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In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green transformation of industry and sustainable economic development both require considerable investment. In this regard, green finance that is compatible with economic development can help cope with the massive demand for capital. Taken China's Yangtze River Delta (YRD) as an example, this study is to measure the coordination degree between green finance and economic development. First, the concept, content and scope of green finance is defined based on the new financial regulation mechanism. Second, a green finance measurement index is built to calculate the green finance index for 30 Chinese provinces by the CFA test. Third, based on the economic structure index, an economic development index is built. Testing the rationality of green financial index and the economic development index, this paper finally measures the degree of coordination between green finance and economic development in the YRD. The results reveal that, first, green finance is a financial instrument that integrates financial industry development, environmental improvement, and economic growth. The measurement of the green financial development index includes the sum of regional green credit, green investment, green securities, and green insurance. Second, after years' development, the comprehensive score of YRD's coupling coordination degree exceeds 0.8 in 2020, which shows a high level of coordinated development between green finance and economic construction. However, there is a 2-year timing effect between the economic development and green finance index increase, which reveals that green finance development in the YRD requires further policy guidance and support. This study's findings can provide a theoretical reference and case support for the further development of green finance and related policies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the green belt and road is an inevitable choice to conform to and lead the green and low-carbon cycle development and an inherent requirement for sustainable development. Therefore, we establish an evaluation system of green development oriented to carbon neutrality, and calculate the green development level (GDL) of the provinces along the belt and road in China from 2003 to 2018 by using a three-dimensional evaluation model. In addition, this paper employs the Obstacle Degree Model to identify the main obstacle factors that affect GDL, and provides targeted and differentiated countermeasures and suggestions for improving the regional GDL. Our results suggested that the overall GDL has improved, but not obvious, with a low level. The GDL and coordination degree between different regions exist certain differences, and its spatial pattern is characterized by "high in southeast and northeast, low in southwest and northwest". From a regional perspective, innovation capacity is the key factor that affects the green development of the region in southeast, northeast, northwest and southwest China. Driving economic green transformation and promoting industrial energy conservation and emission reduction through technological innovation are the internal driving forces to achieve regional green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has developed rapidly since the implementation of its reform and opening-up policy. However, the long-term extensive development has also brought serious ecological problems to China. Ecological crises, such as air pollution, water pollution and land desertification occur frequently. Green finance has become a path to promote China's sustainable economic development as an economic activity to deal with climate change, improve the ecological environment and make rational use of resources. This paper will construct a spatial econometric model and coupling coordination degree model to carry out empirical research. Based on the data from 1999 to 2020, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of green finance and an economic ecology system. First, the spatial autocorrelation model is used to analyze the spatial relationship. Second, the coupling coordination degree model is used to measure the evolution of the coupling coordination relationship between green finance and economic ecology. The results show that green finance has a strong spatial agglomeration. Economic and ecological development has maintained a stable spatial positive correlation. The spatial difference of economic ecological development is more obvious than the development of green finance. The development of green finance has a significant positive role in promoting the economic and ecological development of its province. The degree of coupling and coordination of green finance and economic ecology shows an increasing trend, changing from transition type to coupling and coordination type. It shows that China's green finance can effectively promote the overall optimal development of economic ecology to a certain extent. However, no high-quality coordination was observed in the result of coupling coordination, and thus, there is still some room for progress in the development of the two. China needs to change the current mode of economic development comprehensively and take the road of harmonious development suited to the economy and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic and technological development zone (ETDZ) serves an essential role in driving green development and ecological civilization. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the impact of ETDZs on eco-efficiency for sustainable development. This paper investigates the impact of the establishment of ETDZs on eco-efficiency by constructing a differences-in-differences (DID) model on the basis of 253 cities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the dataset. This paper also explores the possible intrinsic impact mechanisms through the channels of industrial structure and technological innovation by constructing a mediating effect model, and the heterogeneous effects of ETDZs on eco-efficiency from the perspectives of regional imbalance and city class heterogeneity. Statistical results report that ETDZs significantly positively affect eco-efficiency and such effects are most significant in the first year after the establishment of ETDZs. Industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation are essential role mechanisms for ETDZs to enhance eco-efficiency. Besides, the enhancement effect of ETDZs on eco-efficiency is only observed in the eastern part of the city, with an insignificant inhibitory effect in central and western parts of the cities. However, the establishment of ETDZs in cities with higher city classes is more beneficial to improve eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional view is that local governments are inclined to ease environmental regulations in response to fiscal pressure (FP) and alleviate FP by sacrificing the environment for economic development (ED). This paper takes Chinese Mainland resource-based cities (RBC) as the research sample but draws different conclusions. The research results are as follows: firstly, for RBC, although FP reduces environmental pollution (EP), it is not conducive to ED. Compared with non-resource-based cities (NRBC), the economic negative effect of FP in RBC is more obvious. Secondly, FP is detrimental to ED by reducing EP, and RBC have not sacrificed the environment to promote ED in the context of FP. This paper summarizes that the development path of RBC should be "optimizing government behavior → increasing FP → improving environmental quality → reducing ED level." Thirdly, the impact of FP on cities with slower economic growth and smaller economic gap is greater, and the impact of FP on cities with better environment is more obvious. This paper argues that facing FP, RBC in China will not trade EP for ED; at the same time, we suggest RBC in other countries in the face of the FP, not only thinking of promoting ED at the expense of the EP and ease the FP, but also the development of green ecological requirement, overall consideration of the relationship between EP and ED, and then achieve green and sustainable ED without degrading the environment as far as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental resources play an extremely important role in economic development. In the context of China's economic development entering a new normal, attaching importance to environmental protection and strengthening environmental regulations will have an important impact on the original foreign direct investment (FDI) and China's economic development. Therefore, this paper combines the characteristics of the "new normal" of China's economic development, takes 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017 as the research object, and uses the PVAR model and impulse response function to re-verify the interaction mechanism and path among environmental regulation, FDI and high-quality economic development. The study found that: (1) There is an obvious mutual promotion relationship between environmental regulations and the quality of China's economic development and economic development environment. Strengthening environmental regulation is conducive to the realization of China's economic "new normal" development goal. (2) Although the strengthening of environmental regulation will have a significant constraint effect on FDI and China's economic growth rate, but the effect is relatively small. (3) FDI and economic growth rate variables are mutually motivated and promote each other, but both of them have a significant inhibitory effect on regional environmental regulation. In general, under the background of the "new normal" of China's economic development, appropriately increasing the intensity of environmental regulation is not only conducive to environmental protection and promoting high-quality and sustainable economic development, but also can serve the purpose of guiding the structure of foreign investment and transforming the mode of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a relative dearth of empirical studies quantitatively analyzing the implementation effect of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones (GFRIs) on green innovation at the micro-enterprise level. Thus, this paper aims to construct the difference-in-difference-in-difference method to explore the influence of Chinese GFRIs on corporate green innovation of heavy-polluting enterprises based on green patent data. Results show that the pilot policy has significantly decreased green patents of heavy-polluting enterprises by approximately 42.64%, indicating that the policy has a significant innovation inhibition effect and fails to exert the Porter effect. Furthermore, establishing GFRIs has a more effective inhibition effect on the green invention patent than the green utility model patent. Moreover, although enterprises of different scales have different innovation capabilities, the negative impact of GFRIs on green innovation of heavy-polluting enterprises is widespread. Still, the negative impact is more pronounced for big-scale enterprises. The above empirical evidence is essential in formulating green finance development strategies and promoting green economic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a noteworthy initiative of financial supply-side reform to precisely support the green development system, can green finance (GF) help achieve the dual goals of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality"? Using data from China's provincial panel between 2007 and 2019, this paper measured the green finance index by the entropy method and the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) with carbon emission as the non-desired output by the Super-SBM model. Then, the influence of GF on CEE was empirically investigated by the dynamic panel model and the spatial Durbin model. The findings show that GF can significantly improve CEE and has a positive spillover impact on CEE in provinces with close economic ties; the upgrading of the industrial structure is a key mediator in the transmission of GF to CEE; and regional heterogeneity analysis finds that GF notably improves CEE in eastern, high development levels of economic and GF regions. The research can offer some theoretical and empirical references for green finance to contribute to low-carbon economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a simple model to theoretically analyze the impacts of emissions of waste gases on industrial profit and mainly finds that industrial producers yield products to pursue profit but emit waste gases, protecting atmospheric environment demands for decline in waste gases, emissions impact profit when the process of production is altered as result of public regulations, and actively treating emissions ease the distortions of production and maintain profit. As a comparison, industrial profit is not impacted by emissions when producers are allowed to emit freely. After theoretical analysis, this study also empirically tests the relationship between the emissions of waste gases and profit as evidenced in China and finds that emissions do not significantly impact profit, except for sulfur dioxide with significantly negative impact; industrial producers with increased capacity for treating waste gases obtained more profits. As a result, the cost expended on treating pollution was compensated in the Chinese industrial sector. Successfully declining waste gases for atmospheric environmental protection and maintaining industrial profit for economic output and social development in the Chinese local economy has global implications because many other countries and regions primarily pursue green and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the environment and optimizing industrial structure are the primary tasks of resource-based cities in western China. This paper analyzes the impact mechanism and path of environmental effect on the industrial structure using the panel data of 37 prefecture-level resource-based cities in western China from 2008 to 2019. The results show that the environmental effect is beneficial for optimizing the industrial structure of resource-based cities in western China. The economic development and resource endowment amplify the positive impact of the environmental effect on industrial structure upgrades. In resource-based cities with different growth cycles, environmental effect has different impact on industrial structure upgrades. Technological innovation of enterprises and public awareness of environmental protection are effective paths for environmental effect to promote industrial structure upgrading. Therefore, it is really crucial to promote environmental protection, identify regional characteristics, and enhance departmental cooperation for resource-based cities in western China, realizing industrial structure upgrades and sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current period of rapid industrialization has not only brought about rapid economic growth but also caused serious energy shortages and environmental pollution, which have affected the sustainable development of the economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyse the changes in regional economic, energy, and environmental carrying capacity (3ECC); analyse the interaction among them; and propose corresponding optimization strategies for promoting regional sustainable development. In this study, a 3ECC simulation system is constructed from the pressure and support levels of load-bearing capacity. A system dynamics model is used to simulate the evolution path and action relationship of the 3ECC system, and an empirical test is completed in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region in China. A coupling coordination model and Bayesian vector autoregressive model are used to further explore the degree and action mode of the 3ECC system support and pressure indices. The results show that the model can truly reflect the characteristics of regional development and is suitable for prediction in this study. From 2015 to 2035, driven by technological progress, China's economic aggregate will grow by 223%, oil consumption by 33%, coal consumption by 23%, soil pollution by 197%, water pollution by 134%, and air pollution by 80.9%. Moreover, the coordination degree of the 3ECC supporting indicators gradually increases, while that of the pressure indicators gradually decreases, indicating that economic growth has a synergistic effect on environmental protection and energy conservation, thus further expanding the differences between environmental pollution and energy consumption. Finally, the supporting index of the economic carrying capacity and supporting index of the environmental carrying capacity have the widest influence range, and the optimization of economic and environmental development status is beneficial to the overall improvement of the 3ECC system. The influence range of the energy carrying capacity support index is small, indicating that coal and oil are being gradually replaced by other energy sources. Therefore, the research results of this paper can provide a reference for the sustainable development of other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-urban agglomerations in developing countries have been main parts of economic development. But at the same time, they have become the most prominent and sensitive areas of resource and environment problems. It is important to clarify the mechanism and driving factors of green growth in mega-urban agglomerations. Based on the panel data of 28 major cities in China's Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration from 2006 to 2015, this paper evaluates the level of green development of urban agglomeration by green total factor productivity index (GTFP) based on Global Malmquist DEA model, and decomposes GTFP into technological progress, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological scale change. On this basis, this paper constructs a panel econometric model to analyze the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors. The results show that GTFP of Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration is growing, and the scale effect caused by technological progress is the main driving factor. Green development in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration takes into account efficiency and regional fairness, which causes differences in GTFP growth patterns of sub-urban agglomerations within mega-urban agglomerations. The technological progress and technical efficiency improvement are becoming the main driving force of GTFP growth in relatively backward areas. Furthermore, according to the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors, mega-urban agglomeration should eliminate internal administrative barriers to build an integrated market. It should also increase the proportion of technology industries in core cities, and give full play to the role of technology spillover effect on surrounding cities. In addition, improving the efficiency of resource and energy utilization is also helpful to promote the transformation of urban agglomeration development from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven. Our research results have implications for the coordinated development of economy and environment in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerating industrial green transformation (IGT) is the intrinsic requirement of realizing low-carbon and green economic development. Inward Foreign Direct Investment (IFDI) and Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) are the main channels of international technology spillover. Whether the coordination of IFDI and OFDI (CIO) can promote IGT and what role the Chinese government's innovation support plays need to be investigated. Using China's provincial panel data from 2003 to 2019, this paper discusses the impact of CIO on IGT and the moderating effect of government's innovation support. It is found that the CIO can significantly promote the IGT. Government providing R&D funds directly can enhance the promotion of CIO to IGT. However, government releasing innovation signal indirectly shows a significant negative impact on the promotion of CIO to IGT. In addition, the impact of CIO on IGT and the moderating effect of government's innovation support are heterogeneous significantly among different regions. This study not only helps to clarify the relationship between CIO and IGT but also provides enlightenment for government to scientifically formulate innovation policies to achieve green economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new financial model that balances economic and ecological benefits, green finance (GF) plays an important role in promoting green economic development and ecological environmental protection. Based on the panel data set of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2020, this paper uses the synthetic control method (SCM) to explore the impact of the green financial reform pilot policy (GFRP) on the green technology innovation (GTI) capabilities of pilot areas and evaluate the policy effects. The specific research conclusions are as follows: (1) On the whole, the GFRP has a positive role in promoting the GTI capability of the pilot areas, but this role is different due to the different resources, environment, and economic development levels of each region. The areas with economic development levels in the middle and head are obviously affected by the policy, and the less developed areas are less affected by the policy or even have a restraining effect. (2) Although the pilot policy has improved the GTI capability of the pilot area, the promotion effect is unstable, that is, the implementation effect of the policy is unstable. In the early stage of policy implementation, the promotion effect of the policy on the regional GTI capacity is the most obvious, and this promotion effect begins to show a downward or stable trend in the 2–3 years after the policy is implemented. Based on the above conclusions, it can provide some reference for the revision and improvement of GFRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation is the basic driving force of green economic development. The compatibility of the composite system composed of green technology innovation, green finance, and environmental regulation is the decisive factor of whether regional economy can achieve sustainable development. Based on the data of regional green technology innovation in China from 2012 to 2020, this paper discusses the coupling coordination mechanism and coupling coordination level among green technology innovation, green finance, and environmental regulation based on entropy method. It is found that the coupling and coordinated development of regional green technology innovation-green finance-environmental regulation system in China is above medium level. However, there is a big gap in the coupling coordination level among different regions. The coupling coordination level in eastern China is relatively high, and the coupling coordination level in other regions is deviated. Most regions of China have a great potential for improvement. On this basis, this paper puts forward policy suggestions for improving the overall coupling and coordination level of the system to promote national green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-driven models and technology-driven models appear in different stages of economic development. In the early stage of industrialization, resource-driven economic development is usually the main development mode. Due to the impact of scientific progress and resource shortages, technology-driven economic growth has gradually become mainstream in the middle and late periods of industrialization. However, what are the differences between these two development models in driving economic growth? What is the asymptotic and iterative relationship between them? Understanding the interaction between the two is helpful to promote high-quality economic development. Therefore, by constructing a comprehensive evaluation framework of economic growth-resource consumption-technology progress and using the system dynamics model to simulate the evolution characteristics of the regional economic development driving force in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), the study finds that there is a long-term stable interaction between economic development and the resource- and technology-driven system in the YREB from 2015 to 2030. The energy of the simulation model is accurately reflects the regional development status, and the error of all simulation values is controlled within 5%. With the continuous improvement of economic aggregates, the contribution of technology input to economic growth gradually increases, while the driving force of resource input to economic growth shows a downward trend. Technological progress has become the most important driving force for sustainable economic development, especially the investment of technical personnel and technological capital. This study deepens the understanding of the driving mode of economic development and provides a reference for the development practice of other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three types of spatial function zoning is an effective measure for regional environmental protection and orderly development. For ecological and economic coordinated development, spatial function zones should be divided scientifically to clear its direction of development and protection. Therefore, based on ecological constraints, a beneficial discussion would be about the key ecological function areas adopting the concept of ecological protection restriction and supporting socioeconomic development for spatial function zoning. In this paper, the researchers, taking Tacheng Basin, Xinjiang of China as an example, choose township as basic research unit and set up an evaluation index system from three aspects, namely, ecological protection suitability, agricultural production suitability, and urban development suitability, which are analyzed by using spatial analysis functions and exclusive matrix method. The results showed that: 1) This paper formed a set of multilevel evaluation index systems for three types of spatial function zoning of the key ecological function areas based on a novel perspective by scientifically dividing Tacheng Basin into ecological space, agricultural space, and urban space, which realized the integration and scientific orientation for spatial function at the township scale. 2) Under the guidance of three types of spatial pattern, the functional orientation and suggestions of development and protection was clearly defined for ecological protection zones, ecological economic zones, agricultural production zones, and urban development zones. 3) A new idea of space governance is provided to promote the coordinated and sustainable development between ecology and economy, which can break the traditional mode of thinking about regional economic development, and offers a scientific basis and reference for macro decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance has the obvious impetus function to economic ecologization development. Through the test of the spatial agglomeration degree of China's green finance and ecological economic development index from 2001 to 2017 (30 provinces except for Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and Macao), this paper analyzes the spatial correlation of the green finance index and the ecological economic development index. It uses the spatial panel econometric regression analysis model to reveal the impact of Green Finance on China's economic ecology. Results show that (1) the development level of green finance and economic ecologization in China has improved to varying degrees in different periods. However, there are still noticeable regional differences between the eastern, central, western, and northeast regions; (2) green finance plays a positive role in promoting economic ecologization. Developing green finance in one province can promote its economic ecologization and positively impact on economic ecologization of surrounding provinces. (3) Economic ecologization also has a positive spillover effect. The improvement of the ecological economic level of a province can drive the improvement of the ecological economic level of other provinces. Therefore, improving green finance across the country has become a meaningful way to promote economic ecology and promote China's high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM2.5 is a bad output of China's improved industrialization and rapid economic development, which seriously threatens people's health and greatly hinders the sustainable economic development. Studying the socio-economic driving factors of PM2.5 emissions is of great significance for reducing air pollution and realizing green development. Therefore, based on the simultaneous consideration of space technology differences and time technology progress, this paper constructs an index decomposition analysis-production-theoretical decomposition analysis decomposition model under the global meta-frontier-production theory. Then, we decompose the PM2.5 emission concentration of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2018 into nine driving factors and discuss the impact of different factors from the national, regional, and provincial levels. The results reveal that economic activity is still the main factor to promote the increase of PM2.5 emission, but its effect decreases, while the inhibitory effect of catch-up effect on PM2.5 concentration increases gradually. In addition, economic activities have the greatest impact on the East China, while the time catch-up effect has a more significant impact on the Central and Western China. Moreover, the influence of energy intensity effect, space technology catch-up effect, and time technology catch-up effect is gradually increasing, which have become important factors to inhibit the PM2.5 emission. Based on the above results, we put forward relevant policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid economic development of China has intensified the country's many problems. Among them, energy shortage and environmental pollution are two main problems, which highly affects the economic growth and sustainable development. To achieve more rapid green growth, the innovative technology by reusing the environmental wastes has been widely used since doing so not only decreases the environment pollution, but also further brings more natural resource. The present paper establishes a two-stage structure for evaluating the regional green growth and sustainable development in China by calculating the efficiency of "energy saving" and "pollution treatment" separately. Specifically, a set of models based on slack-based measure approach are constructed in which non-discretionary inputs can be calculated in both resource utilization stage and pollution treatment stage. Comparing with the traditional models, the new proposed models can measure the performance of resources saving and pollution treatment with considering the influence of non-discretionary inputs. An empirical application on Chinese 30 regions during 2011–2015 have been done to illustrate the use of our framework and the performance of regional green growth and sustainable development. Based on the efficiency results, we find that the efficiency scores of the provinces in central and northeast area are lower, which is mostly caused by their poor performance on "pollution treatment". Both the environmental efficiency scores and target values for performance improvement are obtained in this paper to enlighten the corresponding decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data play an increasingly crucial role in decision evaluation. However, the noise and redundant information in the data create confusion to the decision makers. To solve this problem, this paper creates a new attribute reduction model based on technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), grey correlation analysis and coefficient of variation approaches. First, we obtain the time weights of panel data in different years by TOPSIS and then transfer the panel data into a cross-sectional data matrix. Second, we delete the overlapping attributes by grey correlation analysis method. Third, we use the coefficient of variation to select the attributes with the highest information content. Finally, the proposed attribute reduction model has been varied based on the green economy evaluation data of 15 sub-provincial cities in China. The experimental findings provide decision-making reference for the local government policymakers to adjust or formulate green economic development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clean energy development has played a pivotal role in economic transformation. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2021, the spatial Dubin model was used to empirically investigate the impact of clean energy development on green economic growth. Furthermore, this research selected industrial structure optimization as the mediating variable to analyze the mediating effect between clean energy development and green economic growth. The results are as follows. Firstly, there is a positive spatial correlation for green economic development, in which the level of green economic development in a region can be influenced by neighboring regions. Secondly, there is a significant positive relationship between clean energy development and green economic growth, in which the clean energy development has a positive impact on green economic growth. Thirdly, the mediating effect analysis demonstrates that the clean energy development can influence green economic growth through industrial structure optimization. Based on the findings in this paper, several suggestions are proposed. China should formulate a unified national strategy for green economy by coordinating and balancing regional differences, develop the clean energy industry to promote green economic growth, and pay attention to the intermediary effect of industrial structure to promote green economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global water resources are constantly flowing in the process of industrial trade, and changes in water resource production and consumption demand not only affect the total consumption and flow pattern of water resources but also the stable development of the economic system. How to achieve the goals of water conservation and the spatial balance of water resources while promoting social and economic stability and sustainable development has become an important prerequisite for the coordination and sustainable development of water resources and economic systems. Therefore, this paper starts with the industrial correlation effect of the downstream consumption side of the industrial linkage path, and uses the multi-regional input–output model, power-of-pull approach and industrial correlation effect model to deeply analyze the important path of the coordinated and sustainable development of China's water resources and economic system. The results show that: The relevant sectors of industry and service always have a stable and low pull index on the water consumption end, which had a small pulling effect on the water production end. Moreover, the flow of the industrial virtual water trade linkage path did not increase when total economic output value increased, making it an important development industry for the coordinated development of water resources and economic systems. Additionally, comparing the virtual water flow and flow direction of the industrial linkage path with the industry's total economic and trade output value, it is found that the unreasonable industrial pulling effect and pushing effect have become one of the important obstacles affecting the spatial balance of water resources and coordinated economic development of China. Therefore, the regulation of virtual water trade pattern can not only be judged from the flow of the link path, but also need to combine the different correlation effects in the industrial link path to promote the coordinated and sustainable development of water resources and economic system more reasonably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development. The Circular Economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. This set of ideas has been adopted by China as the basis of their economic development (included in both the 11th and the 12th 'Five Year Plan'), escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and NGOs. This paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the Circular Economy, tracing its meanings, and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology, and discusses how the Circular Economy has been operationalized in business and policy. The paper finds that while the Circular Economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials, which may contribute to more sustainable business models, it also encapsulates tensions and limitations. These include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions, and some unintended consequences. This leads us to propose a revised definition of the Circular Economy as 'an economic model wherein planning, resourcing, procurement, production and reprocessing are designed and managed, as both process and output, to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well-being'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the digital economy develops rapidly and the network information technology advances, new development models represented by the network economy have emerged, which have a crucial impact on green economic growth. However, the relevant previous studies lacked the role of analyzing the direct and indirect effects of internet development on green economic growth at the prefecture-level city level. For this purpose, this paper aims to examine the intrinsic mechanism of the impact of internet development on green economic growth and provide empirical support for cities and regions in China to increase internet construction. Furthermore, the mixed model (EBM), which includes both radial and non-radial distance functions, is applied to calculate the green economic growth index. Fixed effect model and mediation effect model are also employed to test influence mechanisms of the internet development on green economic growth using panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2019. The statistical results reveal that internet development has contributed significantly to green economic growth. When the internet development level increases by 1 unit, the green economic growth level increases by an average of 5.0372 units. However, regional heterogeneity is evident between internet development and green economic growth, that is, the promoting effect of internet development on green economic growth is gradually enhanced from the eastern region to the western region. We also find that internet development guides industrial structure upgrading improves environmental quality and accelerates enterprise innovation, which indirectly contributes to green economic growth. And internet development mainly achieves green economic growth through enterprise innovation. Based on the above findings, we concluded that policymakers should not only strengthen the guiding role of social actors to promote the stable development of the internet industry, but also foster the construction of the three models of "internet+industry integration," "internet+environmental governance," and "internet+enterprise innovation" to promote green economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving equality in water usage is part of the sixth goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A comprehensive understanding evolution of inequality in water use and the driving factors behind the inequality can facilitate to implement equality in water consumption. In this work, the inequality index was used to measure China's water consumption inequality from 2004 to 2018 and the decomposition technique was used to decompose the status of inequality and the evolution of inequality. The results show the inequality in its water consumption was not reduced obviously despite China's rapid economic growth. There were 38.71% of provinces in China whose per capita water consumption was greater than the national average, mainly in the western region. For the three regions of China, the intraregional inequality was much greater than the interregional inequality. The western index was the largest and the eastern was the smallest. Among the factors that cause the inequality in water consumption, no one factor has been dominant at all times. Moreover, the effects of different factors changed over time. It is almost impossible to reduce inequality in water consumption through policy adjustment to several factors. China's example show that economic development cannot reduce the inequality in water consumption. More targeted policies and more efforts are required to reduce the inequality in water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development of China's economy and society has been restricted by energy and environmental issues. With the implementation of the Rise of Central China strategy, Henan, a populous province in China, is facing the threat of an energy shortage as its economy grows steadily and the urbanization process accelerates. Using panel data of 18 cities in Henan Province for the period of 2006–2018, this study investigates the relationship between energy consumption and economic and social development variables based on the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model and threshold regression method. The empirical results indicate that economic and social development are significantly positively correlated with total electricity consumption, although there is regional heterogeneity in this relationship. Moreover, there is evidence for a nonlinear relationship between economic and social development and urban energy consumption. These conclusions not only promote the healthy and sustainable economic development of Henan Province but also provide a reference for other provinces and cities that are experiencing rapid development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional equation of economic well-being with the gross domestic product (GDP) has dominated policy thinking for at least 50 years. However, a variety of authors have pointed to the social and environmental costs of economic development and called for more comprehensive and more representative measures of progress to be developed. Therefore, a variety of 'adjusted' indicators have been developed. The robustness and reliability of these indicators is still a contentious issue. But these attempts raise important questions about sustainable development and pose an important challenge to conventional thinking about the relationship between economic progress, well-being and sustainability. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is one of the indicators of measuring sustainable development. Apply it to Liaoning Province, this paper evaluates Liaoning's GPI from 1978 to 2011. GPI, Per Capita GPI and GDP of Liaoning are compared with each other. It is concluded that GDP and Per Capita GDP of Liaoning grow much faster than GPI and Per Capita GPI. Grouped all components of GPI into three categories (economy, environment and Social), it shows that social and environmental development lags behind economic growth in Liaoning. This paper is till now a unique application of GPI indicator in Liaoning and China's provincial level and also contribution to the continuing development of the methods and results for the Index of Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). Policy implications are given finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately assessing the impact of low-carbon urban construction on green economic development has great significance for achieving economic development with environmental protection, and for building an ecological civilization and a beautiful China. Based on panel data for 271 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, multi-period and spatial difference-in-difference econometric models were used to comprehensively investigate the impact of three batches of low-carbon city pilot policies on green economic development, finding the following: The contribution of low-carbon urban construction on urban green economic development is significant and positive, and still holds under a series of robustness tests. Parallel trend tests also show a lag in the policy effect, and the effect is strengthened over policy implementation time. Green orientation of technological progress, green transformation of industry, and green upgrade of consumption are important channels for the effect of the policies. The promotion effect of low-carbon city construction is stronger in the central and northern cities, and in cities with high green economic development, than in western and southern cities, and those with low green economic development. Construction of low-carbon pilot cities not only promotes their own green economic development, but also that in neighboring cities, exerting a demonstration effect. This effect is greater in urban areas. This study provides empirical support for policy planning to promote low-carbon urban construction across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality affects not only social well-being, health, and carbon emissions but also the strategy for green development in China. Based on the panel data of 205 cities in China from 2010 to 2020, a panel model with partial linear functional coefficient is used to analyze and test the relationship between income inequality, carbon emissions, and green development efficiency under different regional economic development levels. The empirical results show that the impact of income inequality on carbon emissions and green development efficiency is significant. The worsening of income inequality could aggravate carbon emissions, but the effect of income inequality on carbon emissions shows an increase–decrease-flattening with the continuous improvement of regional economic development. In terms of affecting the green development efficiency, the effect of income inequality on the efficiency of green development presents an inverted U shape. However, the number of cities where income inequality has an inhibitory effect on carbon emissions and green development efficiency has increased over time, and the impact of income inequality in a few cities on green development efficiency is not significant. These findings provide new insights into the understanding of shared prosperity and the strategy of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on sustainable development (SD) in China by using a regression model. Based on a panel date ranging from 1996 to 2016, this study makes an assessment of how development is sustained by means of an impose response function model. The findings revealed that, first, FDI has an insignificant influence on environmental quality in the long run but aids in financing physical capital deficits. Second, there exists the presence of the pollution halo hypothesis. In addition, in the short-term, pollution variables (sulfur dioxide and smoke and dust) cause significant variances on the amount of FDI inflows into China. However, they significantly lose their variation effect to FDI inflows in the long run due to the utilization of advanced technologies. Lastly, it is recommended that stricter environmental policies and strategies are implemented to curtail foreign investors from defaulting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equipment manufacturing industry is the industrial base of China, which makes it imperative to coordinate the relationship between industrial development and environmental protection. Using panel data of the seven sub-industries in China's equipment manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2015, this paper evaluates the static and dynamic aspects of green economic development efficiency by combining the super-efficiency slack-based measure model of unexpected output and the data envelopment analysis-Malmquist index model. The results show investments in research and development, and environmental regulations have yielded some positive results, but that regulations have also yielded some undesired output in terms of diminished economic benefits. Pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency have both declined, indicating that the scale and industrial structure need to be further optimized. The results of this study present an objective and comprehensive assessment of green economic development of China's equipment manufacturing industry and provide valuable insights for improving green economic development efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new measurement for regional/national sustainable social economic development based on data envelopment analysis. This new measurement can reveal the impact of energy over-consumption and pollutant over-emission on economic development, giving regional/national sustainable development a more proper measure. This new measurement is applied into an empirical study for 10 year (2004–2013) sustainable development analysis of 30 regions in mainland China. The empirical results show that: (1) China has a quite unsustainable development in 2004–2013, and the level of unsustainability increased over time. The primary driver of these two phenomenon is pollutant over-emission and resource over-consumption respectively. (2) Area-wide sustainable development in China is quite unbalanced. Eastern China has a much better sustainable development as compared to other areas, and the variation of Eastern China's sustainable level is very little in 2004–2013. (3) Resource over-consumption and pollutant over-emission in western China are serious, even the absolute values are quite low. This makes western China develop unsustainably in 2004–2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development in China is under increasing pressure from rapid population growth and economic activities in recent decades. Despite the growing awareness and invested efforts, there is a lack of understanding of the progress, trade-offs, and spatiotemporal variations of sustainability across China. This paper investigates the spatial and temporal variations of sustainability in Mainland China from 2004 to 2014. An evaluation framework involving 21 indicators, which are grouped under the three categories of economic, social, and environmental performance, is proposed for evaluating the Sustainability Index (SI) for 31 provincial-level divisions in China. Balancing the ‘triple bottom line’ performance to achieve sustainability is an ideal goal, which is analyzed for each geographical region in China. The ideas of the analytic hierarchy process have been used under four different scenarios to investigate trade-offs among the three performance areas and reveal the impacts of indicator weights on the assessment results. Results obtained show marginal improvement in sustainability across China when social and environmental factors are considered to be more important than economic ones, while a significant improvement is observed when economy is considered to be more important. The indicator weights have a clear impact on the assessment of SI, but the influence is reduced when the results for 2004 and 2014 are compared. This study provides an enhanced understanding of spatial and temporal variations in regional sustainability in China, providing more evidence for informed decisions on regional economic, social and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain regions play an increasingly essential role in global sustainable development, and the related sustainable development issues have attracted increasing attention. There are obvious vertical spatial differentiation phenomena in both natural and socio-economic fields with altitude being a key factor affecting the economic development of mountain regions. However, the exact influence of altitude is still unknown. Based on the county scale, this paper used the gravitational potential energy model to evaluate the effects of altitude on economic development in China. The results indicate that the high-altitude areas were the depression areas of county economic development, and county economic density showed a decreasing trend with the increase of altitude. County economic density respectively decreased by 0.10%, 0.04% and 0.02% with every 1% increase in altitude in 2000, 2005 and 2010. Here we demonstrate that high altitude has negative effect on county economy, although the negative effect presented a downward trend. The results also showed that increasing capital and labor investments could reduce the negative effect of high altitude on county economy. In 2010, with every 1% increase in capital and labor density, county economic density increased by 0.62% and 0.83%, respectively. The effects of altitude were the results of multidimensional factors. The fundamental approach to reduce the negative effects of high altitude is to combine the ecological environment and resources to develop characteristic industries. The construction of infrastructure should be strengthened, which can promote the occurrence of the contra-flow of people, logistics and capital, and promote the balanced development of county economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development. As the first country to release the national Agenda 21, China's experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries. The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation, institutional arrangements, planning and management. In the past five years, the mandatory targets-driven approach, which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction, played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability. In order to achieve the targets, China adopted an integrated policy package including legal, administrative, economic and technology instruments. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development. By summarizing policy trends in the world, the paper points out two directions, i.e., integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012. The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is now recognized as a significant threat to sustainable development on an international scale. One of the key challenges in mounting a global response to it is the seeming unwillingness of the fastest growing economies such as China and India to sign a treaty that limits their emissions. The aim of this paper is to examine the differential incentives of countries on different trajectories of capital growth. A benchmark dynamic game to study global warming, introduced in Dutta and Radner (J Econ Behav Organ, ), is generalized to allow for exogenous capital accumulation. It is shown that the presence of capital exacerbates the 'tragedy of the common'. Furthermore, even with high discount factors, the threat of reverting to the inefficient 'tragedy' equilibrium is not sufficient to deter the emissions growth of the fastest growing economies-in contrast to standard folk theorem like results. However, foreign aid can help. If the slower growth economies-like the United States and Western Europe-are willing to make transfers to China and India, then the latter can be incentivized to cut emissions. Such an outcome is Pareto improving for both slower and faster growth economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, both direct material input (DMI) and domestic processed output (DPO) of Jilin Province in 1990–2006 were calculated and then based on these two indexes, a dematerialization model was established. The main results are summarized as follows: (1) both direct material input and domestic processed output increase at a steady rate during 1990–2006, with average annual growth rates of 4.19% and 2.77%, respectively. (2) The average contribution rate of material input to economic growth is 44%, indicating that the economic growth is visibly extensive. (3) During the studied period, accumulative quantity of material input dematerialization is 11,543 × 104 t and quantity of waste dematerialization is 5,987 ×104 t. Moreover, dematerialization gaps are positive, suggesting that the potential of dematerialization has been well fulfilled. (4) In most years of the analyzed period, especially 2003–2006, the economic system of Jilin Province represents an unsustainable state. The accelerated economic growth relies mostly on excessive resources consumption after the Revitalization Strategy of Northeast China was launched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's economy, the problem of environmental pollution has become increasingly serious. Given that China's current environmental quality threatens its long-term sustainable economic development, certain attention must be paid to curb environmental pollution in China. As a developed country with a high level of environmental quality in the world, Germany has experienced "Treatment after Pollution". To promote China's environmental quality, this study considers the historical lessons offered by Germany and examines the relationship between environmental pollution and economic development as well as the effective environmental governance mode in Germany and China. Based on the panel data of 30 provincial administrative regions in China and 16 states in Germany from 2000 to 2017, this study quantitatively investigates the nexus of economic growth and environmental pollution in the two countries. Empirical results demonstrate that, during the sample period of 2000–2017, the emissions of four pollutants in both countries increase initially and then decrease as the economy grows. The levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) that correspond to the emission peaks of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides are comparable in the two countries. Some economic and industrial policies may help to accelerate the occurrence of the turning point, including the following: decreasing the importance of a secondary industry; taking full advantage of the structural and technical effects brought about by foreign trade; reducing the reliance on non-clean energy; and carrying out more effective energy policies. In this regard, coordinating environmental policies with economic growth, formulating strict environmental policies, improving industrial structure, optimizing energy structure, and improving the quality of foreign trade are pivotal for China's sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China's high-quality economic development depends on achieving sustainable economic development, reaching peak carbon emissions, achieving carbon neutrality, and intensifying the development of an industrial and energy structure that saves resources and protects the environment. This study used the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and the Malmquist productivity index to measure the economic development performance of mainland China under carbon emission constraints. Then, it described the spatiotemporal evolution of economic development performance and analyzed its influencing factors using the Tobit model. Results: The results revealed that there were obvious differences in the trends of the static and dynamic performance of economic development. On the one hand, the static performance of economic development exhibited an upward trend from 2008 to 2020. Its distribution characteristics were dominant in the higher and high-level areas. On the other hand, the dynamic performance had a downward trend from 2008 to 2016 and then an upward trend from 2016 to 2020. In most provinces, the dynamic performance was no longer constrained by technological progress but rather by scale efficiency. It was found that the main factors influencing economic development performance were urbanization level, energy efficiency, vegetation coverage, and foreign investment, while other factors had no significant influence. Conclusions: This study suggests that China should improve its economic development performance by increasing the use of clean energy, promoting human-centered urbanization, increasing carbon absorption capacity, and absorbing more foreign capital in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese cities are plagued by the rise in resource and energy input and output over the last decade. At the same time, the scale and pace of economic development sweeping across Chinese cities have revived the debate about urban metabolisms, which could be simply seen as the ratio of output to resource and energy input in urban systems. In this study, an emergy (meaning the equivalent solar energy) accounting, sustainable indices of urban metabolisms, and an urban metabolic system dynamics model, are developed in support of the research task on Chinese cities 'metabolisms and their related policies. The dynamic simulation model used in the paper is capable of synthesizing component-level knowledge into system behavior simulation at an integrated level, which is directly useful for simulating and evaluating a variety of decision actions and their dynamic consequences. For the study case, interactions among a number of Beijing's urban emergy components within a time frame of 20 years (from 2010 to 2030) are examined dynamically. Six alternative policy scenarios are implemented into the system simulation. Our results indicate that Beijing's current model of urban metabolism-tertiary industry oriented development mode-would deliver prosperity to the city. However, the analysis also shows that this mode of urban metabolism would weaken urban self-support capacity due primarily to the large share of imported and exported emergy in the urban metabolic system. The keys of improving the efficiency of urban metabolism include the priority on the renewable resource and energy, increase in environmental investment and encouragement on innovative technologies of resource and energy utilization, et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the ecological environment protection measures of Chinese rural hydropower development schemes. China's rapid economic growth is making great energy demands and developing rural hydropower currently provides 30.4 GW annually. There is a conflict of interest between hydropower development and ecological and environmental protection. Potential problems include changes in hydrological condition, eutrophication, downstream nutrient reduction, sediment deposition, aquatic ecosystem alteration, and ecological water demand variation. Since most of the rural hydropower resources are located in ecologically fragile regions, it is significantly more important that ecological environment protection is being considered. As exploitation of rural hydropower has developed in China, ecological environment protection schemes had to adapt to changing boundary conditions. Due to improvements in environmental protection management, various environmental impact assessment methods have been applied including fuzzy analysis hierarchy process, ecological scheduling, pressure-state-response, and ecological environment evaluation index. The latter index can both qualitatively and quantitatively analyze ecological environment impacts and has become the most frequently used tool in the evaluation of rural hydropower exploitation. To rebalance the interests regarding energy generation and environmental protection, countermeasures originating from different aspects such as engineering design optimization, management improvement, and ecological restoration were recommended to promote ecological environment protection. The review concludes that by taking ecological environment protection into consideration in the whole rural hydropower plan, adopting ecological scheduling to guarantee river ecological water demand and implementing ecological restoration in watershed management are the most effective approaches in furthering sustainable development of rural hydropower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the predominant corporate sustainable development (CSD) framework, this exploratory paper verifies that CSD construct can be modeled by integrating the dimensions of social, economic, and environmental development. We first developed and validated measurement scales for these three dimensions based on a survey of 314 managers in mainland China. Then, using structural equation modelling, we confirmed that the proposed model is valid. Therefore, our findings may allow researchers to explore CSD further, and practitioners to develop their understanding of CSD initiatives in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a priority area of research in many countries and regions nowadays. This paper illustrates how a multi-stakeholders engagement process can be applied to identify and prioritize the local community's concerns and issues regarding sustainable development in Hong Kong. Ten priority areas covering a wide range of community's concerns in relation to the economic growth, societal development and environmental protection have been identified. An index is then constructed based on these priority areas to track the public's views on the progress of Hong Kong towards a more sustainable city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the island of Hainan, China, the provincial government has recently committed itself to sustainable development, which requires the integration of social, environmental, and economic factors in decision making. However, while Hainan’s recent Eco-province designation establishes environmental and economic factors as the basis of policy development, it overlooks the equally important social component of sustainability, in which social needs and values are key considerations. This paper presents the results of a study on Hainan in 2002, with government officials, forestry workers, and the Li, an indigenous minority group, and places the province’s situation within the context of both the larger changes underway in China, and the theory and practice of sustainable forestry. The research results show that the government of Hainan has not yet been able to manage both social welfare and environmental and economic issues, demonstrating the difficulty of implementing sustainable forestry and of balancing short- with long-term goals. The inclusion of Li communities in forestry-related decision making could reduce tensions between local communities and forestry management and also improve the sustainability of the government’s forestry practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution from industrialization, urbanization and agriculture is a serious issue facing all countries during economic development. The Pearl River Delta in Southern China offers a unique case for study and documentation on the ecosystem changes during the fast economic development and urbanization over the past 40 years. This collection of papers from a conference on marine coastal pollution and ecotoxicology held in Guangzhou of China provide the current status on the environmental and ecological processes from the intensive urbanization and development. The research information available from this special issue can be used for both a comparison over time and with other locations and countries, and, in addition, for policy making to serve the long-term sustainable development of the region and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is a comprehensive concept incorporating environmental protection, playing a vital role in industrial upgrading and economic transformation. Under the current national status of political centralization and fiscal decentralization, decentralized environmental governance exerts a noticeable impact on green development (GTFP). The direct, mediating mechanism, and the spillover effects of environmental decentralization (ED) on GTFP are examined according to 30 Chinese areas dataset from 2005 to 2019. We reveal that a significant negative impact of ED on GTFP. The mediating effect of industrial upgrading is found during impact of ED on GTFP process. Furthermore, with the rising ED of surrounding areas, the GTFP of its region will be weakened. Meanwhile, an overall negative spillover effect of ED on the GTFP of neighboring areas is confirmed. ED in eastern and central China negatively impact GTFP, and such impact in the western area is insignificant. The spillover effects are also heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic development-driven anthropogenic emissions pose challenges to ecological sustainability, the international travel and tourism sector has appeared as a hot contestant to bring sustainability to the ecological systems across varying development levels. This work investigates the diversified effects of the international travel and tourism sector and economic development on ecological deterioration, in the presence of urban agglomeration and energy use efficiency, across the development levels of China's 30 provincial units from 2002 to 2019. It contributes in two ways. (i) The stochastic estimation of environmental impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) is modified to integrate the variables like international travel and tourism sector, urban agglomeration, and energy use efficiency. (ii) We measured an international travel and tourism sector index (ITTI) and made use of a continuously updated bias correction strategy (CUBCS) and a continuously updated fully modified strategy (CUFMS) for the long-term estimations. Besides, we used the bootstrapping-based causality technique for determining causality directions. The core results are as follows: Firstly, ITTI and economic development produced an inverse U-type association with ecological deterioration for the aggregate panels. Secondly, provinces exhibited a diverse range of links in that ITTI mitigated (boosted) the ecological deterioration in eleven (fourteen) provinces presenting diversified shapes of linkages. Economic development established the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory with ecological deterioration in merely four provinces; however, the non-EKC theory is verified in twenty-four divisions. Thirdly, in China's east zone (high development scale), the ITTI revealed the ecological deterioration reduction (promotion) impact in eight (two) provinces. China's central zone (moderate development scale) exhibited ecological deterioration promotion in half of the provinces, and the other half showed a reduction impact. In China's west zone (low development scale), it promoted ecological deterioration in eight provinces. Economic development promoted (reduced) ecological deterioration in a single (nine) province(s). In China's central zone, it boosted (mitigated) the ecological deterioration in five (three) provinces. In China's west zone, it promoted (reduced) ecological deterioration in eight (two) provinces. Fourthly, urban agglomeration and energy use efficiency deteriorated and improved the environmental quality in aggregated panels, respectively; however, a diverse range of effects are observed for provinces. Finally, a unilateral bootstrap causality, from ITTI (economic development) to ecological deterioration, is revealed in twenty-four (fifteen) provinces. A bilateral causality is established in a single (thirteen) province(s). Based on empirical findings, policies are suggested. Highlights: • Calculated international travel and tourism sector index (ITTI). • Employed wastewater emissions (WWE) to proxy for ecological deterioration. • ITTI and economic development had an inverse U-shape with WWE for aggregate panels. • Highest developed provinces had WWE discounting effect with inverse U-shape. • Lowest developed provinces had WWE promotion effect with diverse shapes. • Overall, unidirectional causality from ITTI and economic development to WWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]