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China’s paper industry consumes a lot of energy and emits huge amounts of pollutions. The Chinese government over the past decades has done a lot to promote energy efficiency of the industry. This paper studies the impact of industrial polices to improve energy efficiency. The energy efficiency change is firstly studied under a framework of total factor efficiency. On this basis, different econometric models are built to discuss the detailed energy efficiency characteristics of the paper industry. The main results are as follow: (i) ownership structure did influence the energy efficiency, but the influence is different in different conditions; (ii) energy efficiency of the paper industry can be improved by economies of scale; (iii) market competition can to some extent overcome the motivation and supervision problem that often occur in state-owned companies; (iv) energy price cannot play the role of resource allocation well in China. Finally, based on our findings, some suggestions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's paper industry accounts for a larger proportion of the global paper industry and consumes large amounts of energy. Energy conservation and pollution reduction of the industry have become the focus of China's national development strategy. Energy efficiency is an important index which directly determines the amounts of energy consumption and pollution emissions. To understand the energy efficiency evolution of China's paper industry, this paper establishes an input-output data of the paper industry for 29 provinces in China and applies DEA method and econometric models to estimate and comprehensively discuss the energy efficiency issues based on the framework of total factor efficiency. Our results indicate that China's paper industry has a large energy saving potential even though its energy efficiency has improved during the period 1990–2013. The saving potential is about 65% under the meta-frontier and 44% under the group-frontier. Moreover, there are significant differences between different regions in production technology and energy efficiency. The performance of eastern China is better than other regions. But the technology gaps between the different regions are shrinking and converging over time. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's ecological environmental problem becomes severe, corporate environmental behavior (CEB) has become the focus of a range of stakeholders, policy makers and the whole society since the operating activities of companies is the main source of environmental pollution. This study used a questionnaire survey and structural equation model (SEM) to examine the relative importance of external and internal pressures (EIP) on driving CEB. Data was obtained from 702 papermaking companies in China. The mechanism of EIP effects on CEB was tested employing SEM through path analysis, using AMOS 21.0. The results showed that government pressure, economic pressure and internal pressure played significant positive roles in environmental behavior of papermaking companies in China. Economic pressure was the most important factor on environmental behaviors (including defensive, accommodative and proactive behaviors) of papermaking companies. Furthermore, the role of internal pressure on CEB (defensive and proactive) was second only to economic pressure, while the role of government pressure on CEB was much weaker than our expectation. However, the role of social pressure, which was imposed by general public and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), was not significant. Thus, policy makers should emphasize on the interactions of economic mechanism, government regulation and internal incentive mechanism to stimulate firms to adopt active environmental behavior. More concerns from the general public shall be addressed to enhance their driving effect on CEB in Chinese papermaking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The current approaches to study the coupling mechanism between economy and environment seem to fall into self-circulation, failed to reveal "economy–environment interdependence". In this context, an exogenous variable is introduced into these models for better understanding the relationship. Benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) environment inventories in different cities in China were estimated by fugacity model based on Bap concentration data collected from previous studies. An extended model, stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT), generated from original IPAT (a model that expresses the idea that environmental impact (I) is the product of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)) was used to study the relationship between Bap environment inventory and anthropogenic factors including population, vehicle amount, affluence and energy consumption. A ridge regression has been applied to optimize the model parameters. Overall, there exist good relationships between Bap inventories and economic factors. Specifically, population and affluence are the most significant factors that influence Bap inventory. Rise of the scale of population and vehicle amount increases the Bap inventory, as growth of GDP per capita and the efficiency of energy utilization have inhibitory effect on Bap inventory. Apparently, the influences of anthropogenic factors on Bap inventory are different between north and south China. Bap inventory in north China is more sensitive to the change of population and energy consumption, while is highly correlated to GDP per capita in south China. Further, according to social-economic development prediction, with assist of the result from STIRPAT model, we find out that Bap inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. Our estimates are comparable with the published data and confirmed that Bap can be regarded as a chemical indicator of social-economic development in China. Image 1 • An extended STIRPAT model derived from original IPAT was developed. • Population and affluence are the key factors that influence Bap inventory. • Advance of affluence and technology level curbs Bap environmental exposure. • We predict Bap environmental inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. • Bap can be used as an indicator of social-economic development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most swiftly industrializing countries in the world, China is struggling with significant challenges facing its environment, in particular in its marine ecosystems. Hence, economic activities increasingly are influencing these ecosystems, requiring their study crucial for sustainable development. Therefore, it is paramount perceiving the potential implications of economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) for marine health. The study aims to explore the impact of economic growth and FDI on China's marine ecosystem during 1980–2019, examining the probable intersections of economic advancement, FDI, and marine sustainability, the study used a novel nonlinear Fourier Autoregressive Distributed Lags (FARDL) approach. Notably, the paper confirms the Fishing Grounds Load Capacity Curve (FGLCC) hypothesis, demonstrating a nonlinear affiliation among income levels and maritime conditions. Moreover, the results point out that FDI initially worsens marine conditions until a certain threshold is reached, marking a pivotal change in the influence of FDI from environmental degradation to improvement. In addition, the study underscores the critical need for policies that balance economic development with Chines' marine environmental sustainability, emphasizing the importance of intended regulatory and strategic interventions. These insights are vital for enhancing marine requirements and ensuring well-being and health of future generations, providing significant implications maritime policymakers in addressing marine environmental challenges amid economic development. [Display omitted] • Analyzes China's marine sustainability from 1980 to 2019 using the Fishing Grounds Load Capacity Factor. • Proposes and tests the Fishing Grounds Load Capacity Curve hypothesis. • Evaluates marine Pollution Haven and marine Pollution Halo hypotheses. • Provides evidence for FGLCC and marine Pollution Haven based on Fourier ARDL modelling. • Offers insights into balancing economic growth and marine ecosystem preservation in China through key policy levers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart energy plays an important role in alleviating energy poverty in China in the context of the new technological revolution and industrial change. This paper uses China's smart pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, employing China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2022, measuring energy poverty indices based on a projection pursuit evaluation model, and conducting a quasi-natural experiment using a synthetic control method to assess the effect of smart energy on energy poverty and specific mechanisms of action. The study found that smart energy has a specific and significant impact on energy poverty, but the effect differs in different regions depending on the construction cycle and energy endowment. In the mechanism test, smart energy significantly alleviates energy poverty through the mechanisms of improving energy supply capacity, improving energy payment capacity, and improving energy cleanliness. The results of the study provide empirical references for regional solutions to energy poverty and the planning of smart energy construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green total factor productivity is a vital measure of sustainable progress, holding immense implications for attaining both economic growth and environmental preservation in a mutually beneficial manner. Focusing on green total factor productivity, this paper examines its nexus with low-carbon energy technology using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments (IV-GMM) model, based on a panel dataset in China during 2005–2018. This paper also examines the asymmetric impact of low-carbon energy technology on green total factor productivity. In addition, the moderating and mediating effects are checked. The main findings are that (1) low-carbon energy technology is a promoting factor for green total factor productivity. (2) Low-carbon energy technology exerts a more prominent marginal impact on green total factor productivity when green total factor productivity is at higher quantile levels. (3) Renewable energy generation not only drives green total factor productivity directly, but also further increases the promotion effect of low-carbon energy technology on green total factor productivity, showing a positive moderating role. (4) Energy structure transition and industrial structure transition are two internal impact mechanisms between low-carbon energy technology and green total factor productivity. These findings suggest that the government can promote green total factor productivity development by developing policies related to low-carbon energy technology and fully releasing the effects of technology on sustainable development. • This paper assesses the level of low-carbon energy technology (LCET) in China. • This paper examines the effect of LCET on green total factor productivity (GTFP). • LCET plays a significant role in enhancing GTFP. • Renewable energy generation positively moderates the nexus between LCET and GTFP. • Energy structure transition and industrial structure transition are two mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of high-quality development, the e-commerce industry needs to seek more comprehensive development, and the logistics industry should not only maintain higher efficiency, but also meet the requirements of green and low-carbon transportation. This study aims to investigate the link between the logistic density and the proportion of e-commerce transaction scale. There are few studies on how logistics density affects the development of e-commerce quantitatively. In order to solve this gap, this study establishes an impact model of high-quality growth of e-commerce, and based on Solow production model, constructs a calculation method of logistics density, and analyzes the impact mechanism of logistics density on the scale ratio of e-commerce transactions. Using the bidirectional fixed effect model, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the panel data of 31 provinces consisting of 248 observations and autonomous regions in China from 2014 to 2020. The results show that logistic density has a positive and significant impact on the growth of e-commerce, thus promoting the optimization of economic structure. The acceleration of logistics density decreases the expansion of the ecommerce. Finally, there are obvious regional differences between the development of e-commerce and logistics infrastructure in China. Finally, based on the empirical result, this paper puts forward recommendations for government and companies. [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]

Based on the complex network of industry space, this paper investigates the industry structure optimization in Jiangxi Province in China. For the prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi Province, the location quotient is applied to obtain the specialized sub-industries. The conditional probability is used to analyze the interdependencies between industries. The complex network of industry space is presented to illustrate the relatedness among industries and analyze the space and structure of the regional overall industry. The index of transitional potential is proposed to measure the potential of a non-specialized industry which will become a specialized one in the future. The transformation difficulty index of industry is obtained to analyze the difficulty level of the transformation of the original specialized industry set to a new specialized one of a city. The results show that more industries have positive than negative interdependencies with one another in Jiangxi Province; rare industries specialize in cities at higher-level GDP, and common industries dominate the cities at lower-level GDP; it is more difficult for rarer non-specialized industries to become specialized ones, more common non-specialized industries can become specialized ones more easily, and the cities with higher GDP can transform industries more easily. By discussing the industries that have positive interdependencies with existing specialized industries, the detailed direction of industry structure optimization is analyzed. Finally, the policy implications are proposed, and these can be applied to other developing countries. • The conditional probability is used to analyze the interdependencies between industries. • The complex network of industry space is presented to illustrate the relatedness among industries. • The index of transitional potential is used to measure the potential of a non-specialized industry becoming specialized. • The transformation difficulty index is the difficulty level of the transformation of the originally specialized industry. • The industry structure can be optimized by developing the industries that have positive interdependencies with existing specialized industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic increase in textile waste and the ineffective disposal of textiles as emerging global issues are driving researchers to study new ways of thinking and designing textile waste policies with the aim of conserving resources and reducing the environmental impact of textile waste. However, there is limited research that systematically and comprehensively examines the development processes of policies that govern textile waste management. It is important to identify the underlying issues and improve textile waste management systems. This paper fills this gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the development and characteristics of policies related to textile waste in China. All the major textile waste policies issued between 1991 and 2017 at the central-government level have been examined to ensure accuracy and reliability. To achieve the descriptive objective of the study, content analysis was employed, and the following conclusions were derived: (1) The number of policies has gradually increased since more stringent textile waste management was introduced in 2001, and although the Chinese government has continuously reinforced its supervision from 2010 onwards, stringency remains low; (2) most policies regulate the recycling level of the waste hierarchy, as in open-loop recycling, and only a couple of polices regulate higher levels; and (3) the highly imbalanced structure of policy instrument types has been changing, and the variety of policy instruments has peaked in recent years. This paper contributes a general and important reference relating to textile waste policies for governments and businesses in other industrialized nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is a compulsory institutional change to achieve low-carbon energy transformation in China. Its success depends on the scientific system quasi-parameter design, the most important system quasi-parameter is the benchmark price of the tradable green certificate (TGC). Setting the benchmark price of TGC scientifically and reasonably in line with China's national conditions is conducive to the effective implementation of RPS in China. Based on the system dynamics (SD) to construct China's green certificate trading market model, this paper analyzes the interaction between the TGC market and the electricity market under the RPS, and uses Vensim simulation to simulate the optimal TGC benchmark price based on the maximization of social welfare. The results show that the TGC market and the electricity market are mutually influential. As the benchmark price of TGC increases, the total power generation increases and the on-grid price decreases. Consumer surplus, producer surplus and social welfare all reach the maximum when the TGC benchmark price is 0.4yuan/KWh, so determines 0.4yuan/kWh as the optimal benchmark price of TGC. • The cyclical influence mechanism of TGC price are studied. • The trading process of TGC market and electricity market is analyzed by SD model. • This paper reveals the optimal TGC's benchmark price from China perspective. • This paper simulates the operation of the TGC market in China. [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]

Existing studies on water resource issues focus on water scarcity while largely lacking an integrative water balance health assessment and ignoring the combined impacts of water quality, water transfer, and unconventional water resources on water balance. Here, we proposed a novel framework for assessing regional water balance health considering three dimensions of water problems about imbalances: water scarcity, water inequality, and systems incoordination. This paper first quantified the levels of water balance health at multiple geographic and temporal scales in China, and then investigated the critical components and the impacts of improved surface water quality, inter-basin water transfer, and unconventional water use on the local water balance health. Results showed that China was under an unhealthy water balance due to multiple imbalances based on the annual average assessments during 2014–2018. More than 45% of the national population (∼615 million people) was affected by an unhealthy water balance. Hotspots with unhealthy water balance exhibited spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability, with Northern China experiencing unhealthy water balance throughout the year, while Southern China usually faced this issue during the winter. Unhealthy water balance in Northern China was primarily driven by water scarcity, while in the west of the Hu-Huanyong Line, water inequality exacerbated the situation. Southeastern China faced systems incoordination, particularly vulnerable during extreme events, such as severe droughts. More than 400 and 150 million people benefited significantly from improved surface water quality and inter-basin water transfer, respectively, relieving unhealthy water balance. However, the effectiveness of unconventional water use was found to be limited. This study contributed to a better understanding of water balance health and facilitated the development of policies for integrated water resources management in China. [Display omitted] • A novel method is proposed to quantify water balance health level at a basin scale. • China is experiencing an unhealthy water balance with multiple imbalances. • Over 45% of the national population is affected by an unhealthy water balance. • Geographic patterns of the critical components responsible for unhealthy water balance are determined. • Effectiveness of multiple measures in improving water balance health level is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being one of the significant conduits linking international and domestic markets, agricultural trade is an area of study that commands attention. While it may bring about transnational carbon emission transfers, it begs the question: does it promote carbon reduction in a country's agricultural sector? Such an inquiry holds profound implications for optimizing agricultural trade and promoting low-carbon agricultural advancement. Utilizing two-way fixed effect model, mediating effect model and dual-fixed spatial Durbin model, this paper examines the impact effects, mechanisms and spatial characteristics of agricultural trade openness (ATO) on agricultural carbon reduction using panel data from Chinese provinces spanning 2000 to 2021. The main findings include: (1) ATO markedly and positively influences the reduction of agricultural carbon emissions (ACE), this conclusion maintains its validity under endogeneity treatment and robustness tests. (2) ATO contributes to reducing ACE through three intermediary channels: scale effect, technological effect, and structural effect. (3) From a spatial perspective, a notable positive spatial spillover effect is observed from agricultural trade openness to agricultural carbon reduction, with the spatial carbon reduction effect being more apparent. (4) The spatial carbon reduction effect of agricultural trade liberalization exhibits heterogeneity across different natural geographical locations and levels of ATO. The study confirms the vital role of ATO in promoting agricultural carbon reduction in typical countries, underscoring the urgency and importance of bolstering cross-border agricultural trade cooperation and domestic agricultural product circulation in the domain of climate change. • The impact of agricultural trade openness (ATO) on agricultural carbon reduction is investigated in China. • The scale, technological, and structural effect of ATO serve as intermediary channels in reducing carbon emissions. • ATO engenders positive spatial spillover effects on agricultural carbon reduction. • Bolstering cross-border agricultural trade cooperation are of importance and urgency in the domain of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the influence of political system changes, particularly official turnover, on pollution reduction in Chinese industrial firms—a response to the environmental challenges posed by China's economic growth. Utilizing micro-panel data from 2000 to 2014 and an official turnover database, this study assesses how these turnovers affect firm-level pollution. The analysis confirms that official turnovers significantly reduce emissions, with the effect more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, under officials who are male, hold PhDs, and are older. This impact is also stronger in areas with a larger tertiary sectors and higher economic growth. A detailed comparison reveals that mayoral turnovers have a greater abatement effect than those of municipal secretaries, especially in cases of abnormal turnovers. Crucially, this study demonstrates that mayoral turnovers lead to pollution reduction by promoting corporate exports and innovation. The baseline regression results, confirmed as robust after extensive robustness checks, underscore the significance of these findings. This paper sheds light on the political dynamics of environmental governance in China, advocating bureaucratic reforms to reduce emissions and providing strategic recommendations to improve national environmental sustainability. • Political turnover in China leads to significant pollution reduction in industrial firms. • The effect of official turnovers on reducing emissions is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises. • Turnover effects are stronger under older, male officials with PhDs. • Mayoral changes have a greater impact on pollution reduction than municipal secretaries, particularly in abnormal turnovers. • Mayor turnovers contribute to pollution reduction by promoting exports and innovation in firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper matched the data for all non-financial listed firms in China from 1990 to 2017 with weather data and used temperature and precipitation to represent climate change. Using daily temperature and daily precipitation data, we constructed temperature bins and precipitation bins. This study presents a potential first empirical analysis that applies the risk perception theory to comprehensively examine the impacts of daily temperature and daily precipitation on firms' debt financing costs. Compared to a day with a suitable temperature, a day with temperatures above 30 °C increases firms' debt financing costs by 0.2411%. Compared to a sunny day, a day with torrential rain increases firms' financing costs by 0.2697%. Approximately $122.13 million and $20.49 million in extra costs were incurred across all firms in 2017. We conducted a series of heterogeneity tests. We found that the negative impacts of climate change on debt financing costs are greater for firms that investor considers more vulnerable. Finally, we found two possible mechanisms. First, from the firm's subjective initiative perspective, firms that respond proactively during seasons of high temperatures and heavy rains can reduce the negative impacts. Second, adverse weather caused by climate change may also increase firms' debt financing costs by blocking travel. These results enrich the literature on firms' debt financing costs and contribute to the understanding of climate change's impact on firms. [Display omitted] • An extra high-temperature day increases firms' debt financing cost by 0.2411%. • An extra heavy-rain day increases firms' debt financing costs by 0.2697%. • The negative impacts will be greater for those firms that investor considers more vulnerable. • Firms' response proactively can reduce the negative impacts. • Climate change also may increase firms' debt financing costs by blocking travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Currently, wind and solar energy have not been well utilized in China, and the rate of abandoned wind and solar facilities in China is increasing annually. Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are an effective system for promoting large-scale renewable energy integration and consumption and realizing the goal of renewable energy development. To clarify the interactive relationship between the different levels and multiple actors in RPS, this paper uses policy network theory to analyze the interactive relationship of stakeholders from the three aspects of network subject, network structure and network interaction. The policy network of the RPS consists of the policy community, professional network, intergovernmental network, producer network and issue network. Under the RPS, to meet their own needs, participants affect the formulation and implementation of the RPS through the actions of confrontation, alliance, competition and cooperation. In different stages of developing the RPS, the openness and integration of policy networks change accordingly. This study overcomes the limitations of past simple analyses of the actor relationship in the policy process and thereby offers certain reference significance. Highlights • The actors of RPS policy networks are analyzed. • This paper analyze the game relationship of the stakeholders from three aspects. • This research reveals the network relationship between multiple stakeholders. • This study breaks through the limitations of past analysis of actor relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper builds an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) multiple logistic regression model to analyze how socio-economic development impacts mainland China's coastal waters environment. China's coastal provinces have significantly different seawater quality at different stages of the seawater's EKC. Jiangsu and Hebei are still at the early stage of the seawater's EKC because of the large quantity of pollution-intensive industry, whereas the coastal provinces at the late stage of the seawater's EKC have presented obviously improved seawater quality based on adjustments in the industrial structure since 2001. Urbanization has a severe impact on the seawater quality of Shanghai and Zhejiang at the middle stage of the seawater's EKC. Furthermore, this paper proposes an overall strategy and several "tailored" strategies to address coastal waters environment improvement for current poorly targeted policies at different stages of the seawater's EKC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy ideas associated with the urban minerals industry in China have shifted focus from environmental protection to industrial development in recent years. A key factor influencing the development of this industry is whether the policy system can adapt to changing policy ideas. This paper analyzes a series of policies on urban minerals issued by the central government and related departments and ministries from 1987 to 2017. Using the content analysis method, which is a quantitative methodology, the paper proposes a framework of policy tools and objects of policy intervention to analyze the evolutionary characteristics and problems associated with the development of the urban minerals industry. The research results show that the policy system of urban minerals in China has changed from the germination stage, in which urban minerals policies were embedded in environmental protection policies; to an introduction stage, in which the urban minerals policy system initially took shape; to a development stage, in which the effects of urban minerals policies have stabilized. The changing trend of urban minerals policies can be summarized as follows. First, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) gradually became the dominant policymaker. Second, the policy tools were enriched via restructuring. Third, the objects of policy intervention were continually extended to the whole industry chain. Although the policy system of urban minerals in China has promoted industrial development, certain problems remain to be resolved, such as the conflicting policies from different departments, the unreasonable combination of policy tools and improper object of policy intervention. To this end, we have proposed corresponding countermeasures and suggestions to better improve the development of the urban minerals industry. [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]

Exploring multi-goal sustainable development paths is a global concern. To date, little is known about the characteristics of and logic behind the evolution of China's land use policies (LUPs), especially when they are linked to China's governance philosophy of an ecological civilization (EC). An EC is a unique development concept in China that emphasizes human-nature coexistence alongside economic progress. Therefore, we examine the evolutionary process of China's LUPs in the context of an EC. We identify meaningful shifts that have occurred in those policies, as well as reveal the logic behind the changes. Based on staged text mining of 220 national LUPs initiated in China between 1986 and 2021, by disclosing the changes in the number, foci, goals, concepts, measures, and reform methods of LUPs, this paper provides an overview and four-dimensional deconstruction of the country's LUP evolution in the context of an EC. Three major findings emerge from text mining. First, China's LUP has evolved through three stages, with modifications in the number, dominant foci, and themes of the policies across each stage. Second, comprehensive and significant alterations have transpired in the orientation, goals, concepts, measures, and reform approaches of the policies. Third, the transformation in LUP has transpired centering on four dimensions: improving economic efficiency; balancing production, living, and ecology; promoting social equity; and conserving ecology. These four aspects accord with four governance concepts of an EC—efficient development, symbiosis of humans and nature, social harmony, and green development. We also discuss how China's LUP evolution offers a valuable case for exploring sustainable development at a global level. [Display omitted] • Ecological civilization (EC) and land use policies (LUPs) are interactive in China. • Key changes of China's LUP are tracked by text mining. • An overview and deconstruction of China's LUP evolution are provided under an EC. • Four concepts of an EC are matched with four evolutionary benchmarks of LUP. • China's LUP provides a case for exploring multigoal sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support high-quality carbon peaking, a scenario analysis of carbon peaking pathways according to an industrial chain perspective considering both material and part production needs exploring. As a critical segment in the aluminum industrial chain, aluminum casting industry was focused on in this paper. A bottom-up scenario analysis approach was proposed for the carbon emission simulation of China's aluminum casting industry, including: (1) a carbon emission assessment model based on material flow analysis and life-cycle assessment, (2) key influence factor selection and variation scenario prediction, (3) static and dynamic scenario analysis, and (4) driving factor decomposition analysis. Key findings are as follows: (1) China's aluminum casting industry accounted for about 1.1% of the national carbon emissions in 2020; (2) the production stage accounted for around 15% of the total carbon emissions of China's aluminum casting industry in 2020; (3) carbon peaking probabilities before 2030 for the static and dynamic scenario analysis are around 60% and 35%, respectively; and (4) the carbon peaking result differences in whether considering the production stage are about 20% for the static simulation and average 40% for the dynamic simulation. These findings effectively support the formulation of a high-quality carbon peaking pathway. • A bottom-up approach of scenario analysis was proposed for carbon peaking pathways. • Carbon emission assessment model was built with corresponding inventory data. • Static and dynamic scenario analyses of carbon emissions were compared. • Decomposition and sensitivity analysis of driving factors were conducted. • Production stage accounted for around 15% of the total carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Nanhai, this paper adopts an analytical framework to examine how a combination of infrastructure-pull, supply-push and demand-pull initiatives implemented by a small district government in southern China were able to facilitate socio-technical transitions to the public transport decarbonization through the establishment of hydrogen refuelling infrastructures, the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and the development of production network on FCEVs. With neither massive investment from the central government nor captive linkage with global automakers, Nanhai out-performs other automotive powerhouses in China by accounting for 9.85 percent of FCEVs and 4.59 percent of all operating hydrogen refuelling stations in China, despite its land area only accounting for 0.01 percent of the country. The provision of hydrogen infrastructures and other pro-active local government initiatives (including financial incentives) facilitate the development of a competitive regionalized production network of about 90 (privately-owned) fuel cell electric buses makers and parts suppliers around the Xianhu Hydrogen Valley in Nanhai. This finding enhances our understanding on effects of (local) state policies on the socio-technical transitions to public transport decarbonization and the long-term development of hydrogen economies in other countries. [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]

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]

Water issues have become increasingly critical throughout the world, especially in the developing countries. Methodologies and analytical tools, such as water footprint assessment (WFA) have become more and more important for sustainable water resources management. This paper presents a comprehensive WFA for a typical large-scale intensive hog farming company located in Henan province, China. Two widely used global water footprint standards — established by the Water Footprint Network (WFN) and the International Standardization Organization (ISO) — were applied to study the water footprints of the hog farming company at both organizational and product levels. The study looks at a full value-chain in this hog farming company's operations, including one feed mill, two hog farms, one bio-fertilizer mill, and one neutralization plant. Results show that: 1) results using WFN and ISO 14046 standards present a basically consistent trend; 2) the total product (finishing hog) water footprint (WF) based on WFN standards is 3868 m 3 /tonne of which the blue WF is 455 m 3 /tonne, the green WF is 2452 m 3 /tonne and the grey water footprint is 961 m 3 /tonne; The water scarcity footprint (WSF) and water degradation footprint (WDF) based on the ISO 14046 standards is 353.67 m 3 H 2 O-eq/tonne and 26 000 m 3 H 2 O-eq/tonne, respectively; 3) the indirect WF generated during the crop cultivation stage, as raw materials for feed production, contributes more than 90% to the total WF; 4) WF produced during the hog farming stage has the greatest impact on water pollution to the water bodies in the vicinity of the farming sites; 5) the studied hog farm has relatively high water use efficiency in its direct operations than the global average, compared with the other studies' results. This paper also analyzes the pros and cons of the two standards and provides references for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is under the pressure of international climate change negotiation, domestic energy security and haze reduction. Replying to these pressures positively, China announced to reduce 40%–45% CO 2 per unit Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020, 60%–65% CO 2 per unit GDP in 2030 based on 2005 level, and to carry out ambitious reduction measures. To achieve this target, low-carbon governance is necessary. The central government expects to build low-carbon society and develop low-carbon economy through pilots. This paper analyzes the framework of low-carbon governance in China. The government plays a guidance role in the governance process which involves enterprises, NGOs and citizens. Different types of measures, policy tools and actions have been implemented as response to the pressure. The governance can be achieved through the integration of technical, spatial and social pathways. The paper analyzes the framework by using Suzhou Industry Park (SIP) as case study which is a very important part of low carbon management of cities. Although the total CO 2 amount in the Park has increased, its CO 2 intensity per unit GDP has been reduced in recent years after the efforts made by its Park Council and enterprisers. The policy implementation indicates that the guidance role of local governments and the process are still based on a top-down management at park level, although the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) hopes to carry out pilot program and summarize experiences from a bottom-up mechanism. Target Responsibility System (TRS) is still the key working mechanism and makes contribution to the reduction of CO 2 per unit GDP. The low-carbon governance experiences of SIP can be learned by other cities, while local government displays positive attitudes towards low-carbon practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to many government incentives, China has provided, at relatively low prices, a number of solar PV products to the world and enhanced domestic solar PV power. While China's growing solar PV industry has brought about both domestic and international environmental benefits, the provision of heavy subsidies has motivated the discussion of social and economic benefits and costs of this technology. Using the LCA approach, this paper performs an in-depth analysis on the environmental benefits and costs of this industry for the period of 2011–2016. Differing from existing literature, this paper broadens system boundaries to cover 11 stages of the solar PV industry life cycle, taking module sources and market directions of PV system into consideration, and quantifies the costs of environmental emissions of the industry by shadow pricing. The key finding of this study is that during 2011–2016 the total environment benefit was smaller than the total cost of China's solar PV industry. Meanwhile, coinciding with the rise of the domestic solar PV market, the resulting net environmental benefits have witnessed dramatic yearly growth. Policy implications and conclusions from findings are provided at the end of this paper. [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]

E-commerce has emerged through digital platforms and Internet construction as an important way to achieve low-carbon development in China. To evaluate the mitigation effect of e-commerce, this paper conducts a quasi-natural experiment in terms of the pilot policy of national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) to explore the changes in CO 2 emissions of 270 cities from 2004 to 2017 in China. We also check the asymmetry, mechanism effects and heterogeneity. The results show that the treated cities reduce CO 2 emissions by 4.1% due to the NEDC pilot policy compared to the untreated cities. The estimated results pass the parallel trend test, robustness tests, and the Goodman-Bacon decomposition. Moreover, the NEDC pilot policy increases the CO 2 emissions of treated cities by promoting economic growth (scale effect), and decreases the carbon emissions of treated cities by upgrading the industrial structure (structural effect) and increasing the technological innovation level (technical effect). Furthermore, the CO 2 mitigation effects of the NEDC pilot policy are significantly concentrated in the higher quantiles. Finally, the NEDC pilot policy has significantly negative effects on CO 2 emissions in "postage-free regions," southern China, and cities with large e-commerce sales. The results of this paper provide theoretical and practical references for China to achieve low-carbon development. • Evaluating the impact of pilot policies of national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) on carbon emissions in China. • The NEDC pilot policy reduces carbon emissions of treated cities by 4.1%. • The NEDC pilot policy reduces carbon emissions through structural and technical effects. • The emission-reduction effects are significant at the higher quantiles. • The impact of the NEDC pilot policy on carbon emissions is obviously heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition and cooperation in the environmental governance of cities are popular around the world. However, empirical research based on the prefecture-level city level in China is rare. Since the central government of China proposed to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization, whether there are strategic interactions of "race to the bottom" or "race to the top" among local governments is an important issue of academic and public interest. This paper constructs a game-theoretic model to reveal the strategic interactions of environmental governance among local governments. And then, based on the data of 221 prefecture-level cities collected from 2007 to 2018, the spatial econometric model is used to conduct multi-dimensional testing "race to the bottom" behavior of environmental protection expenditure among local governments. Moreover, this paper further analyses the impact of performance assessment indicators on the strategic interactions of local governments, so as to provide policy reference for improving environmental public welfare. Empirical results suggest that local governments in China show strategic imitation in environmental protection spending decisions, which is manifested as "race to the bottom", and this behavior is gradually weakening with the strengthening of environmental protection assessment. Furthermore, environmental performance indicators relieve the government's strategic imitation, while economic performance indicators intensify the government's strategy imitation. Thus, reasonable performance evaluation indicators are conducive to benign strategic interaction among governments. Finally, the current environmental protection expenditure has not yet significantly affected pollution reduction, providing new evidence for the "race to the bottom" behavior of local governments. Based on the findings of our study, the central government should optimize the performance evaluation system of local officials and strengthen the implementation of the environmental supervision system and accountability mechanism. Meanwhile, the local governments should further increase environmental protection expenditure, and enhance the supervision and utilization efficiency of environmental protection funds. • Strategic interaction among 221 prefecture-level cities in China was multi-dimensionally studied. • It has been found that China's local governments have strategic imitation as "race to the bottom". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and policy makers put great emphasis on analyzing the mitigation effect of an emissions trading scheme (ETS), while empirical researches on the mitigation effects of China's pilot ETSs are both thin and with significant limitations. This paper tries to analyze this issue from the perspective of industrial sub-sectors at the provincial level. We first calculate the carbon emissions of 37 individual industrial sub-sectors in each of China's 26 provinces from 2005 to 2015, covering both direct and indirect emissions. Cautiously identifying the industrial sub-sectors covered by China's pilot ETSs, we explore the causal impact of China's pilot ETSs on reducing carbon emissions at the initial stage (2013–2015) and analyze the paths of achieved emission reductions, applying a difference-in-difference (DID) model and a combination of DID estimator and propensity score matching technique. Our results yield robust evidence that China's pilot ETSs have significantly promoted carbon emission reductions of the covered industrial sub-sectors, and this impact has presented an overall enhanced trend according to year-by-year analysis. The results also show that the pilot ETSs have failed to enable covered industrial sub-sectors to effectively cut carbon intensity and the impact on carbon intensity is not obvious in any of the first three years, and the carbon emission reductions have mainly been achieved through the decreased outputs of industrial sub-sectors. China's policy makers should tighten the free allowance allocation approaches in order to facilitate low-carbon technology innovations and reduce carbon intensity of industrial sectors. • We explore the causal impact of China's pilot ETS on reducing carbon emissions from the perspective of industrial sub-sectors at the provincial level. • China's pilot ETSs have significantly promoted carbon emission reductions of the covered industrial sub-sectors. • China's pilot ETSs have failed to cause covered industrial sub-sectors to effectively cut carbon intensity. • The carbon emission reductions have mainly been achieved through the decreased outputs of industrial sub-sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies pay little attention to when or under which conditions foreign direct investment (FDI) can spill energy-saving technologies. From a perspective of energy-biased technical change and using a two-layer nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function, this paper investigates the energy-saving spillover effect of FDI on technical change (i.e., energy-saving spillovers) in China between 2002 and 2015. In particular, we consider the conditions of marketization, industry, technology, and labor mobility to examine whether and when FDI has energy-saving spillovers. The results indicate no income inequality effect, i.e., there is no evidence supporting that FDI flowing into low- and middle-income regions increases energy consumption, while FDI flowing into high-income regions conserves energy. However, there is a condition effect: FDI can improve (support the halo effect) or deteriorate (contradict the halo effect) the environmental performance under different conditions. Moreover, there is a threshold effect: the direction of FDI spillovers varies with the different levels of the threshold variables. An increasing marketization motivates enterprises to select energy-biased technologies. It is more likely to generate energy-saving spillovers in the regions with a lower specialized agglomeration level. FDI will have energy-biased spillovers when domestic technological level is relatively high with an evident energy-biased technology. In addition, a moderate labor mobility is beneficial to the energy-saving spillovers of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1990 to 2017, the number of vehicles in China increased sharply from 5 million to 310 million, and vehicle emissions became one of the major sources of air pollution. Among the main sources of PM 2.5 in Beijing, the contributions from vehicle sources increased from 5.6% (2000) to 31.1% (2012) to 45% (2017). In 2010, the CO, hydrocarbon (HC), NO x , and particulate matter (PM) emissions of yellow-label vehicles (YLVs) accounted for 46.1%, 47.9%, 63.1% and 86.1% of the total emissions from on-road vehicles. In recent years, China has been implementing a YLV scrappage subsidy policy to control air pollution, and this policy has cost several hundred billion yuan nationwide. However, China has not evaluated the costs and benefits of the policy. Many people question whether the YLV scrappage subsidy policy is worthwhile, but all the stakeholders involved complicate the process of accurately evaluating the true value of the policy. In this study, we evaluated and compared the costs and benefits of the policy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region based on 1.362 million YLVs from 2008 to 2015. Because of the implementation of the policy, the PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO x , CO and HC emissions in the BTH region decreased by 16.46, 18.12, 174.44, 669.11, and 91.64 kt, respectively, in 2008–2015. The results show that the policy played an important role in reducing pollutant emissions and improving environmental quality in the BTH region. The costs, benefits, and net benefits of the policy were 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan , respectively. The cost-benefit ratio in the BTH region was 1:2.49; at the city scale, Beijing ranked first (1:7.27), and the cost-benefit ratios of Tianjin and Hebei Province were 1:2.06 and 1:1.14, respectively. Of the 13 cities in the BTH region, Beijing had the highest net benefits, amounting to 16.43 billion yuan , while Handan City has the lowest net benefits, amounting to −0.58 billion yuan. The results may provide scientific support for the promotion of older vehicle and diesel vehicle scrappage subsidy policies, the development of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and effective environmental decision-making in China. • Based on net number of scrappage YLVs, net benefits of the policy are calculated. • This paper estimates costs and benefits of the policy based on 1.27 million YLVs. • The costs, benefits, and net benefits are 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan. • The results help China promote vehicle scrappage subsidy policy on a large scale. • The results promote the development of the cost-benefit analysis in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates all sustainability reports published between 2012 and 2016 by China's Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The aim of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of SR by China's HEIs and what causes these traits. After theoretical frameworks are described, the general situation of Sustainability Reporting (SR) in China's HEIs is outlined. Then, an assessment framework is constructed which is a modification of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines for use in HEIs, and the content analysis method is applied to analyze and assess the extent of reporting of various items of SR in China's HEIs. Finally, this study outlined the characteristics of SR by China's HEIs and addressed their causes. The findings show that SR by China's HEIs is still in the initial stage in terms of not only the relative share of China's HEIs releasing sustainability reports but also the establishment of SR standards and the reporting level; has an obvious regional characteristic; and is under the control of Chinese government. The results of the theoretical analysis show that these characteristics may be due to the lack of internal dynamics and insufficient external binding force. Furthermore, we conclude that SR by China's HEIs is a government-led activity, and essentially it is determined by the administration-based education system. Also, the practice of the Shanghai government demonstrates an important leading and stimulating role played by the government in promoting SR by HEIs. We argue that the Chinese mode has a certain value and practical implications for many countries. The study provides necessary supplements to existing researches through identifying and exploring a different development mode of SR by HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has developed a remarkable economic growth in the past 30 years by accompanying with undesirable outputs. The assumptions of weak and strong of undesirable outputs have become the focus discussion in data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. To have a comprehensive environmental efficiency measurement, this paper proposes three DEA models considering weak disposability, strong disposability and distinguishing weak and strong disposability of undesirable outputs, respectively. We further combine with the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to assess the environmental efficiency and the dynamic change trend of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2014. The results show that distinguishing technical features of undesirable outputs makes a significant difference to final environmental efficiency score at different regions. The environmental efficiency of the whole nation, however, does not show any increasing trend during the ten years. Enhancing environmental efficiency of central and west area is an urgent task for Chinese government. The change trend of Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index and technological change shows a similar shape. Technical progress is the main driving force to enhance the environmental efficiency. Relevant suggestions are presented for improving the regional environmental efficiency in China in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive understanding of the interdependence between China's economy and carbon emissions can better serve China's transition towards a low-carbon economy, and can also provide reference for other developing countries. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the dependence of China's economy on CO 2 emissions: (i) the Tapio decoupling model was applied to quantify the decoupling elasticity between China's economy and CO 2 emissions; (ii) the structure decomposition technique was utilized to quantity the contribution of China's economic structure to the decoupling elasticity; (iii) the combined decomposition model which combined Cobb–Douglas (C-D) production function with Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) technique and was solved the residual problem was employed to identify more driving factors (labor input, investment, carbon coefficient, energy structure, energy intensity, economic structure, and technology state) affecting the decoupling elasticity. The main results were as follows: (i) The decoupling elasticity showed a downward trend during the whole period, and the decoupling state was characterized by two types: expansive negative decoupling (2002–2005) and weak decoupling (2000–2002 and 2005–2014). (ii) The industry sector played the most negative effect on the decoupling process expect 2013–2014. From the cumulative effect, the contribution of six sectors to promote decoupling effect was ranked as follows: Construction > Agriculture > Trade > Other > Transport > Industry. (iii) The most critical factor driving the increased CO 2 emissions was the investment effect, accounting for 145.34% of the cumulative total CO 2 emissions, while the energy intensity effect contributed to a cumulative reduction in CO 2 emissions of 1443.72 Mt. Finally, some policy recommendations were offered to achieve the decoupling of China's economic growth and carbon emissions. • Quantifying effects of investment on decoupling economy from emission in China. • Combining C-D function and LMDI to develop non-residual decomposition technique. • The decoupling elasticity showed a downward trend, dominated by weak decoupling state. • Industry sector played the most negative effect on the decoupling process. • The leading contributor to China's CO 2 emissions was the investment effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is found that environmental regulation is an important mechanism that trade openness affects the level of human capital. The author established a theoretical framework to analyze the influence of trade openness on the level of human capital and adopted the system GMM to test it, using Chinese provincial data over the period 1995–2015. The empirical results show that environmental regulation has a long-term U-shaped effect on the level of human capital, while the current environmental regulation in China is conducive to improving the level of human capital. Furthermore, the promotion of human capital level can also increase the possibility of improving environmental regulation, which is conducive to the internal formation and positive interaction between human capital and environmental regulation. The research further enriches the theory of sustainable development of environment and economy. It provides theoretical support for China and developing countries with similar economic and technological levels to actively implement more stringent environmental policies in the context of trade openness. Image 108550 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strict climate goals require a rapid reduction of carbon emissions across society. It is a considerable challenge to design decarbonization pathways considering co-operation in energy and carbon emissions across multiple sectors simultaneously. In order to obtain the decarbonization pathway for the whole society, this paper establishes a long-term multi-sector low-carbon transition pathway planning model. Besides inter-sectoral energy supply and demand, this study fully considers the allocation of carbon emissions quotas among different sectors by modified-grandfathering method, which takes into account both equity and efficiency principles. The decarbonization targets of different sectors, corresponding mitigation pathways and energy consumption can be calculated. China is taken as a case study. Results show that China's total energy consumption peaks at 5 billion tces around 2030, then falls below 4 billion in 2060, with the proportion of primary electricity and other clean energy reaching over 50 percent. Besides, the realisation of carbon neutralisation in China depends heavily on the improvement of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and end-use electrification rate. Moreover, the study of different quota allocation ways shows that the increase in the contribution rate of power system mitigation leads to the reduction of the total low-carbon transition costs, which also aggravates administrative difficulties. • A multi-sector model is set up to plan the long-term low-carbon transition pathway. • Modified-grandfathering allocation method can consider multiple indicator factors. • The clean energy consumption of China accounts for about 55% in 2060. • The end-use electrification rate in China is close to 70% in 2060. • The transition pathway with lower cost increases administrative difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uncertainty of the global food supply has increased, and land abandonment has affected food security. Based on nationally representative farm households in 1995, 2002, 2008 and 2020, this paper systematically reveals the extent, drivers, and production loss of farmland abandonment in China, providing a scientific basis for the comprehensive management of land abandonment. The extent of farmland abandonment has been increasing since 1995; 1/5 of farmers have abandoned their farmland, and 1/10 of farmland has been abandoned. The number of counties recording farmland abandonment increased from 34 (11.15%) at the beginning of the study period to 224 (73.44%) by the end, and these counties were mainly distributed in the hilly and mountainous areas along the Yangtze River as well as in Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast China. Farmland abandonment is the result of a combination of multiple factors, including basic farmland conditions and socio-economic and ecological factors, among which the low agricultural comparative income caused by agricultural labour shortages and poor-quality farmland conditions is the root cause. In 2020, for example, the ratio of farmland abandonment in major grain-producing and non-grain-producing regions was 7.38% and 16.94%, respectively, resulting in a total loss of 49.23 million tons of grain, which is 7.36% of the total national grain output. The production loss experienced by China could feed 123 million people based on the per capita annual food consumption estimates of 400 kg. Currently, farmland abandonment poses a threat to China's food security, and the government should gradually improve the quality of farmland through comprehensive land management, improve rural infrastructure and develop small-scale machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing methane emissions from the upstream oil and gas sector deviates from the goals of the Paris Agreement on sustainable development and climate control. This paper reviews recent direct measurement results and technological advances in the upstream oil and gas sector, based on more than 100 sources published between 2018 and 2022. No consensus was found on the correlation between methane emissions and well data items such as production volume and well age. Aircraft surveys were the most frequently used technology during the study period. Developed countries lead in direct measurement, with only 12.5% of studies conducted in developing countries. The sensing method and the performance of sensor carriers lead to different characterisations of direct measurement techniques. Growing upstream methane emissions accelerate global warming and pose risks to groundwater. Mitigating super-emitters and reported venting and flares could reduce total methane emissions by 20% and 25%, respectively. China, the world's largest methane emitter, emitted approximately 2135 kt methane from its upstream oil and gas sector, mainly through venting (80%). Direct methane measurements and the strength of government management could assist China in prioritising carbon emission reduction and filling the legislative gap. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing the Comprehensive Environmental Administrative Enforcement Reform (CEAER) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper has adopted 179 prefecture-level cities from July 2018 to December 2020 as research sample to assess whether the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power can improve air quality through a time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) approach. Results show that CEAER can achieve better air quality improving effects, which can not only contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of Air Quality Index (AQI), but also contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and CO. And this promotion is mainly achieved through the micro mechanism of raising environmental penalties strength. Further examination of the heterogeneity in terms of economic factors, city rank, pollution abatement pressure, and political constraints reveals that CEAER's policy effects are mostly insignificant in cities with higher levels of economic development and administrative rank, and positively significant in poor historical air quality cities and key environmental protection cities. These results underscore the positive effects of the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power and provide ideas for other regions to draw on for environmental management system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household e-wastes have been increasingly generated, which has brought environmental burdens in most countries, especially in rapidly developing countries. With the unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, China has faced more serious problems concerning household e-wastes. Moreover, informal e-waste collecting has brought environmental burden due to improper treatment of invaluable parts of e-wastes. Thus, formal e-waste collecting enterprises have emerged with support from the government. But they are still difficult to survive. This paper contributes to systematically identify barriers for formal channels of household e-waste collection in China considering different stakeholders such as the government, households, collectors, and treatment plants. Using perspectives from experts in e-wastes formal collecting enterprises in Liaoning Province, this paper develops three steps based on the method of grey-based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to reveal the most serious barriers in both the short and the long term by examining causal and effect relationships among these barriers. The results show that households’ habits of selling e-wastes to peddlers is one key barrier, which should be carefully considered in the short term. Support from the government such as providing subsidy and tax reduction for formal collecting enterprises is elemental. [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]

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]

Theoretical studies of pollution haven hypothesis predict that differentiated environmental regulation policies will result in inter-country relocation of polluting industries. This paper investigates pollution haven hypothesis at domestic level in China. Using panel data of 30 provincial level regions for the period 2004 to 2013, this paper empirically examines to what extent multiple environmental policies affect intra-country relocation of polluting industries in China. It is found that the implementation of both economic policy instrument like pollution discharge fee and public participation like letter complaints on environmental problems encourages industrial relocation, whereas the implementation of environmental legal policy instrument like laws, regulations and rules prevents polluting industries from relocating to other regions. It is also found that the relocation effect of environmental policies varies with industrial characteristics. Compared with water pollution-intensive industry, air pollution-intensive industry dominated by stated-owned capitals are insensitive to legal policy instruments. These findings suggest that the validity of pollution haven hypothesis is jointly associated with the type of environmental policy as well as industrial characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]