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Compared with the impact of listed corporates' environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) on financing and market value, considerably less attention is paid to the role of ESG performance in improving environmental quality in China. However, exploring the environmental motivation of listed corporates' ESG engagement is vital for shareholder protection and corporate strategic development under state–business interactions. Thus, we study the relationship between state–business interactions and air pollution from the perspective of ESG using the dataset of Chinese listed corporates. The results demonstrate that the state–business collusion interactions increase air pollution by hindering the fulfillment of ESG. Meanwhile, this impact of heavy pollution corporates is higher than that of industrial corporates. However, the deleterious relationship might be largely improved when state–business interactions are "clean." Finally, we observe that ESG mediates the relationship between state–business interactions and pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector matters the sustainable development directly and is sensitive to climate change. A few empirical studies concentrate on how climate change influences firm performance. Climate change brings higher production costs and lower efficiency on the supply side and leads to beneficial sale performance and improves profit. However, it is ambiguous to the relationship of supply–demand and revenue‐cost levels, and their change is not consistent. Using panel data of 99 China‐listed firms active in the energy sector over the period 2000–2020, this study aims to identify the causal relation between climate change and the profitability of energy firms while controlling for firm‐specific and energy market‐related factors. The quantile regression results show that temperature deviation (TDEV) positively impacts the profitability of energy firms, and this impact varies at different quantiles of the profitability distribution. These findings remain unchanged by four robustness checks. Moreover, mechanism results indicate that revenue and cost have different interaction effects on the causal relation. The findings of this study can provide forward‐thinking expectations and assess climatic adaptation and risks, particularly inspired stakeholder engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electricity system faces load-matching pressure due to imbalances during peak times or extreme weather, making it costly to phase out coal-fired electricity and reduce carbon emissions. The electricity spot market pilot (ESMP) policy provides reserve capacities for grids, but its effectiveness on green economic development is still unknown. Therefore, using panel data from 286 cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this study analyzes the impact of the ESMP policy on green economic performance. The results indicate a significantly positive effect of the ESMP policy on green economic performance. In addition, the policy could help to phase out 6.3% of coal-fired capacity, on average, reduce coal-fired equipment utilization hours by 0.9%, and increase renewable equipment utilization hours by 4% in pilot regions. These findings provide new insights into ESMP policy and green economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of international specialization has evolved from "intra-industry" to "intra-product," resulting in the establishment of value chains that traverse all participating nations. However, it might lead to the "lock-in low-value" effect of global value chains (GVCs) and the consequential "pollution shelter" effect, which have both hindered the green transformation of the economy. Rather than solely focusing on promoting participation in GVCs, this paper seeks to expand its purview to include national value chains (NVCs) based on endogenous resource integration, with a focus on constructing and nurturing NVCs to enhance regional green economy performance index (GEPI). We find that improving NVCs positions can increase regional GEPI, while GVCs and NVCs participation inhibit GEPI. Moreover, the impact of GVCs and NVCs positions and participation on GEPI presents significant and spatiotemporal heterogeneities. Finally, the mechanism analysis demonstrates that GVCs positions increase human capital investment and NVCs positions increase the rationalization of the industrial structure, promoting green economy performance. Meanwhile, China's GVCs and NVCs participation increase the industrial proportion, which is not conducive to improving green economy performance. • Quantifying China's international trade's environmental effects through value chain specialization. • NVCs positions can strengthen the effect of the green economy performance. • Participation in value chain displays an adverse impact on green economy performance. • Investigating the heterogeneities of green economy performance along GVCs and NVCs position and participation. • Exploring channels through which of value chain specialization affect green economy performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution adversely impacts health outcomes, cognitive function, and labor productivity, however, less is known about the effect of air pollution exposure on social conflicts. Using daily air pollution, we study the effect of exposure to air pollution on social conflicts. For identification strategies, we estimate models with high-dimensional fixed effects and two instrumental variables using atmospheric inversions and wind patterns as exogenous shocks to local pollution. Our findings suggest a positive impact of air pollution on social conflicts, and the magnitude is larger with more severe pollution exposure. Moreover, the significant differences exist between social conflicts occurring in different workplaces, and those occurring at development levels, both of which are related to the extent of pollution exposure. Finally, taking lottery sales as a proxy for risk preference to investigate the potential mechanisms, we show that the increased social conflicts alone with pollution exposure may be attributed to the rising risk preference. This provides indirect support for a plausible channel through which air pollution results in behavioral and social outcomes. The results are robust to alternative specifications and placebos. The findings suggest that reducing air pollution gains the unintended consequence of preventing social conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering sectoral linkages with the transport sector during the process of its low-carbon transition is critical for meeting the emission reduction targets of the whole economy. However, the precise roles of different transport modals and their sectoral linkages and transfer mechanisms in driving carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions are unknown. This study proposes a framework integrating the hypothetical extraction method (HEM) and structural path analysis (SPA) to explore the CO 2 emission characteristics of the transport sector. Based on the above framework, we not only identify the emission sources and destinations related to various transport sub-sectors, but also reveal key channels through which emissions are transmitted along the economic network. Taking China as an example, we find there are heterogeneous characteristics of CO 2 emissions in different transport modals, in which the railway passenger transport sector and the water passenger transport sector are CO 2 emissions importers while other transport sub-sectors are CO 2 emissions exporters. Furthermore, the transport sector mainly exports CO 2 emissions to the construction and service sectors and imports emissions from electricity and heat production and supply sector. From the perspective of transfer paths in forward linkages, the main intermediate sectors of passenger transport sectors are service sectors, while those of freight transport sectors are construction sectors. From the perspective of transfer paths in backward linkages, electricity and heat production and supply sector is the main emission source and intermediate sector. When developing sector-specific and supply chain-wide low-carbon policies, it is suggested to consider the sectoral carbon linkages of each transport sub-sector. • We identify CO 2 emission drivers of transport sector in supply chains from both production and consumption perspectives. • We explore the critical transfer paths of CO 2 emissions related to different transport sub-sectors. • We link the Hypothetical extraction method and Structural path analysis based on an input-output model. • Considering sectoral linkages when formulating low-carbon policies is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-fossil energy increases the non-dispatchability of power system, requiring fossil-based technologies to provide back-up capacity as dispatchable source. In a coal-based economy like China, it is coal-fired units that act as back-up capacity. This paper shows that increase of non-fossil energy generation is associated with higher heat rates of coal-fired units, which can be explained by the decreased operating hours for dispatching. This side-effect is sizeable, accounting for 13% of carbon mitigation from non-fossil energy. The extra fuel cost is estimated to be 10.9 billion US dollars. This paper thus calls attention to alternative technologies, such as large-scale storage, as dispatchable source. • Dispatching policy ensures the exogeneity of non-fossil energy in regression. • Discussing how non-fossil energy increases the heat rate of coal-fired units. • Calling attention to the essential role of coal-fired units as dispatchable source. • Highlighting the indirect cost of integrating non-fossil energy for power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is believed to be the central issue in sustainable development. Literatures on renewables׳ costs are rather sparse, especially on costs of integration and system balancing. The objective of this paper is to fill the research gap by providing an assessment for the cost of China׳s grid-connected renewable energy development and analyze its sharing between different stakeholders. Due to China׳s pricing mechanism of renewable energy and their cost decreasing potential, the pricing model of feed-in tariff and dynamic technological learning processes are employed. In the estimation of purchasing cost, the positive bias is overcome by considering China׳s energy-saving dispatching policy. The results suggest that purchasing cost would be 32.57–40.80 billion Yuan over 2012–2020, and peak in 2017. Grid integration costs which further involve costs of grid infrastructure and system balancing are also investigated. We find that grid infrastructure will cost 27.88 billion Yuan by 2015 and soar to 45.32 billion by 2020, while system balancing will cost 31.49 billion Yuan in 2015 and 63.97 billion Yuan in 2020 among which a substantial part (over 60%) comes from electricity loss in energy transfer. The different parts of these costs are underwritten by disparate participants due to China׳s renewable energy policies and its institutional arrangement. Purchasing cost is shared by power consumers through RES; the cost of grid infrastructure is mainly covered by grid enterprises; and there is no mechanism to specify how to share the cost electricity loss during system balancing which might become a major obstacle for system balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, with a heavy dependence on coal power, has announced a clear goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. Electrification of final energy use and high penetration of renewable energy are essential to achieve this. The resulting growth of intermittent renewables and changes in demand curve profiles require greater flexibility in the power system for real-time balancing – greater ability of generators and consumers to ramp up and down. However, the plan and market system with regulated prices makes this challenging. We discuss the options to improve flexibility, including 1) increasing supply-side flexibility, through retrofitting existing power plants to boost their responsiveness; 2) promoting flexibility from power grids, through building an efficient power grid with inter-provincial and inter-regional transmission capacity to balance spatial mismatch, given that China has a vast territory; 3) encouraging demand flexibility, through demand-response measures to enable demand shifting over time and space to address fluctuations in renewable energy generation; and 4) providing flexibility from energy storage. We consider policies to achieve this, in particular, power market reforms to unlock the flexibility potential of these sources. Regulated electricity prices and lack of auxiliary services markets are major obstacles and we discuss how markets in other countries provide lessons in providing incentives for a more flexible system. • Carbon neutrality requires electrification and intermittent renewables. • Discuss options to improve flexibility in power system with high renewables. • Attention to technology and market policies in system with regulated prices and quotas. • Exploring how markets in other countries may provide lessons for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oil and gas trade is one of the main ways to promote regional economic development by improving the effectiveness of resource allocation. While regional energy cooperation could lead to growth in the energy trade, blind investment will reduce effective yields. Kazakhstan and China maintain a stable oil and gas trade, but resource exports to China are not growing as expected. The aim of this research is to analyze the competitiveness and complementarity of Kazakhstan and China in the oil and gas trade, as well as the main factors affecting the oil and gas trade between Kazakhstan and China. By creating a linear regression equation to analyze the gravity model of the oil and gas trade between Kazakhstan and China, it was revealed that a 1% growth of the gross domestic product in both countries would lead to a 1.471% increase in the oil and gas trade. However, an increase in oil and gas production in Kazakhstan will not contribute to the expansion of the oil and gas trade with China. Kazakhstan and China could improve their oil and gas trade by strengthening financial cooperation, improving energy efficiency, increasing investment in infrastructure such as oil refineries and pipelines, and developing new oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous entry of new firms and exit of old ones might have substantial effects on productivity of energy supply. Since China is the world's largest energy producer, productivity of energy supply in China is a significant issue, which affects sustainability. As a technical application, this paper investigates the productivity and dynamic changes of Chinese coal mining firms. We find that the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of coal supply in China is largely lagging behind the growth rate of coal production. The entry and exit of non-state-owned enterprise (non-SOE) partially provide explanation for the dynamic change of aggregate TFP. Specifically, non-state owned entrants induced by the coal price boom after 2003, which had negative effects on TFP of energy supply, while the exit of non-SOEs had positive effects. Furthermore, there is regional heterogeneity concerning the effects of entry and exit on energy supply productivity. More entrants induced by coal price boom are concentrated in non-main production region (non-MPR), while more exits are located in MPR due to the government's enforcement. This provides explanation for the phenomena that productivity of energy supply in MPR gradually surpasses that in non-MPR. We also anticipate our paper to enhance understanding on the energy supply-side, which might further help us make informed decisions on energy planning and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use changes have significant impacts on the carbon balance in an urban ecosystem. When there is rapid development in urbanizing regions, land use changes have a dramatic effect on vegetation carbon storage (VCS). This study investigates the impact of land use change on VCS in a period of rapid urbanization in Hangzhou, China. The results show that: 1) from 2000 to 2015, land use in Hangzhou underwent huge changes, mainly reflected in decrease in cropland and wetland and the increased settlement. More than 34.58% of the land was transformed, and the land use changes are primarily characterized by a significant decrease in cropland due to the occupation by settlement. 2) over the 15 years, changes in land use led to a decrease of 3.93 × 105 t of VCS in the urban ecosystem. The large-scale transformation of cropland and wetland, which have a comparatively high carbon density, into land for settlement exerted a negative impact on VCS. 3) The central city, which with the Circle-E/I/O mode, had the lowest comprehensive land use dynamic degree, leading to moderate land use change and an increase in VCS; Yuhang and Xiaoshan, which with Multicore-E/O/I mode and Fan-E/O/I modes, had a higher comprehensive land use dynamic degree, drastic changes in land use, and a decrease in VCS. This study proposes a reliable method of estimating changes in VCS, clarifies the relationship between land use change and VCS during rapid urbanization, and provides recommendations for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The progresses of marine meteorology studies achieved in China during the four year period from 1999 to 2002 are summarized in six directions: air-sea flux, marine meteorology in high latitudes, marine disasters, connection between ocean and weather/climate in China, remote sensing applications and new methodologies in marine meteorology. Compared to the previous ones, these studies adopted much more first-hand datasets, and more scientific issues were involved. As an exciting remark, there were so many contributions done by the young scientists. A brief statement about the research strategy of marine meteorology in China for the coming years is also given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]