Search

Based on the panel data of eleven provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China from 2008 to 2018, both the optimization index of the industrial structure and environmental performance indexes are calculated. Then, the impact of industrial structure optimization on the improvement of ecological environmental performance was investigated by applying the static panel model and threshold model. The results show that the optimization of the industrial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has a significant role in promoting the improvement of environmental performance in general. Still, the rationalization of the industrial structure has a single threshold effect. The upgrading of regional industrial structure in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the rationalization of regional industrial structure in the Yangtze River's upper reaches are more conducive to improving ecological environment performance. Therefore, in the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the downstream region should strengthen scientific and technological innovation, strive to break through the core and critical technologies, and mainly build clean and efficient green service industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become the world's largest carbon emitter, and coal consumption in the Yangtze River Economic Zone takes over more than one third of the total number in the country. Investigating the main influencing factors of the Yangtze River Economic Zone's CO2 emissions is of vital importance to develop effective environmental policies. The vector autoregression model was applied in the present paper to analyze the driving forces in this area based on the pertinent data from 1985 to 2014. Results show that energy efficiency is the primary influencing factor of the region's carbon emissions, which plays a leading role in mitigating CO2 emissions. Energy structure has an obviously positive impact on the zone's CO2 emissions. Urbanization has continuously promoted coal consumption in this area. These findings are extremely helpful for related departments in the Yangtze River Economic Zone to develop appropriate policies pertaining to energy savings and emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the making of local climate governance in the Chinese setting where central-local inter-governmental relations continue to play critical part in almost every policy domain. Through analysing the climate responses of the three provincial-level governments at the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the paper argues that the process of “experimentation under hierarchy” is relevant to understanding the evolving of the subnational climate regime in the YRD region. We find the preponderance of the central authorities in initiating national climate strategies and galvanising responses at the local level. Meanwhile, provincial governments have been able to leverage climate plans and actions to achieve their own gains. These findings suggest that any optimism about subnational climate activism in a Chinese setting has to be mixed with caution. In fact, the shadow of hierarchical authority structure lingers and plays important part in the initiation of subnational response and spurring climate responses and innovations from below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-run structure, function and dynamics of complex regional sustainability system are critical for maintaining regional sustainability stability, so exploring the interaction characteristics and development pattern of the system should be considerably significant. Based on the new comprehensive index system of sustainability system, the indices of social, economic and eco-environmental dimensions and nine thematic indices are firstly presented for BHR (Bohai Rim) and YRD (Yangtze River) regions during the period 2001–2010, and then the regional sustainability changes are further tracked by regional sustainability index (RSI) and regional coordination index (RCI). Furthermore, we mainly focus on the dynamic interaction characteristics and propose green development index (GDI) to reflect the development pattern of BHR and YRD from the perspective of taking all indicators into account. The study results show that: the average annual growth rates of the indices of social, economic and eco-environmental dimensions of the BHR region are 10.00%, 19.11% and 0.37% during the study period, while the ones of YRD region are 7.32%, 20.25% and 0.46%, respectively, demonstrating that economic progress is the fastest-improving pillar for RSI of the two regions; the standard deviations of the indices of three dimensions that can construct a triangle diagram and the amount of that failed to construct are both decreasing from 2001 to 2012, showing that the RCI of two regions have made some progresses; BHR have stayed in some positions where eco-environmental level gradually decreases (from 0.50 to 0.45) with the progression of socioeconomic situations (from 0.20 to 0.50), while BHR in a position where eco-environmental level gradually increases (from 0.53 to 0.57) with the progression of socioeconomic situations (from 0.25 to 0.55), revealing dynamic interaction characteristics, and then in their evolution trajectories, YRD has been principally at the intermediate sustainable development stage while BHR always at the potentially unsustainable one; the green social or economic development degree, associated with the uneven resource utilization and eco-environment occupancy among provinces, should contribute most to regional development pattern. The study guides a direction where the policy makers need to improve in regional sustainability management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]