Search

Prior studies have explored the relationship between public environmental concerns and air pollution, but the interaction effects and spatial factors under a systematic framework have been ignored. This paper investigates the interaction effect between public environmental concern and air pollution, moreover, a spatial panel simultaneous equation approach is employed to reduce the endogenous interference and the potential impact of spatial factors. Based on the balanced panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2017, we find that a 1% increase in public environmental concern will lead to a 0.049% decrease in PM 2.5 concentration, while a 1% increase in PM 2.5 concentration will lead to a 1.398% increase in public environmental concern. Meanwhile, there is a significantly spatial spillover effect of both public environmental concern and air pollution to the surrounding areas. Furthermore, our findings suggest that public environmental concern reduces air pollution by promoting government environmental regulation, and air pollution promotes public environmental concern by threatening the health of the residents. In addition, the results of heterogeneity analysis show that the interaction effect of public environment on air pollution significantly differs across regions with different heating characteristics and economic development levels. Practicable policies to promote favorable feedback on public environmental concern and air pollution are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development stipulates 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The implementation of this agenda will mobilize countries worldwide to incorporate the SDGs into their national development strategies. The agenda does not specify how these goals are interconnected, thus limiting their implementation. In addition, air quality affects human life and plays a vital role in achieving these SDGs. Clarifying the interconnections between SDGs related to air pollution and other SDGs will accelerate the implementation of air protection and SDGs while simultaneously promoting policy coherence. In this paper, we use the latest calculation of the SDGs in China to construct national and provincial panel data to investigate the trade-offs and synergies among Chinese air pollution-related SDGs. The findings are as follows. First, most air pollution-related SDGs have synergetic relationships, except for SDG12, which has a trade-off relationship with other air pollution-related SDGs. Second, the synergies between air pollution-related SDGs and other SDGs far outweigh the trade-offs. Third, rapidly developing areas are more likely to experience a trade-off between economic development and air pollution problems. Fourth, geographic advantages in reducing air pollution, such as being adjacent to the sea, may weaken the synergies among air pollution-related SDGs and their synergies with other SDGs. These findings indicate that most air-pollution-related SDGs and interactions between air-pollution-related SDGs and other SDGs have substantial synergy; that is, measures aimed at one goal are conducive to the advancement of other goals. However, SDG12 reflects a trade-off relationship between economic development, environmental protection, and resource utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution has become a key problem to be solved in the process of sustainable development in China. Most existing research on environmental regulation has focused on one dimension or several aspects of environmental regulation. This paper quantitatively scored environmental policies in China from multiple dimensions to construct the index of environmental regulation and used a spatial econometric model and satellite-monitored PM2.5 data for 280 cities in 2002–2016 to analyze the effects of environmental regulation on city air pollution treatment in the country. The empirical results showed that (a) there was a significant positive correlation for the spatial distribution of air pollution in China (0.87 in 2007) and the current air pollution situation was susceptible to the effects of its previous (the time lag effect of urban air pollution in eastern China is the strongest, which was 0.347); (b) environmental regulation could significantly improve the air pollution situation in the cities of northern and eastern regions; (c) the decomposition of the spatial spillover effect confirmed the role of environmental regulation in improving air quality in the region or surrounding areas. (d) we found the inverted U-shaped relationship between city economic development and air pollution in southern cities, the environmental Kuznets curve was verified; In the future, breaking the "barriers" in pollution treatment between regions and strengthening regional conversation and cooperation are effective approaches to treating air pollution. [Display omitted] • We studied the environmental regulation impacts on city air pollution in China. • We quantitatively scored environmental policies from multiple dimensions. • The evolution of city air pollution and its spatial correlation were discussed. • The heterogeneity influence and its spatial spillover effect of environmental regulation were discussed. • The nonlinear relationship between economic development and environmental protection was revealed based on EKC hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]