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Abstract: The sustainability of Chinese economy has attracted attentions from all over the world since China''s reform & opening up policy. This paper attempted to evaluate the relationships among Chinese economy, energy and its impact of emissions during 1991–2009 using several novel indicators based on emergy, energy and monetary units. The results show that NH3-N in wastewater has taken main responsibility for impact of emissions, the hidden environmental cost per unit economic output has been continuously reduced, education and R & D investment has cut pollutants generating intensity since 1997, and environmental protection investment has cut emission intensity since 1996. Generally speaking, the coordination degree of structure and scale of China''s economy has been improved to different degree from 1991 to 2009. However, the growth of education and R & D investment and environmental protection investment has not prevented impact of emissions from increase caused by economic aggregate growth, and the turning point has not appeared in this period. Finally, this paper discusses some related issues and puts forward the corresponding suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • A Super-SBM with undesirable output model is applied. • The environmental efficiency of 283 Chinese cities during 2003–2016 is analyzed. • The overall environmental efficiency performance across the Chinese cities is low. • China has achieved significant improvement in environmental efficiency across survey period. Abstract In the past decades, unprecedented dramatic economic development in the Chinese cities has also brought serious environmental problems. In line with this, the Chinese government has been investing great efforts and resources in addressing environmental problems. However, little previous studies have been conducted in examining whether this development is efficient from a win-win perspective balance between economic growth and environmental protection. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the environmental efficiency (EE) in the process of dramatic economic development in the Chinese cities. The Super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model is adopted to analyze the EE performance. Data used for analysis are collected from 283 sample cities in China. The research results indicate that the overall EE performance across the Chinese cities is relatively low, and the differences in EE performance among the 283 cities are significant. The top three EE performers are Shenzhen, Sanya and Erdos, and Baiyin, Xinzhou and Liupanshui are the bottom three performers. The results also suggest that the EE performance in the Eastern area, where most first-tier cities are located in, is significantly higher than that in the Central and Western areas (aggregated with fourth and fifth tier-cities). From the dynamic perspective, the results show that China has achieved significant improvement in environmental efficiency across the surveyed period of 2003–2016. The research findings provide valuable references not only for the Chinese policy-makers and practitioners to adopt measures for promoting a win-win balance between environmental protection and economic development in the Chinese context, but also for further studies on environmental efficiency in the international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between cultivated land protection and economic development has become increasingly acute in recent years. Despite, intensive researches made on this conflict, little attention has been paid to the spatial correlation of variables. In view of this, the paper introduces the spatial panel regression model to estimate, and test whether the relationship between economic growth and cultivated land conversion conforms to Kuznets curve. Research results show that the area of converted cultivated land in China exhibits strong spatial auto-correlation; the spatial panel model with time effect and fixed effect is more stable and significant than conventional panel mode, and that the relationship between economic growth and cultivated land conversion agrees with the inverted U-shape of Kuznets curve, with inflection point occurring when average per capita GDP reaches ¥31330.93 (calculated at comparable price of 1999). On the basis of analysis, it is suggested that the government, with a view to developing economy alongside protecting cultivated land, should attach more importance to land use and planning in the future, pay more attention to the spatial correlation of cultivated land planning in adjacent areas and make greater efforts to increase the input–output ratio of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Eco-efficiency is evaluated from manufacturing and environmental protection stage. • Eco-efficiencies of two stages in most China's provinces are at a low level. • There are differences in two-stage eco-efficiency among China's provinces. • The effects of "Belt and Road" on the eco-efficiency of two stages are opposite. This paper divides the industrial eco-economic system into manufacturing stage and environmental protection stage, uses the improved metabolic GM(1,1) model and TOPSIS-DEA cross-efficiency model to evaluate the two-stage eco-efficiency of China's provinces from 2005 to 2020. On this basis, regression discontinuity is utilized to analyze the heterogeneous impact of "Belt and Road" initiative (BRI) on the eco-efficiency of industrial eco-economic system and two stages. The results show that: the eco-efficiency of industrial eco-economic system (EIES) and the eco-efficiency of manufacturing stage (EMS) have been at a relatively high level, while the eco-efficiency of environmental protection stage (EEPS) is still at a low level so far. The EIES and EMS of the provinces in eastern region are higher than those of the central, western and northeastern regions, while the EEPS of the western region is higher than that of the other three regions. The impacts of BRI on EIES and EEPS are significantly positive, while the BRI has a negative effect on EMS. In addition, there is a significant positive relationship between economic development level and EIES, EMS, and EEPS, industrial structure can promote EIES and EMS, and technological innovation has a significant positive correlation with EMS, a significant negative correlation with EEPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]