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In the context of the continued advancement of the green economy transition, the proactive pursuit of carbon emissions reduction and the early attainment of carbon neutrality goals have emerged as essential components in promoting high-quality economic development. Not only does it contribute to the creation of a community of human destiny, but it is also vital to the realization of sustainable development for human civilization. A dynamic evolutionary game model, which encompasses the interactions among government, enterprises, and the public, was constructed to examine the inherent impact mechanisms of the behavior of three players on the development of a green economy under the context of energy saving and emission reduction subsidies. The results showed that the incentive and punishment mechanisms served as effective tools for harmonizing the interests of system members. Within the mechanisms, the public demonstrated a higher sensitivity to rewards, while enterprises exhibited greater responsiveness to fines. Consequently, the government could influence the behavior of enterprises by incentivizing the public to serve as a third-party inquiry and oversight body. Simultaneously, the government could encourage enterprises to expedite green technology innovation by employing a combination of incentive and punishment mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinating policies is an essential guarantee for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Based on the theoretical framework of the policy paradigm, we quantitatively analyze 266 policy documents on promoting carbon emission trading and green financial policies from 2011 to 2022 using the content analysis research method. Based on the matching network of "policy objectives-policy tools," we analyze the synergistic characteristics of carbon emission trading policies and green financial policies in promoting carbon emission reduction targets and reveal the matching mode of "objectives-tools" of green financial policies by using social network analysis. It is found that, first, from the perspective of policy objectives, the main policy objectives of carbon emissions trading are to promote green innovation of enterprises, and the main policy objectives of green finance are to promote green development, which reflects the consistency and endogenous motivation of policy objectives. Secondly, command-control and market incentive policy tools are the main policy tools in the structure of policy tools. The proportion of public participation policy tools is small, and there is a structural asymmetry. Third, carbon emissions trading tools focus on supervision, adjustment, and platform construction. The green financial policy tools have the characteristics of guidance, public welfare, and externality. The two constitute a complementary, embedded, and integrated ' double synergy ' carbon emission reduction policy. Based on this, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote policy coordination and provides a reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany has set an ambitious goal of meeting the recommendations of COP‐26 and reducing its carbon intensity to zero by 2045. Germany is a leader in environmental patents after the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and the environmental implications of Germany's leadership in eco‐innovation hold important clues for achieving net zero goals. In particular, the European Union is one of the global communities making the greatest efforts to combat emissions, and the success of the leading role of environmental patents in this Union in reducing CO2 emissions is an important research topic for scholars. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of environmental patents on CO2 emissions under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Germany. To this end, the study applies Bayer–Hanck and Fourier ADL approaches from 1970 to 2019. The main findings do not confirm the EKC hypothesis, while environmental patents play an active role in CO2 reduction. Based on these outcomes, Germany should consider a long‐term green policy to decouple economic growth and emissions. At the same time, German policy should promote the development and application of environmental patents to achieve the net zero targets for 2045. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy is a progressive pollution regulation policy. Besides its role in carbon emission reduction, it has a profound impact on green growth performance and green innovation efficiency. Based on the data of 12 pilot cities and 14 non-pilot cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), this study applies the PSM-DID and spatial mediating model to investigate the multi-dimensional policy effects of LCCP policy on green growth performance and green innovation efficiency. First, the direct effect of LCCP policy on green growth performance has reached 1.46%, ever since its implementation in 2017. Second, considering the intercity innovation cooperation in YRD, LCCP policy has influenced green innovation efficiency by an increase of 12.6%. Furthermore, the time-spatial DID model and multiple mediating effect model identify that LCCP policies have significantly improved green innovation cooperation. Such policies act on the industrial structure upgrading path to achieve the ultimate objective of carbon emission reduction and green growth performance. Third, the green innovation cooperation and substantial transformation of industrial structure upgrading played an important role in realizing the LCCP policy's effect, with its mediating effect reaching 33.63%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential factor of production in economic development, land is an important tool for local governments to boost economic growth. The goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality will push local governments to change the extensive mode of attracting high energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises by transferring industrial land at low prices. The lowcarbon city pilot policy is important for China to achieve green and low-carbon economic transformation and sustainable development. This policy will inevitably influence the land transfer behavior of local governments in heavily polluting industries. Based on the panel data of 286 cities from 2007 to 2019, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and used the time-varying difference-in-differences method to empirically study the relationship between the pilot policy and the land transfer behavior of local governments. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy significantly reduced the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. The above conclusions still held after a series of robustness tests. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on land transfer in heavily polluting industries was affected by the intensity of environmental regulation of local governments and the tenure of officials. The stronger the intensity of environmental regulation in the pilot city became, the more the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were reduced. When the tenure of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee in the pilot city was less than or equal to 3 years, the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were significantly reduced. However, the age of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee had no significant impact on the land transfer in heavily polluting industries. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that non-resource-based cities, cities with high levels of economic development, and large cities displayed a higher reduction in the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. Based on these, this paper puts forward suggestions from three aspects: we should further promote the low-carbon city pilot policy, add environmental objectives to the assessment system of officials to increase the constraints of environmental objectives, and formulate and implement environmental policies in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an overarching goal of the European Union's (EU) policies, sustainable development has become one of the trickiest challenges in the EU. Despite the burgeoning literature on sustainable development in EU member states, few studies have explored the relationship between green cooperation and sustainable development. From the resource orchestration perspective, we aim to investigate how EU green cooperation affects member states' pursuit of sustainable development. Empirically, we constructed a sample of well-documented EU joint green projects, and found that the participation of the higher education sector (HES), business sector (BUS), and government (GOV) in EU green cooperation contributes to achieving its member states' sustainable development goals in different ways. Specifically, the contributions of the HES and BUS, compared to those of the GOV, are more essential for EU green cooperation projects, because of their dominant roles in green knowledge generation and carbon emissions make them pivotal for the EU member states' sustainable development. Moreover, our findings suggest that green cooperation among the HES, BUS, and GOV has a more significant impact on EU member states' sustainable development when those states possess a stronger capacity for transnational knowledge spillovers and a higher national digital level. These findings have important implications for the design of green policies in pursuit of sustainability within the EU region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hungary is one of the European Union's most dynamically developing countries in Central-Eastern Europe with a high income and increasing level of environmental degradation. The present study explores the dynamic relationship between economic growth, electricity consumption, carbon emissions and urbanization in Hungary for period 1974–2014 based on annual data. Using autoregressive distributed lag model, we found long-run relationship among the variables in the presence of structural breaks and Toda–Yamamoto procedure were applied to test causality. The findings indicate that electricity consumption is positively linked with carbon emissions in the long run, which implies that the energy efficiency should be improved. Urbanization has also positive effect on carbon emissions meaning that the number of cities increases the emissions. Causality results suggest that Hungary is growing at the cost of the environment and the lack of the coordination of economic and environmental objectives to fulfill emission reduction targets can reduce economic growth. The reconsideration of the economic and energy policy is vital for ensuring sustainable development and stricter environmental policy is suggested. These results contribute not only to the expansion of the existing literature, but also improves the methodological background by employing a new variable to capture urbanization effect on carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce carbon emissions and pursue sustainable economic development, China's central government formulated the low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy. Current studies focus primarily on the impact of the policy at the macro level (provinces and cities). So far, no study has looked at the impact of the LCCP policy on companies' environmental expenditures. Besides, as the LCCP policy is a weak-constraining central policy, it is interesting to see how it works at the company level. We employ company-level empirical data and the Propensity Score Matching – Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) method, which outperforms the traditional DID model in avoiding sample selection bias, to address the above issues. We concentrate on the second phase of the LCCP policy from 2010 to 2016, encompassing 197 listed companies in China's secondary and transportation industries. Our statistical results show that if the listed company's host city has piloted the LCCP policy, the company's environmental expenditures are reduced by 0.91 points at the 1% significance level. The above finding calls attention to the policy-implementation gap between the central and the local governments in China, which may make those weak-constraining central policies like the LCCP policy have purpose-defeating outcomes at the company level. • Company-level analysis of the low-carbon pilot city (LCCP) policy in China is limited. • This study encompasses 197 listed companies in China's secondary and transportation industries. • This is the first study measuring the impact of the LCCP policy on the environmental expenditures of listed companies. • Statistical results show that the LCCP policy significantly dampens listed companies' environmental expenditures in China. • Weak-constraining central policies like the LCCP policy may have purpose-defeating outcomes at the company level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Just transition’ (JT) is an increasingly popular concept developed by unions and adopted and adapted by academics, environmentalists, government and non-governmental organizations, and international institutions in recognition of the need to address social concerns and inequities emerging from efforts to address environmental problems. It has been noted, however, that ‘JT’ lacks both conceptual clarity and empirical evidence of its practical applications. This paper examines the ‘theory’ and practice of ‘JT’ by first considering the competing interpretations and conceptual understandings of ‘JT’ and second, the challenges of realizing a ‘JT’ in an Australian coal region where transition is occurring. The paper argues that achieving ‘JT’ requires more than government provisions and interventions and that unions must perform an active part in the ‘JT’ process through their relations with employers, workers, government, and community. It suggests the lack of clarity within the ‘JT’ literature may be the concept’s lasting strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development, population growth, industrialization and urbanization have led to large increases in anthropogenic carbon emission that has caused a variety of negative impacts on climate change and eco-environment systems. This study develops an input-output-based Bayesian neural network (IO-BNN) method for simulating the carbon emission of various economic sectors and generating the desired schemes of emission reduction. IO-BNN is applied to Guangdong province to identify its carbon emission path, carbon peak, and carbon reduction potential over a long-term planning horizon (2021–2050), in which multiple scenarios are designed to examine the effects of different environmental policies on economic and energy activities. Major findings are: (i) the key sectors and factors affecting Guangdong's carbon emission and economic development are equipment (Equ), construction (Con), transport and storage (Tra), other service (Oth), per capita energy consumption (CEC), and primary energy consumption (EC); (ii) under different environmental policies, Guangdong's carbon emission would reach the peak during 2025–2035 and then continuously decrease during 2036–2050; (iii) Guangdong's carbon emission would peak in 2025 under the optimal scenario, associated with adjustment of industrial structure (i.e. part of secondary industry would be shifted to tertiary industry) as well as reduction of primary energy consumption. [Display omitted] • An input-output-based bayesian neural network method (IO-BNN) is developed. • Six key factors influencing carbon emission are identified. • The impact of key sectoral structure and energy use on carbon emission is analyzed. • Optimal scenario for sustainable development is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new proposition under the strategic goal of sustainable development, financial inclusiveness has become an effective way to overcome environmental constraints. Therefore, considering the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on carbon emissions is the key to promoting China's high-quality economic growth. From a spatial perspective, using China's city-level panel data of 272 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2017, empirically studies the impact of digital inclusive finance on CO 2 emissions by using spatial econometric model, and analyzes its direct effect, indirect effect and total effect. At the same time, the instrumental variable method is used to deal with the possible endogenous problems in the model. The results show that from a spatial perspective, the promotion of digital inclusive finance is conducive to reducing urban CO 2 emissions. Moreover, there is a significant positive spatial spillover effect on China's urban CO 2 emissions. In addition, in cities with developed traditional finance and high degree of industrialization, digital inclusive finance has a stronger effect on CO 2 emission reduction. The impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on CO 2 emissions in the eastern and western China is negative, but the central is the opposite. Therefore, in order to achieve sustainable development goals, the government should formulate environmental policies with financial inclusion goals consistent with energy consumption behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate climate change, China is striving to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions before 2030 and has derived a series of national environmental policies to advocate green development. Analysing the changes in regional atmospheric CO 2 concentrations could be more convincing in evaluating the impact of the associated strategies. In this study, a three-year continuous observation campaign of the atmospheric CO 2 mole fraction was first conducted at the summit of the Nanling Mountains, southern China in 2015–2017 to probe the timely feedback of the implementation of the green policies of the government. The effects of regional emissions and removals on the CO 2 mole fraction were subsequently analysed to explore the primary processes and regional contributions driving the background CO 2 concentration. Approximately 86.4% of the observed values were filtered as background events, with average CO 2 concentrations of 395.9 ± 6.8 ppm. The curve-fitting CO 2 mole fraction showed a slight short-term descending trend (0.6–2.2 p.m. y−1) that was rarely seen against the backdrop of a continuous rise of the global average over the years. In addition to the possible impacts of the changes in regional-scale CO 2 sources and sinks, we inferred that the vigorously enforced sustainable development policies of the Chinese government should be accentuated to reduce CO 2 emissions. Although the conclusion relies heavily on a relatively short dataset, this study may globally help the people to reduce carbon emissions. [Display omitted] • Systemic measurement of atmospheric CO 2 concentration in southern China. • Monitored a low background CO 2 concentration below global and China's average. • Reported a rare regional descending event of atmospheric CO 2 concentration. • Verified the feasibility of the 2030 peak CO 2 emission targets for China. • Emphasized the contribution of green development policies to CO 2 reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the pressures of climate change, many countries are trying to adapt to a low-carbon economy. In this paper, we review the development pattern of the low-carbon economy of major countries and its impact on the world economy. We then argue that economic development and abatement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China should be balanced. The challenges that China faces should also be considered carefully. It is necessary for China to find an approach to solve the issues of climate change, which should include new technologies and establishing incentive mechanisms and reform-oriented policies. These guidelines can adjust the structure of the economy and energy use, improve energy efficiency, promote the development of alternative and renewable energy, enhance the potential of carbon sinks, and develop advanced technology to perfect a 'Clean Development Mechanism' and sustainable development through international cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]