Search

China is currently focusing on the cooperative control of air pollution and CO2 emissions, as well as the mitigation of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). By using panel data from 282 cities spanning from 2003 to 2017 and a newly constructed city-level EPU index, a spatial Durbin, two-way fixed-effects model is employed, with the aim of estimating the impact of EPU on the synergistic emissions intensity (SEI) of air pollutants and CO2. Additionally, this paper investigates the potential channels through which EPU influences SEI. It also explores how pressures related to environmental protection and economic development affect the impact of EPU on SEI. The results indicate that a unit increase in EPU will result in a rise in the SEI of local cities, adjacent cities, and total cities by 930.9%, 69,162.7%, and 70,093.6%, respectively. Moreover, the channel analysis suggests that EPU exacerbates SEI by undermining the upgrading of the industrial structure, augmenting industrial structure distortion, and escalating labor market distortion. Furthermore, the effect of EPU on SEI may be lessened by an increase in environmental protection pressure, while an increase in economic development pressure may exert a positive influence. Finally, this paper concludes by recommending that policymakers should prioritize the maintenance and stability of economic policies, facilitate the advancement of the industrial structure, enhance the efficiency of labor resource allocation, and underscore the significance of managing urban air pollution and CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and transition risks have become major issues concerning the sustainable development of human society today. And the stranded fossil energy assets generated in this context are gradually becoming an important factor affecting corporate development and the stability of financial markets. Based on the data of China's A-share listed companies in the high-carbon industry from 1998 to 2021, a two-way fixed-effects model is used to study the determinants of corporate fossil energy asset impairment. Furthermore, a "two-stage estimation approach" is used to measure the risk of stranding corporate fossil energy assets The results show that: (1) climate transition risks are a significant cause of stranded corporate fossil energy assets; (2) the stranded risk of Chinese companies' fossil energy assets has been oscillating upward over the past two decades; (3) the stranded risk has increased significantly after the "double carbon" target. Based on the above conclusions, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions from both government and enterprise perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive regional differences in energy consumption have led to inequality and energy poverty. It is essential to clarify the factors of energy consumption convergence to solve this problem. We use the spatial convergence model to analyze the convergence characteristics and conditions of China's natural gas consumption from 2005 to 2017. The results of spatial absolute convergence show that there is absolute convergence of natural gas consumption in China, and the economic competition among provinces slightly hinders the convergence. Furthermore, based on the spatial Durbin model and the spatial conditional convergence model, we found that insufficient pipe network construction and the price difference caused by provincial borders are the main factors hindering the flow of natural gas, which also restricts the spatial convergence of natural gas consumption. The development of the tertiary industry and the improvement of purchasing power will help accelerate the convergence of natural gas consumption. This research not only evaluates the spatial convergence of China's natural gas consumption for the first time, but also provides an analytical idea for formulating policies to eliminate poverty in energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A digital text abstract presents the essential information of an article, and we can find the trend and value of the research by analyzing it rigorously and digging up knowledge. Therefore, this study focuses on the abstracts of index journals in China and Taiwan from July 2010 to June 2020 (a total of 3283 abstracts). Methods: Through the concepts of text mining and natural language processing (NLP), it constructs processes such as text retrieval, text segmentation and word cloud analysis, TF-IDF weight analysis, co-word analysis, network analysis, and trend analysis, and analyses a large amount of text data. Results: The results show that the scope of research in China covers the fields of social sports and sports science, and research in Taiwan covers both natural and social sciences. The network diagram highlights the richness of sports-related research fields in the two regions, but research on sports philosophy is relatively rare. Conclusions: It is suggested that all disciplines/departments should re-allocate the same resources, so as to show a balanced development trend and help expand a new chapter in the sports academic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological engineering construction is the main method for urban riparian landscape restoration. Continuous ecological environmental monitoring can reflect the effects of engineering construction and can provide a scientific basis for the improvement of engineering technology. However, the evaluation of riparian ecological engineering mainly focuses on the water environmental function and biodiversity conservation function after the construction period. Studies on the long-term evaluation of regional microclimate regulation and human settlement improvement are limited. In this paper, an ecological restoration project along the Yitong River in northern China was selected as the research object. Temperature, relative humidity and wind speed under different vegetation type combinations were monitored in the riparian ecological engineering construction during the first, second, third and tenth years. The temperature–humidity index (THI) was selected to evaluate human comfort and the improvement effect of microclimate was assessed for different vegetation type combinations. The results showed that vegetation type combinations can play a good role in regulating the microclimate and human comfort. The riparian ecological restoration project achieved a stable function for microclimate regulation in the third year. There was no significant regulation difference between tree–shrub–herb and tree–herb combinations. To realize the optimization of ecological benefits, economic benefits and social benefits, the tree–herb combination can be appropriately increased, and the tree–shrub–herb can be reduced in the application of ecological engineering. Microclimate regulation is an important achievement in engineering construction effects and can be regarded as one of the indices to evaluate the effect of ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine if adolescents who experience anxiety or depression have higher levels of reported bullying victimization or perpetration than those who do not. Based on the existing research, we hypothesized that those who experienced moderate or severe depression and anxiety would have higher rates of bullying victimization and perpetration when compared to those who experienced mild or no depression. This study used an observational design, and data were collected from a convenience sample of adolescents in a large regional high school in an Eastern province of China. The final sample included 1481 adolescents aged 14–19 years who provided complete data for each of the study variables. Demographic data were collected through a four-item demographic survey, bullying perpetration and victimization data were collected using subscales from the Illinois Bully Scale, and anxiety and depression were measured using the Chinese version of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire, respectively. Descriptive analyses, correlational analyses, and multivariate analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data. About 7.1% and 15.2% of participants reported moderate-to-severe depression or moderate-to-severe anxiety, respectively. Pairwise comparisons indicated that adolescents with no or mild depression had significantly lower bullying perpetration than those with moderate-to-severe depression, but those with no or mild anxiety had significantly higher perpetration than those with moderate-to-severe anxiety. There was no statistically significant difference in victimization among different anxiety or depression levels alone (all p-values ≥ 0.05). This is among the first studies to examine reported levels of bullying perpetration and victimization among adolescents experiencing anxiety and depression. The findings help to identify adolescents who experience moderate-to-severe levels of depression as an at-risk group for bullying perpetration, who should therefore be a focus of bullying intervention work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering that the promotion of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) is a potential measure to address urban air pollution, the Chinese government has launched subsidy schemes to improve its market penetration. The purpose of this study is to quantify the economic benefits of NEV promotion from 2016 to 2019 and compare them with the cost of government subsidies in Beijing, so the effectiveness of the NEV policies can be evaluated and valuable recommendations can be provided for decision-making. The exposure-response model and the cost of illness approach was applied to evaluate the health and economic benefits of NEV promotion. Our results are as follows: (1) promoting NEVs can reduce the PM 2.5 concentration significantly, the average annual concentration reduction was between 3.23 μg/m 3 and 4.61 μg/m 3 ; (2) at least 37,545 illnesses and deaths in Beijing could be reduced through NEV promotion annually, internal disease (15-64) was the most affected illness; (3) the economic benefits of NEV promotion were far more than the cost and the net benefits stock reached 33.71 billion CNY in 2019, accounting for 0.95% of Beijing's GDP in the same period. This study provides references in the perspective of environmental economics for the policy formulation of promoting NEVs.

Based on the extended STIRPAT model, this paper examines social and economic factors regarding PM 2.5 concentration intensity in 255 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2016, and includes quantile regressions to analyze the different effects of these factors among cities of various sizes. The results indicate that: (1) during 2007-2016, urban PM 2.5 concentration exhibited declining trends in fluctuations concerning the development of the urban economy, accompanied by uncertainty under different city types; (2) population size has a significant effect on propelling PM 2.5 concentration; (3) the effect of structure reformation on PM 2.5 concentration is evident among cities with different populations and levels of economic development; and (4) foreign investment and scientific technology can significantly reduce PM 2.5 emission concentration in cities. Accordingly, local governments not only endeavor to further control population size, but should implement a recycling economy, and devise a viable urban industrial structure. The city governance policies for PM 2.5 concentration reduction require re-classification according to different population scales. Cities with large populations (i.e., over 10 million) should consider reducing their energy consumption. Medium population-sized cities (between 1 million and 10 million) should indeed implement effective population (density) control policies, while cities with small populations (less than 1 million) should focus on promoting sustainable urban development to stop environmental pollution from secondary industry sources.