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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]

Green energy efficiency (GEE) is pivotal for sustainable economic growth, particularly in the context of China's ambitious environmental goals. This study assesses the impact of Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones on GEE from 2005 to 2020, using the SBM-GML method and a Double Difference Model (DID). Findings indicate a significant improvement in GEE within these zones, driven by advancements in green innovation and environmental regulation. At the micro level, firms in pilot zones show enhanced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and experience fewer financial constraints. The effectiveness of green finance policies is more pronounced in resource-rich and financially efficient regions, suggesting that these initiatives can significantly contribute to sustainable development. Based on empirical evidence, we recommend expanding pilot zones, promoting green technological innovation, and developing tailored green finance policies to address regional ecological sensitivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to reveal how China's green finance reform and innovation demonstration zone policy affects ecologically sustainable development under the constraints of government environmental attention. Employing multi-period DID (Difference-in-Difference) and DDD (Difference-in-Difference-in-Difference) as the base model, the study tested the mechanism of the policy's effect on ecologically sustainable development, using panel data from 277 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020. Endogeneity tests including Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS), counterfactual tests, and other robustness checks, were employed to enhance the study's validity. The research findings are as follows: (1) The policy effectively promotes ecologically sustainable development, and this conclusion remained valid even after conducting several robustness tests. (2) The more pronounced the government's emphasis on environmental preservation, the greater its efficacy in fostering ecologically sustainable development. (3) The stimulating effect of the policy on ecologically sustainable development is more pronounced in cities with higher ecological quality and a larger population. This study not only offers new analytical perspectives for comprehensively investigating the green finance policy but also emphasizes that enhanced policy outcomes hinge on the implementation of green financial reforms and innovations tailored to local conditions. Additionally, it provides valuable policy insights for optimizing the government's role in fostering ecologically sustainable development. (e.g., optimizing the governmental role in fostering ecologically sustainable development, enhancing both the scope and intensity of green finance policy, and harnessing the synergies between green finance policy and environmental protection policy). [Display omitted] • Green finance policy can improve ecologically sustainable development. • Government environmental attention can promote the effectiveness of green finance policy. • Focuses on 277 prefecture-level cities in China between 2006 and 2020. • Uses multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) as the base model. • China should give high priority to green finance policy to improve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection and sustainable development are now profoundly ingrained in the public consciousness in the modern era of the global green revolution. First, this paper uses an evolutionary game model to theoretically analyse the impact of environmental regulation and green finance on enterprises by dissecting the game behaviour between local governments, banks and enterprises. Then, we incorporate entrepreneurial spirit into the model to determine whether entrepreneurial spirit accelerates the achievement of green sustainability objectives. Environmental regulation and green finance are found to contribute substantially to the innovation of green technologies by local enterprises, while entrepreneurial spirit accelerates this process. Finally, we empirically test the findings based on a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2020. We find that green finance has a positive impact in Central and Western cities of China, while Eastern cities are in greater need for government environmental regulation controls. For entrepreneurial spirit, the incentive effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the level of green technology innovation is more significant in Central and Western regions of China. This paper enriches the field of research on entrepreneurial spirit and regional green sustainable development by providing empirical evidence for the evaluation of environmental regulatory and green financing policy impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating demand for resources in urban and rural construction development raises the crucial question of achieving green development within limited resource constraints. This study delves into the interplay between environmental policy and green development in urban and rural construction. Utilizing the spatial Durbin model for analysis, findings reveal that investment-oriented environmental regulation significantly impacts green development and positive spillover effects in neighboring regions when considering spatial weight matrices. In contrast, cost-based environmental regulations positively affect green development when spatial interactions are disregarded. However, they exhibit negative effects at the spatial level, potentially leading to a "pollution relocation" phenomenon. Although the influence of R& D subsidy-based environmental regulations on green development is not significant, their impact becomes notable upon considering spatial interactions, potentially generating positive effects across regions through mechanisms such as technology diffusion and knowledge transfer. Furthermore, from an endogeneity perspective, the impact of environmental regulatory tools on green development exhibits a time lag effect. Moreover, investment-type regulation in the eastern regions significantly fosters green development, whereas cost-based regulation shows a suppressive effect; investment-type regulation in central regions has a positive spillover on neighboring areas; and R&D subsidies in western regions negatively impact local green development. Moreover, the quality of governmental institutions, market integration, and technological innovation are key factors influencing green development in China's urban and rural construction. This study reveals the direct and indirect effects of various environmental policy tools on green development in urban and rural areas. It emphasizes the importance of considering spatial interactions in implementing environmental policies, providing a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for optimizing environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper chooses 98 mining cities in China from 2007 to 2021 as research samples. It investigates the policy practice of green development in mining cities according to the point of view of policy combination. We establish a super-efficiency model considering undesirable output to measure the green development level of mining cities and further construct a dynamic panel model based on the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to test the transmission mechanism and heterogeneous effect of different types of environmental regulation to promote the green development of mining cities. The findings demonstrate that environmental regulations about command control, market incentives, and public participation can all help mining cities develop more sustainably. Additionally, there is a nonlinear relationship of an inverted "U" shape between the degree of green development in mining cities and environmental regulations related to command control. Combining policies can encourage the green development of mining cities, but there are crowding-out and substitution effects when environmental regulations are combined with market forces. Environmental regulation promotes urban green development by improving the energy consumption structure of mining cities. In this process, the level of digital development positively regulates the impact of environmental regulation on urban green development. Therefore, the government should choose environmental regulation tools and combinations according to local needs to achieve a multi-pronged effect of energy structure improvement and urban green development and use digital technology to support the green development of mining cities. • Command-controlled, market-motivated, and public-participating environmental regulations can significantly promote urban green development by promoting the improvement of energy structure. • There is an inverted' U' -shaped nonlinear relationship between the intensity of command and control environmental regulation and the green level of mining cities. • The level of digitization can positively regulate the relationship between environmental regulation and urban green development. • The combination of environmental regulations have a significant positive impact on urban green development. • The combination of environmental regulations has heterogeneity in urban green development due to factors such as regional resource endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's proposed green development strategy, environmental protection investment needs are growing exponentially, and government funding alone is inadequate to meet the massive demand. To encourage social investment in green industries and achieve green development goals, the authorities implemented the major green finance policy entitled the Guidance on Building a Green Financial System (GBGFS) in late 2016. Whether this policy effectively promotes the development of environmentally friendly (EF) firms is an essential under investigated question. This study employs a difference-in-differences approach to explore whether and how the GBGFS affects EF firms' total factor productivity (TFP) with a sample from 2012 to 2021. Our benchmark regression and robustness tests demonstrate that the GBGFS effectively promotes EF firms' TFP. We also obtain three notable research findings with a number of additional analyses. (a) Although there is a certain lag, the policy effect was obviously enhanced with the passage of time. (b) Our threshold effect analyses reveal that the enhancing effect of the GBGFS on EF firms' TFP only becomes significant when research and development (R&D) investment, profitability (ROA), and government subsidies (GSF) exceed certain values. Further analysis demonstrates that firms with higher ROA and more GSF can effectively increase R&D. (c) Finally, GBGFS implementation has a greater impact on firm TFP in China's more developed region than its less developed regions. The findings suggest that regulatory authorities should persist in enforcing the GBGFS policy and encourage corporate R&D investment. In addition, the central government should design targeted policies based on the characteristics of different regions to improve the policy effect. • The Chinese authorities implemented the GBGFS on August 31, 2016. • The GBGFS effectively promotes EF firms' TFP (this result is robust). • The policy effect gradually expanded as the GBGFS was enforced over time. • The policy effect becomes significant when R&D, ROA and GSF exceed certain values. • The GBGFS has a greater impact in more developed region than less developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing industry is the pillar industry in China, making China become the world's manufacturing center. While, the rapid development of manufacturing industry in China not only promotes the economic growth, but also consumes lots of resources and generates too much carbon dioxide. To make a sustainable development, this paper adopts a non-radial DEA model with natural and managerial disposability to examine the energy-environmental performance of China's manufacturing industry during the 2006–2014 period. The energy-environmental performance is evaluated by the unified efficiency under natural and managerial disposability (UENM). Additionally, the investment strategy is confirmed by industrial types of damages to return (DTR). The empirical results indicate that the unified efficiencies of most manufacturing industries present a rising trend in the sample interval. Moreover, the unified efficiency of most manufacturing industries in light industry have a little higher value than the efficiency of those in heavy industry. Besides, the light industry presents more investment effect than the heavy industry, and many industries in heavy industry have little potential for investment in terms of developing the green growth. According to these results, China should increase investment and enhancing the R&D input to improve the unified efficiency of light industry. Policy support need focus on boosting innovation in strategic emerging industries instead of traditional manufacturing industries. Part of industries with excess capacity should be transferred to other countries through outbound investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced serious environmental problems along with rapid economic development in recent years. Industrial production is the fundamental cause of Chinese environmental problems, while production is mainly managed and governed by local industrial Parks. Currently, Chinese industrial parks have just begun to think about sustainable development, and the demonstrative parks are designated as eco-industrial parks (EIPs); however, the EIPs' development strategies and targets are still vague and lack scientific guidance. Therefore, an optimal decision making approach can support EIPs to address environment problems and achieve regional economic development. This study provides an integrated approach to assess the multiple impacts of EIP development strategies and propose optimization planning by using a case study in Wuhu EIP. The initially constructed decision-making model systemically integrates the dynamic model of the Environment-Economic-Energy (3Es) system and an input-output model; then, the model is established and simulated using a linear optimization method. An optimal development strategy can be put forward by analysing scenarios for the Wuhu EIP. Based on the findings of this study, there are several substantial opportunities to further relieve energy pressure, improve the environment, and support socioeconomic activities, such as promotion of clean production and subsidies for technological improvements and changing the industrial structure. Additionally, adopting total environmental quantity constraints rather than intensity constraints is an urgent need in EIP planning. This study provides an applicable and feasible decision-making basis for the development of sustainable industrial parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new proposition under the strategic goal of sustainable development, financial inclusiveness has become an effective way to overcome environmental constraints. Therefore, considering the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on carbon emissions is the key to promoting China's high-quality economic growth. From a spatial perspective, using China's city-level panel data of 272 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2017, empirically studies the impact of digital inclusive finance on CO 2 emissions by using spatial econometric model, and analyzes its direct effect, indirect effect and total effect. At the same time, the instrumental variable method is used to deal with the possible endogenous problems in the model. The results show that from a spatial perspective, the promotion of digital inclusive finance is conducive to reducing urban CO 2 emissions. Moreover, there is a significant positive spatial spillover effect on China's urban CO 2 emissions. In addition, in cities with developed traditional finance and high degree of industrialization, digital inclusive finance has a stronger effect on CO 2 emission reduction. The impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on CO 2 emissions in the eastern and western China is negative, but the central is the opposite. Therefore, in order to achieve sustainable development goals, the government should formulate environmental policies with financial inclusion goals consistent with energy consumption behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate climate change, China is striving to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions before 2030 and has derived a series of national environmental policies to advocate green development. Analysing the changes in regional atmospheric CO 2 concentrations could be more convincing in evaluating the impact of the associated strategies. In this study, a three-year continuous observation campaign of the atmospheric CO 2 mole fraction was first conducted at the summit of the Nanling Mountains, southern China in 2015–2017 to probe the timely feedback of the implementation of the green policies of the government. The effects of regional emissions and removals on the CO 2 mole fraction were subsequently analysed to explore the primary processes and regional contributions driving the background CO 2 concentration. Approximately 86.4% of the observed values were filtered as background events, with average CO 2 concentrations of 395.9 ± 6.8 ppm. The curve-fitting CO 2 mole fraction showed a slight short-term descending trend (0.6–2.2 p.m. y−1) that was rarely seen against the backdrop of a continuous rise of the global average over the years. In addition to the possible impacts of the changes in regional-scale CO 2 sources and sinks, we inferred that the vigorously enforced sustainable development policies of the Chinese government should be accentuated to reduce CO 2 emissions. Although the conclusion relies heavily on a relatively short dataset, this study may globally help the people to reduce carbon emissions. [Display omitted] • Systemic measurement of atmospheric CO 2 concentration in southern China. • Monitored a low background CO 2 concentration below global and China's average. • Reported a rare regional descending event of atmospheric CO 2 concentration. • Verified the feasibility of the 2030 peak CO 2 emission targets for China. • Emphasized the contribution of green development policies to CO 2 reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threats posed by global climate change have heightened the urgency for economies to transition to sustainability. However, quantitative metrics that measure sustainability status remain under development, hampered in part by the difficulty of identifying clear relationships between economic growth and sustainability. The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis provides a framework for describing sustainability status relative to socioeconomic development. In this study, the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis was adopted to investigate statistical relationships between the carbon intensity of human well-being (as an indicator of sustainability) and economic development in eight economic zones of China during 1997–2015. The results provide new evidence that seven of eight Chinese economic zones began advances to sustainability (defined here as downward turning points marked by inverted "N" shapes in the Environmental Kuznets Curve) between 2012 and 2015. The lone exception was the Northwestern economic zone, in which an approach to sustainability had not yet occurred by 2015. This study thus supports the contention that environmental policies and technologies have contributed to improving sustainability in terms of carbon intensity. The results suggest two strategic options for further increasing sustainability in China: 1) "first help the weakest"; and 2) "first help the latest to sustainability". • Advance to sustainability defined in terms of carbon intensity of human well-being. • Almost all economic zones in China began advances to sustainability around 2013. • Only the Northwestern economic zone had yet to reach a turning point by 2015. • Assessment shows progress toward international obligations and national objectives. • Both environmental policies and technological advances have contributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policy tools are an important means of improving environmental pollution and promoting regional green development. Working from a heterogeneous perspective, this study constructed a model using several different types of environmental policy tools and green innovation. Data from China's 30 provinces, spanning the period 1997 to 2014, was selected as the sample, and a multiple regression analysis and difference-in-differences model was used to analyze the data. The results showed that command-and-control type environmental policy tools had the most positive effect on innovations relating to end-of-pipe treatment and green products. By contrast, their effect on clean production technology lacked significance. Pollution charges played a positive role in promoting green process innovation, but a negative role in green product innovation. In addition, the overall effect of the emission trading mechanism was not significant. Despite this, the emission trading system that was independently implemented within some provinces was more successful than the system used within trial provinces that were identified and approved by the central government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Command-and-control environmental regulation is a traditional environmental policy that is still widely used in developing countries. This study examined a rarely discussed but significant issue for environmental sustainability and economic development—the impact of command-and-control environmental regulation on enterprise total factor productivity growth—based on a large enterprise-level sample. Employing China's "Two Control Zone" policy as a quasi-natural experiment, we used a Chinese industrial enterprise panel dataset from 1998 to 2007 to estimate the effects of command-and-control environmental regulation in a difference-in-difference framework. It is found that command-and-control environmental regulation hassignificantly hindered the growth of enterprise total factor productivity, and this negative effect was lagging and continuous. In addition, we leaned that this negative effect mainly came from the increase in costs of enterprises and the negative impact on the enterprise resource allocation efficiency. When considering enterprise heterogeneity in terms of pollution intensity, size, and ownership, the study further found that the negative effects are exacerbated for enterprises in more heavily polluting industries, those of smaller size, and those owned by foreign companies, respectively. Our research is a reexamination of the Porter hypothesis in China, and fills the gap in the literature on the micro effects of command-and-control policy on enterprise total factor productivity for developing countries. Based on a rigorous empirical analysis, we conclude that it is difficult to achieve a win–win scenario with sustainable environmental development and enterprise total factor productivity growth under command-and-control environmental regulation. Environmental regulations should have clear objectives and take a flexible approach, and it is necessary to adopt diversified environmental regulation policies based on market instruments. Image 101877 • Command-and-control environmental regulation hindered the enterprise TFP growth. • Increasing cost and lower resource allocation efficiency are main influence channels. • TFP of heavily polluted enterprise is more hindered than lightly polluted enterprise. • TFP of small enterprise is more inhibited by TCZ policy than large enterprise. • TFP of foreign enterprises is more hindered by TCZ policy than domestic enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to rely on market mechanism for achieving industrial sustainable development is an important issue both to current scholars and policymakers. Technological innovation is regarded as a mediator to construct a driving mechanism that flexible environmental policy affects sustainable development from the "narrow" perspective of Porter's hypothesis. Meanwhile, environment regulatory enforcement is introduced as a moderator to explore the institutional scenario that drives sustainable development of China's industry. Then we have adopted industrial panel data of 30 provinces in 2006–2015 and employed the sys-GMM method for empirical test. The findings show that: (1) flexible environmental policy can significantly facilitate industrial sustainable development. (2) Flexible environmental policy has a significantly positive impact on technological innovation. Meanwhile, technological innovation is significantly and positively related to industrial sustainable development, and technological innovation partially mediates the relationship between flexible environmental policy and industrial sustainable development. (3) Environment regulatory enforcement positively moderates the relationship between flexible environmental policy and technological innovation. However, it has a potentially positive but not significant moderating impact on the relationship between technological innovation and industrial sustainable development, indicating that there is still an "implementation gap". (4) From a regional point of view, technological innovation has partly mediating effects between flexible environmental policy and industrial sustainable development in the eastern and western regions, and environmental regulatory enforcement can positively moderate the role of flexible environmental policy in promoting technological innovation in the eastern region. Finally, this paper puts forward the policy implications. • Flexible environmental policy can significantly spur industrial sustainable development. • Technological innovation can significantly spur industrial sustainable development. • Technological innovation partly mediates the relationship between flexible environmental policy and industrial sustainable development. • Environment regulatory enforcement plays a positive moderating role between flexible environmental policy and technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]