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We investigate the influence of environmental subsidies on enterprise environmental performance based on 257 heavily polluting A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange from 2010 to 2017. We also discuss the mechanism of how these environmental subsidies influence enterprise environmental performance further. The study employs OLS and PSM methods to evaluate the association between environmental subsidies and enterprise environmental performance. The study finds that environmental subsidies have a positive incentive effect on the environmental performance of heavily polluting enterprises. Its positive incentive effect mainly contributes through three channels: promoting green technology innovation, increasing government environmental supervision and enhancing executives' environmental awareness. Further research shows that environmental subsidies significantly promote environmental performance in non-state-owned enterprises, with a high degree of financing constraints and high levels of risk-taking. This study contributes to prior works by revealing the black box of the government's macro policies affecting enterprise micro behaviour and exploring how environmental subsidies influence firm-specific behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws insights from the New Stakeholder Theory to investigate the influence of green credit policy on firm diversification. Using a sample of publicly listed firms in China from 2006 to 2018, we find that green credit policy has increased the degree of corporate diversification for heavily polluting firms. In addition, the positive impact of green credit policy on industrial diversity is more significant for heavily polluting firms which are state-owned, bigger in size, with institutional ownership of shares and located in provinces with higher level of marketisation. Moreover, financial constraint is an important mediating variable for green credit policy to influence corporate diversification. An important implication of our study is that corporate diversification can be a strategic choice made by heavily polluting firms to overcome financial constraints as a result of the green credit policy. In fact, greater corporate diversity can ensure the survival of polluting firms by allowing them to operate in industries with less environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data for firms publicly listed in China A-share markets during 2008 and 2019, this study is one of the first to treat Green Credit Guidelines implemented by the government in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment and construct a difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically examine the impact of credit availability on corporate risk-taking. Our study finds that credit restrictions on heavily polluting firms reduce their risk-taking behaviour, and the impact is more pronounced on small firms, non-state-owned enterprises, firms without institutional investors or firms located in low marketisation regions. In addition, our study demonstrates that credit restrictions increase financing constraints and reduce investment levels, which leads to less corporate risk-taking. Furthermore, our research shows that credit restrictions increase the cost of debt and reduce investment value and development capacity for firms in energy intensive and high pollution industries. An important implication is that to effectively curb the expansion of heavily polluting industries and promote environmental transformation, green credit policies should target small firms, firms with less state and institutional ownership as well as firms located in regions with poorer institutional reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-composting of sheep manure and jujube branch, a potential technology of waste management in Xinjiang, China, is currently undermined by the low degradation rate of jujube branch waste. This study investigated the potential to improve the co-composting process by the addition of expanded perlite, a potential additive more economical than biochar and zeolite. Expanded perlite was added into the co-compost system in the ratios 0%, 1%, 5% and 10% based on the initial compost volume. Addition of expanded perlite extended the thermophilic phase up to 8 days and helped to increase the speed of compost maturation. Expanded perlite enhanced the degradation of organic matter by accelerating the decomposition of cell wall hemicelluloses during the very early stages and cellulose during the thermophilic and cooling stages. Moreover, total nitrogen was improved by 10.2% and 11.8% through adding 5% and 10% expanded perlite, respectively. From both economic and functionality perspectives, expanded perlite is a potential additive to compost, and 5% EP is a suitable ratio to co-composting mixes of sheep manure and jujube branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]