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Highlights: [•] Offsetting development impacts could help achieve no net loss of biodiversity. [•] France recently geared its legislation on offsetting towards no net loss. [•] New guidance promises improved offset design and implementation. [•] Institutional arrangements for delivering offsets are either poor or lacking. [•] Appropriate institutional arrangements are necessary to avoid paper offsets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental tax and environmental policy stringency are becoming central policy instruments for combating environmental degradation but there is a lack of studies that assess their combined effectiveness in mitigating emissions especially for emerging economies. We address this important gap by assessing the effectiveness of these two policy instruments in reducing CO 2 emission in a panel of 7 emerging economies for the period 1994-2015. We believe that this is the first attempt to apply these two important policy instruments in the same framework for testing their effectiveness in reducing CO 2 emissions in these 7 emerging economies. We apply heterogeneous panel data considering cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity tests by using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) which is efficient and unbiased and produces consistent estimates. We found an inverted U-shaped relationship between CO 2 emissions and environmental policy stringency suggesting that it takes time for environmental policy stringency to be effective. We also found unidirectional causality running from environmental policy stringency to CO 2 emission. CO 2 emission was negatively and significantly related to total environmental tax with causality running from total environmental tax to CO 2 emission thus supporting the "green dividend" hypothesis of improving environmental quality. In contrast, CO 2 emission and energy taxes were not causality related but CO 2 emission was negatively and significantly related to energy taxes. Robustness checks using the FMOLS also show that both environmental policy stringency and environmental taxes can be effective in mitigating CO 2 emissions.

The future of the global ocean economy is currently envisioned as advancing towards a 'blue economy'-socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically viable ocean industries 1,2 . However, tensions exist within sustainable development approaches, arising from differing perspectives framed around natural capital or social equity. Here we show that there are stark differences in outlook on the capacity for establishing a blue economy, and on its potential outcomes, when social conditions and governance capacity-not just resource availability-are considered, and we highlight limits to establishing multiple overlapping industries. This is reflected by an analysis using a fuzzy logic model to integrate indicators from multiple disciplines and to evaluate their current capacity to contribute to establishing equitable, sustainable and viable ocean sectors consistent with a blue economy approach. We find that the key differences in the capacity of regions to achieve a blue economy are not due to available natural resources, but include factors such as national stability, corruption and infrastructure, which can be improved through targeted investments and cross-scale cooperation. Knowledge gaps can be addressed by integrating historical natural and social science information on the drivers and outcomes of resource use and management, thus identifying equitable pathways to establishing or transforming ocean sectors 1,3,4 . Our results suggest that policymakers must engage researchers and stakeholders to promote evidence-based, collaborative planning that ensures that sectors are chosen carefully, that local benefits are prioritized, and that the blue economy delivers on its social, environmental and economic goals.

Sets out the legislative background to the recycling of waste materials in the United Kingdom. Benefits from recycling; The provision of recycling credits under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act; The draft Economic Community (EC) Packaging Waste Directive; The German DSD scheme; The setting forth of the elements of a cost-benefit analysis of waste paper recycling; Application of that analysis to a recycling scheme in central Scotland; Conclusions.

This article investigates the reduction of water pollution at four Norwegian paper mills from the early 1970s until 1997. Especially during the 1990s water pollution from the mills has converged at a relatively low level. This is due to changes in the production processes, implementation of a common environmental strategy and investment in research and development. Over the years environmental improvements have become an integrated part of the technological trajectory in this industry. A common understanding of the problems and possible solutions between government and industry is one reason why we can talk about a greener technological trajectory. One reason for this common understanding is that the regulation of environmental problems in the paper industry has been based on the principles in Norwegian industrial policy. Integration of these principles into a site-specific environmental policy meant that questions concerning the regional economy were judged against local water pollution problems. This means that the regulation of the paper industry has to be seen in both a historical, geographical and institutional context. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threat of criminal activity in the fisheries sector has concerned the international community for a number of years. In more recent times, the presence of organized crime in fisheries has come to the fore. In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly asked all states to contribute to increasing our understanding the connection between illegal fishing and transnational organized crime at sea. Policy-makers, researchers and members of civil society are increasing their knowledge of the dynamics and destructiveness of the blue shadow economy and the role of organized crime within this economy. Anecdotal, scientific and example-based evidence of the various manifestations of organized crime in fisheries, its widespread adverse impacts on economies, societies and the environment globally and its potential security consequences is now publicly available. Here we present the current state of knowledge on organized crime in the fisheries sector. We show how the many facets of organized crime in this sector, including fraud, drug trafficking and forced labour, hinder progress towards the development of a sustainable ocean economy. With reference to worldwide promising practices, we highlight practical opportunities for action to address the problem. We emphasize the need for a shared understanding of the challenge and for the implementation of intelligence-led, skills-based cooperative law enforcement action at a global level and a community-based approach for targeting organized crime in the supply chain of organized criminal networks at a local level, facilitated by legislative frameworks and increased transparency.

China has maintained great economic growth in the past and reached the status of a middle-income country. Meanwhile, the relationships among environmental pollution, environmental regulation, and economic growth have attracted wide attention. In addition, some studies have shown that economic growth is not balanced in the division of income between labor and capital, and this has become one of the most important issues in China. The conflict over the environment and income distribution is supposed to cause social welfare loss; therefore, we want to examine the impact of environmental pollution and environmental governance on labor income share. Our empirical results show that the relationship between environmental pollution and share of labor income is positive at the present stage. However, the relationship is not linear but rather an inverted-U shape in the long run. In addition, we tested the effects of environmental regulation on labor income share and found an inverted-U-shaped relationship. Although growing concern about environmental pollution adds to the pressure on the government, our statistical results suggest that there is no perfect way to resolve environmental problems. Additionally, labor unions are expected to play a different role in income distribution.

Ecological poverty alleviation (EPA) is an effective strategy to address the vicious circle of poverty and environmental destruction in poor areas. However, it remains controversial whether this strategy has really succeeded in this respect. Previous research investigated the impact of a certain factor on EPA, and only few studies integrated them to explore their differential effects, thereby overlooking the complexity of EPA. Therefore, this study quantified the overall efficiency of the EPA strategies of 28 poor counties in three provinces of Northeast China from 2005 to 2018 by using a super-efficiency slacks-based measure model. This model can take into account undesirable outputs; as such, it has significant advantages in measuring the coordination among economic and social development and environmental protection. The Tobit model was used to explore the factors influencing EPA efficiency. The results show that, first, the majority of counties investigated had an EPA efficiency below the overall national average. Second, as for the factors influencing EPA efficiency, it was found that (1) GDP per capita and investment in environmental governance favored EPA efficiency, as they are conducive to stimulating regional consumption dynamics and achieving green economic development; (2) science and technology expenditure and urbanization were not conducive to EPA efficiency; and (3) industrial structure and trade had insignificant effects on EPA efficiency, due to the small scale of industry and the inadequacy of the policy system. This study assessed EPA efficiency from a holistic perspective, and addressed the controversies over EPA's influencing factors, thereby providing an effective method to conduct regional EPA assessment and improve EPA performance in poor regions of China., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Whether environmental regulations are conducive to improving green innovation in water pollution-intensive enterprises (WPIEs) is of guiding significance for China's protection of the water ecosystem environment and sustainable economic development. This study regards the implementation of the "Ten-point Water Plan" (TWP) policy in 2015 as a purely exogenous event for enterprises and employs a quasi-experimental method to fill this gap based on the panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2019. The results reveal that TWP policy has significant negative effects on the green innovation of WPIEs, the main mechanism of which is increased compliance costs. In addition, a heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative effect is stronger for green innovation activities with higher costs and for WPIEs subject to stricter environmental regulations. This paper provides new evidence against the weak Porter hypothesis and implies that WPIEs are likely to purchase technologies and equipment to reduce wastewater emissions rather than green innovation, which means incentive-based measures should be taken to foster green innovation in the environmental policymaking process., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Strengthening environmental governance and green low-carbon policies is a key measure to improve agriculture green total factor productivity and develop sustainable agriculture. Against this background, this study explores the relationship between agriculture green total factor productivity (AGTFP), environmental governance, and green low carbon policies based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2019, and the system generalized method of moments model is adopted. The empirical results are as follows: (1) Environmental governance will not only directly affect AGTFP, but also indirectly affect AGTFP by influencing green technology innovation. (2) Environmental governance can strengthen the promotion of green low-carbon policies to AGTFP. (3) There are regional differences in causality among AGTFP, environmental governance, and green low-carbon policies. These empirical results offer Chinese policymakers scientific and normative recommendations for improving AGTFP and developing sustainable green agriculture., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental regulation becomes essential to corporate technological innovation amid increasing concern with environmental issues. However, a clear understanding of the specific role of environmental regulation's ex-post effectiveness is lacking. Using the panel data of Chinese A-share listed firms during 2011-2018, we examine the effects of environmental regulation on corporate technological innovation. The results indicate that environmental regulation negatively affects corporate technological innovation. With regard to digital finance, it benefits for corporate technological innovation and positively moderates the relationship between environmental regulation and corporate technological innovation. The heterogeneity analysis suggests that the negative impact of environmental regulation over technological innovation is much significant for small-scale firms, western-region firms, and firms with strong financing constraints. Furthermore, the moderating role of digital finance is more significant for firms with strong financing constraints and heavy polluting firms. We also verify the robustness of the regression results. The current study provides both theoretical support and reference to improve corporate technological innovation and promote high-quality economic development through adopting reasonable policy measures., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As a financial innovation model to promote sustainable economic development, carbon finance promotes green and inclusive economic development by reshaping the financial system. As a big energy consumer, China has been committed to the green transformation of energy structure, and carbon finance has been regarded as an important tool to support carbon emission reduction. This paper divides carbon finance from three levels, financial macro, environmental governance, and technological development, and selects 17 indexes to measure the development level of carbon finance in China. Time series regression model and the entropy weight method (EWM) are used to analyze the impact of carbon finance on China's energy consumption structure. The empirical results show that carbon finance plays a positive role in promoting China's energy consumption structure, and developing carbon finance is conducive to the use of clean energy and the optimization of energy consumption structure in China; carbon finance can further optimize China's energy consumption structure by investing capital, resources, and technology in industries related to promoting clean energy consumption. Therefore, China should continue to develop carbon finance and promote the establishment of a unified national carbon trading market; at the same time, China should use the CCER trading mechanism to promote the development of renewable energy and enhance the endogenous driving force of energy transformation by promoting technological progress., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The study examines the nexus between financial globalization (FG), environmental policy stringency (EPS), financial development (FD), and technological innovation (INV) on CO2 emission with moderating effect of technological innovation on financial development and environmental degradation in 36 OECD countries with an updated dataset from the period of 1990 to 2020 using PMG (Pooled mean group) panel ARDL method. The results of stationarity tests; (Levin, Lin, and Chu test; ADF Fisher test) demonstrate that selected variables are stationary at level I(0) and first difference I(I); this confirms that PMG estimator can be employed. Cointegration tests indicate that cointegration exist among the variables. The empirical findings of the PMG estimator indicate that financial globalization and CO2 are negatively associated with each other. While financial development, environmental policy stringency, and technological innovation have positive impact on environmental degradation in OECD countries. Furthermore, technological innovation strengthens the association between financial development (FD) and environmental degradation (CO2 emission). In order to accelerate economic growth, the study recommends that policymakers should implement environmental policies to achieve low-carbon mechanisms, such as green infrastructure and renewable energy systems, which reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is crucial that the selected OECD countries should develop programs that increase awareness of the risks of carbon emissions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In this multiple-case study the BAT-associated techniques and relative emission levels presented in the EU's best available techniques (BAT) reference document for the pulp and paper industry (PP-BREF) are compared with the techniques applied and the relative emission levels achieved in the Finnish pulp and paper industry. Information on the emissions of 24 Finnish pulp and paper plants was compiled from the national databases maintained by the Finnish Environment Institute. Moreover, a supportive study was conducted on the use of the PP-BREF in the environmental permitting process. The techniques applied in the studied plants represented the BAT as defined in the PP-BREF to a high degree, but the emission levels showed a larger variation. Possible reasons for this variation were discussed. A BAT emission index (BEI) was designed to trace the degree to which the BAT-associated emission levels were achieved as a whole. The BEI appeared to be a useful indicator for assessing the BAT-related environmental performance of the plants. An important area for improvement, identified from the point of view of the applicability of the PP-BREF in the permit process, was the information on waste management issues. Moreover, a consistent cross-media assessment in the PP-BREF was called for. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a summary of the QiR International Conference 2023, which covers a wide range of topics related to sustainability and technological advancements. The papers presented at the conference offer valuable insights and potential solutions in areas such as breast cancer treatment, energy-saving performance of office buildings, waste management, earthquake estimation, underwater pressure sensors, road safety, and plastic waste management. The conference highlights the significance of international collaboration and knowledge exchange in creating a sustainable future for both humans and the environment. [Extracted from the article]

Environmental problems are endowed with the causal complexity of multiple factors. Traditional quantitative research on the influencing mechanism of environmental pollution has tended to focus on the marginal effects of specific influencing factors but generally neglected the multiple interaction effects between factors (especially three or more). Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2020, this study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) - which can provide a fine-grained insight into the causal complexity of environmental issues - to shed light on the influencing mechanism of environmental pollution. The results show that there are several different configurations of pollution drivers which lead to high pollution or low pollution in provinces, confirming the multiple causality, causal asymmetry, and equifinality of environmental pollution. Furthermore, the combination effect of advanced industrial structure, small population size, and technological advance is significant in achieving a state of green environment compared to environmental regulation factors. In addition, spatiotemporal analysis of the configurations indicates that strong path dependencies and spatial agglomeration exist in current local environmental governance patterns. Finally, according to our findings, targeted policy recommendations are provided., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth is difficult to reconcile, resulting in the "involutionary" dilemma of local government environmental governance. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed industrial companies between 2010 and 2019, this paper collected data on environmental protection interview and central environmental protection inspection and empirically investigated the impact of both on high-quality economic growth of companies using the difference-in-difference method. First, both environmental protection interview and central environmental protection inspection significantly promote high-quality economic growth, according to the findings. Second, the two-pronged policy effect of environmental protection interview and central environmental protection inspection is more significant, and the promotion effect on high-quality economic growth is greater than the effect of the two policies separately. Third, the dual policy action significantly promotes high-quality economic growth of state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises; however, non-state-owned enterprise economic growth is more sensitive to the central environmental protection inspection, and policy effects show a heterogeneous pattern in the east, central, and west regions. Therefore, the effective integration of environmental protection interview and central environmental protection inspection should be accelerated so that environmental pollution control and economic growth can be carried out together., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental stringency policy shocks and environmental tax have become fundamental policy tools for mitigating the degradation of the environment. The study explores the effects of environmental tax and environmental stringency policy shocks in the reduction of pollution emissions in China for the time 1993 to 2019. This study is a pioneer in assessing the simultaneous impact of these two policy instruments on pollution emissions in China. For empirical investigation, the study employed NARDL estimation techniques. The NARDL results show that positive shocks in environmental tax reduce N2O emissions by 0.03%, PM2.5 emissions by 0.13%, CO 2 emissions by 0.18%, and GHGs emissions by 0.01%, however, negative shocks in environmental tax increase N 2 O emissions by 0.01%, PM2.5 emissions by 0.07%, CO 2 emissions by 0.28%, GHGs emissions by 0.17% in the long run. The long-run results also show that positive shocks in environmental policy stringency reduced CO 2 emissions by 0.94%, GHGs emissions by 0.77%, while negative shocks in environmental policy stringency increased N 2 O emissions by 0.17%, PM2.5 emissions by 0.50%, CO 2 emissions by 0.63%. The findings suggest vigorous policy implications., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, economic growth has caused an increasing number of environmental problems in China. In order to achieve the goal of carbon peak on schedule, enterprises need to accelerate green transformation and upgrading. Environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation are important means of corporate environmental governance strategy, but it is unknown whether they can promote the sustainable development of enterprises. Therefore, this article will analyze the effect of enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on financial performance. Based on relevant theories, this study builds a theoretical model to demonstrate how enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation can affect the financial performance of heavy polluting enterprises. Empirical tests are carried out using 293 heavy polluting enterprises in China as the sample. The results reveal that: (i) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure has significant negative effects on current enterprise financial performance, while green technology innovation can significantly promote enterprise financial performance. (ii) When the lag period is two periods, the enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation have positive effects on enterprise financial performance respectively, and the effects are the most significant. (iii) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation synergistically promote enterprise financial performance in the current period, and the impact has a lag effect. (iv) In state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher corporate governance level, the synergetic promotion effect of environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on enterprise financial performance is more significant. Finally, this study provides suggestions for promoting the transformation and upgrading of heavy polluting enterprises and achieving sustainable development from the perspectives of the government, enterprises and the public., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Innovations may have positive societal effects such as improved environmental performance, and they are often portrayed as solutions to environmental problems. However, the mechanisms through which innovations develop and the ways in which public incentives support improved environmental performance of innovations are complex. This paper uses empirical cases to examine how environmental policies, market factors and technological push affect process and product innovations in the Nordic pulp, paper and packaging industries. The results show that environmental improvements in technologies and products are simultaneously driven by all three of these factors. Environmental innovations are often developed in anticipation of future policy or as side-effects of existing policies. However, while environmental policy directly influences process innovations, its connection to product innovations is less clear. The study points towards the importance of gradually tightening and predictable environmental policies that are flexible enough to allow the exploration of new technological developments. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a case study of the regulation of the Canadian pulp and paper industry over a 20-year-old period, the article examines the political-institutional variables that help explain the policy and regulatory outcomes that occur in an industrial sector. It examines six variables: (i) the industrial structure of the sector and its particular interactions with environmental elements (water, air and land); (ii) changing configurations of interest group politics; (iii) specific features of how environment departments are organised and how they approach regulatory versus resource management task; (iv) scientific controversies and how they affect political and negotiating stances; (v) problems of precise statutory capacity, especially in federal political systems; and (vi) political-managerial leadership or the lack of it within the sector. The analysis shows that a sectoral focus is needed in environmental political analysis because macro approaches simply too often ignore variables that are vital in understanding policies more concretely. It also shows how some of the above variables are too easily shunted aside as organisational or technical factors when in fact they are embued with issues of power and influence. A sectoral focus must also recognise some of the practical boundary problems of what the sectoral industrial realm is in practice and it must be based on a longitudinal depth of coverage to capture some of the interplay among the variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of the so-called ‘Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) cluster approach’ when applied to environmental policies, by focusing on the case history of the industrial paper production cluster located in the Province of Lucca (Italy). The Lucca cluster represents approximately 20% of Italian paper production, and Italy is the fourth leading paper producer in Europe. In the last 10 years, environmental policies have been developed under the common ‘umbrella’ of a strong public and private partnership based on stakeholder networking within the application of the EU EMAS Regulation. This article evaluates the outcome of such an approach, by comparing the environmental performance indicators for the Lucca’s paper industry using data collected from more than 40 plants before and after the adoption of this voluntary tool. The results show considerable improvements for many environmental performance indicators, consistently with the implementation of the cluster approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The existing literature on smart city pilots mainly focuses on the city level and rarely addresses the firm level. This paper assesses the impact of smart city pilot policy (SCP) on firms' total factor productivity (TFP) and explores the impact of SCP under different heterogeneities as well as the mechanisms of action of the SCP. The LP approach is used in this paper to measure firms' TFP, and the impact of SCP is analyzed by the DID model with firms' panel data from 2009 to 2019 as research objects. First, it was found that the SCP can significantly increase the TFP of firms (0.041). Second, through heterogeneity analysis, we found that SCP can strengthen the monopoly position of monopolistic firms and state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the SCP can also alleviate the development imbalance of TFP between firms in coastal and non-coastal areas. In addition, SCP can significantly improve TFP of heavy polluting enterprises. Finally, we find that the important ways for SCP to improve firms' TFP is increasing investment in technological innovation, talent agglomeration, attracting financing, improving resource allocation efficiency, and digital transformation. The study provides unique insights for policy makers and business managers in China and other emerging countries to enhance TFP and achieve corporate sustainable development., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Taking the green credit policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper has investigated the impact of green credit policy on Chinese firms' green strategy choices by using the panel data of A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2019. The results reveal that green credit improves firms' green innovation overall. In terms of time, the green-washing behavior of listed firms will increase significantly in the early stage of the implementation of green credit policy, but as time goes by, such green behavior of firms will be detected, which in turn will motivate firms to improve green innovation. Furthermore, the green credit policy has a more significant effect on green innovation of firms in localities under high environmental regulation, economically developed regions, and without other alternative financing channels. Firms located in regions with economically underdeveloped and low environmental regulation are more inclined to adopt the behavior of green-washing environmental information. Besides, after the implementation of the green credit policy, green innovation can improve corporate financial, environmental, and social performance, while green-washing behavior will damage corporate financial, environmental, and social performance. Our findings contribute to the literature on green credit policy, corporate green innovation, and environmental information disclosure, and also provide policy implications for improving the quality of green credit policy in the future., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)