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• Pilot Free Trade Zones (PFTZ) can promote green technology innovation efficiency. • Providing reference for developing countries to develop green economy. • Proposing a more holistic index system of green technology innovation efficiency. • The impact of PFTZ exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity. • Market potential affects the green effect of PFTZ. The Pilot Free Trade Zone (PFTZ) policy represents a significant step in China's institutional innovation and broader opening-up, crucial for fostering green and high-quality economic growth. The existing literature has conducted in-depth studies on the economic effects, energy conservation, emission reduction and green innovation of PFTZs, but the effect on green technology innovation efficiency (GTIE) remains underexplored. Institutional innovation in the PFTZs will profoundly affect regional green development, and green innovation, and will certainly affect the regional GTIE. Based on this, this paper uses the city-level data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2020 to empirically test the impact of PFTZ establishment on GTIE. First, the Super-SBM model was applied to evaluate the GTIE across 281 Chinese cities. Then, taking the establishment of PFTZs as a quasi-natural experiment, the multi-stage differentially differential model is constructed to empirically assess PFTZ policy's impact on GTIE. The findings indicate that PFTZs can significantly enhance the GTIE. This improvement is facilitated through four pathways: the digital economy, the high-tech industries agglomeration, innovation agglomeration, and talent agglomeration. The results offer strategies for balancing external openness with environmental protection in developing countries and furnish empirical support for creating high-quality development frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital finance has profoundly changed the pattern of economic and social development, which is of great significance for the realization of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and for the promotion of sustainable development. This study measures the state of China's provincial ecological footprint from 2011 to 2019, combines the characteristics of digital financial development, and explores whether such development can promote sustainable development from an ecological footprint perspective. The results show that (1) China's provincial ecological footprint per capita, which was continuously aggravated, increased by an average of 29.15% during the sample period. Digital financial development is shown to be able to effectively suppress the ecological footprint, and an environmental inclusion effect is also observed, which helps achieve a win‒win solution for economic development and ecological conservation while promoting environmental equality. Endogeneity tests and other robustness tests indicate that causality holds. (2) Bridging the digital divide, the improvement of environmental constraints and government digital governance capacity can help amplify the marginal effects of digital finance and mitigate the ecological footprint. (3) Green technological innovation and green finance are critical paths to achieve sustainable development. Digital financial development can facilitate green-biased technological innovation and increase the scale of green credit effectiveness, thereby reducing the ecological footprint. In the future, digital technology should be used to achieve the precise sinking of financial resources, while the government's role in guiding sustainable development should be enhanced, the digital divide should be narrowed, and the role of digital finance in supporting sustainable development should be strengthened. • Using the latest improved methodology, this paper measures the provincial ecological footprint in China. • This paper investigates the impact of digital finance development on the ecological footprint. • Digital finance development can effectively mitigate the ecological footprint and has an environmentally inclusive effect. • The reasons for this are the green bias push of digital finance towards technological innovation and the increase in the scale of green credit effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, green innovation has become an important means of achieving sustainable development, but the impact of peer firms on green innovation is less discussed. To fill this research gap, this paper explores the effect of peer firms on the green innovation activities of the Chinese A-share listed firms in the manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2020 and investigates influencing factors of peer effect. The main findings are as follows. First, there is a peer effect in making green innovation decisions. Second, industry competition has a positive moderating effect on the peer effect of green innovation. Third, digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect of green innovation. The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. But the peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. This paper aims to explore the influencing factors of a firm's green innovation from the perspective of peer effect. The research results can provide a guide for the government to better promote green innovation activities of firms and benign competition in the industry. • A firm's green innovation activities are positively affected by industry peers. • Industry competition has a positive moderating effect on green innovation peer effect. • Digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect. • The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. • The peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital finance has profoundly changed the pattern of economic and social development, which is of great significance for the realization of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and for the promotion of sustainable development. This study measures the state of China's provincial ecological footprint from 2011 to 2019, combines the characteristics of digital financial development, and explores whether such development can promote sustainable development from an ecological footprint perspective. The results show that (1) China's provincial ecological footprint per capita, which was continuously aggravated, increased by an average of 29.15% during the sample period. Digital financial development is shown to be able to effectively suppress the ecological footprint, and an environmental inclusion effect is also observed, which helps achieve a win‒win solution for economic development and ecological conservation while promoting environmental equality. Endogeneity tests and other robustness tests indicate that causality holds. (2) Bridging the digital divide, the improvement of environmental constraints and government digital governance capacity can help amplify the marginal effects of digital finance and mitigate the ecological footprint. (3) Green technological innovation and green finance are critical paths to achieve sustainable development. Digital financial development can facilitate green-biased technological innovation and increase the scale of green credit effectiveness, thereby reducing the ecological footprint. In the future, digital technology should be used to achieve the precise sinking of financial resources, while the government's role in guiding sustainable development should be enhanced, the digital divide should be narrowed, and the role of digital finance in supporting sustainable development should be strengthened. • Using the latest improved methodology, this paper measures the provincial ecological footprint in China. • This paper investigates the impact of digital finance development on the ecological footprint. • Digital finance development can effectively mitigate the ecological footprint and has an environmentally inclusive effect. • The reasons for this are the green bias push of digital finance towards technological innovation and the increase in the scale of green credit effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, green innovation has become an important means of achieving sustainable development, but the impact of peer firms on green innovation is less discussed. To fill this research gap, this paper explores the effect of peer firms on the green innovation activities of the Chinese A-share listed firms in the manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2020 and investigates influencing factors of peer effect. The main findings are as follows. First, there is a peer effect in making green innovation decisions. Second, industry competition has a positive moderating effect on the peer effect of green innovation. Third, digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect of green innovation. The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. But the peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. This paper aims to explore the influencing factors of a firm's green innovation from the perspective of peer effect. The research results can provide a guide for the government to better promote green innovation activities of firms and benign competition in the industry. • A firm's green innovation activities are positively affected by industry peers. • Industry competition has a positive moderating effect on green innovation peer effect. • Digital financial inclusion and government intervention both promote the peer effect. • The peer effect is more significant with a high degree of digital financial inclusion. • The peer effect has no significant difference between different degrees of government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Trying to break out of the stereotypical thinking of inherent study areas. • Use of a three-stage DEA model to make efficiency results more scientific. • Multidimensional identification of differences between strategic areas. • Valuable regionally targeted policy recommendations are made. The Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River Basin are important economic regions and ecological barriers in China. Promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and promoting ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin are major regional strategies implemented by the Chinese government, and the green growth of the two regions is important for the high-quality sustainable development of the whole China. To investigate the regional differences in green growth efficiency of the same type of geographical units, this paper measures the green growth efficiency and decomposition indicators of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2020 using a three-stage DEA model and the Malmquist index method and establishes a panel Tobit model to identify the influencing factors of green growth efficiency. The results show that: ①After using the three-stage DEA model to remove the influence of external environment and stochastic factors, the mean values of green growth efficiency of Yangtze River Economic Zone and Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2020 are 0.996 and 1.089, respectively. The change of green growth efficiency of Yangtze River Economic Zone is slightly higher than that of Yellow River Basin. ②The Malmquist indexes of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River Basin have generally increased, with the Technological Progress Index, which characterizes technological innovation, being the main endogenous driver of green growth efficiency in the Yellow River Basin, while the technical efficiency index, which characterizes factor mix and management level, is more significant in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. ③The Tobit model regression results show that the factors influencing green growth efficiency are also different in the two regions. Among them, the urbanization rate has a significantly positive effect on the two regions, while the effects of environmental regulation and research intensity are not significant. External openness has a suppressive effect on green growth efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, while the level of financial development and human capital negatively affect green growth efficiency in the Yellow River Basin. Therefore, green development in the new era should pay attention to the differences between different regions, and make appropriate development policies according to the local conditions of the development status of different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, cleaner production (CP) has attracted more attention from developing countries because of its various advantages. However, due to the lack of management constraints, CP activities often cannot keep efficient for long. To alleviate this problem, we put forward the cleaner production management (CPM) system and applied it in China. Based on our previous research, this paper constructed a comprehensive performance evaluation system to effectively supervise the implementation effect of CPM system. By analysing the flows of material, energy and information, a multi-level index system integrating the CPM requirements and sustainable development needs was established. And the quantification of performance was realized by combining the analytic hierarchy process and grey relational degree operation, which reliability was confirmed by sensitivity analysis. The case study in Chinese steel enterprise showed that after implementing CPM system for three years, the overall performance level increased by about 25%. It has confirmed that the application of CPM mode could obviously promote the sustainable green development of the steel enterprise and provide the directions for carrying out CP plans in the next step, such as strengthening innovation of management system and improving employees' awareness of CP activities. In the context of enterprises seeking sustainable development, CPM system and performance evaluation possess broad application value. [Display omitted] • Quantitative evaluation of a new management system integrating cleaner production. • Case study of the cleaner production management system applied in steel enterprise. • An index system focused on the green sustainable development benefits. • A performance evaluation method combining AHP and grey relational analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of green finance on green innovation, focusing on their spatial and non-linear relationships. Using panel data of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009–2017, a green finance index is constructed, and the spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model are used. The results reveal that: (1) Green finance and green innovation had significant positive autocorrelation, and the development of green finance in provinces of central and western China were still in the lower-level range. (2) The coefficients of the direct effect and indirect effect of green finance on green innovation were significantly positive, which indicated that green finance was conducive to enhancing green innovation in local and adjacent provinces during the research period. (3) Double threshold effects of green finance on green innovation were observed, which demonstrated that the driving effect of green finance was decreased with the raising of intensity of environmental regulation. The implication of these results is that government should make full use of the radiation and trickle-down functions of green finance and green innovation to narrow regional gaps in sustainable development while maintaining a moderate intensity of environmental regulation. • A green finance index of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2009 to 2017 was constructed on the basis of green credit, green securities, green insurance, and green investment. • The heterogeneity of region and time for green finance were analyzed employing the spatial exploratory analysis, which manifested that the spatial evolution of green finance in China presents a gradient decreasing pattern from east to west. • The impact of green finance on green innovation was explored by the spatial Durbin model, which proved that the direct effect and the spatial spillover effect were significantly positive. • Moderate intensity of environmental regulation helps green finance promote green innovation and this value should not exceed a maximum of 0.935. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The higher education is experiencing a rapid development in China, with the sharp increase of energy use and the low level of campus facility operation. Meanwhile, with the responsibility for knowledge transformation, sci-tech talents cultivation and technical innovation, universities are of great importance in the development of the sustainable society. The initiative of green campus has attracted great attention from both the society and the universities themselves. Therefore, it is very meaningful to get a full understanding of the current status of green campus development in China, and make the feasibility planning for the next step on this base. In this paper, the progress of green campus development in China is summarized, including all the initiatives to conduct the energy and resource efficient campus, and the current status of upgrading the energy and resource efficient campus to the green campus; the problems occurred during the development are analyzed, and the possible approaches and the action plan are explored accordingly, to promote the green campus development. It is found from the analysis that the development of energy and resource efficient campus has been expanded in a large scale in China, mainly aiming at the energy efficient technology application and campus energy management, and all these initiatives are strongly promoted by the national government with policy support and financial funding. With these great endeavors, an upgrade from the energy and resource efficient campus to the green campus is on progress, which expands its scope to sustainable education and the initiative of low-carbon life on campus. However, many problems also occurred during the progress, such as the lack of a good top-level design among different national ministries and the collaborative innovation among different departments in the university, and the need of a practical propulsion mode and a long-term mechanism to guarantee green campus development. Hence, some suggestions are made in terms of the administrative management, propulsion approach, evaluation standard, and action plan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China has incorporated green technology innovation into its national development strategy based on its national conditions and development needs. The emission permit system is a typical environmental regulation, and one of the driving forces of green technology innovation. Research into the pollution discharge permits system is a key for improving environmental regulations. This study seeks to investigate the impact of pollution permits system on green innovation in China. Using econometric methods, we constructed and tested the model of green technology innovation incentives based on the emission permits system, and applied it to several Chinese counties and districts. The results revealed shortcomings in implementation of the emission permits system in various counties and districts. From a governmental perspective, this was due to poor standardization of management processes and insufficiently innovative supervisory methods. On the corporate side, problems included poor auditing of law enforcement plans, poor implementation of the ledger system, and a lack of disclosure of pollution data. We propose comprehensive strategies to address these issues. This paper explores the emission reduction potential of the pollution discharge permits system at the county level, in accordance with the Porter hypothesis, and provides reference data for the formulation and optimization of energy conservation and emission reduction policies. This will promote green development of the chemical and other industries, and green technology innovation in China. • We explore the pollution discharge permits system at the county level. • We construct a model of the impact of pollution discharge permits system. • We put forward some strategies for promoting green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct index system to evaluate coupling coordination degree of socioeconomic and ecological environment in the Loess Plateau, China. • The coupling coordination degree in the Loess Plateau has been improved during 2013–2018 but not ideal. • Provide an excellent comprehensive evaluation method for the regional sustainable development. • Coupling coordination degree in the Loess Plateau show distinct spatial characteristics. The underdeveloped areas are facing many challenges in ecological environment and social transformation. The benign interaction relationship between socioeconomic development and ecological environment is essential to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) for underdeveloped areas. This paper selected the prefecture-level cities on the Loess Plateau as the study case, by evaluating the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between socioeconomic (SE) and ecological environment (EE), the temporal and spatial variations of the Loess Plateau was discussed. Based on the evaluation index system constructed, the dynamic deviation maximization method and coupling coordination degree method were adopted to evaluate the CCD from 2013 to 2018. The evaluation results showed that the coupling coordination degree of the Loess Plateau is not ideal, and most prefecture-level cities have low CCD score. More than 70% of the cities showed primary coordination and tiny coordination, and no city located to good coordination. There are 17 cities (70.83%) with CCD growth rates below 2%, and four cities showed a decreasing trend of CCD. To achieve sustainable cities and society, the government should increase financial support and reduce tax for green industries, and increase the income level of employees to avoid the loss of labor force. In addition, by increasing the intensity of environmental regulation and policy support for scientific and technological innovation, which can promote the transformation of resource-based cities and high-polluting enterprises, and reduce the damage to the ecological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although green growth has become the economic development strategy of many countries in the world, and studies have analyzed the influencing factors of green growth from multiple angles, there are few literatures devoted to the impact of fintech and green finance on green growth. From the perspective of fintech development, this paper tries to construct a comprehensive index to evaluate the green growth of regional economy based on the in-depth analysis of the influence mechanism of green finance on green growth. At the same time, China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2018 are selected to test the impact of fintech innovation and green finance on green growth, and its mechanism. It turns out that fintech and green finance significantly promotes green economic growth. At the same time, the impact of fintech and green finance on green growth has obvious regional heterogeneity, that is, the impact in eastern China is significantly stronger than that in central and western China. Further research shows that fintech innovation mainly promotes green economic growth through green credit and green investment. Therefore, fintech innovation can promote green economic growth by improving the development level of green finance, which has great reference significance for most countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]