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Paper mill sludge (PMS) is featured with a high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, and using its characteristics to make paperboard can achieve a high-value utilization of PMS, which has attracted growing interest. In this study, currently prevalent landfill, incineration technologies (generating heat and electricity by incineration), and three paperboard technologies (medium density fiberboard, pulp board, and corrugated paper) were evaluated and compared via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods. LCA results show that the PMS-to-pulp board outperforms others with an energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) value of − 2.86 × 10−8, while the landfill exhibits the highest overall environmental impact with an ECER value of 4.80 × 10−9. LCC results reveal that the PMS-to-pulp board delivers the highest economic profit with $257.357, while the landfill is the lowest with $ − 35.63. The PMS paperboard technologies are more economically friendly than the incineration technologies due to additional electricity/steam consumption during the PMS pre-drying process in incineration. In addition, different scenarios were set up to explore national GHG emission reduction potential by increasing paperboard technologies application rate and reducing the proportion of landfill and incineration. The scenario analysis suggests that replacing 90% of landfill and incineration ratio with PMS paperboard technologies could tremendously improve the overall emission reduction performance with − 9.08 × 1010 kg CO2 eq. This result indicates that the PMS treatment technology transformation has a significant favorable impact on the achievement of the "carbon neutrality" target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature ignores to consider multiple types of pollutants when analyzing energy efficiency and its convergence. Under this background, using SuperSBM-GML model, the improved entropy method, and convergence model, this paper calculates the green total-factor energy efficiency and its evolution trend of 35 China's industrial sub-sectors considering multiple pollutants, and analyzes its convergence. The results indicate that the average score of industrial green total-factor energy efficiency is low, and there are significant differences among sub-sectors: "Utilization of waste resources" is the highest, while "Manufacture of paper and paper products" is the lowest. The green total-factor energy efficiency shows an overall upward trend from 2006 to 2021, the main driving force comes from technological progress, but numerous sub-sectors have not sufficiently caught up with existing cutting-edge technologies. Specifically, the growth rate of green total-factor energy efficiency in high-energy-consumption sub-sectors is higher than low-to-medium-energy-consumption sub-sectors. There are both σ-convergence and β-convergence in low-to-medium-energy-consumption group, indicating that development of sub-sectors is stable and outstanding. Nevertheless, the high-energy-consumption group only exhibits conditional β-convergence, revealing an imbalance in energy efficiency development. Consequently, formulating the benchmark level of energy efficiency and developing energy efficiency "leader" system are suggested for low-to-medium and high-energy-consumption sub-sectors, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Guidelines on Building a Market-Oriented Green Technology Innovation System, which was released by China in 2019, has become a powerful signal to guide the development of green technology innovation (GTI). In the current digital strategy of China, the public media has become a key factor for promoting the transparency of enterprise environmental information. This paper measures the GTI efficiency of the listed paper enterprises in China as well as incorporating media attention into the research framework to explore the influencing factors of GTI of the listed paper enterprises in China during the digital economy era. The results showed that a positive media report had a positive impact on GTI and has become a new driving factor in promoting sustainable production in the digital era. Government support and openness also have a positive impact on GTI. However, negative media reports, environmental regulations, and technological innovation abilities have an inhibitory effect on the GTI efficiency of paper making enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a traditional energy and carbon intensive sector, it becomes imperative for the global paper industry to realize green development. This paper aims to provide guidance for the green transformation of global paper industry by evaluating the global paper industry green development level in a systematic and dynamic way. This paper employs text-mining method to develop paper industry green development evaluation indicator system and adopts market-extended LCA model and entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the paper industry green development level of 48 countries/regions. The results show that during 2000–2030 the paper industry green development level of developing countries improves faster than developed countries, where those of developing and developed countries increase from 0.3369 to 0.3938 and from 0.5120 to 0.5517 respectively and the gap between them narrows from 0.1751 to 0.1579. The comparative analysis reveals that the paper industries of developed and developing countries are in different green development stages. Developing countries, represented by China, improve greatly in economic and social dimensions, but decline seriously in ecological dimension due to enlarging resource consumption and environmental damages. On the contrary, developed countries tend to saturate in economic and social dimensions and have been improving fast in ecological dimension, gradually realizing the decoupling of industrial economic development and environmental damages. To further promote the global paper industry green development, developing countries should focus on promoting the coordinated development between economic growth and environment protection and developed countries should play a leading role in the global green transformation by promoting optimal allocation of resources and cross-regional communications of green technologies. • A paper industry green development indicator system is developed based on text mining. • A global paper industry green development model is built with market-extended LCA. • Complex interactions among the indicators are internalized in the evaluation. • A spatial-temporal analysis is performed on global paper industry green development level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulp and paper industry is one of the eight critical industries for controlling carbon emissions in China. As the paper productions increase, the pulp and paper industry may fail in achieving the emission reduction target due to the rapid growth of greenhouse gas emissions. The study uses life cycle assessment to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions of China's papermaking industry chain in order to propose emission reduction targets and find ways to achieve the emission reduction targets for China's papermaking industry. Considering the net carbon absorption of plant raw materials and the extensive paper industrial chain, this study obtained that the greenhouse gas emission of major paper types under corresponding pathways ranges from 1.96 t CO 2 eq/t paper to 6.55 t CO 2 eq/t paper. Plant carbon sink can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14.3%–42.9% under virgin fiber-based pathways. This study found that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by terminal products of 814 papermaking enterprises counted in China were 282.23 Mt CO 2 eq in 2015, accounting for 10.23% of the total greenhouse gas emissions of manufacturing industries and construction. To achieve the emission reduction target by 2050, emissions of the pulp and paper industry in China have been investigated from the perspective of three ideal energy structures. The research findings show that the emission reduction target of Intended Nationally Determined Contribution will be achieved in 30 years if the energy structure of the pulp and paper industry is adjusted only based on the optimal 450 scenario. In terms of other energy structures, the pulp and paper industry should assume afforestation areas ranged from 5900 km2 to 223,000 km2 at least to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions beyond allowance, which accounts for 0.85%–32.16% of the existing areas of plantation forestry in China. • Statistics in this work reveal the problem of excess capacity in China's pulp and paper industry. • GHG emission of paper products in different pathways range from 1.95 to 6.52 t CO 2 eq/t paper. • Energy supply mode transition is conductive to green development of pulp and paper industry. • Pulp and paper enterprises should assume afforestation areas to achieve emission reduction targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: In the last decade, cloud manufacturing (CMfg) has attracted considerable attention from academia and industry worldwide. It is widely accepted that the design and analysis of cloud manufacturing architecture (CMfg-A) are the basis for developing and applying CMfg systems. However, in existing studies, analysis of the status, development process and internal characteristics of CMfg-A is lacking, hindering an understanding of the research hotspots and development trends of CMfg-A. Meanwhile, effective guidance is lacking on the construction of superior CMfg-As. The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant research on CMfg-A via identification of the main layers, elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A to provide valuable information to scholars and practitioners for further research on key CMfg-A technologies and the construction of CMfg systems with superior performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study systematically reviews the relevant research on CMfg-A across transformation process to internal characteristics by integrating quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the split and reorganization method is used to recognize the main layers of CMfg-A. Then, the transformation process of six main layers is analysed through retrospective analysis, and the similarities and differences in CMfg-A are obtained. Subsequently, based on systematic theory, the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A are inductively studied. A 3D printing architecture design case is conducted to discuss the weakness of the previous architecture and demonstrate how to improve it. Finally, the primary current trends and future opportunities are presented. Findings: By analyzing the transformation process of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A resources are developing from tangible resources into intangible resources and intelligent resources. CMfg-A technology is developing from traditional cloud computing-based technology towards advanced manufacturing technology, and CMfg-A application scope is gradually expanding from traditional manufacturing industry to emerging manufacturing industry. In addition, by analyzing the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A is undergoing a new generation of transformation, with trends of integrated development, intelligent development, innovative development and green development. Case study shows that the analysis of the development trend and internal characteristics of the architecture facilitates the design of a more effective architecture. Research limitations/implications: This paper predominantly focuses on journal articles and some key conference papers published in English and Chinese. The reason for considering Chinese articles is that CMfg was proposed by the Chinese and a lot of Chinese CMfg-A articles have been published in recent years. CMfg is suitable for the development of China's manufacturing industry because of China's intelligent manufacturing environment. It is believed that this research has reached a reliable comprehensiveness that can help scholars and practitioners establish new research directions and evaluate their work in CMfg-A. Originality/value: Prior studies ignore the identification and analysis of development process and internal characteristics for the current development of CMfg-A, including the main layers identification of different CMfg-As and the transformation process analysis of these main layers, and in-depth analysis of the inner essence of CMfg-A (such as its elements, relationships, structure and functions). This study addresses these limitations and provides a comprehensive literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds, a new green financial instrument, encourage enterprises to achieve high-quality development through green technology innovation. However, a lack of research is currently being conducted into the effect of green bond issuance in China. Can green bonds effectively empower enterprises to green innovation? What is the underlying mechanism? In the context of carbon-neutral strategies, it is significant to answer these questions scientifically. This paper uses a quasi-natural experiment of the launch of the green bond market in China in 2016 to conduct empirical studies based on the panel data of 1 558 non-financial Chinese-listed enterprises from 2015 to 2020 with the multi-period difference-in-difference model. The results show that ① issuing green bonds can significantly empower enterprises' green technology innovation. The empowering effect is mainly for green utility patents rather than green invention patents. This result remains after dynamic heterogeneity analysis, placebo test, and other tests. In addition, the effect has a lag. ② Heterogeneity tests show that this empowerment effect varies across enterprises with different property rights, industries, and regions. ③ In terms of the mechanism of action, green bonds can enhance enterprises' ability to innovate green technology by increasing the proportion of long-term loans and improving their debt structure. This paper broadens the relevant literature on the economic consequences of green bonds and the influencing factors of enterprises' green technology innovation and provides policy suggestions for further improving the analysis of green bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, digital transformation is having various impacts on enterprises around the world, including the green innovation. However, the current literature on the relationship between digitalization and green innovation in enterprises is scarce. What is the relationship between them, and whether heterogeneous environmental regulation has mediating effects, are questions that are worth exploring. Using a sample of listed manufacturing enterprises in China, this paper empirically tests the impact of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation. The results show that: (1) Digital transformation has a significant positive impact on green innovation, including green innovation output and green innovation capability. (2) Diverse environmental regulation may have mediating effects of digital transformation's influence on green innovation. (3) After a number of robustness tests, the conclusions are still valid. This paper can provide a reference for developing green development strategies for manufacturing enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing a serious land resource mismatch problem, which will profoundly affect the acceleration of economic growth and technological innovation. Reform of the industrial land allocation system can solve the mismatch of land resources, and that also has an important impact on the promotion of economic and technological development. This paper selects the data of Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2020 as the research sample, constructs a double machine learning model, and empirically investigates the impact of a new industrial land use policy on firms' green innovation behavior. The study shows that: (1) the new industrial land use policy significantly promotes firms' substantive and strategic green technological innovation, and the effect on substantive green technological innovation is greater than that on strategic green technological innovation. (2) The enhancement of R&D investment sustainability and the "talent pool" effect are important mechanisms through which the new industrial land use policy influences firms' substantive and strategic green technological innovation. Meanwhile, the new industrial land use policy is conducive to firms' green coinnovation. (3) There is heterogeneity in the effect of the new industrial land use policy, which can significantly promote green technological innovation of firms in the eastern region, while it does not play a significant role in the green innovation behavior of firms in the central and western regions. The above research results enrich the research in the field of industrial land and innovation, help to understand more comprehensively the mechanism of new industrial land affecting firms' green technological innovation, and provide policy insights for strengthening the application of industrial land allocation reform in firms' green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of urbanization has brought new challenges to the ecological environment, and the promotion of green technology innovation and development is widely recognized as an essential method to achieve cities' economic benefits and environmental protection. This paper examines whether the new urbanization pilot policies (NUP) increase green technology innovation (GTI) from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. This paper examines the impact of new urbanization on GTI by analyzing data from 285 cities in China between 2010 and 2021, using the multi-period DID model with the implementation of NUP as an exogenous policy shock. The study results indicate that NUP significantly affects GTI, and the conclusion still holds after the parallel trend test, placebo test, and other robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the NUP significantly enhances GTI in low environmental pollution, non-resource-based, Medium-sized, and Central Region cities. The test of moderating effect shows that NUP has a "linkage effect" with the government's environmental attention, financial investment in innovation, and regional talent pooling. The findings of this paper provide empirical evidence and decision-making reference for promoting NUP and sustainable development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most active field in China's economic development, the digital economy is crucial to the high-quality development of enterprises. Taking Chinese-listed agricultural enterprises as research samples, this paper discusses the effect of the digital economy on promoting the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises and the mechanism behind it from the perspective of total factor productivity of enterprises. The study found that the digital economy significantly promoted the improvement of total factor productivity of agricultural enterprises and enabled the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises, and this conclusion remained valid after controlling for endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. In terms of action mechanisms, the digital economy is conducive to promoting green innovation and promoting the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises; However, entrepreneurial activity has a masking effect. Further analysis shows that the digital economy plays a more significant role in promoting non-resource-intensive agricultural enterprises located in northern China. At the same time, the higher the industrial structure and financial development level of the region, the more positive impact the digital economy can play. This study verifies the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises and provides enlightenment for China's the digital economy policy-making and enterprises' the high-quality development strategy decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of risk assessment, the traditional econometric models are generally used to assess credit risk. And with the introduction of the "dual-carbon" goals to promote the development of a low-carbon economy, the scale of green credit in China has rapidly expanded. But with the advent of the big data era, due to the poor interpretability of a traditional single machine learning model, it is difficult to capture nonlinear relationships, and there are shortcomings in prediction accuracy and robustness. This paper selects the adjusted ensemble learning model based on the homogeneous and heterogeneous factors for user default prediction, which can efficiently process large quantities of high-dimensional data. This article adjusts each model to adapt to the task and innovatively compares various models. In this paper, the missing value filling method, feature selection, and ensemble model are studied and discussed, and the optimal ensemble model is obtained. When comparing the predictions of single models and ensemble models, the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-Score, Kappa, and MCC of Categorical Features Gradient Boosting (CatBoost) and Random undersampling Boosting (RUSBoost) all reach 100%. The experimental results prove that the algorithm based on adjusted homogeneous and heterogeneous ensemble learning can predict the user default efficiently and accurately. This paper also provides some references for establishing a risk assessment index system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is gradually emerging as a new driving force and engine for high-quality economic development. In the context of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality, can the digital economy empower the development of urban green technology innovation? Based on the panel data of 274 cities in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper measures the development level of digital economy at the city level and employs the two-way fixed effect model to empirically analyze the impact of digital economy on urban green technology innovation. The results indicate that: (1) Digital economy development exert a significant positive impact on urban green technology innovation. This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) Digital economy enhances urban green technology innovation by optimizing human capital structure, enhancing the level of financial and credit investment, and strengthening public environmental concern. (3) Heterogeneity analyses show that the digital economy has a greater positive effect on green technology innovation in the eastern region and non-resource cities. The higher the level of intellectual property protection and the better the development of the factor market, and the lower the intensity of environmental regulation, the greater the positive effect of the digital economy on urban green technology innovation. These findings are not only of great practical significance for accelerating the development of green technology innovation in China, but also serve as a reference for other developing countries to utilize the digital economy to empower the development of green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is the main theme of modern development in China and even the world. Green development depends on green technology innovation (GTI). Therefore, for developing countries like China in the stage of economic transition, it is urgent to accelerate GTI to gain sustained advantages in the new round of international competition. As an important representative of contemporary rapid transportation, high-speed railway (HSR) can not only alleviate the rapidly growing transportation demand of the public, but also have potential benefits to the energy consumption structure and environmental quality. Whether and how HSR affects GTI has become the focus of this paper. Hence, by employing the panel data of 286 cities in China from 2007 to 2018 with the time-varying DID model, this paper verifies that HSR development can contribute to GTI. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) The operation of HSR can not only make the incremental development of GTI, but also improve the quality of GTI simultaneously. Moreover, the quality improvement effect of HSR is greater than the quantity increment effect. (2) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of HSR on GTI is more significant for cities that have implemented LCCP. (3) This paper verifies the mediating effect of high-quality human capital. The opening of HSR further stimulates GTI by improving the level of high-quality human capital in cities and increasing the opportunities for knowledge exchange and diffusion. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes some policy recommendations to help developing countries achieve GTI with positive externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneously achieving economic development and environmental protection is a shared global challenge. While the positive effect of environmental regulations on protecting the environment has been widely recognized, the attention paid to low-carbon governance and corporate green transformation remains insufficient. Based on the two-stage least square regression model (2SLS) of instrumental variables, this paper utilizes panel data from China to identify the influence mechanism of government low-carbon governance on enterprise green development. It explores the effect of low-carbon governance on enterprise green development from the perspective of fiscal decentralization. The findings show that (1) Low-carbon governance significantly promotes corporate green development, primarily through improving industrial structure and technological innovation; (2) Low-carbon governance notably promotes the green development of private enterprises but has little effect on state-owned enterprises. There are also geographical differences, and the results are better in Eastern China than in the Central and Western parts of China; (3) Fiscal decentralization at both central and local levels inhibits the effect of low-carbon governance on driving corporate green development by causing a mismatch of human resources. Therefore, to promote corporate green development, low-carbon governance must prioritize green development, actively guide industrial structural upgrading and enterprise technological innovation, implement differentiated low-carbon governance measures tailored to different ownership enterprises, and optimize the assessment indicators for fiscal decentralization. This paper helps deepen the understanding of the relationship between government low-carbon governance and enterprise green development in developing countries. It can be used as a reference for government departments to formulate relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the double pressures of economic growth and ecological environment protection, sea green transformation and the sustainable development of mariculture are critical. This paper constructs an evolutionary game model with the government as the main body and mariculture farmers (enterprises) as the main body and puts forward the research hypothesis. Based on 2006–2019 longitudinal data of nine provinces along China's coast, using multi-period Difference-in-Difference (DID) and dual robust estimation, we empirically investigate the national oceanic ranch demonstration zones for the influence of the green sea aquaculture and their mechanism of action. The results showed that (1) the efficiency of green level of mariculture industry in China is not high, and the establishment of national marine pasture demonstration zone has not effectively promoted the improvement of green level of mariculture industry; (2) the institutional environment, unreasonable industrial structure, and lack of scientific and technological innovation have an effect on the national oceanic ranch demonstration area as the main causes of failure to effectively promote marine green farming; (3) the establishment of the national multi-period demonstration area in the north significantly hindered the growth of the green level of mariculture and fell into the "policy trap", while the establishment of the national multi-period demonstration area in the south significantly promoted the growth of the green level of mariculture. The conclusions of this paper provide an empirical basis and reference for the improvement of the national marine pasture demonstration zone policy and the green transformation of mariculture to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the critical period of strengthening the construction of ecological civilization, the construction of forest cities has become an important measure to promote urban ecosystem restoration and achieve sustainable development. Based on the mechanism of forest city promoting green development, the construction of a national forest city is regarded as a "quasi-natural experiment". Using China's urban panel data from 2005 to 2019, the impact of national forest city construction on urban green total factor productivity was evaluated using Multistage asymptotic double difference. The results show that National Forest Cities with environmental regulation can significantly promote regional green total factor productivity, which is still valid after a series of Robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that forest city construction not only affects territorial spatial planning but also forms a linkage with green technology innovation, mutual promotion and mutual promotion to jointly promote the sustainable development goals. This paper argues that building a national forest city is an important measure to achieve China's sustainable development goals in the new era, but in the process of policy implementation, it is necessary to implement the national forest city selection system according to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how National Eco-industrial Demonstration Parks (NEDP) in China affects carbon emission efficiency. The difference-in-differences (DID) strategy is used for analysis. This paper finds that the construction of NEDP is conducive to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency, and the findings remain robust through placebo tests and propensity score matching. Heterogeneity analysis shows NEDP construction has greater utility on carbon efficiency in non-resource-based cities as well as in environmentally friendly cities. The mechanism analysis found that green technology innovation, industrial restructuring, and the relocation of industrial enterprises are effective ways to improve carbon efficiency in NEDP. Finally, this paper finds that the construction of NEDP has obvious spatial spillover effects on carbon efficiency, which can effectively heighten the carbon efficiency level of this locality and nearby areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economy is the core content of the high-quality economic development, and the digital economy is the new driving force to accelerate the realization of high-quality economic development. In this regard, this paper selects 248 resource-based cities in China from 2011 to 2019 as the research objects and uses the fixed effect model and mediation effect model to test the relationship between digital economy and regional green total factor productivity. We get the following conclusions: First, there is the nonlinear relationship between digital economy and regional green total factor productivity, and this relationship shows the inverted U-shape. Secondly, digital economy can influence regional green total factor productivity through the path transmission mechanism of regional technological innovation, industrial structure, and environmental regulation. Finally, the effect of digital economy on regional green total factor productivity is heterogeneous, especially in the eastern region and cities with high human capital level. Based on the digital economy, the findings of this paper provide theoretical basis and reference suggestions for promoting the green development of regional economy. The government should attach importance to regional green development, actively guide the digital economy to promote green development, accelerate the development of the digital economy, and achieve high-quality economic development finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving green innovation efficiency (GIE) is the key to achieve high-quality economic development in China, and the introduction of foreign direct investment (FDI) has become an important path choice to promote the GIE. Based on the data of 30 provinces in China, this paper explores the linear and nonlinear effects of FDI on GIE from both quantity and quality perspectives, and further analyzes the mediating role of environmental regulation level. The results show that: (1) From 2011 to 2020, the GIE of all provinces in China generally shows an upward trend. (2) The quantity and quality of FDI have a significant positive impact on the improvement of GIE in China's provinces, and this impact has regional heterogeneity. (3) The quantity and quality of FDI can promote the improvement of GIE in China through the level of environmental regulation (ER). (4) With the level of knowledge accumulation and GIE as the threshold variables, the quantity and quality of FDI have a single threshold effect on the GIE of China's provinces. The conclusions of this study provide some policy implications for local governments to make full use of FDI to perform green innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of green finance reform and innovation (GFRI) pilot zone is an important measure of the Chinese government to urge enterprises to develop green transformation. This paper explores the impact of pilot policies in the GFRI pilot zone on corporate environmental investment. Based on 819 A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020, our staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) estimation documents revealed that enterprises in the GFRI pilot zone significantly increased the corporate environmental investment efficiency but reduced the scale of corporate environmental investment.This conclusion remained robust after Propensity Scores Matching difference-in-differences (PSM-DID), replacing dependent variables, and shortening the time window. We contend that the increased research and development (R&D) expenditure and technological innovation are the potential mechanisms at work. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the establishment of GFRI improved the environmental investment efficiency of polluting enterprises but had no effect on green enterprises.Meanwhile, the effect of GFRI exhibited heterogeneity in the type of enterprise ownership. This paper evaluates the implementation effect of GFRI from the perspective of corporate environmental investment, and provides theoretical support and an empirical basis for green finance policy to serve China's green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the path of sustainable development, the key to achieving green and low-carbon transformation lies in green technology innovation (GTI), and how to effectively coordinate the relationship between green finance (GF) and GTI is an issue worth studying. This paper constructed an evaluation system of GF and GTI and combined them with the coupled coordination degree model to explore their coordination of Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2019. Then, the core network evolution and spatial structure characteristics of GTI and GF were studied using the modified gravity model. Finally, based on the link prediction, the general future network prediction is made to provide guidance and direction for the future GTI and GF development and construction. The results found that the coordination level between GF and GTI has been continuously improved from 0.356 to 0.436. The core network structure is keeping changing with their connection becoming more complex, and there is still room for optimization. Network centrality characteristics show that the spatial spillover effects are stronger in the more economically developed regions. The overall network possibility prediction shows the potential network connections in different urban agglomerations. This paper provides a certain reference role for China and developing countries to predict the GF and GTI cooperation network development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution has become a pressing global issue, severely threatening human health and ecosystems. As an emerging driver of economic development in countries worldwide, the digital economy (DE) has the potential to enhance resource utilization efficiency and promote the development of clean technologies, thereby reducing environmental pollution. Based on the panel data of 267 cities in China from 2012 to 2021, the spatial econometric model is used to test the impact of DE on environmental pollution. The mediating effect model is used to explore the transmission mechanism of DE affecting environmental pollution. The panel threshold model is used to examine the threshold effect of marketization. The results are as follows: (1) DE can significantly reduce environmental pollution. The conclusion is still valid after conducting robustness tests such as selecting historical data as instrumental variables and the "Broadband China" pilot as a quasi-natural experiment. (2) From the perspective of transmission mechanism, DE can reduce environmental pollution through green technology innovation and industrial structure upgrading. (3) From the perspective of spatial spillover effect, DE can reduce the environmental pollution level of surrounding cities. (4) From the perspective of threshold effect, DE has obvious market-oriented single threshold effect on environmental pollution. When the marketization level crosses the threshold of 11.6611, the emission reduction effect of DE is significant. (5) From the perspective of heterogeneity, DE has a heterogeneous impact on environmental pollution in cities with different geographic locations, resource endowments and administrative level. Regarding geographical heterogeneity, DE can effectively reduce environmental pollution in eastern and central regions, but has no significant impact on environmental pollution in western regions. Regarding the heterogeneity of resource endowment, compared to non-resource-based cities, resource-based cities suffer more from the negative effects of DE on their environment. Regarding the heterogeneity of administrative levels, compared with non-central cities, the DE of central cities has a greater emission reduction effect. Based on empirical results, this paper proposes strategic recommendations in areas such as enhancing the application of DE in emission reduction, upgrading industrial structures, promoting green technology innovation, and improving the level of marketization. This study not only enriches the research of DE and environmental pollution, but also provides a reference for the formulation of environmental pollution control policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation (GTI) is an important driver for national green development and a strong fulcrum for the clean production of companies. This paper focuses on the impact of top management team's (TMT's) inherent characteristics on GTI from the perspectives of TMT heterogeneity and text tone in management discussion and analysis (MD&A), as well as the moderating role of executive compensation incentives and financial constraints. The results reveal that: a) the TMT heterogeneity has different effects on companies' GTI; b) the tone in MD&A can significantly promote the companies' GTI; c) both executive compensation incentives and financial constraints significantly adjust the relationship between the TMT heterogeneity or the tone in MD&A on GTI but in different directions. Moreover, the basic conclusions suitable for non-state-owned companies yet differ in state-owned companies considering the property heterogeneity. Thus, this paper constructs a new integrated framework of TMT heterogeneity, tone in MD&A, executive compensation incentives and financial constraints to stimulate the enthusiasm and initiative of companies to develop GTI, which has an important practical significance on accelerating the sustainable development of green production in developing countries. Finally, this paper offers corresponding policy recommendations. [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]

Green fiscal policy is crucial for achieving green economic recovery and improving green total factor productivity (GTFP). Based on this, using panel data from 30 regions in China from 2009 to 2020, this paper analyzes the impact of green fiscal policy on GTFP. The results show that: (1) Green fiscal policy can improve GTFP, thus achieving green economic recovery. After a series of robustness tests, the conclusion is still valid; (2) Green fiscal policy can have a stronger improvement effect on GTFP in regions with high levels of both public environmental concerns and economic development; (3) Green fiscal policy mainly improves GTFP by promoting green technology innovation and upgrading industrial structure. These findings not only enrich the literature on green fiscal policy and green recovery but also serve as a reference for governmental departments. The government should promote green technology innovation through green fiscal policy and raise public environmental concerns to help achieve green economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic development brings serious environmental problems, technological advances can effectively reduce pollution, which helps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Although the impact of green technology innovation on atmospheric pollutants and carbon emissions has been extensively studied, the effect of such innovation on pollutant reduction varies due to the diverse regional distribution characteristics of different pollutants. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature by examining the influence of green technology innovation on water pollution from a regional perspective, with a particular emphasis on the pronounced clustering of wastewater pollution in China's coastal areas. Both Fixed-Effect model and spatial analysis are adopted. Our findings reveal a significant U-shaped relationship between technology innovation and water pollution, as measured by both industrial wastewater and the ratio of unprocessed sewage. Interestingly, this pollution reduction effect also exhibits a U-shaped spatial spillover. Given the rapid development of the digital economy, it can further amplify the spatial spillover effect of green innovation, especially in eastern regions. This study also provides recent empirical evidence from China to the Environmental Kuznets Curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rapid advancement in automation and increasing global warming, understanding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on carbon emissions (CES) is a cutting-edge research topic. However, there is limited focus in existing research on the nonlinear carbon reduction effect (CRE) of AI. This paper first theoretically elaborates the dual impact mechanisms of AI on CES and illuminates the nonlinear carbon reduction mechanisms of AI. Then, this study employs panel data encompassing 30 Chinese provinces between 1997 and 2019 to empirically test the net effect of AI on CES and the nonlinear carbon reduction effect of AI through econometric models. The results are as follows: first, although AI can both reduce and increase CES, AI primarily helps decrease CES. This conclusion holds true even after considering robustness, endogeneity, and spatial heterogeneity. Secondly, relative to the central and western regions, AI has significant achievement in reducing carbon intensity and per capita CES in the eastern region. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of reducing the total CES in the eastern region. Thirdly, improving the AI development level (AIDL) can magnify the marginal CRE of AI and lead to a nonlinear CRE of AI. Lastly, even if the AIDL remains constant, improving the level of marketization, human capital, digital infrastructure, economic development, openness, and government intervention can also amplify the marginal CRE of AI and lead to a nonlinear CRE of AI. To fully harness the potential of AI for green development, concerted efforts should be directed towards enhancing the innovation and application of AI technologies with carbon reduction potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emission intensity is crucial for achieving sustainable development. Carbon emission intensity is expressively affected by the issuance of green bonds. Thus, it is imperative to assess the influence of green bond issuance on carbon emissions and examine their correlation. Such research holds great potential to expedite the overhaul and modernization of businesses and to construct a circular economy system. This paper uses the spatial Durbin model to draw empirical conclusions by using data from 26 provinces in China between 2016 and 2021. Firstly, under different spatial matrices, it has been analyzed that an increase of 1% in the issuance of green bonds leads to a reduction of 0.306% or 0.331% in carbon emission intensity. It shows that green bonds have the potential to substantially reduce carbon intensity. Additionally, the intensity of emissions in the current period is driven by the intensity of emissions in the previous period. Secondly, the analysis of mediated transmission suggests that green bonds can ultimately reduce carbon emission intensity by changing the energy consumption structure or improving the efficiency of green technology innovation. Thirdly, the analysis of heterogeneity shows that the inhibitory effect of green bond issuance on carbon emissions is stronger in less economically developed regions than in economically developed regions. There is a significant inhibitory effect of green bond issuance in neighboring provinces on local carbon emission intensity. This effect is present only in provinces in less economically developed regions and not in economically developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a quasi-natural experiment of national innovative city pilot policy (NICPP) is carried out to investigate the impact of the NICPP on green technology innovation (GTI) and its intrinsic mechanism with the method of difference-in-differences. It is found that the NICPP significantly enhances GTI, and there is a certain lag and persistence in this effect. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the higher the administrative level and the more the geographical advantages of NICPP, the more obvious the driving effect of GTI. The mechanism test shows that the NICPP has an effect on the GTI through three channels: innovation factor input, agglomeration effect of science and technology talent, and entrepreneurial vitality empowerment. The findings of this study provide policy insights for further optimizing the construction of innovative cities and then promoting GTI development, ultimately realizing green dynamics transformation and high-quality development of China's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Solow residual method, traditionally pivotal for calculating total factor productivity (TFP), is typically not applied to green TFP calculations due to its exclusion of undesired outputs. Diverging from traditional approaches and other frontier methodologies such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), this paper integrates undesired outputs and three types of spatial spillover effects into the conventional Solow framework, thereby creating a new spatiotemporal econometric Solow residual method (STE-SRM). Utilizing this novel method, the study computes the industrial green TFPs for 280 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, recalculates these TFPs using DEA-SBM and Bayesian SFA for the same cities and periods, and assesses the accuracy of the STE-SRM-derived TFPs through comparative analysis. Additionally, the paper explores the statistical properties of China's urban industrial green TFPs as derived from the STE-SRM, employing Dagum's Gini coefficient and spatial convergence analyses. The findings first indicate that by incorporating undesired outputs and spatial spillover into the Solow residual method, green TFPs are computable in alignment with the traditional Solow logic, although the allocation of per capita inputs and undesired outputs hinges on selecting the optimal empirical production function. Second, China's urban industrial green TFPs, calculated using the STE-SRM with the spatial Durbin model with mixed effects as the optimal model, show that cities like Huangshan, Fangchenggang, and Sanya have notably higher TFPs, whereas Jincheng, Datong, and Taiyuan display lower TFPs. Third, comparisons of China's urban industrial green TFP calculations reveal that those derived from the STE-SRM demonstrate broader but more concentrated results, while Bayesian SFA results are narrower and less concentrated, and DEA-SBM findings sit between these extremes. Fourth, the study highlights significant spatial heterogeneity in China's urban industrial green TFPs across different regions—eastern, central, western, and northeast China—with evident sigma convergence across the urban landscape, though absolute beta convergence is significant only in a limited subset of cities and time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pilot of Accountability Audit of Natural resources (AANR) is an important initiative for the Communist Party of China Central Committee to eradicate environmental pollution and promote the construction of ecological civilization. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between AANR and green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises, so as to promote regional sustainable development. With a sample of the national key monitoring enterprises in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of AANR on green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises by applying the multi-period difference-in-differences model. The results indicate that AANR significantly promotes green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises. The results of mechanism testing indicate that AANR stimulates green innovation by promoting government environmental governance and government innovation-driven strategy. The heterogeneity testings indicate that the promoting effect of AANR on green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises is more significant in regions with higher environmental carrying capacity, higher pressure of GDP achievement and higher transparency of government environmental information. Therefore, China should deepen the enforcement of AANR to promote the green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conditions of the spread of globalization processes, growing interdependence, and interconnectedness of countries, a significant intensification of the academic society efforts to ensure national energy security and independence is necessary. The purpose of the paper is to provide a systematic review of the scientific environment aimed at analysing the contents and features of scientific publications dealing with new trends and patterns in sustainable energy consumption. In order to create a semantic and definition basis and research the main trends of scientific publications on the subject of developing energy efficiency and sustainable consumption, the paper carried out a bibliometric analysis concerning the categories «energy efficient» and «energy consumption» using the Scopus and VOSviewer tools. The main question is, what are the main scientific and research trends and patterns in the field of energy efficiency and sustainable consumption? For this purpose, the quantity and quality tendencies of the scientific articles which are studying issues connected with energy efficiency and sustainable consumer behaviour were determined. A sample of more than 24000 scientific publications on this issue was generated from publications indexed by the Scopus database. The study period covers 2001-2021. On the global level, the analysed investigated area is represented by the countries: China, the USA, and India. VOS viewer tools were used to systemize 5 clusters of scientific articles that analysed sustainable energy consumption from different points of view. Identification of regularities in the developing of scientific approaches to energy-efficient consumption and developing sustainable energy sector was carried out using bibliometric analysis, which has made it possible to describe the dominant retrospective evolutionary and temporal tendencies in the development of this theory concerning the concepts of sustainable development, environmental management, and development of renewables. As a result, one of the most significant trends is a green brand and tendencies connected with developing green marketing and green consumer awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation is a crucial factor in the global quest for sustainability. In 2017, China approved the establishment of Pilot Zones for Green Financial Reform and Innovations to build and improve the green financial system. Using a difference-in-difference (DID) model, this paper examines the impact of this pilot policy on corporate green technology innovation and its transmission mechanism based on the data of green patents of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing companies between 2014 and 2019. It is found that Pilot Zones for Green Financial Reform and Innovations have contributed to the growth of green technology innovations. This conclusion is confirmed after a series of robustness tests. The pilot policy's promotion of green technology innovations is mainly reflected in the application of corporate green invention patents. However, it is more significant for non-heavy polluting enterprises, high-tech certified enterprises, and large enterprises. The paper also finds that the pilot policy promotes corporate green technology innovation by promoting social financing, talent support, and government financial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ways to fight against global warming is by means of green technological progress. This paper explores the nonlinear relationship between R&D investment and green technological progress based on panel threshold regression model using panel data of 26 manufacturing sub-sectors in China from 2004 to 2017. The results show that the double-threshold model can better explain the nonlinear relationship between the two, and the R&D investment in the three ranges of low, medium, and high levels can significantly promote green technological progress in China's manufacturing industry. However, with the improvement of R&D investment level, the promotion effect of R&D investment on the progress of manufacturing green technology is decreasing, which explains the low R&D intensity of China's manufacturing industry to a certain extent. When the level of R&D investment reaches a certain level, its promoting effect on manufacturing industry's green technological progress will be greatly reduced, and the motivation of enterprises to invest in R&D based on self-interest will decrease, so that the scale of R&D investment will be lower than the optimal scale of society. R&D investment can also improve green technical efficiency change. In addition, environmental regulation can promote green technological progress in manufacturing industry. However, due to the implementation of output-oriented environmental regulation policies, China's environmental regulation can inhibit the improvement of green technical efficiency change. Based on the conclusion, this paper argues that China should implement differentiated R&D subsidy policies for manufacturing enterprises, especially to increase R&D subsidies for enterprises with a medium level of R&D investment, and formulate appropriate environmental regulatory policies, to promote green and low-carbon transformation of China's manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the influence of the dual policies of sustainable economic development and the national dual-carbon target, the establishment of an environmental protection department for the treatment of heavily polluting industries is imminent, and the country has launched pollution control policies and regulations to restrict the emission rights of heavily polluting industries. Therefore, this paper focuses on whether the restriction of emission rights in key industries has reduced carbon emissions. To achieve this, this paper uses panel data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 and adopts a two-way fixed-effects DID model to systematically analyze the impact of the key pollution industry governance policies launched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on CO2 emissions in 2017. And further analyze the role of variables such as green technology innovation patents and energy efficiency using this model, while parallel trend tests and placebo tests, and related policies are used to ensure the robustness of the regression results. This paper reveals that: (1) The heavy pollution industry governance policy implemented in 2017 can effectively reduce CO2 emissions in the cities of the treated group, and the effect is more significant in the year of policy implementation; (2) Green utility patents and energy-use efficiency are the effective mediating mechanisms to reduce CO2 emissions; (3) Over time, the effect of heavy pollution industry governance policy on CO2 emissions gradually decreases; (4) The reliability of the baseline regression results of this paper is proved by the use of parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and tests excluding the influence factors such as relevant policies in the same period. Therefore, the key polluting industries treatment policy launched by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2017 under the recent dual-carbon policy development goals formulated by China, can effectively reduce carbon emissions; however, in the future economic development process, the government should give more consideration to the continuity of the policy impact and its coherence on economic development when implementing the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basin Horizontal Ecological Compensation Mechanism (BHEC) is a significant institutional innovation in China's water environment management, aimed at achieving green, low-carbon, and high-quality development in the basin. This paper examines the current status of the spatial association network of green low-carbon development in Xin'an River basin, using social network analysis based on data from prefecture-level cities between 2006 and 2019. Using a dual difference model, the paper explores the important role of BHEC in promoting green low-carbon development from the perspectives of production and consumption and analyzes the path of BHEC's promotion of green low-carbon development in detail. The results indicate that (1) the green low-carbon development in the Xin'an River basin is universally connected in space, but this connection is uneven among the cities in the basin, presenting a network spatial structure with the central region as the core and the north and south regions approaching the core. (2) BHEC contributes to green low-carbon development, and the "two-wheel drive" of green technology progress and green technology efficiency is essential to improve green low-carbon development. (3) From the perspective of consumption affecting green low-carbon development, the positive impact of BHEC on green low-carbon development is inseparable from the synergistic guarantee of public participation. (4) From the production side of green low-carbon development, the ecological effect, structural effect, and technological effect are significant transmission factors of compensation policies affecting green low-carbon development. (5) The "blood transfusion" pilot policy is more helpful to improve green low-carbon development, and compensation policy has positive spillover effects. Finally, the paper argues that the trans-basin ecological compensation policy is expected to become a long-term mechanism to promote green low-carbon and high-quality development in the basin, providing a theoretical and practical basis for developing countries to achieve green low-carbon development through an ecological compensation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development can be mainly achieved by promoting the green transformation and development of the world economy and by improving the efficiency of regional green development, which often receive extensive attention from the academia. This paper uses a spatial econometric model to estimate the impact of manufacturing agglomeration on green development efficiency based on the panel data of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The results show an overall large gap of green development efficiency between regions in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, mostly due to the extremely uneven development of green development efficiency in the upper reaches. Opposite to the middle and lower reaches, manufacturing agglomeration in the upper reaches of the YREB improves green development efficiency. Manufacturing agglomeration is conducive to the improvement of green development efficiency in adjacent areas. Nonetheless, it may hinder green development efficiency by inhibiting green technological innovation. This paper provides empirical evidence and policy implications for applying manufacturing agglomeration to promote green development efficiency in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial impact effects and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the digital economy on urban carbon emissions (CO2). Specifically, firstly, the Digital Economy Index (DEI) system of 285 cities in China was constructed and the Global Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) was applied to evaluate the digital economy level of Chinese cities. Based on spatial correlation and spatial heterogeneity, the paper explores the global spatial impact and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the impact of digital economy on CO2 using spatial Durbin model (SDM) and geographic time-weighted regression (GTWR), respectively. And the mechanism variables are used to further demonstrate the mechanism effect and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of digital economy on CO2. The findings indicate that (1) the advancement of the digital economy is beneficial for achieving carbon abatement goals, and the impact of the digital economy on CO2 mitigation remains stable across several robustness tests. (2) The spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the impact of carbon reduction is not significant. And there is significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions. (3) According to the mechanism analysis, the digital economy reduces carbon emissions by encouraging the development of green technologies and promoting the modernization of industrial structures. And there are non-linear characteristics of this effect. This study concludes that the digital economy can support China's goal of achieving "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." However, it is important to consider the differences in urban development over time and space. Leveraging the city's strengths to develop a digital economy in a unique way that will help achieve China's carbon reduction goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the coupling coordination degree between digital economy and green technology innovation in 19 urban agglomerations across China from 2011 to 2020. Through the analysis of the coupling coordination degree model, spatial autocorrelation, multi-distance spatial clustering analysis, kernel density analysis and grey correlation model, this study uncovers the mechanism of coupling between digital economy and green technology in Chinese urban agglomerations. Data analysis revealed a significant increase in the coupling coordination between the digital economy and green technology innovation within urban agglomerations. However, there are noticeable spatial imbalances in this trend. Additionally, the multi-distance spatial distance analysis highlights a shift from a random distribution to a clustered distribution of spatial characteristics. The polarization features vary among each urban agglomeration and exhibit a significant positive spatial correlation. Factors such as economic sustainability, creative talent, policy support, digital impetus, and technological support will affect the coupling mechanism of green technology innovation and the digital economy in China's urban agglomerations. Policy recommendations are proposed to foster the development of the digital economy, promote coordinated growth within and beyond urban clusters, and ultimately build a digital ecological civilization that is both green and intelligent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 625 industrial listed enterprises of China from 2012 to 2020, this paper employs the method of propensity score matching–difference in difference to investigate the effect of financial–industrial integration on the enterprise's green development performance and the moderating role of green technology innovation on the relationship between the two is also addressed. It finds that first, financial–industrial integration has a significant promoting effect on the improvement in green development performance of enterprises, and green technology innovation has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the two. In addition, the effect of financial–industrial integration on enterprise's economic and social performance is not significant, and it mainly promotes enterprise's green development by stimulating environmental performance. Moreover, the degree of financial–industrial integration has a moderate range in which the role of financial–industrial integration can be better played. Further, compared with state-owned enterprise and large-scale enterprise, financial–industrial integration is more conducive to the green development of non-state-owned enterprises and small-scale enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The serious consequences of climate warming have increasingly become a globe agenda in recent decades. China has been actively participating in various initiatives to address global climate change and has made commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Although the logistics industry is regarded as the "new driving force of national economic development", its carbon intensity is relatively high. Therefore, whether the logistics industry can develop in a green and low-carbon way is very crucial. This paper takes the green logistics efficiency of China's provincial logistics industry as the research object. The Super-SBM model is used to measure the China's green logistics efficiency, then the general dynamic characteristics is depicted by kernel density analysis. With the GML (Global Malmquist-Luenberger) index model, the reasons for the changes in green logistics efficiency are explained. Finally, Moran's I index is used to analyze the spatial correlation of green logistics efficiency in each province. The results show that the green logistics efficiency in China is at a low level, but with an upward trend. China's green logistics efficiency has a significant positive spatial correlation, showing a zonal pattern of high in the east and low in the west, and a polarization phenomenon. In addition, the bottleneck of the overall development of green logistics efficiency in China depends on the level of green technology. Furthermore, the results also imply that green technology advancement is an inherent key factor for green logistics efficiency to achieve growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation is an effective means to achieve high-quality economic development. The impact and mechanism of digital financial inclusion on regional green technology innovation are tested using a threshold regression model and the panel fixed effect model, based on China's provincial Panel data (provincial Panel data are regional annual report data) from 2011 to 2020. According to the study, there is a direct link between local green technology innovation and digital financial inclusion. This paper highlights the differences in their influence by location and usage depth and underscores the necessity of government engagement to improve these characteristics. Information infrastructure needs to be strengthened, especially in areas with gaps. Greater investment in research and development (R&D) indirectly supports regional green technology innovation since it is impacted by digital financial inclusion. Interestingly, a threshold effect becomes most noticeable when digital financial inclusion rises above a particular threshold. Promoting utilizing digital financial inclusion to lessen regional differences in green technology innovation is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is accelerating green and low-carbon transformation and promoting high-quality economic development. To effectively contribute to the improvement of global environmental quality and enhance enterprises' awareness of environmental responsibility in the process of outbound investment, China strongly advocates that enterprises should comply with the environmental protection laws and regulations of host countries and try to strengthen local environmental protection as investing abroad. However, inadequate attention has been paid to the factors influencing green preferences in corporate outbound investment. Therefore, using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2019, this paper aims to empirically analyze whether the quality of environmental information disclosure (QEID) affects enterprises' green preference of outbound investment (OIGP), and the influence mechanism of QEID on the enterprises' OIGP by analyzing the mediating effects of green technology innovation and media attention. It is found that QEID significantly promotes corporate OIGP. In terms of influence mechanism, QEID promotes firms' OIGP by restraining media attention, while the mediating role of green technology innovation in the effect of QEID on firms' OIGP is manifested as the masking effect. In addition, it is found that these influence mechanisms are different among enterprises with different property rights and different life cycle stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economic development is an effective tactic for China to cope with the predicament of resources and the environment. As "smoke-free industries", producer services are becoming the main contributors to urban green economic development (UGED). The paper adopts the super-efficiency EBM model to estimate the UGED index of 268 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2019. Based on the theoretical analysis, econometric models are constructed to systematically test how the specialized and diversified agglomeration of producer services impacts UGED. The findings reveal that both agglomeration modes considerably enhance UGED in the local area and its surroundings. Diversified agglomeration exerts a stronger radiation and promotion effect than specialized agglomeration. In addition, the impact of the two agglomeration modes on UGED demonstrates pronounced heterogeneity in urban scales, economic development stages, and industries. Furthermore, mechanism studies suggest that agglomeration substantially boosts UGED by improving human capital, technological innovation, and upgrading industrial structure. As such, our findings serve as an empirical basis for understanding the mechanism of the impact of PSA on UGED and also offer significant insight for local governments to adopt differentiated industrial policies to enhance the positive agglomeration effect on UGED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their ability to generate green industrial growth, green finance policies are important both in the greening of China's industries and in the promoting of further improvements to its financial system. In this paper, reform pilot zones are used as a quasi-natural experiment with select panel data from 2007 to 2019 taken from 30 provinces in China, and used the DID method to empirically measure the impact of green finance reform on industrial GTFP and its mechanism of action. The findings demonstrate that reforming green finance greatly enhances GTFP of industry during the review period. This result is still valid after carrying out robustness tests. The heterogeneity study finds that the policy plays a large part in fostering GTFP in the middle stage of industrialization but not in the late stage. Further analyses of its transmission mechanism demonstrate that green finance reform mostly fosters industrial green growth through an innovation effect and a structural effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of "carbon peaking and carbon neutral," this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the spatial fluctuation spillover effect of green total factor productivity (GTFP) under the influence of Internet development. Design/methodology/approach: Using panel data from 283 cities in China for the period 2003–2016, this paper explores the spatial fluctuation spillover effect of internet development on GTFP by applying the spatial autoregressive with autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model (SARspARCH). Findings: The results of Moran's I test of the residual term and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) value indicate that the GTFP has a spatial fluctuation spillover effect, and the estimated results of the SARspARCH model are more accurate than the spatial autoregressive (SAR) model and the spatial autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (spARCH) model. Specifically, the internet development had a positive spatial fluctuation spillover effect on GTFP in 2003, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and the volatility spillover effect weakens the positive spillover effect of internet development on GTFP. Moreover, Internet development has a significant positive spatial fluctuation spillover effect on GTFP averagely in eastern China and internet-based cities. Research limitations/implications: The results of this study provide digital solutions for policymakers in improving the level of GTFP in China, with more emphasis on regional synergistic governance to ensure growth. Originality/value: This paper expands the research ideas for spatial econometric models and provides a more valuable reference for China to achieve green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance can promote economic transformation and technological innovation and play a key role in solving the ecological environment and energy crisis. This paper constructs a comprehensive ecological livable environment evaluation system based on the provincial panel data in China from 2011 to 2019. At the same time, the panel mediation effect and spatial econometric model are used to test the impact of green finance on the ecological and livable environment. The main research conclusions include the following: (1) green finance has significantly improved China's ecological and livable environment; (2) green finance improves the ecological and livable environment by improving the level of technological innovation; (3) the impact of green finance on the ecological livable environment has regional heterogeneity, and green finance in the central provinces has a better effect on the improvement of the ecological livable environment; and (4) the ecological livable environment among Chinese provinces has a significant positive spatial correlation. Among them, green finance has significantly improved the local ecological livable environment but reduced the ecological livable environment of surrounding provinces. Based on the above conclusions, this paper suggests that the government should pay more attention to green finance and technological innovation and coordinate the development of the ecological livable environment among provinces. The research results provide empirical evidence for better developing green finance and improving the ecological livable environment and also provide certain theoretical guidance for China's coordinated regional development and high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]