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Existing studies on emission accounting in global value chains (GVCs) have not focused on the relational nature of GVC activities manifested as the interaction of intermediate goods between enterprises. This paper proposes a relational GVC emissions accounting framework based on an inter-country input-output (ICIO) model distinguishing between domestic-owned enterprises (DOEs) and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), which is classified as trade-based, investment-based and hybrid-based emissions. Using AMNE-ICIO tables from 2005 to 2016, this paper traces emissions and carbon intensity in relational GVC activities at the global, economic, and industry levels. We find the following: (1) Investment-based emissions accounted for about 94.15% of the increase in relational GVC emissions, of which more than half comes from the interactive activities between DOEs and FIEs. (2) For the United States, high-income economies, and high-tech manufacturing, investment-based emissions were higher than trade-based emissions, and the reverse was true for upper-middle and lower-middle income economies and China. (3) Although relational GVC carbon intensity was high, the trend of decline was significant. (4) Compared to trade activities, investment-based activities were less carbon intensity in China and upper-middle income economies due to the interaction of production between FIEs and DOEs. The findings add new insights into the coordination of global emissions reductions and the allocation of emissions responsibility. • Emphasize the interdependence between enterprises in cross-border production. • Combine GVC linkages with carbon emissions and carbon intensity. • Investment-based emissions are the main factor of relational GVC emissions growth. • The carbon intensity of relational GVC decreased significantly. • Developing countries can access green spillover through investment-based GVC links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing is both an essential pillar of China's economy and a significant source of environmental pollution, and there is an urgent need for the manufacturing industry to use green innovation to accelerate its goal of sustainable development. From the intellectual property protection (IPP) perspective, this paper uses Chinese manufacturing and its 26 sub-sectors as a sample from 2003 to 2018, examining the impact of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) coordinated development in manufacturing green innovation capability. The empirical results suggest that two-way FDI coordinated development enhances manufacturing green innovation, and this finding still holds after endogeneity and robustness tests. Under the influence of IPP, the relationship between two-way FDI coordinated development and manufacturing green innovation capability is nonlinear. Under the influence of macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic dimensions IPP, the effect of two-way FDI coordinated development on manufacturing green innovation capability is U, Steps, and N shaped respectively. This paper's findings can provide empirical evidence for the government to formulate industrial development strategies and for manufacturing enterprises to improve their green innovation capabilities to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the dynamic landscape of rapid change and the pervasive influence of the digital revolution, the discussion surrounding the impact of digital transformation on the innovation performance of firms has become a focal point of intense debate. This paper aims to contribute to the evolution and advancement of traditional organizations toward high-quality development by addressing this issue through the integration of technology into the framework, leveraging the resource-based theory. The study seeks to explore the influence of digital transformation on innovation performance, specifically examining the role of supplier concentration in this relationship. Additionally, we investigate the moderating effect of CEO financial experience on the association between digital transformation and innovation performance. Utilizing multiple regression methodologies and analyzing data from Chinese listed firms spanning the period from 2007 to 2022, our empirical findings reveal a direct positive relationship between digital transformation and innovation performance. Furthermore, the study uncovers an indirect pathway through which digital transformation enhances innovation performance by mitigating supplier concentration. Notably, the positive impact of digital transformation is amplified by a CEO's background in finance. Finally, the effect of digital transformation on innovation performance is particularly pronounced in sectors such as state-owned entities, advanced technology companies, large-scale businesses, and those in their maturity phase. These insights provide valuable contributions to addressing concerns related to digital transformation, particularly in emerging economies like China. The findings offer essential lessons for navigating the transition to Industry 4.0 and fostering sustainable innovative practices. By emphasizing the role of supplier concentration and the moderating influence of CEO financial experience, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how digital transformation can positively impact innovation performance across diverse sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic and transportation industry is a carbon-intensive industry in China. The implementation of environmental regulation is of important practical significance. Nowadays, literatures lack of quantitative analysis on transport industry's sustainability performance under the environmental regulation. By using a directional distance function, this paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental regulation on this industry. Furthermore, this paper measures its green total factor productivity under the general intensity of regulation and strict regulation from 2000 to 2010. Results show that the economic growth mode in transportation industry is still the extensive mode, while there is great potential for the improvement of energy saving and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the important policy and welfare implications of China's energy issues, to date there has been little investigation from a micro-level perspective of the misallocation of resources in manufacturing enterprises. To fill this gap, this paper deals with resource misallocations in China with special reference to energy and labor inputs. Using a large, novel dataset of manufacturing enterprises from Zhejiang province, we employ a simultaneous system of equations for (gross) industrial output value, wage bill, energy expenditure and carbon emissions. The explanatory variables include labor, educational attainment of employees, capital value, materials, and a list of energy-related variables. Our results show that, for the same energy content, non-coal energy inputs are more productive than coal and coal-related fuels. Non-coal energy is more environmentally friendly but more expensive than coal-related fuels. Using the model estimates, we conduct Wald tests on whether the marginal productivity of labor and energy significantly differ from their respective factor costs. The main findings are that there is substantial resource misallocation in manufacturing enterprises, with labor being underpaid and energy overpaid, on average, in comparison to their marginal productivity. For energy misallocation, however, the pattern varies considerably among the various subsectors. Specifically, energy is over-used in sectors such as Textile , Paper , Chemical , Plastics , Non-metallic , Ferrous metals and Non-ferrous metal . By contrast, energy is under-used in sectors such as Beverages , Textile-wearing apparel , Leather , Metal , Transport equipment , Electrical machinery and Communication equipment . These findings can assist decision-makers in targeting the sectors where there is the most misallocation, identifying which input factors are inappropriately used, improving economic efficiency and lowering overall production costs by reducing allocative inefficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's copper resources are characterized by low grade and complex composition. A large amount of copper smelting slag (CSS) containing valuable elements such as copper and iron is produced through smelting. With the increasing shortage of copper resources, the full recovery of valuable elements in CSS plays an important part in resource utilization improvement, strengthen environmental protection and promote China's circular economy. In this study, a variety of methods for extracting and separating copper and iron from CSS are reported. The extraction and separation technologies include physical methods (flotation, magnetic separation) and chemical methods (hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical). This paper reviews the different technical principles, parameter optimization and mechanism characteristics of extracting and separating copper and iron from CSS. This review provides guidance for the selection and development of secondary resources of CSS or other solid wastes containing iron and copper. And on that basis, a new route to treat CSS by microwave fluidization roasting is put forward in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries in China, which contributes to high carbon emissions and hinders efforts to reduce the emissions. The high energy consumption and emission have seriously constrained the growth of low carbon economy in China's construction industry. And reducing the carbon emission from construction industry (CECI) has become the key to sustainable development and the achievement of "double carbon target". The paper firstly decomposes the main influencing factors and calculates their effects by LMDI model. Then, the Tapio decoupling index is used to explore the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic output. Finally, the spatial-temporal evolution of carbon emissions is analyzed through spatial autocorrelation theory. The results show that the carbon emissions from construction industry are highly increased by the construction employment rate (EM), and may be reduced by the energy intensity (EI) and carbon emission efficiency (CI). And the regions with better decoupling status are the eastern and central regions, which have relatively developed construction industry. Moreover, the spatial-temporal characteristic of carbon emissions is "high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north," showing obviously regional differences. [Display omitted] • Factors about production technology are taken into account, reflecting the characteristics of the construction industry. • Developed regions have better decoupling potential and more responsibility for CO 2. • The spatial distribution is "high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north". • The provinces in a region have similar decoupling status and carbon emission distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the gradual scarcity of terrestrial resources and the increasingly fierce competition for global marine resources, the task of green development of marine economy and green transformation of marine industry is imminent. Carbon finance is a product of low-carbon economic development and a derivative of green finance. It is an effective way to alleviate the global climate crisis and promote the transformation of the global economy to a low-carbon economy to achieve sustainable development. Studying the mechanism of carbon finance on the development of marine economy will help to grasp the influencing factors of the green transformation of the marine industry in an all-round way, better promote the sustainable development of China's marine economy, and realize the strategy of marine power at an early date. Based on this, this paper selects China's data from 2006 to 2020, and uses the AHP-entropy method to select 26 indicators from five levels: economic growth, energy conservation and emission reduction, marine ecology, structural adjustment and scientific and technological innovation to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for the green transformation of China's marine industry. Based on the PLSR model, the impact of carbon finance on the green transformation of China's marine industry is empirically analyzed, and the results show that: (1) The comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation from 2006 to 2020 fluctuates and rises: from 2006 to 2009, the comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation is low, and the transformation effect is not obvious. From 2009 to 2012, the comprehensive score of green transformation of the marine industry improved significantly. From 2012 to 2018, the comprehensive score of China's marine industry green transformation fluctuated little and showed a slow growth trend, while China's marine economic transformation grew steadily at a low speed. In 2019–2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the speed of transformation has decreased again. (2) The carbon ratio and the green credit balance of commercial banks have a role in promoting the green transformation of China's marine industry, while the carbon trading volume and carbon intensity have a restraining effect on the green transformation of China's marine industry. From the perspective of effect, carbon intensity has the strongest effect, followed by carbon ratio, carbon trading volume is slightly weaker, and the role of green credit balance of commercial banks is the weakest. Based on the research conclusions, relevant policy recommendations were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, environmental pollution from traditional resource endowments and extensive economic development is becoming an increasingly prominent problem. Research into the present pollution control situation is thus relevant to adjusting pollution control methods and improving pollution control effects. However, pollution control has the externality characteristics of a public good, creating a problem of spatial association. This paper used the social network analysis method to analyse this problem. First, a spatial association network of provincial pollution control in China was established based on a gravitation model, and the structural characteristics of this spatial association network were analysed. Then, the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) analysis method was employed to explore the main influencing factors impacting the association intensity of this spatial association network. These results contribute by illustrating the current situation of Chinese pollution control and provide a theoretical foundation for the government when it formulates future development directions and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shadow prices, or marginal abatement cost, of pollutants is a useful measure of environmental performance. Unlike much of the previous studies focusing on only one kind of pollutants, this paper applies the (multiplier) by-production approach to measure the shadow prices of carbon emission, sulfur emission, and dust. The case of regional economies in China is considered. As the foreign direct investment may have an impact on the environmental performance, a spatial Durbin model is utilized to identify the impact of foreign direct investment on the shadow prices of pollutants. The results show that the shadow prices of all three pollutants have been increasing over time which indicates the environmental performance of China has been improving. Moreover, the spatial regression results imply that both foreign direct investment and technology export volume positively impact the shadow price of pollutant emissions across the provinces of China. [Display omitted] • Shadow prices of three pollutants are calculated. • We explore the factors affecting shadow prices of bads in China. • FDI has a positive effect on environmental performance. • The environmental performance of China was improving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization sustainability is intrinsically against incoordination in two distinct forms: incoordination across sustainability dimensions and geographical spaces in sustainability performance. However, the rapid urbanization, particularly in those developing countries such as China, has been bringing along the problems of dimensional incoordination and spatial incoordination. To date, existing studies do not address these two forms of incoordination while assessing the sustainable urbanization. This paper therefore introduces a measurement model to evaluate the incoordination-adjusted sustainability performance during the urbanization process. The proposed model is established based on the examinations of the weak-strong sustainability perspective and the principle of spatial justice theory. The Atkinson Measure is employed to develop the model. A case study of the Chongqing city is conducted to illustrate the process of applying the proposed model. The outcomes from the case study reveal that the model proposed is effective in gauging and monitoring the status and trajectories of sustainability incoordination during the urbanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving restrictions are often introduced as an urban management method for reducing the air pollution and traffic congestion by prohibiting drivers from using their vehicles on given days, based on the last digits of vehicles’ license plates. A number of cities in developing countries have used driving restrictions. This paper proposes an empirical strategy to estimate the effects of driving restrictions on air quality. The strategy combines internet based semi-structured data source, big data processing procedure, and different estimation methods of regression discontinuity design to carry out the analysis. The results show that the driving restrictions are effective for short-run period, but are ineffective for long-run time period. Heterogeneity in short-run effect for different cut-points has also been observed. The results of the study are helpful in understanding the effectiveness of current driving restriction policies and to improve these further to achieve better results in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation in Jiangsu province has been developed rapidly. However, the development was accompanied with a large amount of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Combined with the coefficient in 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories and China's calorific value, this article calculated the carbon emission coefficient of usual energy covered by Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook (JSY) in detail. Based on this, carbon emission of transportation in Jiangsu Province from 1995 to 2012 was easily estimated. And from the result which appears clearly that the construction of energy consumption was changed in 2011. According to China Electricity Power Yearbook (CEPY) and China Energy Statistical Yearbook (CESY), carbon emission caused by electricity power indirectly could be estimated. With the help of Tapio model, this paper conducted a research on decoupling relationship between economic growth and carbon emission of transportation in Jiangsu Province with consideration of electricity. The results show that the amount of carbon emission by electric power is significant, which makes no difference on the overall decoupling states with an obvious periodical characteristic of Weak Decoupling (Expansive Coupling)-Expansive Negative Decoupling-Weak Decoupling. Transportation has made great achievements on reducing pollution and carbon emission in Jiangsu Province since the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, and would be better on low-carbon development in potential. However, there is still a large step to realize low-carbon transportation in reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theory of total factor production, this paper analyzes energy efficiency in China's textile industry at the regional levels using non-parametric meta-frontier approach and a provincial panel data during the period, 2000–2012. We further analyze the regional differences in energy utilization technology gap using the technology gap ratio. Irrespective of the frontier (meta or group), the empirical result depicts a tremendous energy saving potential in China's textile industry. Relative to meta-frontier, the average energy efficiency of China's textile industry is 0.673 during the sample period; hence, the energy saving potential is 32.7% if output remains unchanged. Relative to group frontier, the average efficiency of China's textile industry is 0.797, which may overestimate the true level of energy utilization. From the regional perspective, significant differences exist in energy technology within the textile industry. During the sample period, the energy utilization technology gap ratio (TGR) of the Textile Industry in eastern China remains above 0.95 and it's steadily improving, approaching the optimum for the whole textile industry. Moreover, the textile industries in central and western China have improvement potentials of 19.6% and 27.4%, respectively. Finally, based on the results from the regional energy efficiency analysis, future policy priorities are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material productivity (MP), measured as economic output (such as Gross Domestic Product, GDP) per corresponding material input, is gained significant interest of becoming a widespread environmental sustainability indicator. The study of MP's dynamics is very important for policy-making on how to improve MP. This paper applies the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to investigate the dynamic impacts of energy intensity for secondary industry (SEI), tertiary industry value added per GDP (TVA), trade openness (TO) and domestic extraction per capita (DEC) on MP in the case of China during the period from 1980 to 2010. The validated and robust results of the model confirm the existence of cointegration among the variables both in the long and short run. The impacts of selected socioeconomic factors can be summarized as follows: 1) In the long run, an SEI decrease driven by technology improvement is found to be the main driver of MP, and a 1% decrease in SEI results in a 0.432% increase in MP; 2) The magnitude of the impact of TVA on MP is higher over the short run than over the long run; 3) TO can reluctantly promote MP both in the long and short run; 4) DEC exhibits fundamentally different behaviors in the long and short run. DEC is not a strongly significant factor for MP, and the magnitude of the impact is very weak in the long run. However, it has the greatest negative impact on MP in the short run, as a 1% increase in DEC results in a 0.519% decrease in MP, which demonstrates that the marginal revenue of resource input has already dramatically declined. These insights from the study could be considerably helpful for sustainable resource management and material productivity enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government, like many others around the world, has set carbon targets that by the time of 2020, to achieve a 40–45% decrease in CO 2 emissions per GDP compared with that of 2005. In some parts of China, short-term economic needs have dominated urban planning, while in other areas—especially in recent years—emphasis has shifted to the quality of urban development. This paper contributes to the literature as placing emphasis on the quality of land use as well as detecting possible causal links between land urbanization quality (LUQ) and carbon emissions using panel data from at provincial level from 2004 to 2013. The results show that: There is bidirectional long-run causal relation between carbon emission and LUQ on the national scale, which implies that the two are jointly determined and that they simultaneously affect each other. As the case of recovery to the equilibrium, Eastern regions have the fastest speed, followed by the Central and the Western ranked at last. Further, what worth noting is LUQ contribute to reducing carbon emissions, indicating the ongoing industrial restructuring and green developments have come into force. Moreover, we deduce that the Central region has the highest potential for energy conservation. We further propose that emphasis should be placed on promoting the degree of LUQ and energy conservation in the implementation during the New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric mercury pollution is a severe threat to both environment and human health. For Beijing economy 2012, this paper compiles an exhaustive inventory for direct mercury emissions and performs an input–output analysis for indirect mercury emission connections. It's estimated that Beijing's direct atmospheric mercury emissions were 2.62 tonnes, mainly contributed by combustion of coal and cement production. Most sectors' indirect emission intensities are larger than direct ones, which indicates that there are considerable inter-sector mercury emission flows embodied in intermediate transactions. The economy avoided 5.30 tonnes of mercury emissions via trade, which double its direct emissions. Mercury emissions induced by Beijing's final consumption were 3 times as many as direct emissions and the largest part was due to capital formation. The results indicate that the end-of-pipe accounting couldn't fully capture urban economy's emissions. Our findings also provide insights for mercury emission mitigation from both the local and systematic perspectives. From the local perspective of direct emissions, the economy can adjust its energy structure and develop clean coal combustion technology as well as mercury removal devices. For the systematic perspective associated with indirect emissions, policy should be extended to manage consumption of the trans-boundary energy and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have considered the one-way relationship between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation or upgrading. This research further investigates the asymmetric relationship between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation or upgrading from long-term and short-term perspectives. We analyse 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2020 using ordinary least squares and panel quantile regression models to explore the positive effect of sustainable innovation on industrial transformation and upgrading with spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and panel vector autoregression (PVAR) further survey the causal relationship between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation and upgrading. The findings reveal that sustainable innovation promoted advancing industrial structures over the long-term and short-term promotion of industrial structure rationalisation. Simultaneously, there are low mutual coordination and extension between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation and upgrading. For regions with high coordination between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation and upgrading, the interaction between sustainable innovation and the advanced industrial structure is more pronounced. The paper's results confirm the asymmetric relationship between sustainable innovation and industrial transformation and upgrading, and the findings have crucial significance for the sustainable development of China's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns led to a sharp drop in socio-economic activities in China in 2020, including reductions in fossil fuel use, industry productions, and traffic volumes. China's economy suffered a serious negative effect from COVID-19. However, there is a "positive effect" on CO 2 emissions reduction. Here, for the first time, this paper constructs a new model named "Weighted Multi-regional Hypothetical Extraction Method (WMHEM)" based on a multiregional input-output model. It not only solves the problems of traditional HEM methods such as improper use of assumptions, excessive reliance on industry intermediate input, but also accurately reflects the impact of external shocks on the inter-industry linkages. By using the monthly economic data of each provinces in China during COVID-19 (except Hong Kong，Macao and Taiwan) an the latest Multi-regional input-output tables, the "economic negative effect" and "CO 2 emission positive effect" under COVID-19 in China are measured. Results show that COVID-19 lockdown was estimated to have reduced China's CO 2 emissions substantially between January and March in 2020, with the largest reductions in February. With the spread of coronavirus controlled, China's CO 2 emissions rebounded in April. In addition, key emission reduction sectors and key development encouraged sectors are selected by combining "economic negative effect" and "CO 2 emission positive effect" during COVID-19. Therefore, policies recommendations are put forward based on forward and backward linkages respectively which are from two ends of the supply chain to turn pandemic-related CO 2 emissions declines into firm climate action. • COVID-19 has negative effects on economy, but positive effects on CO 2 emissions. • A new model is used to measure economic and CO 2 emission effects during COVID-19. • Hubei had the biggest economic and CO 2 emission effects on China due to COVID-19. • Economic and CO 2 emission effects of COVID-19 are combined to select key sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, China's economy and energy structure are deeply adjusting to the direction of low-carbonization and non-carbonization with unprecedented efforts. This paper considered carbon emissions and energy endowments, adopted SBM-Undesirable model and spatial Durbin model to calculate the energy efficiency of 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2015 to 2019 and analyze the direct effect, indirect effect and total effect on energy efficiency of 7 variables. Empirical results show that: Energy efficiency has spatial positive correlation and agglomeration characteristics; The main influencing factor of China's energy efficiency is energy consumption structure; Regions with strong energy endowment bear the environmental pollution cost of energy consumption areas in China; Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) exists in China, but different provinces and municipalities are distributed in disparate stages; Research and development (R&D) investment only affects local energy efficiency, and has no spillover effect on surrounding areas in China; Foreign direct investment (FDI) has negative impacts on China's energy efficiency, and there is a phenomenon of pollution paradise. The valuable conclusions obtained in this study deepens the insights about the influencing factors of China's energy efficiency under the constraints of carbon emission and energy endowment. Energy efficiency has spatial positive correlation and agglomeration characteristics; The main influencing factor of China's energy efficiency is energy consumption structure; Regions with strong energy endowment bear the environmental pollution cost of energy consumption areas in China; Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) exists in China, but different provinces and municipalities are distributed in disparate stages; Research and development (R&D) investment only affects local energy efficiency, and has no spillover effect on surrounding areas in China; Foreign direct investment (FDI) has negative impacts on China's energy efficiency, and there is a phenomenon of pollution paradise. [Display omitted] • Energy efficiency has spatial positive correlation and agglomeration characteristics. • Energy consumption structure mainly affects energy efficiency. • Environment Kuznets Curve exists in China. • "Pollution paradise hypothesis" exists in foreign direct investment. • Environmental pollution is transferred to surrounding provinces through resource trades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a method for the evaluation of total factor productivity (TFP) based on the super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and the Malmquist–Luenberger index. Under China's constraints for carbon emissions, data sampled from eight cities in two large areas in Anhui Province in central China, namely the Wan Jiang region and the northern Anhui region, from 2001 to 2009 were cited as the sample for the analysis of the low-carbon TFP index. An analysis of the low carbon index changes and composition during the period of economic transformation was also conducted. The empirical analysis results indicate that the technical efficiency change has a lower effect on the progress of total factor productivity and that technological progress exerts the dominant force in total factor productivity growth. This study also performed Hausman tests of the factors influencing the total factor productivity and suggested advances in certain policies accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the sustainability of many metropolitan areas has been degraded due to rapid economic development. Zengcheng, as a satellite city of Guangzhou, has been developed as a demonstration area for improving regional urban sustainability and expanding the overall ecological capacity of Guangzhou. In this paper, an integrated evaluation based on emergy synthesis theory was conducted to examine whether Zengcheng can fulfill its role in providing ecological services and improving regional sustainability. Based on emergy indices, we assessed the sustainability of the social, economic, and ecological subsystems of Zengcheng. The results showed that the total emergy used (U), the emergy used per person (Ucap) and the empower density (ED) of Zengcheng were all at a low level compared to a selection of developed cities. However, the Ucap and the ED were higher than the national average. The emergy investment ratio (EMR) of Zengcheng was lower than all the selected areas in this study, suggesting that the development of Zengcheng is mainly reliant on the consumption of local resources. The Emergy Sustainable Index (ESI) of Zengcheng is 0.72 which is lower than many highly developed areas. Furthermore, three categories of ecological services of Zengcheng were also evaluated based on emergy. The results show that the total emergy-dollar value of ecosystem services and the ecological services empower density (ESED) in Zengcheng were $6.17E+09 and 1.20E+13 sej/m 2 , respectively. This indicates that Zengcheng can provide substantial ecological services and increase the overall ecological capacity of the Guangzhou region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]