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A sound ecological environment is the most equitable public good, the most inclusive well-being of people, and an inherent requirement for the Chinese nation to achieve sustainable development. Effective implementation of green fiscal incentive policies as a key institutional arrangement in promoting green development and addressing climate change in the public policy system can significantly improve the carbon emission performance of industries and promote the achievement of the ‘dual carbon’ goals. However, most of the existing studies ignore its financial driving effect on industrial ecology. Based on this, this article selected panel data from 281 cities in China from 2007 to 2021 as the research sample, used the non-radial super efficiency SBM model to measure the level of industrial ecology in each city, and took ‘comprehensive demonstration cities of energy conservation and emission reduction financial policies’ as the external policy shock. The study empirically examined the impact and transmission mechanisms of green fiscal incentive policies on industrial ecology through the multi-period difference-in-differences method. The research indicated that green fiscal incentive policies could significantly promote the development of industrial ecology, and this result was still valid after a series of effective identification and robustness tests such as parallel trend testing, placebo testing, and exclusion of interference policies. The mechanism test showed that green fiscal incentive policies could promote the ecological development of industries through incentive environmental regulations, financial subsidies, and green innovation in fiscal expenditures. Further analysis was conducted on the heterogeneity of green fiscal incentive policies from the perspectives of urban administrative level, industrial characteristics, and fiscal self-sufficiency rate. It was found that green fiscal incentive policies were more effective in promoting the industrial ecology in high-grade cities, non-old industrial base cities, and cities with a high fiscal self-sufficiency rate. In view of this, this study proposes that we should summarize the successful experience of pilot policies, implement differentiated green fiscal incentive policies based on the characteristics of the city itself, emphasize the fiscal incentive effects of green fiscal incentive policies, optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure, effectively leverage the low-carbon guidance effect of green fiscal incentive policies on enterprises, and promote the ecological development of industries so as to achieve the ‘dual carbon’ goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of climate-themed trade measures, it is increasingly crucial to promote the globalization of China's national carbon emissions trading system (C-ETS) with Chinese characteristics in a proactive, systematic, and orderly manner. Existing studies have largely focused on 'point-to-point' responses to international pressure and/or on the construction of a domestic carbon ETS primarily for institutional self-sufficiency. Altogether, the current literature may fail to sufficiently inform authorities, particularly on how to effectively address the urgent need to safeguard economic and trade interests and, further, on how to systematically accommodate the strategic need to enhance low-carbon competitiveness for the future and to assume a more active role under future global governance. Therefore, this study analyzes the three major challenges faced by the C-ETS systematically and, from the interdisciplinary perspectives of law and economics, identifies the theoretical nature and guiding principles of globalizing the C-ETS. Furthermore, based on an analysis of institutional background (i.e., international law and associated carbon-themed guidelines) and practical basis (i.e., associated domestic and international practices and the status quo of carbon-themed global competitions), this study evaluates the technical feasibility, legal compatibility, economic co-benefits, and political desirability of various paths, identifies key areas and low-carbon standards, and further proposes three-stage paths. Ultimately, this study finds that:(1) From the perspective of climate trade policy linkages, the key to globalizing the C-ETS is to leverage China's economic and trade influences to systematically promote low-carbon standards thereof. (2) Differing from international practices, e.g., those of the EU, China's globalization emphasizes the dynamic interaction between climate justice and mitigation efficiency to better balance domestic and global interests as well as climate pledges and domestic industrial competitiveness. (3) Significant differences exist in the goals, implementing entities, and paths of globalization across different fields of mandatory and voluntary ETSs, intersections of trade and climate change mitigation, and mechanisms for sharing carbon costs. Altogether, this study provides theoretical rationale and policy suggestions for public actors at the national, regional, and city levels, particularly as to taking a more prominent role in future global climate governance. It further lays a theoretical foundation for private actors, such as Chinese enterprises, industry associations, and financial institutions, to engage in soft-law-governed global carbon governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing climate resilient cities is an important measure to enhance urban resilience, improve urban livability, and promote sustainable development. Based on this, this study conducted a quantitative assessment using panel data from 268 Chinese cities at or above prefecture level from 2010 to 2020, utilized the 2017 pilot policy for constructing climate resilient cities as a quasi experiment, and employed a difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine its impact on urban resilience. Furthermore, the study conducted quantitative evaluations from different perspectives, including heterogeneity analysis, mechanism analysis, and spatial effect analysis. The results indicated that: 1 The pilot policy could effectively promote urban resilience, and this conclusion still held after conducting a series of robustness tests, including winsorized regression, propensity score matching, time placebo, and individual placebo. 2 Based on the analysis of economic development heterogeneity and water resource heterogeneity, the effects of the pilot policy were more significant in economically developed regions and regions with moderate water resources endowment. 3 The cultivation of human capital and investment in resilient infrastructure were important channels through which the pilot policy promoted urban resilience. 4 In geographically neighboring cities, a city's resilience could be promoted by the policy, indicating the existence of a positive spatial spillover effect. Therefore, the government should continue its efforts to build climate resilient cities, increase institutional support, summarize the experience from the pilot program, and release the second round of pilot projects at the right time. Also, it is important to select the best strategy to construct climate resilient cities based on the characteristics of each region. Next, a multi-pronged approach should be adopted to further strengthen the effects that human capital, green innovation, and climate resilient infrastructure have as a link. At last, the government should amplify the policy effects of pilot cities, establish a regionally coordinated development mechanism for climate resilient policy, and continue to promote the construction of climate resilient cities towards high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the judicialization transformation of global climate governance, China's judicial system has shown a comprehensive and positive attitude towards addressing climate change. It is urgent to form a systematic localization plan for climate justice as a new specialized field of environmental justice. The localization of climate justice emphasizes its subjectivity, the understanding of which requires placing the concept system, function orientation, trial mechanism, adjudication system, and rules of climate justice in the specific background and social structure of the modernization of China's rule of law, and its internal logic is a dynamic system encompassing normative system, value sequence, and function orientation. Currently, the multi-level legislation in China's system of climate judicial norms presents indirect and principled characteristics, coupled with the insufficient creation of diversified judicial norms and the unfinished task of systematization, inducing circumscribed dilemmas and coherent problems in climate judicial norms. Under such circumstances, the identification and core value of the legal interests protected by climate justice have not been clearly defined, and many external factors, such as scientific uncertainty, policy trade-offs, and economic incentives, limit the value judgment of climate change cases. These issues profoundly affect the function orientation and development direction of climate justice as public welfare and governance justice. Therefore, the approaches and paths for the localization of climate justice should be based on the triple logic of norm, value, and function as well as the problems or requirements presented. Firstly, it is necessary to strengthen the shaping of an order incorporating multiple norms. The specific path is to promote the systematization of climate change legislation through the synergy of public and private laws, to consolidate consensus by strengthening secondary climate judicial norms, and to enhance the compatibility of the climate judicial normative system using diversified legal interpretation methods. Secondly, there is a need to establish the authority of legal argument with interests as the core, to strengthen the substantive reasons of the judgment by assessing carbon-related interests, to reinforce the openness of the judgment through the multi-dimensional protection of climate and environmental interests, and to enhance the authoritative reasons for the judgment through the balance of external and legal factors. Finally, it is necessary to shape the dual functions of climate justice precisely, with the principle of risk prevention to build preventive public interest climate justice and policy judicialization to build governance climate justice that serves the ' dual carbon' goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a significant focal point in the construction of a human community with a shared future. However, many BRI partner countries are located in climate-sensitive areas. There are doubts and criticisms about the BRI, suggesting that its infrastructure projects might increase the vulnerability to climate change in the BRI partner countries. To address this controversy, this study investigated the role of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in enhancing the ability of these countries to cope with climate change risks and examined the underlying mechanisms of this impact. Using panel data from 65 BRI partner countries spanning 2004 - 2020, the study evaluated the impact of China's OFDI on the partner countries' ability to cope with climate change risks, with the climate change vulnerability risk of each country as the explanatory variable. The findings indicated that: (J) China's OFDI in the Belt and Road region significantly mitigated the climate change vulnerability risks of the partner countries and improved their climate risk coping capacity in the context of the intensifying global climate change crisis. © The effect of China's BRI investment on reducing local climate change vulnerability risks was more significant in low- and middle-income countries, China's neighboring countries, and countries with which China had established free trade agreements. © The income growth effect and political stability effect partially explained the impact of China's BRI investments, aligning with the important concepts of sharing development results and promoting global governance under the BRI. ® China's BRI investments did not exacerbate local carbon emissions while reducing the vulnerability to climate change in the participating countries, indicating that China's BRI investments did not trigger the 'carbon emission transfer' problem blamed by Western countries, and green has always been the defining feature of the BRI. This study provides empirical support for understanding the role of China's Belt and Road Initiative and policy recommendations for further promoting the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, the United States has shown a sometimes conservative and sometimes radical pendulum in its position on several key subsidiary climate treaties. For example, in 1997, the United States Congress refused to approve the Kyoto Protocol signed by former US vice president Al Gore. In 2015, President Obama used executive power to bypass Congress to sign the Paris Agreement. In 2017, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement. These seemingly confusing behaviors actually reflect the contradictions and conflicts in the formulation of climate policy of the United States. Using neoclassical realism theory as the analytical framework, the authors of this paper explore how such several key variables as leader image and perception, partisan politics, and civil society and lobbying groups shape the climate policy of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of carbon neutrality, the BRICS countries, representatives of emerging developing countries, have proposed their own adaptation policies and carbon emission reduction targets (CERT). Here, we sort out the evolution of their climate policies and actions over the past half-century. After piecing together their energy structures and carbon emissions from various sources and by different sectors, we see distinct energy structures diverging over time with increasing varieties of non-fossil energy. However, all the BRICS countries, except for Brazil, still rely heavily on fossil fuels, which poses a real challenge to emission reduction. After considering their diversified energy structures, we estimate their timelines for achieving the carbon neutrality goal using the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model. From the model output, we propose possible solutions to help achieve the carbon neutrality goal with respect to their individual status quo and future needs for socioeconomic development. The suggestions include reinforcing the legislation, strengthening cooperation in the fields of energy and carbon management and in core technologies for carbon emission reduction, improving the cooperation mechanisms of the BRICS countries, and further expanding all-round cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]