Search

The transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is supported by smart and green manufacturing, which have great potential to empower the nation's green development. This study examines the impact of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy on urban green economic growth. This study applies the super-slacks-based measure model to measure cities' green economic growth, using the double machine learning model, which overcomes the limitations of the linear setting of traditional causal inference models and maintains estimation accuracy under high-dimensional control variables, to conduct an empirical analysis based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021. The results reveal that the Made in China 2025 strategy significantly drives urban green economic growth, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that the Made in China 2025 strategy promotes green economic growth through green technology progress, optimizing energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening environmental supervision. In addition, the policy has a stronger driving effect for cities with high manufacturing concentration, industrial intelligence, and digital finance development. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and policy implications for government planning to promote high-quality development through industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is intended to expose the connectedness of green financing and other green policies like renewable energy and technological progress towards identifying the best practice to achieve climate goal cum sustainable environmental development for China within the period 1985–2021. Amid the increased utilization of fossil fuels in China's economic activities and its position as the highest carbon emitting country in the world, China is considered a financial stable economy with access to renewable energy source such as hydroelectric power. For effective research into the objective of this study, the study builds on mechanism of the green finance—renewable—technology and emission nexus with the help of linear dynamics of ARDL bound and VECM granger causality methods. Empirical results from both approaches have given insight to the selected objectives of this study. According to ARDL dynamics: (i) the coefficients of linear (1.802) and non-linear(− 1.860) (i.e. square term) of financial development are positively and negatively connected to the carbon emissions. This confirms the presence of inverted U-shape relationship between the financial development and carbon emissions. (ii) the relationship between hydroelectric power representing renewable energy and CO2 is negative—(− 0.19) and significant at 1% level. This results depicts the reduction power of hydroelectric power on CO2, (iii) also, a negative (− 0.000982) linkage between number of patent application representing technological innovation and environmental development through carbon emissions responses is established. Also, findings from VECM granger causality approach back the findings from ARDL through a nexus between the variables of interest (finance, hydroelectric power, and technology and carbon emissions). Findings point to the ability of green financing to reduce carbon emissions if green financing policies are utilized effectively in regulating carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale loss of ecosystem assets around the world, and the resultant reduction in the provision of nature's benefits to people, underscores the urgent need for better metrics of ecological performance as well as their integration into decision-making. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is a measure of the aggregate monetary value of final ecosystem-related goods and services in a specific area and for a given accounting period. GEP accounting captures the use of many ecosystem services in production processes across the economy, which are then valued in terms of their benefits to society. GEP has five key elements that make it transparent, trackable, and readily understandable: (1) a focus on nature's contributions to people; (2) the measurement of ecosystem assets as stocks and ecosystem services as flows; (3) the quantification of ecosystem service use; (4) an understanding of ecosystem service supply chains through value realization; and (5) the disaggregation of benefits across groups. Correspondingly, a series of innovative policies based on GEP have been designed and implemented in China. The theoretical and practical lessons provided by these experiences can support continued policy innovation for green and inclusive development around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined villagers' intention of pro-environmental behavior while supporting the Landcare Policy in China. The research team conducted field surveys of villagers from four famous scenic spots of Cili, which is near the world natural heritage site of the Zhangjiajie natural landscape core area. This area has developed rural tourism, many local villagers rely on tourism to obtain their livelihood income. However, the area is now affected by the environmental remediation policy called Landcare Policy. Cultivated land near the tourist area needs to be repaired, which affects the tourism income of some local villagers. Therefore, local villagers are facing a contradiction between tourism development and environmental protection. The study chose the change in local villagers' pro-environmental intention as the research content. Then we adopted an empirically validated norm activation model (NAM) from Schwartz, and merged the NAM with the expectancy theory of Vroom, based on 511 valid responses from the field questionnaire surveys, we aimed to develop a theoretical framework for researchers to understand the change in villagers' pro-environmental behaviors, concerning the balance between rural tourism livelihood benefits and environmental remediation behavior. Structural equation modeling was conducted for each index of the responses, the findings showed that the merged model had 76.46% better predictive accuracy of villagers' pro-environmental intentions than applying Schwartz's NAM independently. This study found that the motivational force of this new theory significantly influences environmental personal norms due to the joint impact of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. Villagers with a positive pro-environmental behavior intention expect good tourism benefits and environmental living conditions under the impact of the Landcare policy in rural tourism destinations near the famous natural heritage site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined villagers' intention of pro-environmental behavior while supporting the Landcare Policy in China. The research team conducted field surveys of villagers from four famous scenic spots of Cili, which is near the world natural heritage site of the Zhangjiajie natural landscape core area. This area has developed rural tourism, many local villagers rely on tourism to obtain their livelihood income. However, the area is now affected by the environmental remediation policy called Landcare Policy. Cultivated land near the tourist area needs to be repaired, which affects the tourism income of some local villagers. Therefore, local villagers are facing a contradiction between tourism development and environmental protection. The study chose the change in local villagers' pro-environmental intention as the research content. Then we adopted an empirically validated norm activation model (NAM) from Schwartz, and merged the NAM with the expectancy theory of Vroom, based on 511 valid responses from the field questionnaire surveys, we aimed to develop a theoretical framework for researchers to understand the change in villagers' pro-environmental behaviors, concerning the balance between rural tourism livelihood benefits and environmental remediation behavior. Structural equation modeling was conducted for each index of the responses, the findings showed that the merged model had 76.46% better predictive accuracy of villagers' pro-environmental intentions than applying Schwartz's NAM independently. This study found that the motivational force of this new theory significantly influences environmental personal norms due to the joint impact of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. Villagers with a positive pro-environmental behavior intention expect good tourism benefits and environmental living conditions under the impact of the Landcare policy in rural tourism destinations near the famous natural heritage site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on survey data from CSS2017, this article examines the impact of Internet use on environmental pollution perception. The study found that after controlling for a range of demographic, psychological and provincial-level objective variables, three dimensions of Internet use variables have different effects on environmental pollution perception: The respondents' use vs. non-use of the Internet, information-oriented Internet use and commerce-oriented Internet use are significantly positively correlated with their perception of environmental pollution, while socially oriented Internet use, the belief that the Internet is more comprehensive than traditional media and the belief that the Internet can more truthfully reflect public opinion are significantly negatively correlated with their environmental pollution perception. The results of 2SLS and IV Probit estimation confirm that the Internet usage could effectively increase individuals' perception of environmental pollution. Further analysis found that personal annual income plays a moderating role between use/non-use of the Internet and environmental pollution perception and between information-oriented Internet use and environmental pollution perception. The above research findings have important policy implications. Governments should strengthen environmental governance, use the platform of the Internet to strengthen government-public communication, and take into account demographic, psychological and regional objective factors when adopting environmental governance policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global health, as well as worldwide development regimes, was seriously threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic and Delta variant outbreaks. In addition to pledging to adapt to and mitigate climate change, experts, economists, and policymakers expressed their determination to do so. Green growth and sustainable development have become the focus of policymakers and governments. The progress toward green economic efficiency (GEE), which will benefit the economy, society, and environment, continues. In terms of green growth and development, implementing environmental regulations and policies has been one of the most challenging aspects of the process. China, the world's second-largest economy, has begun its journey to GEE. Nonetheless, the green economy faces many challenges. The objective of the study is to use AHP analysis to analyze environmental regulation and GEE in China. Accordingly, the study identified three alternative approaches to achieve GEE by analyzing four criteria and ten sub-criteria in the context of environmental regulations in China. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) has been used to rank criteria, sub-criteria, and alternative approaches. According to the model, China's best path to GEE is through resource efficiency and green purchasing strategies. This article offers an insightful assessment of sustainable development in the Chinese economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional ecological health, the core of comprehensive ecosystem assessments, is an important foundation for regional exploration, environmental conservation, and sustainable development. The mountainous areas in southwest China are backward in economy, but industrialization and urbanization have been rapid in recent years. This study assessed the ecosystem health of the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in China using a pressure-state-response (PSR) model. Spatiotemporal patterns of regional ecosystem health were analyzed from 2000 to 2016, including overall characteristics as well as local characteristics. Ecosystem health in most regions was improved over time (Y = 0.0058X − 11.0132, R2 = 0.95, P < 0.001), and areas with poorer ecosystem health decreased from half to one-third of the total area. Analysis of the primacy ratio and the variation coefficient confirmed that the gap in health scores between regions has gradually expanded since 2007, but there are more high quality regions overall (Z of Moran's index < 1.96, P > 0.05). Overall, the regional ecosystems to the east of the Hu line—an imaginary line dividing east and west China into roughly equivalent parts—were healthier than those to the west. The pressure and state scores of ecosystems were determined by physiographic condition, and the response scores by government policies and social concern. The spatiotemporal patterns of ecosystem health were dominated to a greater extent by natural than anthropogenic factors, which explains why the shift in the patterns aligned with the direction of the Hu line. Dividing regions into key management areas based on natural geographical conditions and socioeconomic development could contribute to the formulation of a reasonable ecological and environmental protection policy, guaranteeing ecosystem services in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2012, Beijing began releasing air quality report of PM 2.5. The move has been credited as a major breakthrough in China’s environmental governance as it is argued that online environmental activists in China were the major driving force behind it. Since then, the issue of air pollution has reemerged as one of the hottest issues and a series of new policies addressing air pollution have been adopted. Facing a relatively new phenomenon (wumai) and heightened public concerns, to what extent is the state still capable of guiding the pubic perception and opinions about the issue? By analyzing the discourse of air pollution in People’s Daily and comparing it with public opinion survey data, the paper finds that the state’s ability to guide public opinion is rather limited, indicating that opportunities do exist for civil society to play a bigger role in China’s environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonconventional by-production approach with respect to the freely disposable inputs but without the weakly disposable and null-joint outputs has been proposed to describe the pollution generating technologies since 2012. To amend the contradictory trade-offs among inputs, intended and unintended outputs, which generate in the previous conventional pollution-generating technologies, the new by-production approach decomposes the general pollution generating technology as classical intended production technology and nature's residual-generation mechanism. In this paper, some production and environmental efficiency indexes will be extended and firstly applied in the study of regional technical efficiency level with considering the energy utilization and air pollutants emission in China. Based on our calculating results, there exists the obvious variation in the regional technical efficiency level with the regional geographic separation. Eastcoast area ranks the highest in production efficiency measurement, and the West has the lowest levels in both production and environmental efficiency. Through conducting some reason discussions, our new efficiency results based on the by-production approach are consistent with the fact of Chinas unbalanced regional development pattern and also reveal the ineffectiveness of current environmental policy implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the issue of communication in Chinese environmental criminal law is examined in relation to whether it is understandable to the public or not. It is concluded that Chinese environmental criminal law is ambiguous. It is argued that poor enforcement of criminal environmental law is partly due not only to the failure of the lawmakers to make clear rules but also to the failure of communicating important moral and aesthetic values to the public so necessary for effective protection of the environment. It is affirmed that along with the rules of behaviour, law must also communicate values. The Chinese history has its own rich pro-environmental ethical tradition of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism which must be utilized to address all aspects of environmental protection including environmental crime issues. Legislation must be an educational tool which communicates vital moral values to the public. Environmental protection is one area where such communication is particularly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the anti-incinerator protest in Guangzhou in China. It uses the advocacy coalition framework to analyze the dynamics between Guangzhou Municipal Government and the protesters. The research covers the establishment of a Public Consultative and Supervision Committee for Urban Waste Management in Guangzhou, a public consultative mechanism for waste management, which is a new development in the policy-making process in socialist China. The ultimate plan will be to demonstrate how policy adjustment is not determined solely by the outcome of protests but is also affected by both a decentralized political structure and the socio-cultural foundation. Consequently, the discussion also explores the gradual transformation of public participation in China's environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a decomposition and emissions matrix is developed to identify the roles (giver or taker) played by the sectors in the greenhouse gas emissions for the economy of Beijing in China. Our results indicate that services were the most important emitter if we consider the total (direct and indirect) emissions. In addition to Construction, Scientific studies and technical services and Finance sectors of services were the largest takers. They have a large role in boosting greenhouse gas emissions throughout the economy of Beijing. As the basis and supporter of production activities, the electricity production and the transportation sectors were the greatest givers. More emphasis should be placed on using clean energy and carbon capture and storage technologies to reduce emissions within these sectors. Based on the roles played by these sectors in greenhouse gas emissions, some policy implications were proposed for energy utilization and carbon emissions trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air deterioration caused by pollution has harmed public health. The existing studies on the economic loss caused by a variety of air pollutants in multiple cities are lacking. To understand the effect of different pollutants on public health and to provide the basis of the environmental governance for governments, based on the dose-response relation and the willingness to pay, this paper used the latest available data of the inhalable particulate matter (PM) and sulphur dioxide (SO) from January 2015 to June 2015 in 74 cities by establishing the lowest and the highest limit scenarios. The results show that (1) in the lowest and highest limit scenario, the health-related economic loss caused by PM and SO represented 1.63 and 2.32 % of the GDP, respectively; (2) For a single city, in the lowest and the highest limit scenarios, the highest economic loss of the public health effect caused by PM and SO was observed in Chongqing; the highest economic loss of the public health effect per capita occurred in Hebei Baoding. The highest proportion of the health-related economic loss accounting for GDP was found in Hebei Xingtai. The main reason is that the terrain conditions are not conducive to the spread of air pollutants in Chongqing, Baoding and Xingtai, and the three cities are typical heavy industrial cities that are based on coal resources. Therefore, this paper proposes to improve the energy structure, use the advanced production process, reasonably control the urban population growth, and adopt the emissions trading system in order to reduce the economic loss caused by the effects of air pollution on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands play an important role in water conservation, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation. Remote sensing is an economical and efficient technique for wetland monitoring which can limit disturbance in sensitive areas and support wetland conservation. In this paper, we used three phases of Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (TM/ETM+) remote sensing images from October 1989, October 1999, and October 2009 to study wetlands in Xingzi County. The images were segmented using the object-oriented remote sensing image interpretation software eCognition Developer 8.64, then segmented images were classified by slope, digital elevation model (DEM) data, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Specific Leaf Area Vegetation Index (SLAVI), and Land and Water Masks (LWM) index to produce land type classification maps. Land use change information was obtained by analyzing the superposition of two classification maps of the wetland area from different years. The results showed that landscape patches in Xingzi County displayed fragmentation in their spatial distribution over time. Based on an index of changes in landscape patches, the fastest growing landscape type is grassland, while the fastest decreasing type is irrigated land. Dominant driving factors of changes in Xingzi County's wetland landscape are population growth and policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China's coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China's coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China's coastal ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representations of Green Tibetans connected to Buddhism and indigenous wisdom have been deployed by a variety of actors and persist in popular consciousness. Through interviews, participatory mapping and observation, we explored how these ideas relate to people's notions about the natural environment in a rural community on the Eastern Tibetan plateau, in Sichuan Province, China. We found people to be orienting themselves towards the environment by means of three interlinked religious notions: (1) local gods and spirits in the landscape, which have become the focus of conservation efforts in the form of 'sacred natural sites;' (2) sin and karma related to killing animals and plants; (3) Buddhist moral precepts especially non-violence. We highlight the gaps between externally generated representations and local understandings, but also the dynamic, contested and plural nature of local relationships with the environment, which have been influenced and reshaped by capitalist development and commodification of natural resources, state environmental policies, and Buddhist modernist ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has among the highest biodiversities in the world, but faces extreme biodiversity losses due to the country's huge population and its recent explosive socioeconomic development. Despite huge efforts and investments by the government and Chinese society to conserve biodiversity, especially in recent decades, biodiversity losses may not have been reversed, and may even have been exacerbated by unintended consequences resulting from these projects. China's centralized approach to biodiversity conservation, with limited local participation, creates an inflexible and inefficient approach because of conflicts between local communities and national administrators over the benefits. Although community-based conservation may be an imperfect approach, it is an essential component of a successful future national conservation plan. Biodiversity conservation should be considered from the perspective of systems engineering and a governance structure that combines centralization with community-level conservation. In this paper, we describe China's complex challenge: how to manage interactions between humans and nature to find win-win solutions that can ensure long-term biodiversity conservation without sacrificing human concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porter hypothesis states that environmental regulation may lead to win-win opportunities, that is, improve the productivity and reduce the undesirable output simultaneously. Based on directional distance function, this paper proposes a novel dynamic activity analysis model to forecast the possibilities of win-win development in Chinese industry between 2011 and 2050. The consistent bootstrap estimation procedures are also developed for statistical inference of the point forecasts. The evidence reveals that the appropriate energy-saving and emission-abating regulation will significantly result in both the net growth of potential output and the increasing growth of total factor productivity for most industrial sectors in a statistical sense. This favors Porter hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution liability insurance was officially introduced in China only in 2006, as part of new market-based approaches for managing environmental risks. By 2012, trial applications of pollution insurance had been launched in 14 provinces and cities. More than ten insurance companies have entered the pollution insurance market with their own products and contracts. Companies in environmentally sensitive sectors and high-risk industries bought pollution insurance, and a few successful compensation cases have been reported. Still, pollution insurance faces a number of challenges in China. The absence of a national law weakens the legal basis of pollution insurance, and poor technical support stagnates further implementation. Moreover, current pollution insurance products have limited risk coverage, high premium rates, and low loss ratios, which make them fairly unattractive to polluters. Meanwhile, low awareness of environmental and social liabilities leads to limited demand for pollution insurance products by industrial companies. Hence, the pollution insurance market is not yet flourishing in China. To improve this situation, this economic instrument needs stronger backing by the Chinese state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the Chinese policy environment as regards the experiences of foreign firms in China. In particular, the study focuses on the changes in China's policies toward foreign-invested firms and the companies' perceptions of protectionism of the Chinese regulatory environment. Theoretically, the paper reflects approaches in international political economy and business studies on the bargaining relations between host states and firms, and institutional perspective on business strategy that focuses on the dynamic interaction between organizations and their institutional environment. Hence, the approach takes into account the formal and informal institutional constraints that firms face in a particular institutional framework. Drawing from international survey data, as well as interviews with China-based Finnish firms, the paper analyzes the different types of formal and informal protectionism that foreign companies face in China. It is found that foreign firms perceive the Chinese policy measures as increasingly protective, strict toward foreigners, and favoring of local companies. This is based on China's strategy to remove the earlier preferences for inward foreign direct investment and to support, instead, the growth of indigenous companies. At the same time, the Chinese market presents such a potential that attracts foreign firms to increasingly invest in the country. China has a strong position in competing for investments: its aspiration for higher technology, together with its labor resources, gives China an unique advantage in bargaining with foreign firms over investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on Chinese president Xi Jinping's September 2015 announcement of plans for a Chinese national emissions-trading system to limit greenhouse-gas production. The plan is related to a 2014 climate change agreement between the U.S. and China. Details on other joint environmental plans by China and the U.S. are presented. It is suggested that the cap-and-trade program could contribute to the development of a global climate pact ahead of United Nations (UN) climate talks in December 2015.

A letter to the editor is presented discussing China's policies on reducing carbon emissions and its subsidizing practices.

A letter to the editor is presented discussing the Chinese government's policies on reducing carbon emissions and the country's energy market.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article by Bo Zhang published in the journal in 2015, which focuses on the need for China's citizens to have a legal right to safeguard the quality of their environment.

In this article, the author mentions that China should upgrade its climate policy from reducing carbon intensity to setting a long-term cap on total emissions. Topics discussed include carbon dioxide mitigation, plans of the U.S. to cut carbon pollution from power plants and carbon emissions in China. It mentions that China should delink the relation between economic growth and emissions.