study in line with sustainable construction practice with reference to the Chinese construction industry. A case study approach is the major research method in this study. The research team collected 87 feasibility study reports from various projects. Attributes are used for measuring project performance, including 18 economic performance attributes, nine social performance attributes, and eight environmental performance attributes. Research results show that economic performance is given the most concern in the current practice of project feasibility study, whilst less attention is given to the social and environmental performance. The study reveals the insufficiency of examining the performance of implementing a construction project from the perspective of sustainable development. The results also suggest the need for shifting the traditional approach of project feasibility study to a new approach that embraces the principles of sustainable development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• GDIM is used to investigate the influencing factors of energy-related PM 2.5 emissions in China. • A novel decoupling indicator is constructed based on GDIM decomposition results. • The increase of PM 2.5 emissions is primarily due to output scale and energy use effects. • Emission intensity and emission coefficients are the main factors decreasing PM 2.5 emissions. • Technical effect plays an important role in promoting the decoupling of PM 2.5 emissions. Haze pollution has become a severe threat to China's sustainable development. It is crucial to provide a complete explanation for the mechanism behind the changes in PM 2.5 pollution and explore how to decouple economic growth from PM 2.5 pollution. Compared with the traditional decomposition analysis methods, the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM) integrates multiple influencing factors and provides a fuller understanding of the influence mechanism of PM 2.5 pollution. In addition, the decomposition of the monitored PM 2.5 concentration in previous studies leads to ambiguous economic meanings of some relative impact indicators. In this paper, GDIM decomposition is applied to study the driving factors of energy-related PM 2.5 emissions changes in China. Then, based on the GDIM decomposition results, this paper constructs a novel decoupling indicator to study the decoupling relationship between PM 2.5 emissions and economic growth, and the contributions of the technical and non-technical factors to the decoupling indicator are quantified. The main results are summarized as follows. (1) The output scale effect and energy use effect are the main reasons for the increase of PM 2.5 emissions, while the emission intensity effect and emission coefficient effect make major contributions to decreasing PM 2.5 emissions. The effects of population, per capita emissions, per capita output, and energy intensity are relatively minor. (2) China and its three economic regions move from strong decoupling in 1998–2000 to weak decoupling during 2000–2010, and then into strong decoupling over the period of 2010–2014. (3) Technical effect plays an important role in promoting the decoupling between PM 2.5 emissions and economic growth, but its contribution shows a downward trend over time. In contrast, non-technical effect hinders the decoupling process, and its contribution is decreasing from 2000 to 2014. This paper is supportive for formulating emissions reduction policies and improving China's air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Currently, traditional development issues such as income inequality, depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution as well as retardation of infrastructure have occurred in China. In the future, more pressures would be imposed on China by the continuous fast development of industrialization, and with transfer of the world manufacture center to China. Sustainable development, including its economic, environmental and social elements, is a key goal of decisionmakers. This paper develops a methodology on cost benefit analysis of economic growth at macroscopic level to identify issues of China''s sustainability. In order to address some important issues on how to make policies to improve the quality of economic growth, the CBA framework developed in this study analyses economic–ecological–social interaction, building three accounts that reflect three dimensions of sustainable development that includes 26 sub-models in all, and finally is integrated into an index as Net Progress Proceeds (NPP). The estimation methods of these submodels, such as cost of environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources and defensive expenditures are described in detail. Based on the framework and methods, this paper examines the costs and benefits of economic growth in three aspects of economy, ecology and society. The results illustrate that NPR of China''s economic growth had been negative for a long time and has just became positive since year 2000 but was quite low. Even the best was only 1.6% in 2002 (the worst was −24.2% in 1982). Based on the comparison between three accounts, we can draw a conclusion that ecological cost is the dominant factor that affects China''s NPR. The empirical results show that if no other innovative measures or policies are taken in the future the costs of growth would outweigh its benefits, resulting in un-sustainability. Basically, the long-term economic growth would be unsustainable due to increasing environmental damage and depletion of natural resources. There are a few limitations that we consider need to be improved in our CBA framework and method, nevertheless they have many options that can be explored by policy makers, to make the development path more sustainable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Facing serious energy constraints and environmental challenges, policy makers in China have set up clear targets to reduce energy intensity in order to secure a sustainable economic growth; however, it is unclear in theory what the determining forces are. The empirical evidence, although intensively discussed in the literature, also remain divided in opinion. This paper contributes to the existing literature full of heated debates using a Bayesian averaging approach to identify robust determinants of energy intensity in China. Using provincial level data, key contributors that help explain the level of energy intensity across China are found. By ranking the relative importance of explanatory variables according to their posterior inclusion probabilities, this study can also offer support to policy makers in designing intensity reduction policies. It is suggested that policies should focus on those robust and relatively more important factors such as fiscal expenditure, infrastructure and economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly fragmented coal industry in China has experienced a consolidation process since late 2008. Major coal-rich provinces have adopted nationalization and market-oriented approaches to reduce the number of small coal mines, leading to a marked increase in the proportion of the total output produced by large and medium-sized coal mines. Relying on a Range-Adjusted Measure model of the Data Envelopment Analysis, this article constructs three indicators, namely operational efficiency, environmental efficiency, and unified efficiency, to reflect sustainability impact of this consolidation policy. By comparing two representative provinces – Shanxi and Inner Mongolia over the period 2005–2012, this paper assesses the policy effectiveness on the transition of coal mining industry to sustainable development. The results suggest that the consolidation reform in China has a negative impact on coal productivity, but significantly it improves the environmental performance of the coal industry. However, the nationalization approach does not prove to outweigh market-oriented approach, because the inefficiency in the capital factor offsets efficiency-improving outcome. The market-driven regulation can reduce the negative impact of the market restructuring on the operational efficiency and thus achieve a higher unified efficiency from both operational and environmental perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposes to considerably reduce the number of deaths and diseases caused by air pollution. It pays special attention to attaining this via urban air governance and management. Although the development of China's air governance has been a lengthy process, there is no indication of instituting a plan based on land supply (LS) in the foreseeable future. This paper introduces a novel perspective of the role of LS in managing air pollution, and builds a comprehensive analysis framework that includes the quantity, structure, and price of LS for management of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5). The dynamic relationship between LS and PM2.5 is revealed by a panel-data vector autoregression model on a district scale. The study found that: (1) The Central District has the highest average annual PM2.5 concentration in China from the year 2009–2017. (2) The supply of the four types of land—industrial and mining storage land (IMSL), commercial and business facilities land (CBFL), residential land (RL), and other land (OL)—showed increase in the Central District, while only IMSL decreased in the Western District. The supply of IMSL decreased the most in the Northeast District, and in the Eastern District, only the supply of OL increased. (3) In the Northeast District, the quantity, structure, and price of LS have no significant effect on PM2.5 concentration. However, in China, the Eastern District, and Central District, the bidding, auction, and listing prices have a significant negative effect on the PM2.5 concentration. As for the Western District, it exhibits not only the "negative price effect," but also the "negative quantity effect." In future, the government should adopt different strategies: (1) For China, the Eastern District, and Central District, the bidding, auction, and listing prices should be further increased; (2) In the Western District, local government should also focus on expanding the area of LS. • The Central District had highest-risk from PM2.5 pollution. • Only the Central District is increasing the supply of industrial and mining storage land. • Land supply only has a "price effect" on PM2.5 concentration. • For China, Eastern District, and Central District, the bidding, auction, and listing prices should be further increased. • In the Western District, the local government should also focus on expanding the area of LS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleaner Production (CP) strategies are fundamentally concerned with operations, environmental sustainability and maximization of waste reduction, recycling, and reuse at the enterprise level, and are thus microeconomic in scope. Sustainable development (SD), however, involves the design of integrated approaches that are capable of addressing environmental sustainability and waste while ensuring social and economic prosperity at the national or even global level implying a macroeconomic scope. Due to its philosophy, broad scope and long-term horizons, sustainable development necessitates capacity building via advancement of sustainable societal patterns and the creation of a new set of visions, paradigms, policies, methodological tools and applicable procedures. The first and foremost step on this path is the development of human capital required to make such a transition. This paper proposes the application of a methodology via which leaders in higher education could assess the necessity and the urgency for designing training programs that could assist with developing human capital needed to support SD. The methodology evaluates the conditions and constraints that could control the effectiveness and ease of implementation of such programs. At its core, the proposed methodology utilizes expert judgment to assess importance of including CP and SD indicators listed in the questionnaire on the proposed academic programs. During a pilot study which was conducted in the fall of 2013 at selected universities in the USA, Latin America, and China, experts evaluated a series of proposed CP-infused academic programs according to a matrix consisting of SD indicators, and under consideration of the norms, culture, political systems, regulations, resource availability, and local, regional and global economic development goals and objectives. Results of data analysis in the pilot study suggested that inclusion of the resource management (RM) topics in designing academic programs is the most preferred approach in all three different regions, followed by development of programs that could cover topics in areas of human capital development (HCD), human system designs (HSD) and sustainable economic development and prosperity (SEDP). Quantitative analysis of the data indicated existence of two clusters of preferences for CP–SD criteria: one for in the Americas (including Latin America) and one for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing the importance of remanufacturing for sustainable development due to the large scale of the economy and its increasing pressure on the environment, the Chinese government has been strongly promoting its remanufacturing industry since around 2008. The objective of this paper is to identify the motives and barriers for remanufacturing in China. According to the survey conducted among remanufacturers in China, environmental and ethical responsibility , customer orientation and strategic advantage are the three most important motives, while customer recognition is the most serious barrier at present. This survey also shows that there are many differences between car part and machinery remanufacturers in China. For example, car part remanufacturers are more motivated by subsidies , at the same time, they are also more restricted by legislation , while lack of sales channels is a more serious barrier for the machinery remanufacturers. The differences exist partly due to the Chinese remanufacturing environment, for example the policies from different government departments that regulate the related industries. Suggestions for improving the remanufacturing industry, in particular from the policy makers' perspective, are provided according to the survey results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linkages between air pollution and individual subjective well-being (SWB) are theorized as a key component of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) covering 12,668 residents who were interviewed for five consecutive times during 2010–2018, we find significant negative effects of air pollution on individual SWB via the change of the respondent's physical health level, physical exercise behavior and obesity risk. Specifically, a one standard deviation increase in county's annual average PM 2.5 concentrations, instrumented by thermal inversion, is associated with a 2.45 standard deviations decrease in individual SWB level. In particular, people who are male, young people, less educated group, urban resident and live in eastern or western China are more sensitive to air pollution. This paper provides new insights into the health costs of air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a market-based financial instrument, green credit is one of the key drivers for constructing green financial system. Green credit policy (GCP) can guide capital flow from high-energy consumption and high-pollution industries to technologically advanced emerging industrial sectors, so as to support the development of green industries and curb the emissions of polluting industries. In order to explore the extent to which the goal of green credit policy in China has been achieved, based on the micro data of China's listed enterprises from 2009 to 2017, this paper explores the impact of "Green Credit Guidelines" (2012 Guidelines) policy on the green transformation of heavy polluting industries (HPIs) by using a Difference in Differences (DID) and Propensity Score Matched-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) models. We then analyze the mechanism between GCP and green transformation of HPIs and identify the heterogeneous effects of GCP on the green transformation of HPIs. The results show that the 2012 Guidelines significantly promote the green transformation of HPIs, through debt financing constraints and equity financing constraints. The effect of 2012 Guidelines on green transformation of small-scale and private enterprises is more pronounced. However, the positive effect of 2012 Guidelines on the green transformation of HPIs has not been sustained in the long term. Our study provides an insight for decision makers to manage green transformation of HPIs from the GCP perspective, by informing the economic consequences of GCP and pushing the industrial transformation towards green development. • Difference in differences is used to explore the impact of green credit policy on green transformation. • Debt financing constraint and equity financing constraint are main impact mechanisms. • The results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Freshwater is the essential resource element to support and ensure human life and regional sustainable development. On the basis of the concept of ecosystem service footprint proposed by Burkhard, in this paper, we introduce a new methodological approach that addresses the sustainability and capability of regional freshwater provision and consumption, which we have coined freshwater ecosystem service footprint model (FESF model). The FESF model enhances the accuracy of water provision and consumption calculations and reveals a spatial-pattern of freshwater ecosystem service footprint at the watershed scale, overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional water footprint model, which was first introduced by Rees and Wackernagel in 1992. The proposed model is tested in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) freshwater supply area in China, where water use restrictions are regularly imposed on the population and economic activities. The results of the physical process and theoretical analysis reveal that FESF model is a reliable and helpful model for researchers to understand the regional freshwater situation. The average FESF is 0.94hectare per capita in BTH, with a maximum of 2.52hectare per capita and a minimum of 0.36hectare per capita. Approximately 16.8% of the considered region, primarily parts of the mid-northern region and the surrounding eastern and southern low-lying regions, is under high freshwater resource pressure. In conclusion, this model can be used by researchers and policymakers for promoting sustainable human–ecology interactions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Moving towards an eco-city, the local universities should play an active role. To create a green university is one effort so that all the faculties, staff members and students can join such an effort. However, how to initiate a green university project remains questionable in China. In this paper an integrated model on green university is proposed. Such a model aims to manage all the campus activities on a sustainable basis. It addresses all the issues related with one university's metabolism and ensures that the views and goals of different stakeholders are considered together. In order to test its feasibility, a case study approach is employed. Shenyang University (SU) was chosen due to its unique feature and data availability. Various efforts at SU are detailed, such as the application of ground source heat pump, wastewater recycling at the campus level, integrated solid waste management (such as collection of discarded PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, etc), green education and research. With all these efforts, significant economic, environmental and social benefits have been received, such as more efficient materials and energy use, cost savings from lowered insurance costs and reduced environmental penalties, reduction of greenhouse gas emission, reduction of wastewater discharge and solid wastes, avoidance of toxic materials, increased environmental awareness, improved green image, etc. The achievements that Shenyang University has made have demonstrated a robust model to other Chinese universities so that they can start their initiatives by considering their own realities. During this process, the close collaboration with local government, strong leadership and a comprehensive plan will be necessary so that all the stakeholders can join it and more resources can be gained to support its implementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There has been an increasing level of attention to sustainability issues in higher education by academic leaders, students and by policy makers and the public, at large due to significant impacts of university activities have upon society environmentally and socially in the short and long-term. The last decade has witnessed the promotion of “Green University” in China with an aim of fostering sustainable development in higher education. This paper was developed, based upon research designed to investigate the awareness of faculty, alumni and student's parents on sustainable development and their perceptions on the ‘Green University’. A large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted with representatives of each of these three groups of stakeholders in the Shandong University, one of the largest academic institutions in China. The main focus of this study was placed on exploring the most important factors that contribute towards achieving ‘Green University’ goals from different stakeholders' points of view. These factors were broadly grouped into seven categories, i.e. management systems, environmental sustainability, sustainable curricula, research and development, staff development and rewards, student opportunities and social responsibility. This research compared the perceptions of these three stakeholder groups with those of the student's perspectives, which were also researched several months earlier at Shandong University. Implications on the ‘Green University’ development are presented. The research findings provide a useful reference to improve both the sustainability performance in higher education at Shandong University as well as for ‘Green Universities’ more broadly throughout China and other parts of the world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]