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By employing historical case study methodology, this paper examines the transition towards renewable energy and increased energy efficiency in the Swedish pulp and paper industry (PPI) during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1973 and 1990, CO emissions were cut by 80 % in this sector, and this was mainly achieved by substituting away from oil to biofuels in the form of by-products from the pulp manufacturing process. The CO reduction was also a result of energy efficiency improvements and increased internal production of electricity through back-pressure turbine power generation. Sweden was highly dependent on oil at the advent of the first Oil Crisis in 1973, and the increased oil prices put pressure on the Swedish government and the energy-intensive PPI to reduce this oil dependency. Of central importance for the energy transition was the highly collaborative strategy of the PPI, both internally among pulp mills as well as between the sector as a whole and the corporatist Swedish state administration. The Swedish government chose a proactive strategy by emphasizing knowledge management and collaboration with the industry along with the substitution of internal biofuels for oil. The transition was also characterized by a strong focus on unutilized potentials in the PPI; a previous waste problem now could be transformed into energy savings and improved energy efficiency. Energy taxes and fees also played an important role in Swedish energy policy during the 1970s and the 1980s. All in all, the study illustrates the central role of governments and their ability to push industrial sectors into new technological pathways through a wide palette of mutually reinforcing policy instruments. The results further point at the importance of a more holistic understanding of the interplay between different policies and their impacts in the longer run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the eco-efficiency assessment of the pulp and paper industry in Myanmar by using the key indicators such as raw material consumption, energy consumption, total waste output, water consumption, and CO emissions. The study was carried out by using quantitative methods for data analysis of the production, consumptions and emissions from fiscal year 2001–2005. The results revealed that the level of economic and environmental performance using the eco-efficiency ratio for each fiscal year has decreased since year 2002, and factory tried to increase the level of eco-efficiency again in year 2005. There was the positive aspect that factory could optimize the waste utilization by transferring lime mud to the cement factory in the last two fiscal years. This analysis showed the root causes that led to the losses of material, energy and water consumption and discussed how to conserve those utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region has become the global hotspot of air pollution, and stubble burning in northern India has increased the concern due to its impact on air quality and health. The current study focuses on studying the diurnal variation of air pollutants for the first time covering Haryana, India, and identifying the sources responsible for air pollutants emissions during the different seasons of the year. Based on ecology and cropping pattern, the study area was divided in three zones. In all seasons, the diurnal peak concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) were found highest in Zone 2 as compared to Zone 1 and Zone 3, which can be due to the high polluting districts located in Zone 2 including Hisar where thermal power plants, stainless steel producing industry and pulp and paper industry are located along with district Faridabad which is known as the industrial capital of Haryana. The lowest average hourly concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 was found in late afternoon hours in winter, pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season in all three zones due to a decrease in traffic volumes which lead to low emission rates along with increase in the mixing height which cause favorable dispersion conditions. The lowest hourly mean concentration of CO, NOx and NH3 in all zones was found during the afternoon hours in all seasons. The study also focuses on understanding the day and time patterns and the maxima and minima of pollutants concentrations in different zones of Haryana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global production of nondegradable catering straws has skyrocketed due to their versatile properties, which results in significant CO2 emissions and pollution of the ecological system. While paper and polylactic acid straws have gained increasing popularity in the beverage industry, there needs to be more investigation of the vital product properties determining their hedonic differences. This study systematically compared the properties of paper, polylactic acid and plastic straws, and their impacts on the consumer experience and willingness. Results showed that the open structure of paper straws prompted water penetration and absorption, reaching a water absorption of 30% after 10-min wetting, which might affect the taste of the drink. In contrast, the compact polymer matrices of polylactic acid straws prevented mass exchange in their use for drinking but retarded product biodegradation under natural conditions. Results of consumer testing showed that while the participants had a comparable liking of paper and polylactic acid straws to insert into a drink (i.e., 4.16 and 4.47 out of 5, respectively), the intrinsic difference was covered up by the open-ended capping for beverages. For the "fully sealed on top" dataset, paper straws dropped to 3.46, while that for polylactic acid straws remained at 4.70. Furthermore, a biodegradable straw easily inserted into a drink without fracture may positively prompt merchants' revenue. This study is expected to pave the way for the advancement and widespread use of bio-based products. Highlights: 30% water absorption in biodegradable paper straws affects the taste of drinks. Preferable polylactic acid straws had < 0.3% mass loss after 30 days in natural soil. Open-ended design of beverages covers up liking differences between straws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of organic components of snow cover is carried out in the influence zone of emissions from a pulp-and-paper mill. The contribution of organic compounds to the pool of emissions of chemical pollutants during the period of snow cover formation is assessed. Criteria for establishing the pollution of natural complexes by organic substances in the influence zone of emissions from a pulp-and-paper mill are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impacts of industrial collaborative agglomeration on industrial sulfur dioxide intensity from a spatiotemporal perspective based on panel data on the 284 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019, with systematic consideration of the underlying mechanism of channels and actions. The empirical results show that industrial co-agglomeration significantly intensifies industrial SO2 intensity, especially with increasing agglomeration. In addition, its positive spatial spillover effects are established in geographical proximity to the city. Furthermore, the channel analysis shows that the industrial structure path, industrial efficiency path, and industrial scale path account for a sharp increase in industrial SO2 intensity. The market forces reverse and moderate this exacerbating process more significantly than the government does, which provides evidence for the importance of pursuing a dynamic equilibrium between them. Finally, there exist heterogeneous effects across cities with different administrative levels, innovation capacities, and macropolicies of special emission limits for air pollutant policy. While arguing for the environmental pollution effects of industrial co-agglomeration, this paper also provides solid support and a new perspective for promoting sustainable economic development and achieving win–win economic and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution destroys the sustainable development of industries worldwide, and its effect on structural changes is the focus of discussion. This paper constructs a model of the structural change of environmental pollution impacts and then, empirically estimates using panel data of Chinese cities from 2003 to 2020. The paper found that the more manufacturing pollutants are discharged, the more serious the manufacturing cost disease(MCD). Compared with low-productivity manufacturing, environmental pollution in high-productivity industries increases sector costs more. Then, this paper verifies that MCD and real wages are two key channels through which pollution emissions affect the share of the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban areas, primary and secondary organic aerosols are typically considered to originate from vehicular traffic emissions. However, industrial emissions within or in the vicinity of urban areas may also be significant contributors to carbonaceous aerosol concentrations. This hypothesis was tested and validated in two urban areas in Spain. The observed unusual dominance of organic carbon (OC) over elemental carbon (EC), the analysis of the variability of OC, EC and OC/EC and their correlation with transport patterns suggested the presence of OC sources associated with industrial activities. A methodology based on chemical speciation of particulate matter (PM) followed by the application of receptor modelling techniques allowed for the identification of the specific industrial sources of OC, which were linked to primary OC emissions from a grain drying plant (cereal) and to secondary OC formation from paper production activities (paper mills), as well as from urban sources and biogenic emissions. This work presents an integrated approach to identifying and characterizing of industrial sources of carbonaceous aerosols in urban areas, aiming to improve the scarce body of literature currently available on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has long exercised environmental control through the imposition of sewage charges. The start of the environmental protection tax on January 1, 2018, means that China has entered a new phase of environmental control. Unlike many previous studies on the role of environmental taxes at the firm level, this paper examines whether environmental taxes affect pollution emissions by influencing the behavioral choices of micro-actors. This paper first reviews the Pyrrhic tax, the Porter hypothesis, and the "double dividend effect." We then construct provincial panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2019 as a sample, use the environmental protection tax as a natural experiment to evaluate the policy of this environmental protection tax using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences model, investigate the intermediate transmission mechanism of the policy implementation, and then analyze the differences in policy effects between provinces with different levels of economic development. The increased tax burden in 2018 led to a general reduction in provincial pollution emissions in which technological innovation by various groups, including firms and universities, had a mediating role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the existing applications of sensing technologies for measuring construction off-road vehicle emissions (COVE) such as earthmoving equipment. The current literature presented different measurement methods and reported the results of utilisation of new technologies for measuring COVE. However, previous papers used different technology applications covering only a part of the monitoring process with its own limitations. Since technologies are advancing and offering novel solutions, there is an urgent need to identify the gaps, re-evaluate the current methods, and develop a critical agenda for automating the entire process of collecting emissions data from construction sites, and monitoring the emission contributors across cities. This paper systematically identifies relevant papers through a search of three key databases—Web of Science, Engineering Valley and Scopus—covering the publications in the last decade from 2008 to 2017. An innovative robust research method was designed to select and analyse the relevant papers. The identified papers were stored in a data set, and a thematic algorithm employed to find the clusters of papers which might be potentially relevant. The selected papers were used for further micro-thematic analysis to find key relevant papers on COVE, and the gap in the literature. A sample of relevant papers was found relevant to COVE and critically reviewed by coding and content analysis. This paper critically reviews the selected papers and also shows that there is a considerable gap in the applications of new technologies for measuring in-use COVE in real time based on real activities toward automated methods. This review enables practitioners and scholars to gain a concrete understanding of the gap in measuring COVE and to provide a significant agenda for future technology applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yamuna River, a vital water source in India, poses a profound challenge concerning water purity across its entire stretch. The comprehensive review aims to thoroughly examine the river's water quality, shedding light on the sources of pollution and their consequences for both ecological systems and public health. The primary objective of this review is to examine the published research papers concerning the Yamuna River water quality stretching from Yamunotri to Prayagraj and its resulting impact on human health. This paper also comprises a wide range of pollutants mainly caused by human activity; during the strange period of COVID-19 lockdown, when all industries were closed, resulting in changes in water quality, signifies the destructive effects of human activity on the river. Studies uncover that the most contaminated areas are Nizamuddin of Delhi region and D/S of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, which includes the foremost level of faecal coliforms to be around 210000–11000000 and 450–6100000, respectively. The total coliforms were found to be between 700000–28000000 and 2200–32000000, respectively. Biochemical oxygen demands, industrial discharge, urban waste and agriculture are identified as the most responsible factors for this contamination. After the COVID-19 lockdown, all industries were open, and now, the conditions are the same as before COVID-19. The primary insight to be assembled is that the ecological balance of the Yamuna River and public health depend on the immediate requirement for effective wastewater treatment solutions. Besides offering valuable data by compiling findings from multiple studies, this review underscores the importance of implementing stringent regulations on industrial emissions, upgrading sewage treatment plants, and promoting eco-friendly farming methods to tackle pollution in the Yamuna River and also manage the rural and urban areas of the sewage pipeline plan. It stresses the importance of safeguarding the Yamuna River ecosystem's inherent socioeconomic benefits while alleviating the environmental harm caused by pervasive pollution. Essentially, the study calls for prompt and comprehensive measures to ensure the sustainable health of this crucial water resource in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper firstly uses the DEA-based Range Directional Model (RDM) and the Global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to calculate the Green Efficiency Index (GEI) of China's cities under the constraints of pollution emissions, energy consumption, and natural resource occupancy. The GEI shows that the average green efficiency of the 285 sample cities achieved a total improvement of 10.1% from 2003 to 2019. The average cumulative improvement rate of green efficiency in the 110 cities in Pollutants Emission Trading Pilot Scheme (PETPS) from 2003 to 2019 was 14.9%, which was higher than the average of non-pilot cities (8.6%). Subsequently, this paper constructs a spatial difference-in-differences model (Spatial-DID) to empirically test the green efficiency promotion effect of PETPS from two aspects: local and spatial spillover. It is found that PETPS can promote the progress of local green efficiency in pilot cities, but there is a spatial spillover effect that is not conducive to the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that the launch of PETPS will significantly reduce the clustering of industrial production activities in the pilot cities, thereby accelerating the green efficiency progress. However, PETPS can also promote clustering of industrial production activities in surrounding areas, thereby inhibiting the green efficiency progress in surrounding areas. These analysis results can fully explain the cause of the negative spatial spillover effect of PETPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of industrial robots is considered a significant factor affecting environmental pollution. Selecting industrial wastewater discharge, industrial SO2 emissions and industrial soot emissions as the evaluation indicators of environmental pollution, this paper uses the panel data model and mediation effect model to empirically examine the impact of industrial robots on environmental pollution and its mechanisms. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Industrial robots can significantly reduce environmental pollution. (2) Industrial robots can reduce environmental pollution by improving the level of green technology innovation and optimizing the structure of employment skills. (3) With the increase in emissions of industrial wastewater, industrial SO2, and industrial dust, the impacts generated by industrial robots are exhibiting trends of a "W" shape, gradual intensification, and progressive weakening. (4) Regarding regional heterogeneity, industrial robots in the eastern region have the greatest negative impact on environmental pollution, followed by the central region, and the western region has the least negative impact on environmental pollution. Regarding time heterogeneity, the emission reduction effect of industrial robots after 2013 is greater than that before 2013. Based on the above conclusions, this paper suggests that the Chinese government and enterprises should increase investment in the robot industry. Using industrial robots to drive innovation in green technology and optimize employment skill structures, reducing environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial symbiotic agglomeration is important for promoting the circular economy and reducing pollution emissions. This paper examines the effects of industrial symbiotic agglomeration on pollution emissions using the staggered difference-in-difference model. The findings suggest the following: (1) industrial symbiotic agglomeration reduces total urban pollution emissions, with significant reductions in SO2 and wastewater, although not in solid waste and PM2.5 emissions. (2) The emission reduction effect is achieved mainly through green innovation, the recycling effect, and structural optimization, whereas the cost reduction effect of symbiotic agglomeration is not obvious. (3) Industrial symbiotic agglomeration promotes emission reduction in neighboring cities within a 300-km range, and this reduction decays with geographical distance. In addition, the pollution emission reduction effect of industrial symbiotic agglomeration is only realized when its size reaches 187.17 km2, with the effect becoming stronger as the size increases. At present, industrial symbiotic agglomeration mainly plays an emission reduction effect in non-resource cities. This paper provides a new way to promote the green development of industry and region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is known as the lifeline of national development, and from the last decade or so, the security of human energy supply has been frequently disturbed by natural disasters due to global warming and frequent geological activities. In this paper, by combing the literature, we found that the past literature on the relationship between energy and natural disasters mainly focused on measuring energy consumption under natural disasters, but less on the integrated evaluation of human economic activities, energy security and natural disasters, and less on the evaluation of the energy governance efficiency of each provincial, municipal, and autonomous region government in preventing and managing exposure to natural disasters from the perspective of Chinese provinces. Therefore, in order to fill the gap in the literature in this field, this paper collects panel data of energy consumption efficiency stages and natural disaster treatment stages from 2013 to 2017 for 30 provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as Tibet Autonomous Region) and uses the two-stage undesirable dynamic DDF model as a framework to study the relationship between economic, environmental pollution and natural disasters for the sample data and to analyze the phase-by-phase evaluation of energy and natural disaster efficiency and make corresponding policy recommendations. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The overall efficiency of China's eastern coastal provinces is higher than that of the central and western provinces. (2) The first-stage efficiency of Chinese provinces is better than the second stage, and the difference in efficiency of the first stage of each province is smaller than that of the second stage. (3) In terms of the efficiency of disaster prevention and relief inputs, the efficiency values are generally lower in most regions of China. (4) Finally, the annual efficiency of natural disaster losses is not high in all regions, and the efficiency values are higher in the eastern coastal regions than in the central and western regions. Accordingly, this paper proposes that each province should formulate relevant disaster prevention and economic development strategies according to regional characteristics, while the central government should also propose locally appropriate coordinated governance policies to effectively control carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution, as well as increase disaster prevention publicity and incorporate disaster prevention education-related work into the performance assessment mechanism of local governments to promote the interactive development of the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions has received widespread attention from all around the world. In this regard, how to calculate the carbon footprint (CF) scientifically and accurately produced by human activities to achieve emission reduction goals has been widely discussed by scholars. In recent years, related research on this issue has increased, leading to a significant expand in the number of publications. It is necessary to excavate and summarize the current development status and possible future trends of this field based on quantitative methods. To achieve this goal, this paper develops a main path analysis (MPA) of the entire field and three research sub-topics (agriculture, energy fuels, and business economic) based on the 4973 papers extracted from Web of Science (WoS) database. The results show that the CF domain mainly focuses on optimizing the CF calculation methods from a theoretical perspective to improve the accuracy of estimation. Furthermore, scholars engaged in the agricultural research mainly focus on adjusting the life cycle assessment (LCA) model, which has advantage on microlevel CF accounting, according to actual needs to achieve more accurate predictions, while researchers who pay attention to the topic of business economic are committed to improving the input–output model, which is suitable for meso and macro analysis, to enhance accounting accuracy. In general, this article is beneficial for presenting the intellectual structure and knowledge diffusion trajectories of the CF domain from horizontal and vertical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many alternative fuel technologies have been studied for the transport sector to increase its sustainability while reducing costs, greenhouse gases (GHG), and air pollution emissions. Nevertheless, conventional diesel is still the predominant fuel for heavy-duty trucks. Road freight transport consumes 25% of the world's energy and is responsible for emissions with local health impacts and the global greenhouse effect. In this context, this paper reviewed items from 2015 to 2020 to analyze the technologies available for the road freight transport regarding pollutant and GHG emissions. Results are presented in two parts: first quantitatively, quantitative data was extracted from reviewed papers and statistically treated and, second, qualitatively through a comparative chart, which shows the impact on air pollutants from the use of a different type of fuels. In general, papers are mostly concerned with particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and hydrocarbons (HC) emissions due to its impact on public health, with a low number of papers covering GHG emissions. The trade-off between different fuels and how this process can impact emissions, sometimes increasing or decreasing specific pollutants, is discussed. According to the analyzed papers, the main characteristics that affect the pollutant emissions are, in general, the fuel oxygen content and the combustion chamber temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the continuous development of new energy vehicles, an increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) are being integrated into microgrids, which impacts the operation of microgrids. It is necessary to analyze the emission scheduling of microgrids connected with EVs to ensure the smooth and reliable operation of microgrids with EV integration. This paper aims to realize optimal microgrid scheduling. This article took the case of EV connection with microgrids through orderly charging and discharging. Firstly, mathematical models for each output unit in the microgrid were established. Then, aiming to minimize both the operational cost and pollution emission treatment cost of the microgrid, an emission dispatch optimization model was developed. The whale optimization algorithm (WOA) was chosen as the solving algorithm, and an improved WOA (IWOA) was obtained by optimizing the original WOA in terms of population initialization and position updating parameters. An example analysis revealed that the IWOA demonstrated superior optimization performance compared to other optimization algorithms. In the scenario of orderly charging and discharging, the EVs discharged during peak hours and charged during off-peak hours to balance the microgrid load. The operating cost obtained through the IWOA was 967.25 yuan, and the pollution emission treatment cost was 241.52 yuan, resulting in a total cost of 1208.77 yuan. These results confirm the reliability of the proposed IWOA in solving the model and its applicability in optimizing microgrids with EV integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions is China's solemn commitment to solving the problem of climate change and building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. By constructing a noncompetitive hybrid input–output table, this paper investigates the effect of industrial restructuring on the intensity of CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study, industrial restructuring from 1994 to 2008 increased CO2 emission intensity in most sectors, with a particularly significant contribution in sectors with high CO2 emission intensity. The suppression effect of industrial restructuring on the intensity of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in various sectors is limited, with an impact of no more than 11%, but the reduction effect on sectors with high intensity of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions is relatively significant. From 2008 to 2015, more than 92% of all industrial sectors reduced their own greenhouse gas emission intensity as a result of industrial restructuring, with a significant curbing effect on CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions in the industrial sector have received widespread attention around the world, and achieving carbon peak in the industrial sector has become an important component of achieving sustainable development. However, there are significant differences in the level of industrial development across different regions in some countries, and a differentiated peak path needs to be formulated accordingly. In this paper, we construct a methodology system for industrial carbon peak, which includes "sector clustering—factor decomposition—scenario analysis—path selection." We design a national industrial carbon peak path at the provincial level and conduct empirical analysis using China as an example. The results show that industrial investment scale is the most important factor promoting the growth of carbon emissions in each plate. The Chinese government's goal of achieving carbon peak in the industrial sector before 2030 is highly reasonable and feasible. By comprehensively considering emission reduction effectiveness and implementation difficulty, the best industrial peak path is selected. The corresponding ratio of China's industrial carbon emissions in 2030 to the benchmark year is most likely to be between 1.043 and 1.054, and the degree of implementation difficulty is moderate. In addition, several differentiated macro-policy recommendations for each cluster's development are proposed based on their actual development, which can provide useful references and guidance for local governments in formulating their development plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goals of this paper are to examine whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) holds and to investigate whether renewable energy consumption can decrease CO2 emissions in the USA using monthly data spanning the period 2000:M01–2018:M07. For these purposes, the paper employs a cointegration test with a regime shift and observes the long-run coefficients before and after the regime shift. The findings support the presence of the EKC. The findings also indicate that renewable energy consumption has negative effects on CO2 emissions, while these effects are greater when the share of renewable energy consumption in total energy consumption is higher in the USA. Theoretical and practical implications for these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the global ecological environment deteriorating, the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) concept advocates that economic growth and environmental protection must go hand in hand. Green taxations, in particular, are critical to economic development as they serve as a key lever for the government in regulating the national economy and improving environmental quality. This paper aims to examine the pollution reduction effect of green taxation in China. We constructed fixed effect model using provincial panel data from 2012 to 2017 to empirically examine the effect of green taxation—including environment protection tax, consumption tax, resource tax, and vehicle purchase tax—on pollution emissions. The findings show that environmental protection tax has a significant inhibitory effect on exhaust gas emissions but a poor inhibitory effect on wastewater and industrial solid waste emissions. Other green taxations—consumption tax, resource tax, and vehicle purchase tax—do not have an ideal inhibitory effect on pollution emissions. The paper concludes with policy recommendations organized around improving the environmental protection tax, actively promoting the ESG concept, and optimizing the top-level design of the green taxation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the adoption of SO2 emission tax rates higher than the legal minimum standard is regarded as a noteworthy policy reform in China (quasi-natural experiment), and a spatial Difference-in-Differences (Spatial-DID) model is constructed to test the direct effects (local effects) and indirect effects (spatial spillover effects) of SO2 emission tax policy reform on PM2.5 concentrations in the atmosphere of 285 China's cities. The estimation and calculation results of the Spatial-DID model show that the SO2 emission tax policy reform can significantly reduce local PM2.5 concentration and significantly promote PM2.5 concentration in surrounding areas. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the SO2 emission tax policy reform can produce a relatively more beneficial spatial spillover effect in eastern cities and higher administrative level cities, while the pollutants emission rights trading and the reform of NOx emission tax rates can produce beneficial spatial spillover effects when cooperating with the reform of SO2 emission tax rates. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that the higher SO2 emission tax rate can aggravate the surrounding PM2.5 pollution by promoting the aggregation level of industrial production factors and the industrial SO2 emission intensity in the surrounding areas, which can support the existence of the pollution heaven effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the level of new-type urbanization and unravel the spatial and nonlinear effects of new-type urbanization and technological innovation on industrial carbon emissions. Although the impact of traditional urbanization levels on carbon emissions has been widely studied, there is still a huge room for optimization, and the impact of new-type urbanization on carbon emissions has not yet been clarified. Selecting 37 cities in the Yangtze River Delta as a research sample, this paper measures the new-type urbanization based on an evaluation system we build. Consequently, we assess the spatial and nonlinear effects of new-type urbanization and technological innovation on carbon emissions by the spatial Durbin model and non-parameter addictive model, respectively. The results indicate that the new-type urbanization and low-carbon city pilot policy have significant spatial spillover effects on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while the economic growth plays a positive role in increasing carbon emission. As for nonlinear effects, there is a significant inverted "N"-shaped relationship between the level of new-type urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions, while the nexus between technological innovation and carbon emissions is an inverted "U"-shaped relationship. This paper provides a new perspective for confirming the mechanism of the new-type urbanization on carbon emissions. Meanwhile, these findings are of significance for the relevant authorities in China to develop appropriate policy in carbon dioxide emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impacts of the per capita income, the per capita energy consumption, and the trade openness on the level of per capita carbon emissions in the panel dataset of 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 1960-2013. Along with the nominal trade openness, the paper uses a different trade openness measure, so called as the 'trade potential index' (TPI). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that uses the TPI in the empirical environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis literature. The paper finds that the EKC hypothesis is valid and there is an 'inverted-U' relationship between the income and the carbon emissions. In addition, the paper observes that there is a positive effect of the energy consumption on the carbon emissions. Furthermore, the results indicate that both trade openness measures are negatively associated with the carbon emissions in the OECD countries in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth rate of China's economy, the extensive pattern of economic growth of "high energy consumption and low output" has magnified the constraints of energy issues on China's economic development and environmental protection, which highlights the importance of improving energy efficiency. As one of the three major economic zones in China, the Pearl River Delta region also faces high energy consumption and pollution emissions while developing at a high speed. Hence, improving the energy efficiency of the Pearl River Delta region is needed, as it not only is conducive to driving its development of the surrounding green economy, but also promotes the subsequent sustainable economic development. However, there are few literatures on the calculation and analysis of energy efficiency in the Pearl River Delta, and lacking a systematic analysis of input–output index system of energy efficiency measurement. Therefore, this paper calculates the energy efficiencies and the Malmquist indexes based on the panel data of the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta from 2005 to 2019 through super-efficiency SBM model and Malmquist index method by using MAXDEA and MATLAB software. The result illustrates that all regions in the Pearl River Delta except Guangzhou and Shenzhen show obvious energy inefficiency, which is mainly caused by the imbalance between technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Based on the calculation results, this paper gives some relevant suggestions for the further approach of energy reform in the Pearl River Delta according to the calculation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development of agriculture is the basis for achieving social sustainable development. As the basic industry of national economy, green development of agriculture has become an important support for building an environment-friendly society. Agricultural fiscal expenditure is a direct channel for the government to support agriculture and promote agricultural transformation. It is important to analyze the impact of agricultural fiscal expenditure (AFE) on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) for sustainable agricultural development. Therefore, this paper employs the random effect model and spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of AFE on AGTFP by using the agricultural panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020. Then, by taking the policy proposal as the time node, this paper also conducts a time heterogeneity analysis to measure the impact of policy enactment on AFE and AGTFP. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) AGTFP exists significant positive spatial spillover effect. The "radiation effect" of agricultural green development is significant. (2) AFE can significantly reduce the AGTFP in the local area, that is, 1% increase of AFE in the local area will reduce AGTFP by 0.037%. At present, agriculture is still yield-oriented. The improvement of AFE in the local area will lead to the expansion of local agricultural production and increase pollution emission. (3) AFE has a significant negative spatial spillover effect on AGTFP, that is, for every 1% increase in AFE, the AGTFP will decrease 0.123% in geographically similar areas, while the AGTFP will decrease by 0.116% in economically and geographically similar areas. It is obvious that AFE will promote the optimization of agricultural production conditions in the province, with the "demonstration effect" on the surrounding areas, the enthusiasm of production in the surrounding areas will increase, thus expanding the pollution emission. (4) According to the analysis of different periods, AFE has a negative impact on AGTFP mainly before the reform innovation is proposed in 2015. It indicates that reform policies have a significant impact on agricultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper aims to promote the transition to low/zero emission of the local public transport, particularly, urban buses are taken into account. Method: The life cycle assessment of electric and biomethane-fuelled urban buses is performed by exploiting SimaPro commercial software (v.9.1.1.). Attention is focused on powertrains. Both midpoint and endpoint analyses are performed. Referring to environmental impact, the best compressed biomethane gas (CBG) powertrain was compared to the best electric one. Additionally, the worst-case scenario has been considered for both CBG and electric powertrains. Results: CBG powertrain outperforms the electric one if overall greenhouse gas emissions are considered. However, the electric powertrain seems promising for human health and ecosystem. Conclusions: The environmental performance of the two powertrains is good. Both of the two technologies have strength and weak points that anyhow make them good candidates for a clean local public transport of the future. The analysis performed in the paper suggests a future investigation on hybrid electric-CBG powertrain. Actually, such a solution could benefit from both the strengths of the biomethane and the electric powertrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development trend of industrial carbon emissions in Bengbu city, Anhui Province in the next ten years, and how to help the industry reach the carbon peak as soon as possible. The research process and conclusions are as follows: (1) Through literature review and carbon emission index method, five main factors affecting industrial carbon emission are identified. (2) The resistance model is used to analyze the main resistance factors of industrial carbon emission reduction in Bengbu city. (3) Based on the existing data of Bengbu city from 2011 to 2020, the grey prediction EGM (1,1) model is used to predict the industrial carbon emissions of Bengbu city from 2021 to 2030. The results show that among the five factors, the urbanization rate has the most significant impact on industrial carbon emissions, while energy intensity has the least impact. Bengbu's industrial carbon emissions will continue to increase in the next decade, but the growth rate will be flat. Based on the findings of the analysis, specific recommendations on urbanization development, energy structure, and industrial structure of Bengbu city are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is an important part of ecological environment problems. Gaseous energy combustion pollution is a key part of air pollution. Analysis of its spatial distribution and drivers is important to effectively manage air quality and promote regional green development. This paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019 to analyze the spatial distribution and drivers of gaseous energy combustion pollution in each province of China through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis based on the spatial Durbin model, and further decompose the spatial effects of each influencing factor. The empirical results show, firstly, that inter-provincial gaseous energy combustion pollution in China shows significant spatial differences and cluster characteristics. Secondly, most areas are located in high–high aggregation area and low–low aggregation area. Finally, population, energy consumption and other independent variables have different impacts on gaseous energy combustion pollution in different regions. The changes of these variables will affect the adjacent areas through spatial transmission while affecting a region. According to the empirical results, this study proposes policy recommendations to balance the pollution degree of gaseous energy combustion in various regions and effectively reduce the emissions of various pollution sources. The research results are helpful to understand the spatial distribution of gaseous energy combustion pollution in various regions of China, provide reference for the future development of various regions, and have important practical significance for the reduction and balance of pollution levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One essential component that reflects the development of society and the economy of most countries is life expectancy (LEXP). Nevertheless, LEXP can be influenced by varying factors, including socioeconomic and medical factors. Therefore, this analysis's focal point and motivation is to explore how socioeconomic factors such as economic growth, technological innovation, carbon emission, human capital, and renewable energy affect LEXP. The study utilized panel data from 1990 to 2020 from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which consists of the USA, Mexico, and Canada. The initial test confirmed that the research series were stationary and cointegrated. Therefore, the research applied the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model to predict the paper's short- and long-term estimates. The empirical estimated model concluded that human capital, renewable energy, technological innovation, and economic growth boost life expectancy. Contrarily, the outcome espoused that carbon emission has an inverse association with LEXP. The causality test confirmed a unidirectional interaction between human capital, economic growth, technological innovation, and life expectancy. On the other hand, there is a bidirectional connection between carbon emission, renewable energy, and life expectancy. The research suggests that stakeholders and policy-makers strengthen and enforce air quality standards to reduce pollution from industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust and encourage using cleaner technologies to promote LEXP. The research outcome is empirically and theoretically consistent, providing an essential breakthrough for environment-health-energy and economic development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the life and production of our society are still accompanied by high pollution emissions. The proposal of the "double carbon" goal puts forward clearer requirements for China's energy conservation and emission reduction process. To cope with stricter green development requirements, green finance came into being, contributing a new path to the realization of the "double carbon" goal. This paper is based on the panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China (except Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2011 to 2020, using the fixed effect model, threshold model, mediator model, and SDM model to study the impact of green finance on carbon neutralization capacity and its impact path based on reasonable measurement of regional green finance development level and carbon neutralization capacity. The study found that due to the existence of the "green paradox" and "forced emission reduction", China's green finance has a significant positive U-shaped impact path on carbon neutralization capacity; at the same time, informal regulation has a significant single-threshold effect in this path. When informal regulation crosses 0.47, the impact of green finance on carbon neutralization capacity will change from negative to positive, overcoming the impact of the "green paradox"; there is a nonlinear mediating effect of marketization level and technological innovation in the path of green finance affecting carbon neutralization capacity. In addition, green finance not only affects local carbon neutralization capacity but also has a positive spillover effect on neighboring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article evaluates establishment of development zones and its association with carbon emissions. In the process of industrialization, carbon emissions in underdeveloped regions of the world increase with economic growth. In order to promote economic growth in the western region and strengthen the management of enterprise pollution emissions, the Chinese government has set up hundreds of development zones. Existing research shows that development zone establishment can promote economic growth; however, literature is scarce when the relationship is tested across region. Based on the panel data of five provinces with relatively backward economy in western China from 2001 to 2017, this paper constructs a "multi-period difference-in-difference" (DID) model with the establishment of development zones as a "quasi-natural experiment" to test the relationship. Findings reveal that development zone establishment increases carbon emissions in the region, and has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions at national level. The conclusions of this paper provide empirical evidence and policy implications for reducing carbon emissions in economically underdeveloped areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to revisit the interdependency between business conditions, climate policy change, and the environmental pollution of the USA. Interestingly, our paper represents a completion to the existing literature on three levels at least. First, we propose to analyze this issue during normal periods and periods of turmoil, particularly the COVID-19 outbreak. To do so, contrary to previous studies that used economic growth, we employ the ADS index as a real-time business conditions measurement. Second, we employ a frequency approach, based on the continuous wavelet transform, allowing us to understand the nature of the relationship. Understanding whether the relationship holds in the short- or long-term is useful for policymakers in monitoring public policies to achieve CO2 emission reduction as well as to investors interested in high value-added projects. Our analysis shows that, during the last two decades, the relationship between business conditions as well as climate uncertainty index and CO2 emissions is observed during the long- and short-term, and driven through economic conditions. However, during the crisis periods, the effect is detected across various scales and the relationship is bi-directional. Our results have several practical implications for the US policymakers to consider when setting policies for fighting pollution emissions and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban carbon emissions are one of the most important areas contributing to the growth of carbon emissions, and resource-dependent cities with natural resource extraction and processing as their leading industries tend to have higher carbon emissions. Ordos is the city with the highest coal production in China, and its economic development is dominated by coal, oil and gas, and other resource extraction and processing industries, with industrial activities making a large contribution to carbon emissions. At the same time, Ordos has undergone rapid industrialization in recent years, but still faces the problem of environmental pollution, epitomizing a typical resource-dependent city in China. Therefore, this paper takes Ordos as an example and uses the Generalized Divisa Index Method (GDIM) to study the drivers of industrial carbon emissions in Ordos from 2005–2020, a typical resource-dependent city in China, and further analyzes are conducted in relation to the three phases of development. Based on the key drivers, the Monte Carlo method is used to forecast industrial carbon emissions from 2021 to 2030. The results show that the most important factors driving the growth of industrial carbon emissions are the scale of industrial output and industrial energy consumption, while the intensity of industrial energy investment is the most important factor mitigating industrial carbon emissions, and that energy efficiency and carbon intensity of energy consumption can also mitigate carbon emissions after economic transformation. At the same time, investment is the factor with the greatest potential for optimization on the path to emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of grain production and quality has always been a fundamental issue for the country's livelihood. With the purpose of contributing to high-quality grain development and ensuring national food security, this paper explores the spatial and temporal evolution, regional differences and convergence of grain green total factor productivity (GTFP) in the main grain-producing regions of China from the dual perspectives of carbon emissions and surface pollution with the help of EBM-GML model, kernel density function estimation and convergence methods. The results show that (1) Grain GTFP has generally shown a positive growth trend, although there exists obvious spatial differences. (2) In terms of decomposition indices, technological progress is the source of the increase in grain GTFP. (3) There are σ convergence, absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence in the main producing region as well as in the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze River basin; there are only absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence in the Songhua River basin. Grain GTFP has a single high-efficiency convergence point, and the grain GTFP is enhancing year by year in each province, and the inter-provincial gap is shrinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether China's carbon emissions trading (CET) has an impact on the financial performance of the market players of carbon trading, i.e., firms, is crucial to the sustainable development of national economy and carbon trading market. Based on the panel data of the listed firms in the seven high energy-consuming industries in China during 2010-2017, this paper uses the DID model to study the impact of CET on the firms' financial performance. The empirical results show that the impact of CET on firms' financial performance presents obvious industrial heterogeneity; CET policy reduces the financial performance of firms in the nonferrous metal industry but improves that in the power industry. In addition, with the implementation of CET policy, its impact on the financial performance of firms in the nonferrous metal and power industries is increasingly intensifying. Finally, there is a lag of 2-4 years on the impact of CET on the firms' financial performance in the chemical, paper and aviation industries, and the effects change from negative to positive over time. That is, CET policy can hardly ensure that all firms are profitable in the short term, but there is still the possibility of profitability in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry is a core area to achieve the carbon neutrality target for most developing countries including China. Hence, it is of great practical significance to study the spatio-temporal characteristics of China's industrial carbon intensity and its evolution. The exploratory spatial data analysis methods were adopted to conduct global and local spatial correlation analysis in this paper. The result shows that (1) the industrial carbon emission intensity decreases year by year, with high industrial carbon emission intensity in the West and low in the East. (2) There is a correlation in the spatial distribution of industrial carbon intensity, with the Moran index experiencing the stage of descending first and then ascending. (3) The local spatial clustering of industrial carbon intensity is obvious. (4) Half of the provinces have experienced a leap, with the majority located in the western part of China. Based on these findings, it is concluded that industrial emission reduction policy synergy between provinces is particularly important, such as low-carbon industrial production policy and green industry development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the policy background of "joint prevention and control" of global greenhouse gas emission reduction and regional air pollutants, the power industry, as an important target industry of energy conservation and emission reduction policies, has become an effective choice to release dual pressures. In this paper, the "bottom-up" emission factor method was used to measure the emission of CO2 and NOX from 2011 to 2019. Then, the contributions of six factors to NOX emission reduction in China's power industry were identified using the Kaya identity and logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) decomposition methods. The research results show that (1) there is a significant synergistic emission reduction effect between CO2 emission reduction and NOX emission reduction; (2) the factor that inhibits the growth of NOX emissions reduction in the power industry is economic development factor; and (3) the main factors that promote the reduction of NOX emission from the power industry are synergy effect, energy intensity, power generation intensity, and power production structure factors. Several suggestions are proposed, which are the power industry should adjust its structure, improve energy intensity, focus on applying low-nitrogen combustion technology, and improve the air pollutant emission information disclosure system to reduce NOX emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing air pollution is a major policy challenge, especially in densely populated urban areas where human exposure to emissions is considerable. This paper develops and examines a series of scenarios for the evolution of transport-related emissions in the area of Santiago, Chile. The study spans a time window up to 2050 and focuses on seven air pollutants and CO2. It compares a reference scenario with policy counterfactual scenarios involving a rapid electrification of public buses, a carbon pricing scheme and a kilometer charge differentiated by vehicle type. The reference scenario predicts a 55–80% reduction in air pollutants emitted by urban transport systems, by 2050. The corresponding reduction of CO2 lies at 6%, highlighting the asymmetric evolution in tailpipe filtering and carbon capture technologies. The analysis suggests that ramping up the efforts to electrify the bus fleet may eliminate 25% of the CO2 and at least 10% of the remaining air pollutant emissions in 2050. These figures increase to 45 and 30%, respectively, if rapid electrification is accompanied by one of the two tax schemes. With a distinct program to recycle the revenue from the tax schemes, the policy reform can be welfare improving for all groups and its environmental objectives can be achieved without adverse distributional consequences. The paper highlights the synergies of policies curbing climate change and tacking air pollution from the viewpoint of urban transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on a study conducted by Samar Khatiwala and colleagues at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, New York, regarding the ocean carbon problems. They further measure the amount of carbon from carbon dioxide and the amount that came from human activity. Through the used of advection-diffusion equations, they found out that Southern Ocean absorbs larger amount of emissions, with approximately 40% of the total emission.

The article discusses research conducted by Chinese Academy of Sciences' Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics physicist Wenjie Shen on metal-oxide catalysts. It was discovered that when the shape of one of these catalysts is altered, it becomes practical for use at a lower temperature. This is pertinent, as metal oxides aid in cleaning up toxic pollutants that are created due to vehicle exhaust gas emissions and other anthropogenic activities.

Combine harvesters (CHs) use large amounts of diesel fuel and they contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollutants. A reduction in fuel consumption of agricultural machines has immediate economic benefits but can also results in longer term environmental benefits. Savickas et al. (Precis Agric 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10060-6) introduced extensive telematics data analysis and field tests for identifying the potential sustainable use of CHs. This paper follows on from that research and discusses the need for an IT tool for the management of economic and environmental indicators of a CH. The innovative tool allows the comparison of the data of specific agricultural machines with the multi-year telematics data stored in the database. It offers opportunities to reduce environmental impact and evaluate the results of field trials, presenting them in terms of environmental impact, expressed as CO2 equivalents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce industrial carbon emissions, various industries have been seeking ways to reduce their own emissions. Implementing carbon trading system measures is one way to effectively control industrial carbon emissions. However, in different industrial sectors, carbon trading systems have different impact. The 14-year provincial panel data (2005–2019) were analyzed by using the propensity score matching and the difference-in-difference model to evaluate the role of the emission trading system (ETS) in reducing emissions from different industries. According to the study, ETS has reduced carbon emissions from the agricultural production sector by 1.6876%. Secondly, it also had a significant inhibitory effect on the manufacturing sector, about 24.0489. Mining, electricity production, wholesale and other industrial sectors are insignificant disincentives, and construction and transportation are insignificant facilitators. China's ETS, therefore, mainly acts as an inhibitory force for different industries, which can effectively reduce their carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are a critical concern in the realm of energy consumption, with many nations committed to curbing them and striving for carbon neutrality. This research addresses a specific gap in the literature by focusing on carbon emission reduction in the industrial sector through the application of supply chain management (SCM) principles under a monopolistic competition context and by utilizing carbon neutral indicators. Specifically, we develop a mathematical model integrated into an agent-based simulation framework and employ experimental design methods to determine the most optimal decision-making processes for incorporating supply chain carbon neutral indicators. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of two specific carbon neutral indicators within SCM: green-credit policies and the promotion of green products. These measures contribute significantly toward reducing global carbon emissions. This paper offers insights for government decision-makers regarding ideal implementation levels and strategies for green credit policies and the promotion of green products within supply chain environments. It also provides guidance to manufacturers on how to achieve profit maximization while progressing towards carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surge of carbon dioxide emission plays a dominant role in global warming and climate change, posing an enormous threat to the development of human being and a profound impact on the global ecosystem. Thus, it is essential to analyze the carbon dioxide emission change trend through an accurate prediction to inform reasonable energy-saving emission reduction measures and effectively control the carbon dioxide emission from the source. This paper proposed a hybrid model by combining the random forest and extreme learning machine together for the carbon dioxide emission forecasting in this paper; the random forest is applied for influential factors analysis and the extreme learning machine for the prediction. To improve the performance of the prediction model, moth-flame optimization is adopted to optimize initial weight and bias in extreme learning machine. A case study whose data is derived from Hebei Province, China, during the period 1995-2015 is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. Results show that the novel model outperforms the compared parallel models in carbon dioxide emission prediction and has the potential to improve the accuracy of CO2 emission forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calculation of marginal abatement costs of CO2 plays a vital role in meeting China’s 2020 emission reduction targets by providing reference for determining carbon tax and carbon trading pricing. However, most existing researches only used one method to discuss regional and industrial marginal abatement costs, and almost no studies predicted future marginal abatement costs from the perspective of CO2 emission efficiency. To make up for the gaps, this paper first estimates marginal abatement costs of CO2 in three major industries of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2015 based on three assumptions. Second, based on the principle of fairness and efficiency, China’s 2020 emission reduction targets are decomposed by province. Based on the ZSG-C-DDF model, the marginal abatement costs of CO2 in all provinces in China in 2020 are estimated and compared with the marginal abatement costs of 2005 to 2015. The results show that (1) from 2005 to 2015, marginal abatement costs of CO2 in all provinces show a fluctuating upward trend; (2) compared with the marginal abatement costs of primary industry or tertiary industry, most provinces have lower marginal abatement costs for secondary industry; and (3) the average marginal abatement costs of CO2 for China in 2020 are 2766.882 Yuan/tonne for the 40% carbon intensity reduction target and 3334.836 Yuan/tonne for the 45% target, showing that the higher the emission reduction target, the higher the marginal abatement costs of CO2. (4) Overall, the average marginal abatement costs of CO2 in China by 2020 are higher than those in 2005-2015. The empirical analysis in this paper can provide multiple references for environmental policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cobalt recycling is important for solving environmental problems such as resource shortage and pollution emissions. This paper quantifies the positive significance of cobalt recycling on resource replenishment and pollution emission by using the substance flow analysis and life cycle analysis. The results show that the proportion of recycled cobalt supplied as cobalt raw material is 7.1%, which improves the supply structure of the resource. Meanwhile, the environmental impact of recycling cobalt using the combined treatment process is low. The environmental impact of mining cobalt from mines is about 4.03–41.53 times that of recycling cobalt from cobaltiferous waste materials. However, the overall cobalt recycling is not ideal. First, the cobalt recycling rate is growing slowly. From 1994 to 2020, 245,132 t of cobalt-containing final products entered waste management in China. However, only 79,593 t of cobalt have been recycled, with a recycling rate of 32.47%. Secondly, many recycling enterprises only carry out recycling for a certain type of cobaltiferous waste materials due to the non-uniform cobalt recycling process. Finally, China's cobalt recycling policy does not divide the recycling channels for cobalt waste and does not regulate the specific process. In the future, China should set up separate recycling systems for cobaltiferous waste materials according to different categories and consider adopting combined treatment processes. China can only promote the sustainable use of cobalt if it ensures stable and orderly cobalt recycling in terms of policy and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve coordination between economic development and pollutant emissions, it is necessary to face the innovation problem of energy saving and emission reduction. Promoting the effective integration of tech and the financial system is an effective way to solve this problem. According to panel data for prefecture-level cities in China, this paper is based on the pilot policy of combining science and technology with finance implemented in 2011 as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method to evaluate the impact of Science and Technology Financial Policies (STFP) on the air pollutant emission, meanwhile, considering the spatial overflow effect of policy implementation. The research results show that: (1) The STFP has certain inhibitions on pollutant emissions, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) The policy has different effects on cities that have different scale, different regions, and different government efficiency. (3) From the results of mechanism analysis, the policy mainly enhances regional pollutant emission reduction capacity through ways such as increasing regional green total factor productivity, enhancing regional science and technology levels, and promoting regional industrial structure optimization. (4) The policy shows a negative spatial spillover effect in reducing pollutant emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]