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As a fundamental factor driving economic growth, natural capital plays a key role in sustainable development. This paper incorporates various economic growth proxy variables into the MRW model and uses the BMA method to tackle the uncertainty issue of the model. Based on China's provincial-level panel data, this paper examines the impact of renewable natural capital and non-renewable natural capital on the country's economic growth and then carries out multiple mechanism analysis with the CART algorithm. The main findings are: 1 Natural capital has a significant deep impact on China's economic growth in models incorporating proximate and fundamental theories, and the direction of natural capital's impact varies with proxy indicators, which shows a significant 'Curse' effect of dependence and a 'Blessing' effect of abundance. This panoramic perspective can reconcile the serious disagreement on 'Resource Curse' among the literature. 2 The effects of renewable natural capital are in line with the 'Resource neutral' hypothesis, while nonrenewable natural capital has a stronger impact on economic growth in terms of both the 'Curse' effect of dependence and the 'Blessing' effect of abundance, and the overall effect on economic growth depends on patterns of resource use. 3 Under high physical capital accumulation, natural capital has a more fundamental impact on economic growth, and the 'Blessing' effect of abundance has been significantly enhanced. Based on their resource endowments and economic development levels, all provinces should reinvest natural resource rents in national wealth to mitigate the 'Resource Curse' through effective protection of natural capital and compensation from reinvestment. This is a reasonable way to embark on a win-win sustainable development path of economic development and ecological civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a leading scholar in the field of sustainable development research, Herman Daly developed original and unique thoughts on sustainable development that have had world-class impacts on the theories, indicators, and policies in this field. Based on the frame-work of ' Ends-Means,' Daly's thoughts on sustainable development focus on the Ultimate End (well-being improvement) and the Ulti-mate Means (natural capital). Daly advocated that to use natural capital to promote human well-being in a sustainable manner, the cur-rent growth economy has to be transformed into a steady-state economy. Because economic growth has biophysical properties and is re-stricted by many factors, such as the laws of thermodynamics and planetary boundaries, unlimited growth is impossible. When its marginal ecological and social costs begin to be larger than its economic benefits, economic growth would turn into uneconomic growth. In this sense, unlimited growth is undesirable. As an alternative to the growth economy, the steady-state economy advocates promoting hu-man well-being within ecological limits and demands that stocks of material wealth be used efficiently and equitably. The steady-state economy is one of the most effective ways of achieving sustainable development. Along the main line of transforming the growth economy into the steady-state economy, as required by sustainable development, this paper reviews Daly's main thoughts on sustainable development on the following topics: ' a new perspective of economic production,' ' unlimited growth is impossible,' ' unlimited growth is undesirable,' and ' the steady-state economy is compatible with sustainable development.' Based on this review, the paper points out that, Daly's thoughts on sustainable development provide theoretical support and ideological implications for China's high-quality development from a different perspective, and broaden the theoretical horizon of China's high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the recycling of used shared bicycles has seriously lagged behind, which has caused environmental pollution and resource waste. To foster green and low-carbon development as well as to stimulate the efficient recycling of used shared bicycles for improved environmental performance, this paper constructs a four-party evolutionary game model that includes the government, operation platforms, suppliers, and consumers, who are the stakeholders of the current bicycle-sharing industry. Among them, the government can voluntarily choose to adopt the 'regulatory or non-regulatory' strategy based on its regulatory cost, tax, and environmental benefits, while suppliers can voluntarily choose to adopt the 'participating in recycling' strategy or the 'non-participating in recycling' strategy based on their basic revenue, government policy incentives, and opportunity costs. Operation platforms can voluntarily choose the 'building recycling channels' strategy or 'not building recycling channels' strategy based on their basic revenue, government subsidies or fines, and opportunity cost factors. Consumers can voluntarily choose the 'participating in recycling' strategy or 'non-participating in recycling' strategy along with the suppliers based on their basic income, government policy incentives, and opportunity cost factors. This paper further analyzes the game process and stability strategy of associated agents and obtains meaningful conclusions. Finally, MATLAB software is used for numerical simulation to analyze the evolution paths of the agents. The results show that: the government and consumers will gradually withdraw from their participation in the recycling process over time, and the participation efforts of operation platforms and suppliers are related to their own profit yield. The government should reallocate regulatory costs and subsidies to consumers to improve the income conversion rate of enterprises, effectively promote the recycling rate of used shared bicycles, and enhance environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to adhere to the optimization of national land use development patterns and the green development policy for achieving ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. This paper used the undesirable output SBM model to measure the green development efficiency of 36 prefecture-level cities in the restricted development zones of the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2019. It also used the Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) method to explore the complex influence mechanism of the linkage of various influencing factors on the efficiency of green development. The results showed that: ① The green development efficiency of the restricted development zones in the whole basin showed an overall fluctuation and upward trend, and the green development efficiency of various regions in the basin varied significantly. The downstream restricted development zones had the highest green development efficiency, followed by the middle stream restricted development zones, with the upstream restricted development zones having the lowest efficiency. ② The areas with high green development efficiency in the restricted development zones of the whole basin changed from cluster distribution to contiguous distribution, the effective efficiency areas changed from being concentrated in the upper and middle reaches to the middle and lower reaches of the areas, and the green development efficiency of the restricted development zones on the southern bank of the Yellow River was significantly higher than that of the areas on the northern bank. ③ Each of these factors--the level of economic development, urbanization, environmental regulation, degree of trade openness, advanced industrial structure, and investment in science and education--could not singularly become a necessary condition for promoting the formation of high green development efficiency in the restricted development zone of the Yellow River Basin. ④ Four models were identified as those that could promote green development efficiency in the restricted development zones in the Yellow River Basin. In terms of the different types of cities, the 'environmental regulation + export-oriented economy' linkage model could promote the green development efficiency of agricultural cities in the restricted development zones of the Yellow River Basin. The linkage model of 'basic dynamic + environmental regulation + export-oriented economy + industrial upgrading' could promote the green development efficiency of resource-based cities in the restricted development zones of the Yellow River Basin. The two models of 'export-oriented economy + industrial upgrading' linkage and 'basic dynamic + industrial upgrading + science and education investment' linkage could promote the green development efficiency in the old industrial bases in the restricted development zones of the Yellow River Basin. Based on the perspective of configuration association, this paper provides policy suggestions for promoting green development in agricultural cities, resource-based cities, and old industrial base cities in the restricted development zones of the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of low-carbon development lies in reducing carbon sources and increasing carbon sinks, and the construction of free trade zones (FTZs), as an experimental field for China' s comprehensively deepening reforms, is of great significance to urban lowcarbon development. Based on the panel data from 288 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper first comprehensively evaluated the carbon neutrality levels of cities from two aspects: carbon emission and sequestration. Then, it used the multi-period difference-indifferences method and the spatial Durbin model to explore the 'low carbon effect' of the establishment of FTZs. The results showed that: the establishment of FTZs had a significant impact on the low-carbon development of the cities where they were located. Specifically, the establishment of FTZs could drive urban low-carbon development from within the cities by improving their digitization and resource allocation efficiency. At the same time, increased government attention to green development enhanced the carbon emission disincentive and boosted carbon uptake facilitation, fostering a more robust urban low-carbon development. Moreover, the carbon emission suppression effect, carbon absorption promotion effect, and carbon neutral effect of establishing the FTZs varied according to the batches of the establishment, city location, and city characteristics. The 'low-carbon effect' of the first two batches of FTZs, the region south of the Qinling-Huaihe River, and the cities with a higher degree of openness were more pronounced overall. Furthermore, the establishment of the FTZs also had a certain spatial spillover effect on urban low-carbon development. Based on these findings, the paper suggests prioritizing top-level design, exerting comparative advantages, and promoting the low-carbon development benchmark area in a gradient manner. Acceleration of trade facilitation and digital financial reform, promotion of the digital transformation of traditional industries with advantages, and encouragement of digital and low-carbon deep integration are also recommended. The introduction of highquality foreign investment should be combined with the improvement of the effectiveness of supervision and services to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. The study proposes leveraging digital platforms and free trade alliances to maximize the FTZs' catalytic effects. Overall, this study offers significant theoretical and practical insights for enhancing the construction of the FTZs, promoting urban low-carbon development, and advancing towards the goal of carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong sustainable development sticks to the irreplaceability and uniqueness of natural capital and maintains that the essential stock of natural capital should be passed on from one generation to another. It achieves environmental equity and intergenerational equity by maximizing the intertemporal utility of environmental benefits. This paper analyzes the dimensions of the strong sustainable development paradigm in identifying ecological space. The ecological space can be divided into two categories: strong sustainable development space and weak sustainable development space. The former refers to the critical ecological space where ecological security is maintained and the priority is to maintain the status quo of the ecosystem, or at least keep it from sinking into degeneration. In contrast, the latter belongs to the non-critical ecological space, where proper development and construction can be carried out within the ecological security threshold. Based on the case study of the Tarim River Basin and the concept of strong sustainable development, this paper keeps to the method of combining ecological service function and ecological sensitivity in assessment and conducts research on the classification of the ecological space and the patterns of strong and weak sustainability. According to the research, the sensitive and extremely sensitive areas of the Tarim River Basin take up the lion ’s share of the total area, or 55.01% and 29.23%, respectively. The strong sustainable development ecological space incorporates the urgent ecological space and the crisis ecological space, which stand at 305 257.84 km² and 573 281.16 km², respectively, accounting for 29.28% and 54.98% of the researched area, respectively. The re‑ search reveals a high degree of conflict over the ecological security of land use in the Tarim River Basin and a desperate adjustment ca‑ pability for the strong sustainable development of ecological space. Ecological space of strong sustainable development is an important ecological functional space. Accurate identification of ecological space can provide a scientific basis for the delineation of ecological protection red lines and the management of ecological space. Ecological space evaluation based on the paradigm of strong sustainable development can provide green development planning ideas under ecological priority for the subsequent development strategies of respective regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a world consensus and a necessity for China. In the process of achieving a sustainable future, evaluating a country's sustainable development progress, understanding China's position in global sustainable development, and identifying the advantages and challenges of China's sustainable development are of great signif-icance for the world to understand China and for China to optimize its sustainable development system. Based on this, this paper took the Sustainable Development Reports issued by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network from 2015 to 2022 as the main carrier to explore the assessment and progress of global SDGs, and analyzed the effects of China's implementation of SDGs and the gap be-tween China and other countries in the world from the perspective of how China was viewed by the world in order to provide a possible path for improving China's sustainable development and to drive the sustainable development of the world. The results showed that, on a global scale, sustainable development had obvious regional and economic agglomeration characteristics, and the progress in realizing the SDGs was homogeneous to a certain extent. From a global perspective, China's sustainable development progress was relatively sta-ble and ranked at the uppermiddle level of the world. In 2022, China's SDG score was 72.4, ranking 56th among 163 countries. In particular, China made remarkable progress in achieving the ' No Poverty,' ' Quality Education,' and ' Responsible Consumption and Produc-tion' goals, and provided basic experience for the sustainable development of the world. The sustainable development goals of ' Life Be-low Water' and 'Life on Land' were prominent weaknesses in China's sustainable development, and there was a certain gap between China and other countries in the world. Further optimizing the assessment system for sustainable development, clarifying priorities for sustainable development, focusing on key regions and groups, and building global partnerships are inherent requirements for implement-ing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building a more inclusive and sustainable development pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the effects of expected economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets set by Chinese local governments at the beginning of the year on high-quality development can provide empirical evidence for optimizing expected target management, improving macro-control, and fulfilling governance efficiency in the new development stage to some extent. Therefore, based on the theory of economic growth accounting and the stochastic frontier model, this paper calculated the level of high-quality development at the urban level, extracted the economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets from the Report on the Work of the Government with text analysis, constructed instrumental variables based on the spatial weight matrix, and then discussed the effects of the expected development targets formulated by local governments on high-quality development, conditional heterogeneity, and mechanisms. The results showed that: ① Excessive economic growth targets were not conducive to high-quality development, while environmental constraints targets had a significant role in promoting it and could slow down the erosion effect of excessive economic growth targets on high-quality development. This conclusion still held after solving a series of robustness tests, such as the endogenous bias. ② Heterogeneity analysis found that, with the implementation of the ecological civilization concept, China' s economy could achieve a win-win situation of quantity increase and quality improvement. To better promote high-quality development, the target positioning of cities with good economic foundations should weaken economic increment and strengthen environmental constraints, and the growth targets and environmental constraints set by local governments should be endogenous to their own regional resource endowments and leave appropriate elastic spaces. ③ The mechanism test showed that improving the economic growth targets reduced the level of innovation and raised the amount of new investment in the region, which was not conducive to high-quality development. Environmental constraints could promote technological innovation and limit the blind expansion of new investment, thus promoting high-quality development. Based on the above research conclusions, this paper summarizes policy implications from the aspects of political performance evaluation, formulation of expected development targets, technological innovation, and green development to promote the synergy between economic growth and green development in China and the synchronization of expected target management and high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy conservation and low carbon action plan in the Top-10 000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program (T10000P) was an important policy underpinning for achieving the constrained targets of energy consumption and carbon emission reduction during the 12th Five Year Plan period, and is a representative large-scale national energy saving and emission reduction policy with Chinese characteristics. Green technology innovation (GTI) is an important driving force for green development and enterprises are the main participants of GTI. In view of the fact that T10000P is an exogenous shock and based on the green patent panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2004 to 2018, this paper employed the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the count data model to examine the impact of T10000P on GTI at the micro level. Moreover, this paper designed an intermediary effect model to study the mediating role of local governments in the process of T10000P affecting corporate GTI and conducted the triple difference model to study the heterogeneity of T10000P on corporate GTI. The study showed that: ① T10000P significantly promoted corporate GTI. ②Considering the excessive discretization and zero inflation of the data, the regression results of the count data model further supported the conclusion.③The conclusion was still robust after a series of robustness tests such as variable index change, placebo test, and post-matching regression. ④ The assessment constraint of T10000P on local governments affected the subsidies to the top-10 000 enterprises, which promoted their GTI level. ⑤ The GTI effect of T10000P had dynamic characteristics in time, marginal characteristics in innovation level, and heterogeneous characteristics in cooperate property rights: the effects were significant during the policy implementation period, but not significant when the policy phased out. Compared with the regions with low urban innovation index, the promotion effect of T10000P on cooperate GTI was more significant in the regions with high urban innovation index. Compared with private enterprises, the promotion effect of T10000P policy on cooperate GTI was more significant in state-owned enterprises. Based on these conclusions, policy design should be optimized to actively guide enterprises to improve the level of GTI. The green-oriented assessment system for local government should be improved. The environmental regulation and innovation incentive policies should be implemented according to enterprises' conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential factor of production in economic development, land is an important tool for local governments to boost economic growth. The goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality will push local governments to change the extensive mode of attracting high energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises by transferring industrial land at low prices. The lowcarbon city pilot policy is important for China to achieve green and low-carbon economic transformation and sustainable development. This policy will inevitably influence the land transfer behavior of local governments in heavily polluting industries. Based on the panel data of 286 cities from 2007 to 2019, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and used the time-varying difference-in-differences method to empirically study the relationship between the pilot policy and the land transfer behavior of local governments. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy significantly reduced the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. The above conclusions still held after a series of robustness tests. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on land transfer in heavily polluting industries was affected by the intensity of environmental regulation of local governments and the tenure of officials. The stronger the intensity of environmental regulation in the pilot city became, the more the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were reduced. When the tenure of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee in the pilot city was less than or equal to 3 years, the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were significantly reduced. However, the age of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee had no significant impact on the land transfer in heavily polluting industries. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that non-resource-based cities, cities with high levels of economic development, and large cities displayed a higher reduction in the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. Based on these, this paper puts forward suggestions from three aspects: we should further promote the low-carbon city pilot policy, add environmental objectives to the assessment system of officials to increase the constraints of environmental objectives, and formulate and implement environmental policies in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is an important aspect of the new development concept, and innovation is an important driving force of green development. Based on the panel data of 277 cities from 2006 to 2019, this paper used the EBM-GLM model to calculate and decompose green total factor productivity and the multi-period DID model to test whether innovative city policies could promote green development. Furthermore, from the perspective of urban network externalities, this paper used the spatial DID model to analyze the spillover effects of pilot policies and explore the mechanism of the innovative city policy in the promotion of urban green development. The study found that: ① The construction of innovative pilot cities could significantly improve the level of urban green development and reduce pollutant emissions. ② The construction of innovative pilot cities could significantly advance urban green technology, but had no significant effect on the improvement of urban green technology efficiency. ③ Due to the existence of urban network externalities, the construction of innovative pilot cities could have a negative spillover effect on the green development level of neighboring cities. Furthermore, this negative spillover effect was mainly reflected in the green technology progress of neighboring cities, and the spillover effect on the green technology efficiency of neighboring cities was not significant. ④ The construction of innovative pilot cities could significantly improve the level of green urban development by improving the level of science and technology, enhancing the strength of financial support, and promoting the intermediary effect of industrial structure upgrading. To promote the development of innovative cities, it is necessary to pay attention to the importance of urban network externalities, strengthen the coordination of different green development transmission paths, and construct the green development system of innovative cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green credit is an important financial tool to promote the transformation of the low-carbon economy. On the basis of clarifying the theoretical mechanism of the impact of green credit on carbon emission reduction, this paper used the fixed effect stochastic frontier model containing unexpected output to measure the total factor carbon productivity of 156 cities in China from 2000 to 2019 and empirically tested the carbon emission reduction effect of green credit and its mechanism from the three dimensions of productivity, intensity, and total amount. The research found that: ① Green credit development significantly improved total factor carbon productivity and reduced carbon emission intensity, but the average impact on total carbon emissions was not significant. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests and treatments of endogeneity problems. ② The carbon emission reduction effect of green credit was heterogeneous due to differences in regional location, resource endowment, and financial efficiency. In the central region, non-resource-based cities, and cities with higher financial efficiency, green credit had significant carbon reduction effects in both carbon productivity and carbon intensity dimensions, while green credit in the eastern region, resource-based cities, and cities with lower financial efficiency only reduced carbon intensity. ③ The stimulation of green innovation and the reduction of energy intensity were the most effective channels for green credit to reduce carbon emissions, whereas the mediating effect of the structural transformation channel was not yet significant. Green credit was more effective in promoting green innovation and generating positive spillovers in the green innovation channel. However, green credits were more effective in improving carbon emission efficiency in the energy intensity channel, but the role of supporting low-carbon technologies must be enhanced. ④ Environmental regulations had two moderating mechanisms, 'positive compensation' and 'negative offset,' for the carbon reduction effect of green credit. When the demand and supply of financial resources were low, strengthening environmental regulations would weaken the incentive effect of green credit on low-carbon economic transformation. The above conclusion not only provides a new research perspective and supplementary empirical evidence for understanding the environmental effects of green credit, but also provides a useful reference for further improving green credit policies and promoting the development of a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saving energy resources and reducing energy intensity are crucial to promoting China' s major strategic goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, and are hence key to the promotion of green transformation and development in the new development stage. As an important practice, the policy of establishing pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations in China aims to promote green finance reform in depth, construct ecological civilization, and realize green economic transformation. Can the policy reduce energy intensity and contribute to energy conservation? What is its impact mechanism? There is a shortage of systematic analysis in academia on these issues. With panel data from Chinese cities from 2007 to 2020 and a generalized synthetic control method, this paper evaluated how the establishment of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations affected energy intensity and analyzed its impact mechanisms. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the policy significantly reduced the energy intensity of the pilot zones, and the energy-saving effect exhibited 'policy first' and timeliness characteristics. ② The policy-induced energysaving effect was achieved by improving green innovation, easing financing constraints, optimizing industrial structure, and strengthening environmental governance. ③ The policy' s energy-saving effect was more remarkable in areas with better marketization and a higher education level. The findings suggest that the government should fully consider the differences in aspects such as institutional environment and resource endowment among varying regions, design distinct measures to attract more market players to participate in the green finance system oriented by energy efficiency improvement, energy structure transformation, and environmental governance, and create a much better market-oriented environment for green innovation and corporate financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clarifies the major development goal of accelerating the transition to a model of green development. Improving carbon emission efficiency is undoubtedly a necessary way to achieve this goal. At present, with the pressing goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality and the tendency of the financial industry to be diverted out of the real economy, the high-quality development of the financial industry has become an objective need to improve carbon emission efficiency and promote the realization of the 'dual carbon' goals as scheduled. However, there are obvious differences in carbon emission efficiency and financial industry high-quality development between different regions, which makes it urgent to realize efficient collaboration between inter-regional carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry. This paper used the coupling coordination degree model, the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method, and the spatial Kernel density estimation method to measure the coupling coordination degree between China' s carbon emission efficiency and the high-quality development in the financial industry and to fully reveal its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics. The results showed that: ① The coupling coordination degree between carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry basically stabilized at the intermediate coordination level. The key to advancing this coupling coordination degree to a high-quality coordination level was to improve the level of high-quality development in the financial industry. The eastern region rose to a good coordination level. The western and central regions were stable at the intermediate coordination level. The northeastern region was mainly at the primary coordination level. ② The coupling coordination of carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry had a problem of spatial distribution imbalance. Inter-regional differences were the main source of spatial differences. The contribution rates of intra-regional differences and the intensity of transvariation to spatial differences were relatively low. ③ There was a multipolar differentiation phenomenon in the coupling coordination between carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development in the financial industry in the central region. The coupling coordination in both the western and northeast regions showed a polarization trend. ④ Under the condition of considering spatial factors and time span, most provinces and their neighboring provinces had a spatial connection between the coupling coordination of carbon emission efficiency and high-quality development of the financial industry. These findings are conducive to the promotion of the construction of a collaborative linkage pattern between inter-regional carbon emission efficiency and the high-quality development in the financial industry. They can serve as an important decision-making reference for realizing the overall transition to a model of green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate warming on world agricultural production and food security has become increasingly obvious. As an important source of carbon emissions and the carbon sink system, the green development of agriculture is one of the important ways to alleviate the crisis and achieve China' s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Exploiting the potential of agricultural carbon sinks and accurately calculating agricultural net carbon emissions are of great significance to promoting the green development of agriculture meeting the ' dual carbon' goals. Based on the dual characteristics of the agricultural carbon cycle, this paper sorted out the logical relationship between agricultural green development and the agricultural carbon cycle, incorporated the role of agricultural carbon sinks into the calculation framework of agricultural carbon emissions, and measured China' s agricultural net carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019 by time and region. The decoupling model of agricultural net carbon emissions from agricultural economic growth was constructed. The results of the study found that the total amount of carbon emissions from agricultural sources increased from 277.899 million t in 2000 to 308.383 1 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 0.52%, but the agricultural carbon emission intensity showed a trend of continuous decline; the agricultural carbon sink increased from 99.539 9 million t in 2000 to 133.039 million t in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 1.46%, and the agricultural carbon sink resources were considerable. The intensity of agricultural carbon source emissions was higher in the west than in other regions and there was a clear gap with the eastern region. The total amount of agricultural carbon source emissions, carbon sinks, and net carbon emissions all showed a medium-high pattern. The decoupling relationship between agricultural economic growth and agricultural net carbon emissions was mainly manifested in two decoupling states: strong decoupling and weak decoupling. Nearly 50% of the provinces achieved the ideal strong decoupling state in terms of agricultural green development, while the remaining provinces were in a weak decoupling state, and the decoupling state was generally ideal. Finally, this paper puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions to promote the green development of agriculture and help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals: we should accurately locate the carbon source; ensure the ' double bottom line' of food security and pig production capacity under low-carbon agriculture; resolve the resource endowment differences between regions; explore the potential of the agricultural carbon trading market; create a new path for farmers to increase their income, maintain the strong and improve the weak; and strive to achieve the ' package' of strong decoupling in agriculture to help achieve the ' dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of mixed-ownership reform, the core measure of stateowned enterprise (SOE) reform, on the green innovation of SOEs. Using the data of SOEs listed in the China A-share stock market from 2010 to 2019, this study empirically tested the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneous impact of mixed-ownership reform on the green innovation of SOEs through a Propensity Score Matching+Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) model based on the shareholding ratio of non-state-owned shareholders among the top ten shareholders of state-owned enterprises. On this basis, this paper further explored the spillover effect of mixed-ownership reform on the green innovation of SOEs. The results showed that: ① Mixed-ownership reform could effectively promote the green innovation of SOEs. After using the placebo test and instrumental variable method to alleviate the endogenous problem and replacing the matching basis for the robustness test, the conclusion was still valid. ② The mechanism test showed that the improvement of corporate governance level and the knowledge spillover effect were important channels for mixed ownership reform to promote the green innovation of SOEs. The profit-seeking nature of non-state-owned shareholders might have a dampening effect on the green innovation of SOEs in mixed-ownership reform. ③ The heterogeneity analysis of industry characteristics showed that in competitive industries and environmental protection industries, mixed-ownership reform had a more obvious impact on promoting the green innovation of SOEs. ④ Although the mixed-ownership reform promoted the green innovation of SOEs, it was not the higher the better in terms of the proportion of non-state-owned shareholders. When non-state-owned shareholders accounted for 15% to 30%, the promotion effect on the green innovation of SOEs was most obvious. ⑤ The mixed-ownership reform had a spillover effect on the green innovation of unreformed SOEs, effectively promoting the substantive green innovation of these SOEs in the same industry. Therefore, the study proposes that the important role of mixed-ownership reform in green development should be fully recognized and the mixed-ownership reform of SOEs should be further promoted. We should promote the formation of a mutually balanced equity structure and rationally allocate the proportion of non-state-owned capital. At the same time, we should avoid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mixed-ownership reform and adhere to the classification and stratification of orderly progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data, a vital driving force of high-quality economic development in China, improves both the speed and efficiency of information exchange and knowledge dissemination. Existing studies have conducted a series of discussions on the dividend effect of big data development, but few have analyzed it from the perspective of corporate green development. Based on the theoretical analysis of the impact of big data development on the internal mechanisms of corporate green technology innovation and on the regulatory role of intellectual property protection, in light of the exogenous policy shock from the ‘National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones,’ this paper studied the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen by adopting the difference-in-differences model (DID) to evaluate the impact of big data development on corporate green technology innovation and the moderating effect of intellectual property protection between them. The research results showed that the development of big data significantly promoted corporate green technology innovation, and that the conclusion still held after a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity tests showed that the promoting effect of big data development on corporate green technology innovation was more observable in large-scale enterprises, state-owned businesses, and companies with high-level access to data from local governments. The mechanism test indicated that the development of big data could promote corporate green technology innovation by improving the intensity of regional environmental regulation, easing the financing constraints of enterprises, and improving their human capital level. The moderating effect test showed that intellectual property protection played a significant positive moderating role between big data development and corporate green technology innovation. Accordingly, the government should improve the big data development policies to promote deep integration of big data and the real economy in a consistent manner, reinforce the system design concerning corporate green technology innovation guided by policies of big data development, and combine big data development with green development goals such as achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. Meanwhile, policies should be refined based on different types of enterprises in different regions so that a long-term mechanism can be established to support corporate green innovation development. It is also necessary to strengthen the construction of an intellectual property protection system so as to accelerate corporate green technology innovation and green development more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the high-quality demand for low-carbon and green development, we need to know if the construction of an intellectual property system (CIPS) can be a covert force to restrain the industrial pollution of Chinese cities. This paper regarded the establishment of intellectual property demonstration cities as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on explaining the impact mechanisms of CIPS on industrial emissions, this study adopted the panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2019 and empirically tested the emission reduction effect of CIPS and its mechanisms by using the difference-in-differences (DID) method. The heterogeneity, dynamic effects, and spatial spillover effects were also explored. The results showed that: ① At the urban level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the CIPS significantly reduced industrial pollution emissions, and the emission reduction effect kept in‑ creasing. This conclusion was still valid under a series of robustness tests, such as continuous DID and instrumental variable methods (IV). ② Heterogeneity analysis showed that the CIPS had good emission reduction performance in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and large and medium-sized cities, and the emission reduction effect was better in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and large cities. The CIPS had more obvious inhibitory effects on water pollution and gas pollution than on soot pollution. ③ Spatial spillover effect analysis showed that the CIPS restrained the industrial pollution of the demonstration cities and their neigh‑ boring cities, the policy effect showed spatial spillover, and the indirect effect was greater than the direct effect. ④ Mechanism analysis showed that the CIPS could lead to urban industrial upgrading and allocation optimization through technological innovation, indirectly inhibit industrial pollution emissions, and directly promote industrial pollution control through green innovation. Based on this, this pa‑ per proposes to promote the CIPS, explore and implement differentiated intellectual property governance policies, and strengthen ex‑ changes and cooperation on intellectual property among cities, in order to drive the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt through innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies focus on analyzing the impact of manufacturing agglomeration from the aspects of economic benefits and en⁃ vironmental benefits, but few studies systematically explore how manufacturing agglomeration affects regional green development wel⁃ fare. In fact, China has entered the stage of high-quality development, and improving the social welfare of green development is an in⁃ herent requirement and essential attribute of this stage. From the unique perspective of manufacturing agglomeration, based on external economic theory, this paper systematically explored the influence mechanism of manufacturing agglomeration on green development welfare. Using the panel data of 110 cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2016, the green development welfare level was evaluated dynamically and multi-dimensionally, and the GS2SLS method that controls the spatial spillover effect and endogeneity simultaneously was adopted to systematically investigate the impact of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development wel⁃ fare, thereby revealing the character of the spatial spillover effect and its attenuation, and verifying the differential impact of the exter⁃ nalities of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development welfare. The historical instrumental variables such as whether the city was a trade port forced to open in a series of unequal treaties from 1840 to 1909 in the Qing dynasty, and whether the city had a railroad by 1933, and the natural instrumental variables such as the topographic relief amplitude of the cities were collected manually and used as instrumental variables for endogenous variables. The results showed that: ① The green development welfare of the Yangtze River Economic Belt presented a spatial pattern of 'clumpy aggregation at low level and point-like distribution at high level', and the upstream areas had more potential for growth in the future. ② Appropriate manufacturing agglomeration could improve regional green development welfare, while excessive manufacturing agglomeration would inhibit the improvement of regional green development wel⁃ fare. ③ The impact of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development welfare decreased with the increase of spatial dis⁃ tance, showing a 'double peak' structure. ④ MAR externality and Jacobs externality contributed to the improvement of regional green development welfare, while Porter externality showed a negative effect. Accordingly, this paper puts forward relevant policy recommen⁃ dations from the aspects of grasping the evolution law of green development welfare, formulating differentiated regional policies, promot⁃ ing regional integration, and selecting appropriate industrial agglomeration models, thus providing theoretical support and empirical evi⁃ dence to promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and build a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of China' s active construction of a multi-party environmental governance system, it is worth discussing how environmental regulation policies affect the market contractual relationship. In fact, government environmental regulation can trigger interactions between enterprises. When an enterprise gets environmental penalties such as fines and halts production, this enterprise will affect the customers, and the customers may adjust their buying strategies or replace this supplier in order to avoid risks. Given that environmental regulation will increase the risk of polluting enterprises and further affect the operation of downstream customers, this paper empirically tested the impact of environmental regulation on market contractual relationship based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2019. We found that: ① The strengthening of environmental regulation on suppliers would cause the customers to reduce the purchase quantity; thus, environmental regulation could trigger a negative market response. ② Between 2015 and 2019, with the overall and long-term tightening of environmental regulation, enterprises usually increased investment and innovation in environmental protection, resulting in a weakening of the negative market response. ③ When customers had a green reputation or the suppliers belonged to a polluting industry, the customers' negative response was significantly stronger, but when the suppliers were state-owned enterprises, customers were no longer sensitive to their environmental risks. ④ Further analysis showed that environmental regulation affected customers' adjustment of purchase share through 'risk' mechanism and 'environmental governance' mechanism. This article reveals that the government environmental regulation will impact the market contractual relationship, which complements and enriches the relevant literature on environmental governance from the micro perspective, and makes a solid attempt to promote corporate environmental governance from the perspective of the supply chain. The policy implication of this article is that we should strengthen the fairness of the implementation of environmental regulation policies and encourage the development of green supply chains. The conclusion of the study has certain implications for further improving the government environmental regulation, motivating corporate environmental governance, and realizing the multi-party co-governance environmental governance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The system as a whole is composed of various interrelated sub-systems. The effect of a system will be affected by the coordination of other systems associated with it. Only when the complementarity and coordination between systems increase can the implementation effect of the system be fully brought into play. As an informal system, social trust can affect the implementation effect of formal environmental regulations, but there are few studies on the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. Based on this, the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2019 were selected as research samples. The moderating effect model and mediated moderating effect model were used to study the moderating effect and mechanism of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. In addition, the heterogeneity of this moderating effect was tested by region. The results showed that: ① The impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions showed an inverted Ushaped nonlinear relationship, and the promotion effect of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was dominant in the present stage. FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation were important mediating channels for environmental regulations to affect carbon emissions. ② As a moderating variable, social trust positively moderated the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions and accelerated the arrival of the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve. ③ In terms of the mediating effect, the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was realized through the mediating effect of FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation, and the impact of social trust on the inflection points of the three intermediary channels was heterogeneous. ④ The moderating effect of social trust had regional heterogeneity. In small cities, the impact of social trust on environmental regulations on carbon emissions was greater than that in large and medium-sized cities. The moderating effect of social trust was greater in the cities without environmental protection than in the cities with environmental protection. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests. It is hoped that this paper can enrich the relevant research on environmental regulations and social trust and be helpful for local governments to formulate relevant policies according to local conditions, improve the carbon emission reduction effect of environmental regulation, and accelerate the green development and transformation of Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovative application of green credit policy as a means of financial regulation in the field of environmental governance is an important attempt to balance the relationship between environmental protection and economic development. It reshapes the credit financing environment of high-pollution enterprises, forces them to transform and upgrade, and arouses their enthusiasm for green development. At the same time, it can profoundly affect their ‘real-to-virtual’ transformation, that is, the financialization of real enterprises. Based on the wide application of the green credit policy and rapid development of the financial market, this paper selected the empirical data of A-share listed companies in China from 2008 to 2019, and used the DID method to test the differences in financialization between high-pollution enterprises and non-high-pollution enterprises before and after the implementation of the Green Credit Guidelines. Benchmark regression showed that, compared with non-high pollution enterprises, green credit policy significantly inhibited the finan‑ cialization of high-pollution enterprises. After a series of robustness tests such as the parallel trend test, the placebo test, and PSM-DID, the results were still valid. The mechanism test showed that, this benefited from the technological innovation promotion and agency cost reduction resulting from the green credit policy. Heterogeneity test further showed that the inhibition effect on the financialization of high-pollution enterprises varied with the nature of the property rights of these enterprises and the intensity of the enforcement of regional environmental laws. Compared with state-owned enterprises and enterprises in areas with weak environmental law enforcement, the inhibition effect on the financialization of enterprises was more obvious in non-state-owned enterprises and areas with strong environmental law enforcement. The result confirms the effectiveness of the application of green credit policy at the micro level, which could help policymakers evaluate the policy effect, formulate and implement the incentive and restraint mechanisms of green credit policy, as well as remind the high-pollution enterprises of the importance of strengthening technological innovation, seeking green transformation, and rationally investing in financial assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and human settlements play an important role in addressing the social and environmental challenges in global devel⁃ opment. As such, the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development clearly puts forward the strategic goal of achiev⁃ ing the sustainable development of cities and human settlements (SDG11), indicating that there is a model shift in the global develop⁃ ment strategy which takes cities as the main actor and object of governance. From the historical perspective, this paper reviews the pro⁃ cess of international policy⁃making regarding sustainable development, and analyzes the normative positions of human settlements and urban issues in the UN development discourse on sustainable development, which helps to clarify the ideological and paradigm changes regarding the cities and human settlements development in the global governance regime. This paper chronologically reviews the evolu⁃ tion of SDG11 in international negotiations within the UN system. Based on the UN Sustainable Development Report, this paper pres⁃ ents the progress of the implementation of SDG11, and analyzes the possible challenges during its achievement. The results show that: a historical view of the policy⁃making process regarding sustainable development reveals that the SDGs are systematic and dynamic. The emergence of a stand⁃alone urban SDG reflects the evolving conceptions of societal development and the shifting normative positions on human settlements and cities, emphasizing the central role of cities and human settlements in global development governance. Although the world has made some progress in advancing the 2030 Agenda to a certain extent, the COVID⁃19 pandemic negatively affects the progress, and the world still faces challenges in terms of data platforms, technological pathways and governance mechanisms to achieve the SDG11. This study also demonstrates the adaptability and imperative role of urban communities in adjusting to new norms. The re⁃ sults also reveal that global governance has shifted from focusing on urban development to the role of cities in global development, rec⁃ ognizing that the cities and human settlements are cross⁃cutting areas that are imperative drivers, hubs and pathways in the implementa⁃ tion of all of the SDGs and in addressing the global challenges. Establishing and improving the availability of data and statistics, promot⁃ ing the demonstration of new practices at different levels, and developing inclusive and participatory governance capabilities are all crit⁃ ical for achieving the SDG11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is evolving into a crisis affecting the future of humanity. As the world' s second largest economy, China is actively involved in global climate governance, proposing to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and has successively introduced the corresponding ' 1+N' policy system. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze 23 policy texts relevant to the achievement of the goals with over 160 000 characters from the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant ministries and provinces through two typical qualitative research methods-ground theory and institutional grammar tool, to outline the elemental structure and functional profile of the pathways of China' s carbon peak and carbon neutrality policies, and to clarify the group structure and regulation intensity of different policy pathways. Based on grounded theory, it is found that these pathways are already very comprehensive and complete. Among them, the policy pathways under the administrative mechanism include: high energy consumption and high emission industrial control; regulations and standards systems; carbon reduction governance in key industries; control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption; and carbon absorption capacity of ecosystems. The policy pathways under the market mechanism include circular economy development; energy transformation development; cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions; green finance development; and green transformation development. The results of institutional grammar tool research show that relevant policy pathways are dominated by ADIC normative condition statements (177, accounting for 52%), followed by AIC strategy statements (130, accounting for 38%), while ADICO rule-based statements are the least, with only 33, accounting for 10%. Given the pressure of time constraints and heavy tasks to achieve the goals, ADICO' s institutional grammar structure is the most desirable policy statement paradigm because it is more intense in its policy regulation, and it is easier to achieve its governance effectiveness. Undoubtedly, policy regulation is an important tool to effectively alleviate the pressure of the governance of the goals and to ensure the effectiveness of such governance. Policy regulation mainly focuses on the industrial sector with high energy consumption and high emissions, relying on top-down hierarchical organization and using political mobilization and administrative decrees as means to promote governance in the high carbon emission sector. By further constructing a theoretical framework of regulation mechanisms, relevant governance paradigms are classified as ' mandatory governance' and ' flexible governance' according to the intensity of regulation. It is found that the underlying logic behind these two paradigms is precisely the mobilization of the administrative mechanism and the allocation of resources under the market mechanism. Simultaneously, with the gradual achievement of the goals and the gradual decoupling of carbon emissions from economic development, the governance logic should gradually shift from ' mandatory governance' to ' flexible governance,' and from ' administrative hierarchical mobilization' to ' balanced allocation of market resources.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies mainly focus on exploring the ‘inclusive effect’ of digital finance in the process of technological innovation, but generally ignore the ‘network effect’ of digital finance empowerment. Based on China’s inter-provincial panel data and threshold regression technology, this paper empirically examined the nonlinear empowerment mechanism of digital finance to promote the development of green innovation. The results of this study showed that: during the study period, digital finance significantly drove China ’s green innovation and the empowerment effect of the eastern and central regions was much higher than that of the western regions, indicating that the ‘inclusive effect’ of digital finance was significant; the empowerment effect of digital finance on green innovation had a positive dynamic evolution process from weak to strong, but this kind of ‘network effect’ characteristic mainly appeared in the eastern and western regions, while the central region showed a positive ‘U’-shape nonlinear pattern; and the nonlinear empowerment effect of digital finance on green innovation had a heterogeneous and strengthened adjustment mechanism. It had positive and increasing marginal efficiency characteristics under the adjustment of urbanization, fiscal transparency, and residents’ income level. It was manifested under the constraints of urban-rural income gap and economic growth targets. Under the influence of technology introduction, it presented a positive inverted a ‘U’-shaped characteristic. At present, only by continuously improving fiscal transparency, residents’ income, and urbanization level, continuously narrowing the urban-rural income gap, and keeping the economic growth target and technology introduction at a reasonable level, can we maximize the green innovation effect empowered by digital finance. This article has discovered the coexistence of the ‘inclusive effect’ and ‘network effect’ of digital finance empowerment in the process of green innovation. The relevant conclusions may provide local governments with a ‘Digital Finance Express’ during the 14th Five-Year Plan period to accelerate the development of green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation and the great cradle for its survival and development. Protecting the Yellow River and promoting the high‑quality development of the Yellow River Basin is a long‑term plan that concerns the great rejuvenation and sustainable development of the Chinese nation. The history of the governance of the Yellow River is also a history of state governance and a history of the development of Chinese civilization. This year marks the third anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’ s September 18 speech at the Yellow River Basin Ecological Protection and High‑quality Development Symposium in Zhengzhou, Henan in 2019. It is also the first anniversary of his October 22 speech at the Symposium on the In‑depth Promotion of Ecological Protection and High‑quality Development of the Yellow River Basin in Jinan, Shandong in 2021. This paper explores how to continuously deepen the strategic understanding of promoting ecological protection and high‑quality development in the Yellow River Basin and better implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’ s series of important speeches on ecological protection and high‑quality development in the Yellow River Basin, as well as how to promote the provinces and regions in the Yellow River Basin to undertake the historical task of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the new era. The history, experience and enlightenment of the CPC (Communist Party of China)’ s century‑old Yellow River management, protection, and promotion of high‑quality development will help to open up thehistorical perspectives, continue the Party’ s spiritual characteristics, and let the Yellow River benefit the Chinese nation forever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of rural tourism can not only stimulate the growth of local economy, but also promote the effective implementation of China's rural revitalization strategy. Exploring the antecedent variables and forming mechanism of residents' support for tourism is an important factor to promote the sustainable development of tourism, which has attracted widespread attention from the academic community. Specifically, in the complex relationship between multi-stakeholders triggered by rural tourism development, residents' trust in government has played a pivotal role in ensuring the development of rural tourism, but existing studies about the influence of residents' trust in government on support for tourism lack in-depth discussion. Based on the social exchange theory, this paper takes community involvement and residents' perception of tourism impact as mediators and place attachment as the moderator. Selecting eight representative rural tourism destinations in Shandong Province as study sites, this study attempts to analyze the influencing mechanism of resident's trust in government on the support for tourism. Findings suggest that: (1) Trust in government has significant influence on community involvement, perceived benefits, support for tourism positively, and perceived costs negatively. (2) Community involvement and perceived benefits mediates partially the relationship between government trust and tourism development support. (3) Place attachment moderates the relationship between trust in government and community involvement positively. Compared with existing studies, this paper analyzes the formation mechanism of residents' support for tourism development in rural tourism destinations from the perspective of trust in government, and strengthens the role of community involvement and place attachment in the exploration of influencing mechanism. It provides a theoretical explanation and an empirical support for the deep understanding of the transmission mechanism of residents ' trust in government influencing their support for tourism and stimulating residents' support behavior for tourism development. This means that, in order to effectively improve residents' support for tourism, it is necessary to pay more attention to community residents' trust in government, enhance the interaction and communication between government and residents, encourage residents' involvement in tourism development, strengthen residents' sense of gain from rural tourism development, and cultivate residents' place attachment to their communities, so as to exert the positive role of rural tourism in promoting rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decomposing total factor productivity growth rate into internal growth effect that mainly considers industry internal technical advancement and the effect of factor reallocation formed by the flow of capital, labor and energy between sectors, this study took 23 subsectors as the research object and adopted the multi-sector growth accounting method to verify the 'structural dividend hypothesis' of capital, labor and energy from 2005 to 2017. The study drew the following conclusions: (1) Internal growth effect represented by sectoral technical advancement was still the main contributor to total factor productivity growth of the overall economy, but the contribution rate had decreased. (2) The reallocation effect of capital changed from 'structural negative benefit' to 'structural dividend'. (3) The reallocation effect of labor showed a trend of first rising and then falling, changing from 'structural dividend' to 'structural negative benefit'. (4) The effect of energy reallocation was gradually emerging, with a shift from 'negative structural benefit' to 'structural dividend'. Based on these research results, this paper argues that more attention should be paid to the efficiency of factor reallocation in addition to the technical advancement of all sectors. The inefficiency of factor reallocation caused by imperfect market and asymmetric information would partially offset the effect of technical advancement and hinder the high-quality economic development. In view of the reallocation of capital, labor and energy factors, this paper proposes the following suggestions: (1) In the reallocation of capital, consideration should be given to both the macroeconomic regulation and the role of market mechanism, and capital allocation should be carried out in accordance with the principle of profit maximization, so as to improve the elasticity of capital output and increase the allocation efficiency of capital. (2) The reallocation of labor force should not only be limited to the level of three industries; attention should also be paid to the marginal output differences within the secondary industry in this process. (3) Attention should be paid to the elasticity of energy output between sectors to avoid inefficient allocation during energy reallocation. It is also necessary to accelerate the phase-out of industries with high energy consumption and high pollution, promote the development of low energy industries to encourage 'energy conservation and emission reduction' as well as green development by increasing the effect of energy reallocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become a global consensus to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and cities are an essential and significant part for achieving these goals. There are more than 200 resource-dependent cities in China. With the gradual depletion of resources, cities are generally confronted with problems such as single industrial and energy structure, lagging development of alternative industries, low capacity for innovation, and destruction of the ecological environment, and are faced with various challenges of achieving sustainable development. This paper constructed a comprehensive evaluation model, clarified the multiple feedback and interactive relationship between these cities' driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR)' system, established a comprehensive index system of sustainability evaluation and the DPSIR model, and used the 'Taiyuan Innovation Demonstration Zone for National Sustainable Development Agenda' as a case for verification. The research conclusions could drive the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of the economy, society and environment of resource-dependent cities through innovations in development concepts, key technologies, and policy and service systems. This paper put forward the sustainable development pathway of a five-dimensional resource-dependent city, i. e., 'growth, ecology, low carbon, livability, happiness', and used the 'Taiyuan Innovation Demonstration Zone for National Sustainable Development Agenda' as a case to verify the validity of the sustainable development model for resource-based cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the social and economic development, the contradiction between the infinity of human demand and the finitude of resources is getting worse and worse. The global view on development has also undergone a series of major changes, and the concept of sustainable development has become a global consensus. Centering on the problems of unsustainable development in different stages of human society, this paper analyzes the concept and connotations of scarcity from the dialectical perspective and puts forward a new perspective; from the perspective of sustainable development, ecological scarcity is a relative concept that represents a state of human existence, and the development elements can be mutually replaced by human intervention to a certain extent, so as to make up the weak links and ensure sustainable economic growth; scarcity is not only a regular resistance to development, but also the fundamental driving force of development, and scarcity itself cannot be eliminated or be 'scarce'. From the view of historical evolution, this paper analyzes the transition process of scarcity types based on human's cognition of nature and the demand of development in different stages. In the period of agricultural civilization, scarcity is characterized by the shortage of labor force and the lag of human ability to develop and utilize ecosystem services; the result was that the natural capital was in surplus. In the period of industrialization, scarcity is characterized by the lack of technical skills and the imbalance of spatial distribution, and the allocation of skilled labor force or the transformational power of natural capital became the decisive factor for the development of a country or a region. At present, scarcity is centered on the lack of natural capital, and the service capacity of the ecosystem is far from meeting the needs of artificial capital. The ecological deficit keeps increasing, and ecological scarcity with resource shortage and ecological degradation has become the bottleneck of global economic revitalization and sustainable development. To further explore the characterization of the ecological scarcity phenomenon, this study discusses the spatio-temporal characteristic of ecological scarcity in modern times from the global and Chinese scenarios respectively. Based on the need to maintain capital abundance, this paper further analyzes the future evolution trend of ecological scarcity and its key influences. The results show that, to maintain a rational economic development, an appropriate proportion of natural capital should be transformed into artificial capital, and the natural capital transforming ability should be enhanced through human capital, so as to reserve sufficient natural capital for sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomerations are spatial combinations of cities and the main spatial carrier for China to promote new urbanization and implement the concept of green development. Does their polycentricity help to improve the efficiency of regional green development and achieve coordinated development? This paper used satellite-monitored night light data to identify the polycentricity of each urban agglomeration in China, and used three major pollution emission indicators as undesired outputs respectively to calculate the Malmquist-Luenberger dynamic decomposition index and to examine the dynamic changes of the green development efficiency of urban agglomerations and their member cities. Based on the panel data of 14 key urban agglomerations from 2004 to 2018 to study the impact of polycentricity on the green development efficiency of member cities, this research found that: ① The polycentricity of urban agglomerations had a significant threshold effect on the green development efficiency of member cities, and the improvement of polycentricity could improve the green total factor productivity of eastern urban agglomerations, but it had a negative effect on central and western urban agglomerations. ② Polycentricity had an ‘inverted U-shaped’ influence on the urban agglomerations. The transmission mechanism found that the ‘inverted U-shaped’ influence was mainly achieved through knowledge spillover, technological innovation, and human capital. ③ The improvement of polycentricity had a negative effect on the green total factor productivity of medium sized cities, but a positive effect on the green total factor productivity of cities in the lower rank, and its effect gradually decreased with the fall of the city􀆳 s economic rank. After changing the polycentricity index, using topographic relief and data of railway opening in 1933 as instrumental variables, and using the panel Tobit model and panel threshold model, the results obtained were basically the same, which confirmed the robustness of the results. Therefore, at the present stage, with China's spatial distribution of urbanization focusing on the tradeoff between the development of big cities and small cities, the heterogeneity of spatial units should be comprehensively considered, and differential urban agglomeration policies should be formulated and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major institutional innovation in the practice of the green development concept, the energy‑consuming transaction system is a major measure to promote the reform of the ecological civilization system. The implementation of the energy‑consuming transaction system is important for improving energy utilization efficiency and achieving ‘dual control’ of energy consumption and intensity. Using the energy‑consuming transaction system pilots as an entry point, and based on the panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper used the difference‑in‑differences method to examine the impact and mechanism of energy‑consuming transaction system on energy efficiency. The research results showed that the energy‑consuming transaction system could significantly improve energy utilization efficiency. Specifically, it could reduce the energy consumption per unit of GDP in the pilot provinces by 5.78%. The mechanism test showed that the energy‑consuming transaction system mainly improved energy utilization efficiency by promoting green technology innovation. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the energy‑consuming transaction system would have a diminishing effect on energy utilization efficiency along with the energy saving potential. The energy ‑consuming transaction system could play a significant role in promoting the energy utilization efficiency of Henan and Sichuan, while the impact on Zhejiang and Fujian was not significant. In addition, this article also found that the energy‑consuming transaction system had environmental dividends, which could effectively reduce sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide emissions while promoting energy efficiency. After parallel trend test, structural breakpoint test, PSM‑DID, placebo test, and other robustness tests, the conclusion of this article was still valid. This study has the following implications: In the process of building the energy‑consuming transaction market, it is necessary to promptly summarize the pilot experience, gradually expand the piloting scope, constantly improve the regulatory mechanism to reduce institutional transaction costs, promote efficient energy allocation and rational use, and at the same time, adhere to local conditions and set out to formulate and implement supporting measures for energy‑consuming transactions with local characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of DEA, based on the directional distance function considering the unexpected output, this paper used the Global-Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to measure the green total factor productivity of 283 cities in China from 2003 to 2017. Then, we took innovative city construction as a quasi-natural experiment, and used the gradual DID ( difference-in-differences) model to estimate the impact of innovative city construction on green total factor productivity (GTFP). The study found that the construction of innovative cities was conducive to the green transformation of China's economic development. Compared with non-pilot cities, the GTFP of innovative pilot cities increased by 4.9% on average. Specifically, the construction of innovative cities could achieve innovation-driven urban green development in three ways: innovation effect, agglomeration effect and reverse force effect. Heterogeneity analysis found that the construction of innovative cities had a greater promoting effect on GTFP of cities in the eastern region, larger cities and cities with higher levels. Quantile estimation results showed that the effect of the construction of innovative cities on urban GTFP was increasing marginally. The conclusion of this study was robust, which still held after parallel trend test, PSM-DID method estimation, counterfactual test, placebo test, other robustness tests and instrumental variable estimation. This study has the following implications: In the process of building innovative cities, we should adhere to the principle of adjusting measures to local conditions, implement the 'one policy for one place' principle, give full play to the dominant position of local governments, and explore multi-dimensional ways to promote the level of GTFP of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]