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In order to promote the balanced development of regional economy, governments at all levels are constantly introducing regional coordinated development policy (hereinafter referred to as "the Policy"). However, there is an important and interesting issue, namely, with the increasingly severe environmental problems resulted from rapid regional economic growth, what kind of impact will the Policy have on carbon emissions reduction? This is attracting wide attention from relevant stakeholders. Therefore, taking the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region in China for example and through constructing the difference-in-differences (DID) model, this paper evaluated the effect of the implementation of the Policy on carbon emissions reduction. Results indicated that the Policy significantly reduced the level of regional carbon emissions in the BTH region. After carrying out a series of robustness tests, this paper still found that the above conclusions were reliable. Moreover, the mediation effect test shown that the Policy indirectly lessened carbon emissions by optimizing energy structure and reducing the intensity of carbon emissions, while the expanding of economic scale would lead to an increase in carbon emissions due to the effect from the Policy. Additionally, heterogeneity analysis revealed that the Policy had a more significant effect on carbon emissions reduction in underdeveloped regions with low environmental constraints. Overall, this paper would be beneficial to understanding the environmental effects of the Policy at the urban regional scale, thus providing an important basic theoretical basis for promoting the green and sustainable development of regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has long exercised environmental control through the imposition of sewage charges. The start of the environmental protection tax on January 1, 2018, means that China has entered a new phase of environmental control. Unlike many previous studies on the role of environmental taxes at the firm level, this paper examines whether environmental taxes affect pollution emissions by influencing the behavioral choices of micro-actors. This paper first reviews the Pyrrhic tax, the Porter hypothesis, and the "double dividend effect." We then construct provincial panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2019 as a sample, use the environmental protection tax as a natural experiment to evaluate the policy of this environmental protection tax using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences model, investigate the intermediate transmission mechanism of the policy implementation, and then analyze the differences in policy effects between provinces with different levels of economic development. The increased tax burden in 2018 led to a general reduction in provincial pollution emissions in which technological innovation by various groups, including firms and universities, had a mediating role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential part of ecological civilization, water ecological civilization has significant influence on the green and sustainable development of cities. Under the background of China's Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot (WECCP), based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2019 by using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we empirically analyzed the influence of the WECCP establishment on urban green innovation and explored the impact mechanism in depth using a mediating effect model, which aimed to verify whether the "Porter hypothesis" holds true in China. The result indicated that the WECCP had made a remarkable contribution to enhancing urban green innovation in the pilot cities. Further research found that the input mechanism played an important mediating role. In addition, the heterogeneity test indicated that cities in the central region, at low administrative levels, and in the first batch of pilots gained more from the policy establishment. This paper has theoretical implications for understanding the derived innovation benefits of the environmental policy, practical implications for identifying new drivers of urban innovation, and provides related experience for the country to further promote and expand water ecological civilization construction and useful policy inspiration for other developing countries to formulate ecological and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the market-based environmental regulation policy can achieve a win–win situation of economic growth and carbon emission reduction has always been an academic controversial topic. Taking the pilot policy of energy-consuming right trading (ECRT) of China in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method to investigate the policy impact of ECRT on the economic performance and carbon emissions of firms. An economy-environment composite index has been conducted for testing double dividend effect of ECRT. The empirical results show that ECRT can improve the economic performance and reduce carbon emissions of firms significantly. The double dividend effect is more significant in high-carbon emission firms, non-state-owned firms and prior to COVID-19 pandemic. ECRT policy has Porter innovation mechanism, in which innovation input is the main contribution of economic dividend effect and green technology innovation is the main contribution of environmental dividend effect. The conclusions of this paper provide empirical evidence and policy implications for realizing the common development of economy and environment, accelerating the process of emission reduction and building a national energy trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants can more efficiently achieve green technological change, industrial low-carbon transition, and high-quality economic and social development. As a typical environmental policy in China, the pilot carbon Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has obvious advantages in achieving the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants. Therefore, an evaluation of China's pilot carbon ETS from the perspective of collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants is performed in this paper. Compared with previous studies, first, this study innovatively uses the coupled coordination degree (CCD) model to measure the collaborative reduction level of carbon and air pollutants under different scenarios based on the panel data of China's 30 provincial-level regions during 2004–2018. Second, this study uses the DID method to evaluate the impact of China's pilot carbon ETS on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants and conducts some robustness checks and regional heterogeneity regressions. Third, this study uses the synthetic control method (SCM) further to examine the policy outcomes of the pilot carbon ETS. Scenario analysis shows that attaching importance to reducing air pollution will improve the collaborative reduction effect of carbon and air pollutants. Furthermore, the implementation of China's pilot carbon ETS exerts an effect of roughly 24.7% on reducing carbon, roughly 10.1% on reducing air pollutants, and roughly 22.0% on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants, ceteris paribus. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that the impacts of the pilot carbon ETS are significant in all regions, except that the impact on reducing air pollutants in the central region is not significant. In addition, results from SCM indicate that the impacts of the pilot carbon ETS on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants are significantly efficient in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hubei, and Chongqing, while not much efficient in Guangdong and Fujian. The main policy implications include strengthening the top-level design of the ETS in the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants, attaching importance to the governance of air pollution, making the regional governance more targeted, and improving energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the textual contents of the Chinese local government work reports, this paper focuses on the impact of leading officials' audits of natural-resource assets on the local environmental attention allocation. The study has found that during the pilot period of audits, compared with the non-pilot cities, the local government in the pilot cities has concentrated more on the ecological environment field and has placed greater emphasis on the actual environmental governance. The results of mechanism analysis show that differences in the personal and take-office characteristics of local officials, may lead to different promotion pressure and performance evaluation modes, and then have a different impact on local environmental attention. The test results of consequence analysis show that the environmental attention in the pilot cities can be further transformed into environmental administrative and financial governance behavior. The paper discusses the policy effect and internal mechanism of leading officials' audits of natural-resource assets from the perspective of local governments' environmental attention, providing empirical evidence for China to carry out the top-level design of environmental policy based on the idea of optimizing officials' performance evaluation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether environmental regulation policy can achieve the double dividend of pollution control and employment promotion is a problem that warrants further discussion. This paper is a study of the effect of environmental regulation on the employment scale and employment structure. Based on matching data, the empirical results show that environmental regulations enhance the employment scale of enterprises. From the perspective of the employment structure, the labor redistribution caused by environmental regulation is reflected mainly in employment creation and employment destruction effects, which lead to the optimization of the employment structure. Further research shows that environmental regulations expand the employment scale but have different impacts on the employment structure in the developed and undeveloped regions of China. In addition, internal and external factors such as enterprise innovation and the institutional environment may affect the relationship between environmental regulation and the employment of enterprises. This paper provides theoretical support to promote the construction of an ecological civilization and the alleviation of employment pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) policy is a quota-based market-motivated environmental regulation policy that by transforming environmental responsibility of enterprises into self-consciousness behavior induces green innovation behavior in enterprises and influences the level of regional green innovation. Based on panel data on green patents in 30 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2019, the paper uses six Chinese pilot provinces for ETS as the treatment group to investigate the induced effects of Chinese ETS policy on the quantity and quality of green technology innovation using difference in difference model and analyzes the effects of Chinese ETS policy on green technology innovation in different pilot regions using a synthetic control method. The findings indicate that (1) compared with non-pilot areas, the carbon emission trading policies in pilot areas can induce green technology innovation activities. (2) In all pilot regions, ETS policies significantly promoted the quantity and quality of green technology innovation, but the quantity promotion effect was significantly better than the quality promotion effect, and the low-quality promotion effect was better than the high-quality promotion effect. (3) In terms of individual pilot region, ETS policies in Guangdong, Hubei and Tianjin significantly promoted the quantity of green technology innovation and low-quality green technology innovation, but significantly inhibited or suppressed high-quality green technology innovation in a short term. This paper not only enriches the research on environmental equity trading policies and green technology innovation theoretically, but also provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of carbon emission trading schemes pilots program in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is essential for achieving the objective of green development, and the effect of environmental protection tax (EPT), a crucial instrument for addressing environmental challenges, on green TFP is crucial. Based on provincial panel data from 2004 to 2020 in China, this study uses inter-provincial differences in environmental protection tax rates as a quasi-natural experiment and utilizes a synthetic control method to assess the impact of the "changing sewage charge to tax" on regional GTFP. The empirical results suggest that EPT can help enhance GTFP, a finding that still holds after regional placebo tests, time placebo tests, and difference-in-differences robustness tests. The mechanism test demonstrates that EPT influences GTFP via the industrial structure impact and the green technological innovation effect. According to heterogeneity research, regions with a high level of marketization and financial growth are more significantly affected by environmental protection tax policy. This paper offers crucial empirical data for assessing the efficacy of environmental protection tax policy and enhancing the environmental tax system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of an environmental protection tax enables a smooth shift from the sewerage charge system to the environmental protection tax scheme. This, in turn, promotes a more sustainable development of enterprise growth, emphasizing eco-friendliness. This is of immense importance in advancing environmentally aware practices and sustainability. Based on data collected from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2014 to 2021, this paper investigates the influence of environmental protection taxes on the advancement of green technology and the underlying mechanisms. Taking the execution of the Environmental Protection Tax Law in 2018 as a quasi-natural experiment, a double-difference model is employed to examine the causal relationship between environmental protection taxes and the adoption of green technology by companies. The findings indicate that the introduction of an environmental tax could markedly enhance the extent of green technological innovation within corporations. The evidence arising from the testing mechanism implies that such a tax can encourage firms to boost their investments in research and development, upgrade their innovative human capital, and mitigate financing limitations. The study found that there is heterogeneity in the promotion effect of the environmental protection tax on the green technological innovation of businesses in different regions and provinces with varying tax burdens and types of equity capital. Further research shows that the environmental protection tax has a greater impact on the promotion of utility model patent applications for green technology innovation. This paper presents empirical evidence to support further enhancement of the environmental protection tax system. It recommends designing the environmental protection tax policy with consideration for enterprises and local conditions and bolstering the system's capacity for guiding and stimulating enterprises' green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission trading is an important environmental policy tool to promote carbon emission reduction. With the panel data of carbon emissions trading (CET) pilots, this paper used the spatial difference-in-difference model (SDID) to test whether CET can affect the enterprise environmental responsibility and the spatial spillover effect of carbon emissions trading. The study found that CET can significantly improve the environmental responsibility level of enterprises in pilot areas. The environmental responsibility level of enterprises in surrounding areas are also improved driven by CET. In the time dimension, the role of CET in improving the enterprise environmental responsibility is gradually increasing. The impact of CET on enterprise environmental responsibility has significant heterogeneity in the dimension of ownership attributes and environmental regulation. Promoting corporate environmental protection investment is the main path for CET to improve the enterprise environmental responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most critical problems of today is the environmental policies with the focus on economy. Despite the many efforts of global organizations, environmental pollution is the subject of human beings. For this, the most polluting countries attract the attention of researchers. Many studies produce economy-centered environmental policies for the USA. However, the asymmetric effect of natural resources on environmental pollution has been neglected in the literature. In this paper, the effects of economic growth, renewable energy, biocapacity, and natural resources on the ecological footprint are addressed within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis over the period 1980–2017. Empirical findings confirm that economic growth and biocapacity increase environmental degradation, while renewable energy consumption helps reduce environmental damage. More specifically, when the results are analyzed in terms of natural resources, positive shocks in natural resources contribute to reducing environmental damage, while negative shocks in it negatively affect the environmental quality. The paper presents important policy implications for economy-centered environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive use of energy has caused a rapid increase in global carbon dioxide emissions, resulting in a series of environmental problems such as climate warming. Investment in the energy industry can guide funds into green and clean production, reduce carbon emissions in the energy industry, and promote the green development of the energy industry. This paper considers the energy, the environment, the economy, and other factors and focuses on energy consumption and investment structure. Taking 30 provinces in China as research samples, a dynamic spatial Durbin model is established. The results show that the first-order term of carbon emissions has a driving force of 0.5068% for current carbon emissions at a significance level of 1% and that the increase in current carbon emissions will lead to a continued increase in carbon emissions in the next period. The increase in the carbon emissions of neighbouring provinces will increase their carbon emissions through the spatial spillover effect. Whether in the short term or long term, the increase in energy investment and the optimization of the energy investment structure can reduce carbon emissions. The above conclusions can provide a reference for the formulation of government environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These topics could be divided into four streams, including environmental policy and innovation, environmental governance at the micro-level, macroeconomics outcomes of environmental policy, and water quality management. Chen, Wang, Sun, Chen, Zhang, and Ye employ trophic level index (TLI), water quality index (WQI), modified Nemerow pollution index (NPI), and the random forest (RF) model to evaluate water quality. This special issue is on environmental governance and innovation. [Extracted from the article]

Taking the green credit policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses the difference-in-differences method to explore the impact of green credit policy on enterprises' financial asset allocation and the moderating effect of government subsidy. We find that green credit policy significantly promotes the financial asset allocation of heavy-polluting enterprises, which is mainly reflected in short-term liquid financial investment, thus supporting the precautionary motivation of holding financial assets. The mechanism analysis shows that green credit policy promotes the financial asset allocation of heavy-polluting enterprises by reducing the scale of debt financing and increasing the financing cost. Government subsidy can significantly weaken the promoting effect of green credit policy on enterprises' financial asset allocation, and there is heterogeneity due to the regional environmental regulation intensity and financial development level. Further analysis shows that the negative moderating effect of government subsidy on green credit policy and enterprises' financial asset allocation significantly promotes the "shifting form virtual to real" of heavy polluting enterprises by reducing financial asset allocation. This paper discusses the impact of green credit policy on financial asset allocation of heavy-polluting enterprises in China and further clarifies the significant role of government subsidy in the process, so as to provide suggestions for government to control the "shifting from real to virtual" of enterprises. The results also provide an important reference for countries, especially developing countries, to implement green credit policy and government subsidy to achieve sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of air pollution and its effect on public health has become a hot policy issue that has attracted worldwide attention, but this attention has seldom been extended to the causal relationship between atmospheric environmental policy (AEP), air pollution, and public health. This paper uses panel data from 30 provinces in China to construct spatial econometric models that analyze the impact of AEP on air pollution, the impact of air pollution on public health, and the mediation effect that air pollution may have between AEP and public health. The results demonstrate that there is a significant positive spatial spillover effect of soot and dust (SD) emission intensity and the overall air pollution level as measured by the Air Pollution Index (API). The AEP has significant inhibitory effects on the intensity of sulfur dioxide and SD emissions, as well as on overall air pollution. An increase in the overall air pollution level has a significant detrimental effect on public health as measured by average life expectancy. Air pollution as measured by API is a mediating factor in the relationship between AEP and public health. The study results could help to effectively control air pollution and promote public health by leading to improvements in regional pollution prevention and control mechanisms and strengthening of the central government's policy formulation and local governments' policy implementation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation and innovative development are essential means to solve the negative externalities of environmental pollution. However, developing countries often face the dual pressures of environmental pollution and innovative development. This paper focuses on whether environmental protection policies (EPP) can achieve a win–win situation between green development and innovative development. Based on the panel data of 277 cities in China from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of China's EPP on urban innovation efficiency by using a time-varying difference-in-differences approach. Combined with the geographical features of Chinese cities, we further take urban form into the mediating effect analysis. The results show that (1) EPP has a significant positive impact on innovation efficiency, and the result satisfies the parallel trend test; (2) the robustness test shows that EPP has technological innovation and diffusion effects; and (3) the mediating effect test show that urban form has a significant mediating effect on the impact of EPP on innovation efficiency. Therefore, environmental policies should be formulated considering the differences of urban form to achieve the optimal implementation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposal of the "dual carbon" targets has provided direction for promoting China's economic green transformation and green innovation. As enterprises are important entities driving technological innovation in China, enhancing their green innovation capabilities holds significant practical significance for reducing carbon emissions. While the flourishing development of the digital economy currently provides new avenues and impetus for enterprise green innovation, research on the micro-level effects of green innovation driven by digital economy is still lacking. Therefore, based on data from Chinese cities spanning 2010 to 2021 and micro-level data of listed enterprises, this paper employs fixed effect model and intermediary effect model to empirically test the effect and mechanism of urban digital economy development on the quality and quantity of enterprise green innovation. Additionally, it investigates the carbon emission reduction effect resulting from digital economy development. The findings are as follows: (1) The development of digital economy exhibits a significant green innovation effect, effectively enhancing both the "quality and quantity" of enterprise green innovation. Particularly noteworthy is its impact on the quality of green innovation in enterprises, a result corroborated by several robustness tests. (2) Promoting regional knowledge spillover and alleviating enterprise financing constraints emerge as mechanisms through which the digital economy enhances the "quality and quantity" of enterprise green innovation. (3) Heterogeneity testing reveals that the digital economy exerts a greater green innovation effect on enterprises located in regions characterized by higher environmental regulations, high-tech industries, and state-owned enterprises. (4) Further analysis demonstrates that the digital economy effectively reduces enterprises carbon emissions and enhances their carbon performance by driving green innovation, thus providing endogenous impetus for achieving the "dual carbon" goals. By examining the effects and mechanisms of green innovation driven by digital economy from the perspectives of promoting knowledge spillover and alleviating financing constraints, this study enriches theoretical research on the relationship between the digital economy and green innovation at the enterprise micro-level. It offers new insights for governments in formulating green innovation policies and serves as a reference for green innovation decision-making in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic and social development, the state of the environment and a propensity for disasters are closely intertwined. Therefore, environmental policy integration (EPI) across development and disaster management (DM) policies and plans is important. Pakistan as a country is highly vulnerable to climate-induced environmental changes and associated disasters. In this paper, the extent to which its national environment and climate change policy, disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy as well as disaster management (DM) plans are aligned is established, based on a review of government documents and expert opinions. In this context, a particular emphasis is put on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that led the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan (CPEC; 2017–2030). While environmental assessment (EA) is currently not conducted for any DM policies and plans, DM and EA are well integrated into provincial environmental protection acts, in national as well as most provincial DM plans. It is concluded that a regulatory framework to guide EPI in DM for BRI and CPEC projects is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enterprise's green value chain comprises a multitude of factors and links for a successful green transformation, and relevant environmental policies are multi-dimensional and multi-sectional. Environmental policies can affect the enterprise's green development through stimulating the supply of green services or by increasing the demand for green products. Based on 346 policy statements issued by various government departments from 2000 to 2020, this paper matches the "type" of environmental policy with the "dimension" of value chain of manufacturing companies, establishing a coordination model and a co-existing network to measure how both elements interact. The results indicate a notable phenomenon with the Chinese government's enterprise environmental policies, which can be described as "heavy supply-driven, light demand-pull." A strong emphasis is put on the supply side of policies, in particular for the technology innovation sector, but the demand end of policies is comparatively minimal. The synergy between the policies and the links in the green value chain is divergent, which replicates the "heavy end-treatment, light front-prevention" seen with existing policies. Policy synergy at the end of the value chain such as the green production process is more mature and well-integrated, while the synergy for green product development lacks policies on both ends. The mismatch and imbalance of policies limits the overall level of green transformation for manufacturing enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the process of China's economic transformation and structural adjustment, the trend of thermal power industry transfer is more and more obvious. Under the background of industrial transfer, the research of the influence of environmental regulation on technological innovation has become a vital issue that needs to be discussed urgently for the current high-quality economic development. Based on the thermal power industry data in 30 provinces of China from 2008 to 2017, this paper constructs a mediating effect model to examine the relationship among environmental regulation, industrial transfer, and technological innovation. The results reveal that: (1) there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and technological innovation; (2) the increase of environmental regulation intensity promotes the thermal power industry to move to areas with loose environmental regulation; (3) industrial transfers play a mediating role in the process of environmental regulation influencing technological innovation. Therefore, the government should formulate scientifically effective environmental regulation policies so that the thermal power industry can realize orderly transfer and realize technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically analyzes the non-linear effect of economic activities on ecological balance indicators that estimate the balance between economies' pressure on nature and the biologically productive resource areas affected by human activity and the earth's ecological carrying capacity. In measuring this balance, ecological balance sheet indicators are divided into four sub-components: cropland, fishing grounds, forest area, and grazing land. The sample of the study consists of the EU-15 countries over the period 1995–2016. To render the study robust with respect to econometric issues such as potential endogeneity bias, cross-country heterogeneity, non-linearity, and time instability, the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) method is adapted. The empirical findings reveal that up to a certain threshold level, economic activities do not affect the ecological balance as nature can compensate for the resulting externalities, but beyond this threshold, waste accumulation and pollution exceed nature's capacity to absorb. Consequently, these findings do not empirically support the EKC hypothesis with an inverted U-shaped curve and suggest that active environmental policies are needed to improve the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decoupling of crop-livestock systems increases the risks of pollution, waste of nutrient resources, and biodiversity loss. Crop-livestock integration (CLI) is an effective solution to these problems, and motivating farmers to adopt CLI is the key. Many countries have implemented environmental regulations (ER) aiming to influence farmers' CLI adoption decisions. Based on a field study of 316 hog farmers from Shaanxi Province of China, this paper applies the triple-hurdle model to empirically examine the impacts of economic expectations (EE) and ER on CLI adoption decisions. It also verifies the income effect of CLI. The results are as follows: 90.5% of farmers are willing to adopt CLI, but the adoption rate is only 40.8% and the average integration degree is only 0.236; CLI not been widely popularized. EE and ER promote farmers' CLI adoption significantly, while the impact of interaction between EE and ER on CLI adoption differs. IER weakens the positive impact of EE on farmers' CLI integration degree, which has a "crowding out effect." GER negatively moderates the impact of EE on farmers' adoption willingness of CLI. CER strengthens the positive effect of EE on farmers' adoption behavior and CLI integration degree. CLI increases the farmers' income. These results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of CLI adoption decisions and sustainable policy optimization for green agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological progress in favor of cleaner production is the key to achieving low-carbon development in China. The Ambient Air Quality Standard (AAQS) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2012 was an essential policy for the central government to implement vertical environmental regulation. Therefore, based on the city-level panel data, this paper examines the impact of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-biased technological progress using the difference-in-differences method. The results show that central vertical regulation can significantly promote urban environment-friendly technological progress. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the driving effect of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-friendly technological progress is more obvious in the eastern regions, non-resource-based cities, large cities, and high-grade cities. Moreover, the channel analysis shows that the central vertical regulation mainly boosts the urban environmental technology progress toward cleaner production by strengthening government environmental governance, raising public environmental concern, and improving energy structure. The findings provide policy implications for evaluating the effectiveness of macro-environmental policy and promoting green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between renewable, non-renewable energy, natural resources, human capital, and globalization on ecological footprint from 1990 to 2016 for developing countries. We apply Westerlund co-integration technique to check the long-run relationship among the variables. The long-run elasticity of the model is analyzed through MG, AMG, and DCCE. For the robustness check of the long-run relationship among the variables, we use FMOLS and DOLS approach. The direction of causal relationship is determined through Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test. Our findings revealed that economic growth, non-renewable energy, natural resource, and urbanization are inducing the ecological footprint of developing countries and reducing the environment's quality. To cope up with this situation, developing countries are bound to use more fossil fuel energy. The use of non-renewable energy consumption leads to increase the extraction of natural resources like coal and oil. However, renewable energy reduces the ecological footprint or improves environmental quality. Similarly, human capital and globalization have negative effects on ecological footprint. The results of causality test reveal that there are feedback effects between ecological footprint with economic growth, globalization, and natural resources. This study suggests that these developing countries should focus more on the investment in the renewable energy sector, improve quality education, and make stringent environmental policy for protecting the nations from ecological issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, environmental sustainability is a hot topic, particularly in industrialized countries due to their higher emission intensity. Environmental conservation and equitable economic growth have been prioritized in economic debate and policy development. Over the past three decades, the USA's emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2e) have risen exponentially, as trade policy uncertainty (TPU). In this circumstance, this paper aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the effect of TPU on environmental quality by controlling the energy consumption, economic growth, and population in the USA over the period 1985M1 to 2022M3 employing the augmented ARDL and NARDL procedures in the presence of structural breaks. From our analysis, the results revealed that TPU affects negatively CO2e in the residential sector, and negative changes in TPU positively affect CO2e in the commercial sector both in the long and short run. On the other side, the outcomes show that energy consumption is a crucial key determinant factor in environmental degradation at the aggregate level and in all sectors. Furthermore, our findings clarify that economic growth upsurges the CO2e at the aggregate level precisely in the industrial and residential sectors. Juxtaposing, in the long run, the results indicate that population growth could make additional pressure on environmental quality at the aggregate level, especially in commercial, power generation, and residential sectors. Accordingly, it is clear from our results that the regulations put in place to encourage Americans to buy locally created goods instead of those imported, especially in light of the high levels of TPU, maybe the best option to decrease the long-term impact of international trade on the environment to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important indicator of sustainable development, industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) has aroused growing attention from governments all over the world including China, in recent decades. The Chinese government has introduced numerous environmental regulations; however, the environmental pollution issue does not appear to have been solved. Moreover, although several earlier studies have shown that environmental regulations may promote innovation, there is no consensus on their ultimate effects on IEE. Therefore, this study took a critical look at the connection between environmental regulations and IEE in 36 Chinese sub-sectors from 2009 to 2018. Based on the weak Porter hypothesis (weak PH) and strong Porter hypothesis (strong PH), this paper constructed two panel regression models and conducted group analysis by pollution intensity to check the relationships among environmental regulations, technological innovation, and IEE. It was found that environmental regulations can improve technological innovation and IEE, but these impacts vary across different pollution groups. Specifically, environmental regulations have a U-shaped or inverted U-shaped relationship with technological innovation and IEE. Of the 36 sub-sectors, 26 prove the existence of the Weak PH while 10 verify the Strong PH, indicating that environmental regulations generally advocate technological innovation for most sub-sectors but only promote IEE in a few sub-sectors at present. Finally, differentiated policy implications for environmental regulations and technological innovation are provided for decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the analysis of mean reversion and convergence of the ecological footprint (EF) in the MENA region. Using a long memory model based on fractional integration, we find that the results are very heterogeneous across countries depending on the assumptions made on the error term and the use of original versus logged data. Nevertheless, some conclusions can be obtained. Thus, mean reversion is decisively found in the case of Tunisia, and other countries showing some degree of reversion to the mean include Israel, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Dealing with the issue of convergence within the MENA countries, similar conclusions hold and only Tunisia reports statistical evidence of convergence for the two types of errors. Additional evidence is found in the case of Syria, Yemen, and Jordan with uncorrelated errors and for Iran with autocorrelation. It is recommended that environmental policies targeted at stabilizing the trends in EF in the MENA region should not be indiscriminately applied in consideration of the heterogeneous nature of the series in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental policy stringency (EPS) in affecting environmental quality is gaining great attention in the literature. However, none of the existing studies has thought to investigate their combined effects on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Additionally, the individual investigations into the nexuses EPU-emissions and EPS-emissions primarily took a symmetric assumption between these variables into consideration. The current paper is an early attempt to close these gaps by examining the combined effects of economic policy uncertainty and environmental policy stringency on CO2 emissions within asymmetric (nonlinear) frameworks in China and the United States (US). The empirical findings indicate that an improvement in EPU degrades the environmental quality in both countries. However, a negative shift in EPU decreases emissions in China while increasing them in the US. In terms of EPS, the estimates in the two nations led to similar results. A positive change in EPS is conducive to fewer emissions, whereas a negative change worsens environmental damage. These findings still hold with the sensitivity analysis using ecological footprint as an alternative gauge of environmental destruction. This study, therefore, suggests that both nations adopt stricter environmental policies. Additionally, Chinese policymakers should work to lessen uncertainty shocks, while the US government should promote more transparent economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen oxide (NOx) contains two harmful air pollutants: nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The reasonable prediction of China's NOx emissions is of positive significance for the government to formulate environmental protection policies. To this end, a new grey prediction model with second-order differential equation is proposed in this paper, which has more reasonable model structure and better modeling performance than the traditional grey model. Secondly, according to the data characteristics of NOx emissions of China in recent years, a smoothing algorithm and weakening buffer operator are employed to process the original data to solve the rationality of the prediction results of the new model. Thirdly, the model for predicting China's NOx emissions has been constructed by the new proposed model. The results show that the mean comprehensive error of the new model is only 0.0692%, and its performance is much better than that of several other mainstream grey prediction models. Finally, the new model is applied to China's carbon dioxide prediction in the next 5 years, and the rationality of the prediction results is analyzed. Based on the prediction results, relevant countermeasures and suggestions are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving green water use efficiency is based on the synergy of reducing pollutants and carbon emissions, and effectively identifying its spatial development structure is a prerequisite for realizing the green transformation of water management. This paper adopted the slacks-based measure- "energy-environment-economy" (SBM-3E) model with carbon emission and pollution indicators as unanticipated outputs to measure the green water use efficiency of the 11 provinces (cities) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2000 to 2018, then analyzed the efficiency network structure evolution by using the social network analysis method, and finally examined the drivers of efficiency networks. The results show that (1) the value of green water utilization efficiency decreases from 0.78 to 0.51, and its spatial distribution is downstream > middlestream > upstream, with the values of 0.41, 0.61, and 0.86, respectively. (2) The overall spatial network efficiency is gradually interconnected, with the density increasing from 0.32 to 0.6; it has undergone a structural evolution from "flat" to "inverted tower." The core–edge structure of the main body status within the basin has been strengthened. (3) The efficiency network is significantly influenced by water resource endowment, industrial structure, and foreign investment level. The conclusions are expected to provide useful insights for designing the basin's water protection policy and greening the region's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to develop green finance and realize the coordinated development of environment and economy, China set up green finance reform and innovation pilot zones in 2017. Taking the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones in China as an exogenous shock and based on the synthetic control method, this paper explores the impact of the pilot policies on green innovation vitality by taking five pilot provinces as the experimental group and 25 provinces without pilot policies as the control group. It is found that the pilot policy significantly enhances the level of green innovation dynamism in the pilot regions, but due to the different policy focuses, the innovation effect is immediate in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Jiangxi, while the policy effect is significantly lagging behind in Xinjiang; government incentives are an important channel through which the policy enhances the green innovation dynamism; and the above findings are more significant in the samples of substantial green innovation dynamism and the eastern region. In addition, the extended economic consequences analysis shows that the pilot policy can significantly improve energy efficiency in the pilot region with a significant time lag. The findings of the study not only provide empirical evidence for the implementation effect of the green finance pilot policies, but also have practical implications for improving the green finance system and replicating and extending the green finance reform and innovation pilot zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the great importance attached to ecological civilization and green development, exploring the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation policy synergy on ecological resilience holds significance for improving environmental protection and the design of environmental policies. Based on the policy synergy perspective, this paper uses 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous) in China as the research sample. Bayesian quantile regression is employed to explore the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation policy synergy on ecological resilience from 2007 to 2021, and the moderating effect of the industrial structure is examined. The results indicate the following: (1) there is significant heterogeneity and variability in the effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on ecological resilience. Specifically, the effects of policy mixes 12, 13, and 23 on ecological resilience shows a U-shaped trend, while the impact of policy mix 123 on ecological resilience shows a positive effect. (2) There are significant differences in the effects of environmental regulation policy synergy under different quantiles of ecological resilience. Taking policy mix 12 as an example, we find that the effect of policy synergy on ecological resilience tends to decrease and then increase at a lower quantile. Additionally, the effect of policy synergy on ecological resilience tends to be positive at a higher quantile. (3) There are significant differences in the moderating effects of the industrial structure. Policy mix 12 can effectively enhance ecological resilience through industrial structure upgrading, while the moderating effects of alternative policy combinations are deemed insufficient. Finally, relevant policy recommendations are proposed to effectively improve ecological resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the new economic normal, environmental protection and economic growth have become the focus of academic attention. This paper explores the effect and impact mechanism of environmental regulations on the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of enterprises by using data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database and the Directory of Overseas Investment Enterprises (Institutions) for the years 2004 to 2010. The findings are summarised as follows. Firstly, environmental regulations have a significant positive effect on the OFDI of Chinese enterprises, and this result remains robust after considering the outcomes of robustness tests and endogeneity issues. Secondly, the promotion effect of environmental regulations on the OFDI of Chinese enterprises obviously differs across investment motivations and industry characteristics. Thirdly, productivity gains are important channels through which environmental regulations promote the OFDI of enterprises. These findings have great significance for the effective formulation of environmental regulatory policies and the stable development of the OFDI of Chinese enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa, one of the emerging markets and fast-developing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa recognised for varying world's natural assets on the international market, has recorded significant economic growth in the previous several years. However, aside from the ecological repercussions of energy generation, how economic uncertainties moderate the effects of energy intensity, renewable and non-renewable energy usage, and economic complexity on the environment has largely gone unnoticed. As a result, this paper addresses an important empirical vacuum by exploring the moderating influence of economic policy uncertainty in the environmental Kuznets curve for South Africa from 1960 to 2020. Results from the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulations framework reveal the following key findings: (i) economic policy uncertainty accelerates environmental degradation in both the short and long run; (ii) economic growth (as measured by the scale effect) increases environmental degradation, whereas the square of economic growth (as measured by the technique effect) slows it down, confirming the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; (iii) environmental quality is deteriorated by energy intensity, economic complexity, non-renewable energy usage, and trade openness; (iv) the use of renewable energy and technological innovation increase environmental quality; (v) whereas the moderating effects of economic policy uncertainty on the environmental impacts of energy intensity, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption result in an increase in environmental destruction, its moderating effect on environmental implication of economic complexity plays an important role in improving environmental quality. These findings permit us to draw important policy recommendations for South Africa for improving environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to study CO2 emissions intensity as the most critical factor affecting temperature increase and climate change in a country like Iran, which ranked seven regarding CO2 emissions intensity. Investigating the convergence of CO2 emissions intensity is essential in recognizing its dynamics in identifying the effectiveness of government environmental policies. In this paper, using the Markov chain and spatial Markov chain methods, the convergence of CO2 emissions intensity from fossil-fuel consumption has been investigated in 28 provinces of Iran from 2002 to 2016. The empirical results showed that convergence clubs and neighbors significantly influenced the transition probability of regions to clubs with high and low CO2 emissions. Therefore, if a province had a neighbor with low (high) CO2 emissions intensity, the transition probability of this province to the club with low (high) CO2 intensity increased. Therefore, in provinces that have neighbors with low (high) CO2 emissions intensity, the transition probability to the club with low (high) CO2 intensity increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used a dynamic spatial panel model to empirically analyze the effects of environmental regulation, market demand, and the associated spatial spillovers on regional green innovation in China, from which the following was found. (1) The environmental regulations had a positive "U-shaped" effect on local green innovation and a positive neighborhood spillover effect, and market demand had a significant positive effect on local green innovation and a "ripple effect." (2) The mechanism analysis found that the environmental regulations tended to inhibit regional green innovation input through a "cost compliance" effect, and market demand had a stronger incentive effect on innovation input than the environmental regulations, thus promoting the improvement of green innovation level. (3) The environmental regulation and market demand effects on green innovation had obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity. The results of this study could help to promote regional green innovation by formulating reasonable environmental policies and stimulating the vitality of green technology market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries. The result also suggests that green energy is a major factor in reducing the ecological footprint in all countries except Canada. Finally, economic policy uncertainty plays a negative and significant role in the ecological footprint in the UK, USA, and Germany while insignificant in Australia and Canada. Implications for effective environmental policies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to investigate how the rapid development of China's environmental policy contributes to the changes in China's labour market. We first categorise the environmental regulations into (i) command-and-control policies, (ii) economic incentive policies, and (iii) voluntary environmental agreements (VEAs). Then, we use the provincial panel data over the 2000–2015 period to estimate the effect of alternative environmental regulations on employment in China. The results show that alternative environmental regulations have different impacts on employment. This difference even exists within the same group of environmental policies. Amongst the command-and-control policies, the three simultaneities policy leads to less employment, while the deadline governance systems increase employment. For economic incentive policies, higher environmental tax leads to lower employment, while more funding for environmental research promotes employment. The results also show that more VEAs reduced labour demand. In addition, the dynamic impact and regional heterogeneity of environmental regulations on employment are confirmed by the empirical estimation. Specifically, the economic incentive policies significantly impact employment in Central and Western China, whereas they have a non-significant impact on employment in Eastern China. This finding confirms that economic development impacts the relationship between environmental regulations and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is one of the serious environmental problems facing the world. This paper systematically investigates the impact and transmission mechanism of the construction of national eco-industrial parks (NEDPs) on urban air pollution based on Chinese city-level panel data from 2003 to 2021 using a staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) model. It is found that the construction of NEDP significantly reduces urban air pollution, a conclusion supported by the negative weight diagnostic test and two types of robust DID estimators. Mechanism analyses indicate that NEDP construction reduces urban air pollution mainly by improving regional environmental regulation, promoting green technology innovation and improving energy structure. In addition, the mitigation effect of NEDP construction on urban air pollution is heterogeneous by policy intensity, city resource endowment, city size and administrative status. Further tests show that the institutional environment enhances the air pollution mitigation effect of NEDP construction and that the better the degree of marketization, property rights system, legal system and market development in the place where the policy is implemented, the more conducive it is to amplify the air pollution suppression effect brought about by NEDP construction. Developing economies should take complete account of the characteristics of different regions when implementing place-based green policies to achieve synergistic development of the environment and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emissions trading scheme (CETS) in China is an important market-based environmental policy mechanism for decreasing carbon emissions. This paper calculates the total factor carbon productivity (TFCP) based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2020 using the DEA method and investigates the impact of the CETS on regional TFCP using the differences-in-differences (DID) method, all against the backdrop of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. The research findings reveal that CETS has consistently improved TFCP in pilot cities, and this conclusion has held up following a number of robustness tests. Temporal heterogeneity experiments demonstrate that as implementation time increases, the enhancing effect takes on an inverted "U-shaped" structure with a 7-year effective lifetime. Spatial heterogeneity studies reveal that as one moves away from the pilot cities, the policy effect on surrounding cities' TFCP is inhibited, followed by facilitation. CETS policies can influence regional TFCP through the effects of green innovation and industry upgrading, according to mediation mechanism testing. We present policy recommendations based on the research findings for meeting the "dual" carbon goals and strengthening the carbon trading mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation is an important tool for policymakers to achieve environmental goals. To better understand the role of environmental regulation in protecting the ecosystem, this paper offers a new perspective on exploring the heterogeneous impact of environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint in 27 OECD countries during the period 1990–2015. An advanced economic method, panel quantile regression, is conducted to deal with the non-normality and unobserved individual heterogeneity across countries. The estimation outcomes indicate that the environmental effect of policy stringency is heterogeneous along the quantiles and different between the ecological footprint of consumption and production. The beneficial role of environmental regulation in reducing consumption ecological footprint is achieved at quantiles under 80th but the harmful effect starts occurring at extreme high quantiles. In contrast, environmental policy stringency plays a consistently useful role in mitigating production ecological footprint. In addition, the results disclose that the effects of other driving factors such as international trade, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and income are heterogeneous at different quantiles of ecological footprint. These findings help explain the inconsistencies in previous empirical studies on the nexus between environmental regulation and environmental quality in OECD countries. Finally, the current study gives policymakers useful recommendations on how to strengthen the beneficial impacts of environmental policies on the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a quantile fixed-effect panel data approach to investigate how environmental policy stringency affects CO2 emissions in a set of 32 countries from 1990 to 2015, using OECD data. This approach allows us to identify the asymmetric impact of policy stringency on emissions, considering the emission level recorded in each analysed country. More precisely, we posit that the effectiveness of environmental regulations and policies is influenced by the air pollution level. Our results show that an increase in policy stringency has a negative impact on emissions and that environmental stringency has a more powerful impact in the countries with lower levels of carbon emissions. In addition, we show that policy stringency measures only became effective after the implementation of the Kyoto agreement, whereas the policy stringency effect is stronger for EU countries at high risk of missing the 20–20-20 target in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Lastly, policy implications refer to the need to adapt policy stringency measures to emission levels to increase their effectiveness. At the same time, the setting up of emission targets determines policymakers to be more engaged in the fight against carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's economy continues to grow, more and more attention is being paid to environmental pollution issues, including haze pollution, which is the most prominent of the air problems. In order to alleviate the haze pollution problem while ensuring the normal operation of the economy, the government has adopted an environmental regulation policy along with the introduction of foreign direct investment. This study uses a fixed effects model and two-stage least squares to examine the correlation of foreign direct investment and environmental regulation to the haze pollution level by using the Chinese provincial panel data from 2008 to 2019. We found a positive interaction between the foreign direct investment and environmental regulation, where a high-quality investment promotes the haze reduction, and the environmental regulation can enhance this effect. The results approve the possibilities that China can bring the merit investment and reduce its air pollution simultaneously, but how to balance the interaction between environmental regulation and the investment needs to draw attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, China has declared its national objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. Hence, mitigating carbon dioxide emissions has become an important agenda of the Chinese government. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pursuing expansionary fiscal and monetary policies on China's carbon dioxide emission figures by using annual frequency data from 1980 to 2018. Accordingly, this study considers the levels of government expenditure and broad money supply as fiscal and monetary policy instruments, respectively. Besides accounting for structural break concerns in the data, the findings from the empirical analysis reveal that there are long-run associations between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and fiscal and monetary expansion in China. Moreover, the results also show that in both the short- and long-run expansionary fiscal policy trigger higher carbon dioxide emissions while expansionary monetary policy inhibits the carbon dioxide emission figures of China. Furthermore, the results invalidate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis since the relationship between China's economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions is evidenced to portray an N-shape. In line with these findings, it is recommended that China achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth by aligning the national fiscal and monetary policies with the 2060 carbon-neutrality objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of shadow economy and environmental policy stringency on energy consumption and economic growth in the case of China for the period 1993 to 2019. Asymmetric ARDL empirical findings show that positive shocks in shadow economy and environmental policy stringency have a significant and positive impact on energy consumption and economic growth in the long run. However, the negative shocks in shadow economy exert positive and significant impacts on energy consumption and economic growth in the long run, but magnitudes are small compared to positive shocks. The long-run findings report no significant effect of negative shock in environmental policy stringency on energy consumption and economic growth. China should use environmental policy stringency as economic tools to maintain green economic growth and clean energy demand for sustained economic expansion. Policymakers should focus on the inclusion of environmental policy stringency in any future environment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choosing pollution control instrument is an important environmental policy decision. Carbon taxes and subsidies for emissions reductions are two commonly used environmental policies. In practice, the government may be restricted to use only one policy instrument. In this paper, we compare the social welfare effect between policies of a carbon tax and a subsidy. We show that as the marginal environmental damage of the high carbon product increases, the control instrument should change from a subsidy policy to a carbon tax policy. It also turns out that Bertrand competition does not always incur a higher social welfare than Cournot competition when the government intervenes with a pollution control policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the rising concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases emission in the atmosphere is extremely detrimental to the environment. The high concentration among all greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide emission. Therefore, this study explores the linkages between energy consumption, trade openness, globalization, urbanization, and carbon dioxide emission for Malaysia over the spans from 1978 to 2018. ARDL bound testing model was employed to investigate involvement in the elevation of carbon dioxide emissions in the economy. The study illustrates that a 1% growth in energy consumption, trade openness, and urbanization will deteriorate the environment by 0.18%, 0.03%, and 2.51% respectively. Further, variance decomposition analysis predicts that all the determinants in the study have significantly caused carbon dioxide emission in Malaysia. The paper presents scientific support for further studies and argues for the use of innovation shocks as a policy instrument for a prosperous future by formulating more successful environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clean energy transition has been considered as an indispensable way to attain sustainable development for China, where the coal-to-gas initiative plays a vital role towards the goal. This paper takes Beijing, China's political and economic center as well as a national pioneer in the energy transition, as a case to systematically analyze the co-mitigation of air pollution (PM2.5) and carbon emissions (CO2) achieved by the policy-driven natural gas-coal consumption substitution. Firstly, a qualitative analysis of the relationship of Beijing's coal-to-gas policies and its air quality has been conducted. Then, VAR and ARDL models are employed to quantitatively analyze the impacts of coal-to-gas policies on PM2.5 and CO2, respectively. Results show that (i) an innovation of natural gas/coal consumption ratio will reduce PM2.5 concentrations, and the effect decreases over time; and (ii) an increase of 1% in natural gas/coal consumption ratio in Beijing will cause a decrease of 0.0784% in CO2 emissions in the long run. Therefore, the coal-to-gas policies do increase the usage of natural gas and improve Beijing's air quality. The assessment methods and conclusions can be regarded as a reference for not only China's policymakers, but also other countries, especially nowadays when air quality is becoming more valued and GHGs are being tightly controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government attention and policy implementation are important for achieving environmental goals. This study uses 257 cities in China from 2013–2019 as the sample and measures local government attention through text mining, thus exploring the carbon emission reduction effect of government attention. Threshold regression is further used to examine the role and nonlinear relationship that environmental policies assume in the effect of government attention on carbon emission reduction. The conclusions are as follows: first, government attention can significantly reduce carbon emissions: with a 1% increase in local government attention to environmental protection, China's urban CO2 can be reduced by 0.04%. Second, the impact of government attention on carbon emissions is more significant in cities in non-air pollution prevention areas, in non-SO2 and acid rain control areas, with longer tenure of officials, and with female officials serving during the sample period. Third, the effect of government attention on carbon emission reduction can be significantly increased under policy influence, especially when two policies are implemented in concert. Fourth, market incentive policies play a stronger role in the first place, while traditional energy-saving policies have strong sustainability. In general, the study concludes that municipalities should allocate more attention to the environment, and it gives some reasons supporting policy choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]