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The sustainable development of the economy is a key issue of global concern. Green total factor productivity (GTFP) combining economic growth with resources and the environment can evaluate the quality of economic development comprehensively and accurately. In this paper, super slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model and Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index were used to calculate GTFP. The trend of industrial GTFP in China's 30 provinces from 2006-2015 was analyzed. Furtherly, a dynamic panel model was used to discuss the impact of trade openness on GTFP. The results showed that (1) the growth rate of GTFP rose from 2007 to 2011 and declined significantly from 2011 to 2015, and GTFP only achieved positive growth in 2011; (2) the growth rate of GTFP in the eastern region was higher than that in the central and western regions; (3) the trend of technical progress change (MLTECH) index was highly consistent with that of ML index. That was, technical progress played a major role in the variation of GTFP; (4) trade openness could significantly improve China's GTFP. Every 1% increase in trade openness could increase GTFP by 0.097% on average. It is advisable to implement differentiated economic development and environmental policies in different regions. Meanwhile, relevant measures can be taken to promote import and export trade, such as encouraging companies to increase investment in green technology research and development, optimizing the trade environment.

Improving the level of green innovation is indispensable for sustainable urban development. This article uses China’s city-level data from 2000 to 2018 as a sample to test the impact and mechanism ...

In this study, we implemented a dictator game experiment to examine how the increase of the public characteristic in an impure public good affects individuals’ prosocial behaviour. A within‐subject design was used in the experiment. The dictator game was repeated six times with an impure public good introduced in four of them. We observe that the increase of the public characteristic in an impure public good partly crowds out individuals’ subsequent donations, which could be explained by a seemingly ‘mental accounting’ mental process. In addition, we also find that the selfish behaviour of individuals in dictator games with impure public goods, to some extent, has an inertia influence on their subsequent donations when the impure public good is removed.

Developing new energy vehicles (NEVs) is necessary to grow the low-carbon vehicle industry. Many concentrated end-of-life (EoL) power batteries will cause large-scale environmental pollution and safety accidents when the time comes to replace the first generation of batteries if improper recycling and disposal methods are utilized. Significant negative externalities will result for the environment and other economic entities. When recycling EoL power batteries, some countries need to solve problems about lower recycling rates, unclear division of echelon utilization scenarios, and incomplete recycling systems. Therefore, this paper first analyzes representative countries’ power battery recycling policies and finds out the reasons for the low recycling rate in some countries. It is also found that echelon utilization is the critical link to EoL power battery recycling. Secondly, this paper summarizes the existing recycling models and systems to form a complete closed-loop recycling process from the two stages of consumer recycling and corporate disposal of batteries. The policies and recycling technologies are highly concerned with echelon utilization, but few studies focus on analyzing application scenarios of echelon utilization. Therefore, this paper combines cases to delineate the echelon utilization scenarios clearly. Based on this, the 4R EoL power battery recycling system is proposed, which improves the existing recycling system and can recycle EoL power batteries efficiently. Finally, this paper analyzes the existing policy problems and existing technical challenges. Based on the actual situation and future development trends, we propose development suggestions from the government, enterprises, and consumers to achieve the maximum reused of EoL power batteries.

This article is devoted to the study of the results of rapid economic growth on the example of the People's Republic of China. Forty years have passed since the beginning of the openness reforms in China. They are characterized by the rapid growth of China's economic power, the improvement of the well-being of the inhabitants of that country, as well as the strengthening of the state's place in the international arena. With the support of foreign investment in the early stages, China itself becomes an investor. Techno-intensive industries hold an important share of China's exports. Despite the rapid growth of economic indicators, China is facing new challenges for developing countries. The accelerated development of the state has serious environmental, political and economic consequences, from pollution to corruption and the lag of certain regions from the overall pace of the country's development. These problems are expected to be addressed through a number of measures taken by the Government in the coming decades: investment market reforms, reorientation of international trade to developing countries, green economies, market reform real estate, addition to the legislative framework, the creation of new controls and reform of existing ones and so on. The reform process is inevitable and is the key to the successful development of the People's Republic of China.

People's lives have been improved during the past three decades due to rapid economic development in China, which has also resulted in ecological destruction and many side effects, especially the greenhouse effect caused by the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2). This study first uses the method of the IPCC to estimate the CO2 emissions of provinces and municipalities in the eastern, central and western regions of China from 1995 to 2014. Based on these estimations, the study uses the PSTR model to represent the features of non-linear mechanisms to analyze the relationship between CO2 emissions and per capita GDP in the three regions during this period. Thus, this model derives the influences of population elasticity and the energy consumption on CO2 emissions in the three regions. The effect of economic development on CO2 emissions was heterogeneous across the regions. We found that in the eastern region, the correlation between CO2 emissions and per capita GDP is positive. As the economic mechanism transitions rapidly in the eastern region and the economic scale reaches the threshold value (after 1995), every 1% increase in per capita GDP causes a 0.28% rise in CO2 emissions; in the central and western regions, the transformation of the economic mechanism occurred in approximately 2005, and the correlation between CO2 emissions and per capita GDP turns out to be weakly negative. The population elasticity is −0.0948 in the central region and −0.2283 in the western region. Because of the regional disparities in economic impact on the environment, specific region-tailored energy saving and emission reduction strategies are of great importance so as to provide a more effective approach to achieving sustainable development in China.

China needs to reach a peak of CO2 emissions around 2030 as the goal of “national autonomous contribution” submitted by its government at the Paris Climate Change Conference. Utilizing the quantile...

In the past few years, China’s air quality, particularly PM2.5 concentrations, has received extensive attention. China is increasingly dependent on imported oil, and the international oil price fluctuations influence the air quality by two paths. A rise in oil prices puts pressure on the economy and reduces energy consumption, which could improve air quality. However, the substitution effect by high oil prices tends to increase the use of environmentally unfriendly energies, which worsens air quality. In this study, the authors employ wavelet analysis to determine how international oil price fluctuations affect PM2.5 concentrations in China. The authors process a sample of 12 typical Chinese cities, which are discretely distributed in the northeast, north, east, central, south, and southwest of China. The results show that in most cities international crude oil prices are positively correlated to the PM2.5 concentrations in the short term (1–4 months) and that the fluctuations in oil prices are usually ahead of the changes of PM2.5 concentrations. It is more pronounced in industrially developed cities such as in Shanghai. An extension of the study to include the country data yields more consistent findings. Empirical analysis indicates that, in the short run, the substitution effect caused by oil price fluctuations exerts a stronger impact on PM2.5 concentrations.

In current work, the phenomenon of NIMBY (not in my back yard) for a municipal solid waste incinerator was recognized through an investigation for the evolution of individual risk attitude to group risk attitude (ItGRA). The cellular automaton model was employed to evaluate the risk attitude status with different frequencies of social interaction between residents. In the simulation case, the risk attitude of residents in the pseudo-rational state and non-pseudo-rational state was evaluated, which indicates the sheep-flock effect on the exaggeration of public NIMBY attitude. To the incinerator, the individual risk attitude evolved to supportive group risk attitude at a social interaction frequency 100 times higher than that in family or local neighborhoods, when the initial number of residents in opposition and support was equal. This was supported by the result of the model in the evaluation of resident risk attitude around the incinerator in Shanghai. On the contrary, for those in a non-pseudo-rational state, the ultimate group risk attitude depends on the probability that the residents have a supportive or opposing risk attitude as the concept of individuals was difficult to change. Accordingly, the decision strategy of incinerator construction should consider the influence of the sheep-flock effect, which can increase the attitude of residents in support and lead to the evolution of a group risk attitude to support attitude. Therefore, this study provides insight into the evolution of public attitude to NIMBY attitude and a promising evaluation method to quantify and guide the individual and group risk attitudes.

In the past decade, sales of electrical and electronic equipment have undergone explosive growth worldwide, while at the same time, the life cycles of electrical and electronic equipment have been getting shorter. This has resulted in large numbers of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) being generated, which causes serious environmental problems that each country has to face. In this paper, we use the system dynamic method to analyze how China's “WEEE processing fund” policy, wherein levies or subsidies are set on appropriate targets, influences the economic and environmental conditions of participants in the WEEE management system. The simulations results suggest that the “WEEE processing fund” policy could improve the economic status of those receiving subsidies without losing the economic revenue from levies and improve the entire system's ability to recover and process waste equipment.

Although remanufacturing can unlock the added value in used products, the inherent uncertainty in returns can cause a potential imbalance between supply and demand. This study involves the development of an optimisation model, which coordinates the forward and reverse production streams to strike an optimal balance between the uncertain acquisition rate and market demand. We formulate three strategies: (I) a reactive strategy to determine the optimal replenishment for limited output of the remanufactured product, (II) a proactive strategy to implement an optimal remanufacture-up-to policy, and (III) a global optimal strategy to maximise profitability in a closed-loop supply chain. Using different examples, the practical significance and adaptability of each strategy were validated. More importantly, we offer useful managerial implications by revealing that, despite their low processing cost, remanufactured products do not necessarily imply higher cost efficiency. Indeed, it may be more profitable to manufacture new products at a higher cost than remanufacturing.

Remanufacture unlocks the residual values in used products by prolonging the life cycle. While due to different working conditions in use stage, the quality of returned items varies widely, which has greatly reduced the process efficiency and added to the complexity of management. To quantify the impacts of quality uncertainty on remanufacture, the study employs Monte Carlo simulation to establish definite relation between quality loss and environmental efficiency in remanufacturing, then from which conducts a quantitative analysis of the effects of carbon trading mechanism on procurement and production. Finally, it devises a multi-objective optimization strategy to strike a balance between economic and environmental benefits. Grounded with data collected from the machine remanufacturing industry, our model illustrates that moderately raising the environmental regulation stringency will not impede the industrial development, it could increase the comprehensive benefit by even up to 50%. Thus, we provide a theoretical foundation and optimization direction for managers to make scientific decision towards sustainable development at lower energy and resource input in remanufacturing.

In order to improve China's environmental quality, the central government has strengthened the environmental responsibility of local governments, and adopted supervision tools such as environmental protection inquiries and inspections to promote local governments to be more proactive in environmental issues. In this paper, the global non-radial direction distance function (NDDF) and difference-in-difference (DID) method are used to analyze the impact of the environmental protection inquiry on energy-environmental efficiency. Specifically, taking energy, capital, and labor as input factors, regional GDP as desirable output, and sulfur dioxide, dust, and wastewater emissions as undesirable outputs, the unified energy-environmental efficiency index (UEEI) of each city has been estimated with the global NDDF method. The results show that UEEI in the eastern and central regions are relatively high, while that in the north and northeast regions are relatively low. On this basis, the impact of environmental protection inquiry on UEEI of each city is analyzed with the DID method. The results show that the environmental protection inquiry can significantly improve the energy-environmental efficiency of atmospheric pollutants, but the effect on energy-environmental efficiency of wastewater emission is not significant.

The social risk of chemical industry park projects attracts much attention, as they are perceived to yield strong environmental risks. This paper systematically evaluates the social risk of Xuwei Chemical Park in China, which was investigated as an example to guide the risk control strategy of conflict in industrial facilities for developing countries. The results show that residents and government departments have a resistance to the risks of the project as a stronger sense of group risk perception (the value is 7 &times, 10&minus, 6) compared with the basic value of 7 &times, 5. By contrast, the low value of group risk perception was evaluated in an enterprise group (7 &times, 4), indicating that the risks of petrochemical projects are often accepted. The expert group&rsquo, s risk perception regarding petrochemical projects is consistent with the basic value. This is a very interesting finding indicating that the greater the experience, the more the support for petrochemical projects. The knowledge and information from education or experience improve the judgment of the risk of the facility, which increases the individual&rsquo, s rational assessment comprehension of risk. Moreover, factors that are significantly related to residents&rsquo, attitudes are information cognitive factors (trust in information publicity and petrochemical project understanding), and project influencing factors (project planning rationality, quality of life improvement, and economic development satisfaction). Among them, the degree of trust in information disclosure has the highest degree of influence, followed by the level of education, while the satisfaction with economic development has the lowest degree of influence. Therefore, improving the trust of residents in the information disclosure of petrochemical projects should be the core of the government&rsquo, s risk control policy.

Environmental pollutants generated by waste incineration plants, such as heavy metals and dioxin, make surrounding residents very sensitive to the construction of such facilities. This sensitivity and anxiety of residents may induce group events, which further leads to the emergence of social risks. Based on risk perception theory, a total of 320 questionnaires was designed and handed out to residents neighboring to Jiangqiao Waste Incineration Plant in Shanghai, China to detect the factors affecting risk attitude toward such plants. Using ordered logit model, it is found that there are four decisive factors including impact on health, information cognitive, objective characteristics, and the attitude of the neighbors. These factors have different influence on resident risk attitudes, in which the attitude of the neighbors is of most significance, followed by the economic-geography characteristics of residents, the information cognitive has minimal impact.

With the accelerating pace of urbanization, the continuous increase of municipal solid waste (MSW) has become a major obstacle to China's economic development. Therefore, China recently regards MSW classification scenario as an important strategy for national ecological civilization. However, published references have not focused on MSW classification in view of environmental, economic and social acceptation simultaneously. This research proposes a new Decision Support System (DSS) model considering all three aspects to analyze the comprehensive benefit of the four MSW classification scenarios in Pudong (Shanghai, China) using cost benefit analysis (CBA), life cycle assessment (LCA) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Among them, there is an important boundary factor in the life cycle assessment. This work mainly focuses on the net energy consumption, namely the air and water emission of different substances. The results show that the classification scenario II, dividing MSW into toxic and hazardous waste, recyclable, kitchen waste and combustible waste, is the best option. Although scenario III (MSW is divided into toxic and hazardous waste, recyclable waste (paper, plastic, scrap metal, waste glass and other small class), kitchen waste and combustible wastes) and IV (recyclable waste in Scenario II is further classified, for example, paper is subdivided into newspapers, books, cardboard, etc.) further refine the MSW classification, the DSS model analysis results indicate that neither of these are the most feasible scenario. Therefore, finer classification is not always the better if we consider all three pillars of sustainability.

In this study, we conducted a stated choice survey in Shanghai in order to examine the attitudes of Shanghai residents towards electric vehicles and their attributes. Multinomial Logit and Random Parameter Logit models were used to analyze the response data for three samples&mdash, the full sample, a subsample of potential electric vehicle purchasers, and a subsample of unlikely electric vehicle purchasers. We found that the respondents in each of the three groups preferred electric vehicles with a longer driving range, a shorter charging time, a faster maximum speed, lower pollution emissions, lower fuel cost, and a lower price. However, an overlong driving range seems not to be a must for potential electric vehicles (EV) purchasers. In addition, a comparison of the two subsamples showed that potential electric vehicle purchasers were willing to pay more than their counterparts for enhancing vehicle attributes. We also investigated the determinants of likely electric vehicle purchase and found a number of demographic characteristics that were statistically significant.