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Effective environmental governance in China is crucial for promoting global environmental governance initiatives. The government's environmental regulatory capacity (GERC) is a core metric reflecting the effectiveness of China's environmental governance. This paper aims to investigate the strength of China's GERC and empirically verify its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment (CEE). We use a multiple indicators and multiple causes model (MIMIC) to measure the governmental environmental regulation capabilities of 30 provinces in China, from 2007 to 2018. Then, the econometric model is used to test the impact of the GERC on CEE. The results show that, although the GERC exhibits an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. The GERC in different regions of China exhibits a certain gradient effect, with a weak polarization trend. The increase in the GERC of regions with high levels of economic development is significantly faster than that in regions with low levels of economic development. Moreover, the improvement in the GERC has not promoted coordinated development between the economy and the environment, which means that there is still a mutual "crowding out effect" between economic development and environmental protection in China. [Display omitted] • The Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes model is used to measure government environmental regulation capability (GERC). • Although the GERC shows an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. • The GERC in different regions has a certain gradient effect, showing a weak polarization trend. • There is still a mutual "crowding out effect" between economic development and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the constraints on urban land expansion, improving the efficiency of existing urban land becomes a key factor in promoting resource sustainability and environmental protection. This paper examines the impact mechanism and threshold effect of urban land use efficiency (ULUE) on resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) using panel data covering 282 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2018. The empirical results show that: (1) ULUE enhances RECC in China, and the rationalization and advancement of industrial structure are important transmission mechanisms; (2) The impact of ULUE on RECC is heterogeneous, showing significant differences in different regions, periods, administrative levels, and resource endowments; (3) With industrial rationalization and industrial advancement as threshold variables, ULUE exhibits a "gradient-style" enhancement with significant threshold characteristics in improving RECC. These findings can provide practical guidance for various land policies. • Study the effect of urban land use efficiency on resources and environment carrying capacity. • The effective allocation and intense use of urban land can foster sustainable economic growth. • Urban land use efficiency enhances resources and environment carrying capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a practice of campaign-style pollution control, the central environmental inspection has great guiding significance for China's environmental management system reform. This paper analyzes the operational mechanism of central environmental protection inspection from the perspective of multi-governance and tests its effectiveness from both theory and empirical evidence. We find that the central environmental protection inspection can improve environmental quality. However, the air quality improvement of non-key cities of environmental protection is better than that of key cities of environmental protection. Besides, the effectiveness of the central environmental protection inspection is unsustainable. The results show that the direct intervention of the power of the Party Central Committee and the central government is a significant driving force to realize the improvement of the environmental quality by playing the role of the multi-governance model in the environment. The continuous environmental participation of the Party Central Committee and the central government is the guarantee for achieving the continuous operation of the multi-government model and maintaining the effect of environmental quality improvement. • We analyze the operating mechanism of the CEPI from the perspective of multi-governance. • A differential game is constructed to explain why the CEPI can reduce pollution. • The CEPI can improve air quality, but its effectiveness is unsustainable. • The air quality improvement of non-key cities is better than that of key cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]