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This article contributes to the literature on state capacity in financialized political economies by studying the market-based investment setting for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4.2 billion sewer, built underneath central London to prevent raw sewage from spilling into the River Thames. Most analyses conclude that financial statecraft undermines state capacities, as it empowers finance and exposes states to uncontrollable risks. This article moves beyond these accounts by arguing that public policy officials engage with finance instrumentally, taking on risks to solve the governing challenges they face. It demonstrates that state action can build islands of state capacity with financial statecraft in fragmented policy environments. Based on expert interviews and documentary analysis, the article traces how the UK's Ministry of the Environment experimented with a policy instrument and used investment capacities from different levels of government, to implement the Thames Tideway Tunnel through institutional equity investment and share risks in the privatized and financialized environmental sector. The paper concludes that under the current conjuncture, financial statecraft will play an important role in addressing the climate crisis. Therefore, further comparative research is required to explore its normative paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering climate change problems that European countries are currently struggling with, the aim of this paper is to examine the behavioural factors that affect corporate environmental sustainability (CES). Based on the relevant academic literature and reports behavioural barriers and enablers for corporate environmental sustainability are identified using the ABCD (attention-belief formation-choice-determination) framework. Selected issues are further investigated in a survey among a representative sample of 350 small and medium-sized Polish enterprises and discussed in a broader European context. Our research reveals what goals and motivations Polish SMEs employ to make green investments, how they asses their environmental efforts compared with peer companies, what sources of environmental information they consider as trustworthy, as well as what factors they believe most strengthen the firm's determination for sustainable development. The contribution of this paper lies in shedding light on the starting dispositions of entrepreneurs as targets of public policies promoting environmental goals in the EU. Such insights are instrumental in designing and implementing effective policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of agricultural films, pesticides, and fertilizers has increased in China, leading to the degradation of the agricultural ecological environment. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes agricultural film usage as the threshold variable to study the impact of pesticide and fertilizer usage on agricultural development. The research results show that a single threshold effect of agricultural film usage is significant. When agricultural film usage is both a core and threshold variable, that is lower than the threshold value, every 1% increase in agricultural film usage will reduce agricultural output value by 0.9862%, and the impact is significant. When agricultural film usage crosses the threshold value, every 1% increase in agricultural film usage will increase agricultural output value by 1.1843%, and the impact is significant. When pesticide usage is the core variable, regardless of whether agricultural film usage is below or above the threshold, pesticide usage promotes agricultural development. Its impact is significant. When fertilizer input is a core variable, regardless of whether agricultural film usage is below or above the threshold, the use of fertilizers hinders agricultural development. The impact of fertilizer input on agricultural development is significant. Through empirical testing, this paper explores the deep relationship between agricultural film usage, pesticide usage and fertilizer input on agricultural development. These can effectively allocate agricultural production factors, transform the mode of agricultural economic growth, achieve the coordinated development of the ecological environment and agricultural economy and provide data support for the formulation of agricultural green development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between agricultural production and environmental protection, especially vegetable production, is one of the world's most prominent concerns. The acceptance degree and possible response of new agricultural operation subjects, represented by Farmers Professional Cooperatives (FPCs), to green production policies are a core issue that must be considered when designing environmental policies in the future. Based on field survey data of 192 FPCs of vegetables in Shanghai, China, this paper uses a choice experiment method to test the willingness of cooperatives to adopt green production behaviors under different policy settings and to identify the differences under different operation scales. The results show that both mandatory policies and incentive policies have an impact on the willingness of cooperatives to adopt green production behaviors, but significant differences exist among FPCs of different operation scales. Specifically, the willingness of large-scale FPCs to adopt green production behavior is affected by key technology training and income subsidies, whereas the willingness of small-scale FPCs is only affected by income subsidies; the willingness of medium-scale FPCs is simultaneously affected by key technology training, income subsidies, and penalties. Therefore, when formulating relevant policies in the future, policy-makers should consider local conditions, including the endowment heterogeneity of the production and operation subjects, so as to enhance the level of green production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As an effective tool to promote rational resource allocation and facilitate the development of green management practices such as enterprise digital innovation, the green credit policy has recently gained extensive attention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between green credit policies and the digital innovation of enterprises, and to further explore the mechanism of action between them and their boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Based on micro-level data on Chinese firms from 2007 to 2019, this paper constructs a difference-in-differences (DID) model to investigate the impact and intrinsic mechanisms of green credit policies on firms' digital innovation and its boundary conditions, with the help of a quasi-natural experiment, i.e. the Green Credit Guidelines. Findings: Green credit policies inhibit digital innovation and fail to compensate for innovation. The analysis of the mechanism shows that the implementation of green credit policies has a negative impact on digital innovation by increasing the financing constraints faced by firms, and has also a crowding-out effect on R&D investment, resulting in a disincentive to digital innovation. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact of green credit policies on digital innovation is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, enterprises without financially experienced executives, and in the eastern regions of China. Originality/value: This study provides empirical evidence to understand the effectiveness and mechanism of influence of green credit policies on enterprise digital innovation, providing also a basis to further improve green credit policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore the relationship between the sustainable development of urban buildings and spatial rationality planning under the guidance of local government policies, this paper takes Beijing, Shanghai, and other regions as examples to conduct a questionnaire survey literature, analyzes environmental policies and green building principles, and puts forward several hypotheses based on relevant literature. Spatial rationality planning has an impact on the sustainable development of cities. Environmental policies and green building design principles have a constraining effect on the sustainable development of cities. Government policies can ensure the sustainability of urban building development and promote the rational distribution of space. The results show that there is an inevitable relationship between the rational spatial layout and the sustainable development of urban buildings, and environmental policy and green building design principles can promote the rational planning of space. Government policies can guide the rational layout of space and improve the sustainable development of cities. Therefore, spatial rationality planning is the main factor for the sustainable development of the city, government policy is the external factor, and environmental policy and green building design are the constraints. From the perspective of environmental policies and green building principles, local governments should guide spatial rationality planning to improve the sustainable development of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, public procurement goals have expanded from obtaining free competition and lowest prices to achieving objectives of “horizontal” policies that take into account ecological and social aspects. However, the Tinbergen Rule states that one instrument should be matched with one goal, while using one instrument for achieving multiple goals would undermine its effectiveness. In this paper, we will examine whether implementation of “horizontal” public procurement policies related to green public procurement, socially responsible public procurement and the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises ’ participation affect achievement of the “primary” public procurement goal of free competition. Our study is based on empirical data on more than 65,000 public procurements carried out in Slovenia during the period 2016-2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview for the Special Issue (SI) of Clean Technology and Environmental Policy journal (CTEP), and it includes accepted papers from 16th Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held from October 10–15, 2021, in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Considering CTEPs policy of high-quality research papers, guest editors have invited 35 research articles, presented at the SDEWES 2021 conference. After a vigorous review process, 12 papers have been accepted for publication in this special issue. All 12 accepted papers are briefly presented in this overview together with a wider view that presents research efforts within the SDEWES community published through previous SDEWES special issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how human actions and environmental change affect water resources is crucial for addressing complex water management issues. The scientific tools that can produce the necessary information are ecological indicators, referring to measurable properties of the ecosystem state; environmental monitoring, the data collection process that is required to evaluate the progress towards reaching water management goals; mathematical models, linking human disturbances with the ecosystem state to predict environmental impacts; and scenarios, assisting in long-term management and policy implementation. Paradoxically, despite the rapid generation of data, evolving scientific understanding, and recent advancements in systems modeling, there is a striking imbalance between knowledge production and knowledge utilization in decision-making. In this paper, we examine the role and potential capacity of scientific tools in guiding governmental decision-making processes and identify the most critical disparities between water management, policy, law, and science. We demonstrate how the complex, uncertain, and gradually evolving nature of scientific knowledge might not always fit aptly to the legislative and policy processes and structures. We contend that the solution towards increased understanding of socio-ecological systems and reduced uncertainty lies in strengthening the connections between water management theory and practice, among the scientific tools themselves, among different stakeholders, and among the social, economic, and ecological facets of water quality management, law, and policy. We conclude by tying in three knowledge-exchange strategies, namely - adaptive management, Driver-Pressure-Status-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, and participatory modeling - that offer complementary perspectives to bridge the gap between science and policy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Growing public awareness of the negative effects of pesticides on the environment, ecosystems, and human health has led governments to set targets for reducing pesticide risk. Switzerland introduced in 2023 two new policy measures to reduce pesticide risk by 50 % by 2027: (1) voluntary direct payment programs supporting pesticide-reduced and pesticide-free but non-organic cropping systems for most crops on arable land, and (2) restrictions of harmful pesticides for farmers managing under Swiss cross-compliance standards. This study aims to (1) develop a method to assess pesticide risk on a national scale and (2) carry out an ex-ante impact assessment to predict whether these policies can effectively reduce pesticide risks in Switzerland. Therefore, we introduced crop-specific pesticide quantities and pesticide risk scores into a sample of 1907 bio-economic farm optimization models. The models were used to predict farmers' adoption decisions regarding voluntary direct payment programs from 2019 to 2030. By combining the bio-economic farm optimization models with an agent-based modeling approach, we assessed the evolution of pesticide-related risks at the national level. Simulations for pesticide risk from 2019 to 2022 reflected the observed pesticide risk monitored by the Swiss government. In surface waters and semi-natural habitats, achieving the target depends on reducing pyrethroids, a class of insecticides with high-risk potential. Further, we highlight significant uncertainty in projecting the risk potential for surface waters and semi-natural habitats due to uncertainty about the amounts of pyrethroid used for different crops. The results underline the need for comprehensive datasets on pesticide use in Switzerland., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Terrestrial ecosystems can benefit from environmental protection policies; however, their impact on marine ecological efficiency deserves further exploration. This study uses China's Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone (ECZ) policy as an example of a quasi-natural experimental study, with data from 11 coastal provinces in China from 2006 to 2019 as the initial sample. First, a Super-SBM model considers undesired outputs to measure marine eco-efficiency, while a synthetic control method (SCM) investigates the effect of environmental regulations on marine eco-efficiency. The results show that ECZ policies can promote marine eco-efficiency and the effect mechanisms of these policies are discussed from national and regional perspectives. This study contributes to the current literature by theoretically evaluating the impact of ECZ policies on the marine environment in coastal areas, enriching the mechanism of integrated environmental policies on marine ecological protection, and providing references for formulating and implementing environmental policies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

ESG investment and financing is a response to global warming and toxic carbon emissions. This is because market and financial development is expected to contribute to de-carbonisation in relevant firms. However, the opposite might occur with carbon-intensive industries. An option is to introduce a carbon tax or an emissions cap but this varies across countries. The impact of environmental policies and the development of financial markets are thus relevant factors to analyse in the debate regarding the best pathways to reduce pollution. This impact is not conclusive in extant studies. In order to meet this gap and to devise effective solutions to this problem, the mechanisms behind them need to be empirically clarified. To achieve this research objective, this study analyses the impact of these factors on welfare through pollution and growth. It examines the respective regulatory regimes of environmental taxes and emission quotas, using an R&D-based growth model with a monetary component. This is to identify the relationship between pollution emissions and financial markets. Results reveal that increasing environmental taxes and reducing nominal interest rates does in fact lead to pollution reduction and economic growth, as well as an increase in the quantity of money and credit through deflation. Reducing emission allowances has a similar effect. However, under emission quotas, it is found that a reduction in the nominal interest rate affects neither pollution emissions nor economic growth, although it does affect the quantity of money and credit. This is because the Fisher effect disappears when the emission quota caps output. A U-shaped relationship between emission allowances and the amount of credit then arises. Under an emissions trading system, the relationship between pollution emissions and financial development can be a win-win relationship or a trade-off relationship. This depends on the emission quota and nominal interest rate. These results suggest that, in addition to environmental policy instruments, financial market development can contribute to decarbonisation if there is the right environmental financial policy. A mix of environmental and financial policies is thus important in linking financial market development to decarbonisation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

On the one hand, economies, particularly developing ones, need to grow. On the other hand, climate change is the most pressing issue globally, and nations should take the necessary measures. Such a complex task requires new theoretical and empirical models to capture this complexity and provide new insights. Our study uses a newly developed theoretical framework that involves renewable energy consumption (REC) and total factor productivity (TFP) alongside traditional factors of CO2 emissions. It provides policymakers with border information compared to traditional models, such as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), being limited to income and population. Advanced panel time series methods are also employed, addressing panel data issues while producing not only pooled but also country-specific results. 20 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) nations are considered in this study. The results show that REC, TFP, and exports reduce CO2 emissions with elasticities of 0.3, 0.4, and 0.3, respectively. Oppositely, income and imports increase emissions with elasticities of 0.8 and 0.3. Additionally, we show that RECAI countries are commonly affected by global and regional factors. Moreover, we find that shocks can create permanent changes in the levels of the factors but only temporary changes in their growth rates. The main policy implication of the findings is that authorities should implement measures boosting TFP and REC. These factors are driven mainly by technological progress, innovation, and efficiency gains. Thus, they can simultaneously reduce emissions while promoting long-run green economic growth, which addresses the complexity mentioned above to some extent., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The joint participation of multiple subjects is crucial for environmental governance. Using panel data for 273 Chinese cities during 2013-2019, this study investigates the impact and mechanism of public demands on environmental pollution. The results demonstrate that public demands measured by the number of environmental complaints placed on government leaders significantly reduce environmental pollution. Furthermore, increases in the rate and speed of government responses improve the effect of public demands on environmental governance. Public demands placed on provincial leaders reduce local environmental pollution to a greater extent than public demands placed on prefectural and county leaders. Province-level governments are more willing to consider public opinions and attach more importance to environmental governance; Prefecture-level governments prioritize province-level governments' attention to the environment when implementing environmental governance. Moreover, strong political ties between provincial and prefectural leaders and long tenures among prefectural leaders strengthen the pollution reduction effect of public demands placed on provincial leaders. The reduction effect of environmental complaints on pollution emission is more significant in cities with high level of Internet construction and environmental disclosure. Our results illustrate the role of public demands in environmental governance, offering a reference for developing effective environmental policies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The key to controlling environmental pollution is to promote green innovation in relevant enterprises and achieve a healthy development of the environmental governance system. This paper constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of environmental protection enterprises, polluting enterprises, and governments, and conducts in-depth research on the influencing factors that promote green innovation in two types of enterprises. MATLAB software is used to analyze the impact of different degrees of influencing variables on system evolution. It has found that (1) increasing the intensity of environmental governance and the level of innovation subsidies by the government can effectively promote green innovation in both types of enterprises. (2) The varying degrees of innovation compensation from polluting enterprises to environmental protection enterprises have a significant impact on system evolution. (3) The initial intention and population size of two types of enterprise entities will have a significant impact on system evolution. In the initial state, subjects with more green innovation are less willing to change their strategies during the evolution process, while the willingness of the other party to green innovation will be suppressed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper takes the establishment of the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFPZ) in 2017 as a natural experiment, adopts the data of a-share industrial listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020, and utilizes the difference-in-differences (DID) method to carry out empirical tests. The results show that (1) GFPZ policy significantly improves the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of enterprises, and the positive effect is mainly realized by improving the external financing ability and green-technology innovation level of enterprises. (2) There is heterogeneity in the impact of GFPZ policy on the ESG performance of firms with different equity natures and internal control levels. (3) Green finance promotes active corporate social responsibility, and it can further improve environmental governance in the regions where it operates. This paper provides a useful supplement to the comprehensive understanding of green-finance policy effects and ESG impact factors, and it is of great significance in mitigating the negative environmental and social externalities caused by the excessive pursuit of economic benefits by enterprises., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Wei. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Waste management is an international enterprise, and it is important to understand global flows of recyclable materials. The Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) suggests that waste moves from high income nations with stringent environmental policy to low income nations with less environmentally stringent policy, by exploiting low labor and regulatory costs. This paper assesses the PHH thesis for slag/dross and textiles (SDT) wastes in PHH through novel integration of the multilayer network and gravity models. The multilayer network model generates network effect that quantifies interlayer connections of multiple waste trade networks. Instead of North-South movement of waste, North-North, South-South, and even South-North are shown. Results from the gravity model indicate that stringent waste management policies reduce both waste exports and imports. PHH is not found for slags/dross where high income countries are importing the waste, contradicting PHH. On the other hand, PHH is more evident between highly connected hubs and havens in SDT waste trade networks., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Criticism is mounting that market-led and state-led initiatives for environmental impact disclosure are too limited in scope and that they rest on too strong assumptions about the quality and impartiality of monitoring and enforcement, with resulting insufficient effect on environmental sustainability. It has been proposed that citizen monitoring may contribute to counteract this void. However, to our knowledge, policy analysis in general and economics in particular has not paid much attention to this role of citizen monitoring. This paper aims to bridge that gap from an economics lens, by exploring the dynamics of disclosing local environmental impact and the potential role of citizen monitoring in environmental policy. To this end, the paper addresses monopolistic versus pluralistic environmental disclosure, letting citizen monitoring represent the latter. The study uses the mining industry as an illustrative case, because of that sector's particular transparency challenges in international value chains, typically with strong negative local environmental impact. It is shown how pluralistic information provision such as citizen monitoring can contribute to incentivizing more reliable information provision, especially in countries with weak state institutions, which is particularly important in the case of high-risk environmental impact. The findings should be of use for shaping environmental policy, providing valuable insights for both policymakers and scholars., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

This paper underscores the role that structural barriers play in climate change research in Edinburgh, Scotland. By employing an intersectional gender analysis we stress how unequal power relations underly our understanding of climate change, influence the quality and nature of climate research and responses developed. Using semi-structured and unstructured interviews with women and men working in climate change, we identify the shared experiences of individuals who face gendered barriers in climate science and policy, examine their perception of privilege, and their consequent perceived success in climate change research. Our findings stress the relationship between the concept of meritocracy, the underrepresentation of women and marginalized groups in science, and the reproduction of systematic barriers to contribute to the climate debate.We stress the importance of relationships and networks in supporting and encouraging marginalized voices to succeed in participating in climate change research and science more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal (EGD) represents the most ambitious environmental policy framework in European history, aimed at improving the health and well-being of citizens and future generations through climate action and becoming the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050. The EC has initiated the European Democracy Action Plan and the European Climate Pact to include the participation of citizens in a meaningful way to help achieve these goals (i.e. not simply a tokenistic gesture or box-ticking exercise). While these efforts to ensure greater citizen participation and deliberation in environmental policy are good first steps, there is still a lack of clarity about what meaningful citizen engagement should look like. This paper will propose that for such efforts to be successful, we need to assess different perspectives in the debate and provide recommendations based on this. This paper provides a systematic review of various approaches within the academic literature on citizen participation and deliberation in environmental policy (ecocentrism, biocentrism, ecomodernism, ecofeminism, environmental pragmatism, environmental citizenship, environmental rights, and environmental justice). Following this, we provide a list of 16 criteria (in five thematic sections) for policymakers, civil society organisations (CSOs), and society, to ensure meaningful citizen participation and deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's government has launched the innovative city pilot (ICP) policy since 2008 and taken green development as the principle goal of innovative city construction. However, whether or not the ICP policy shapes green development remains largely unknown. Leveraging variation in the timing of the ICP policy implementation across cities, we investigate the causal impact of innovative city construction on green development, as measured by green total-factor productivity (GTFP). Our staggered difference-in-differences (DID) estimator shows that cities which implement the ICP policy experience a 5.3% increase in GTFP. This effect appears one year after the introduction of ICP policy and shows an upward trend over time. Our mechanism analysis further confirms that the ICP policy effect is driven by green innovation effect, which is realized through the support of innovation policy and increased investment in innovation. Finally, substantial heterogeneity is explained by geographic location, environmental constraint, resource endowment, city size and different levels of innovation. Our paper underscores the pivotal role of innovative cities in promoting green development, which warrants nationwide expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are a major contributor to global warming and climate change. The government has adopted carbon tax (CT) and cap-and-trade policies to reduce carbon emissions from carbon companies. This paper develops a production–inventory model for scarce perishable goods under different carbon policies and outside green technology. This study covers the contribution of energy-efficient green technology in a multi-stage supply chain to control carbon emissions in producing and transporting goods from the manufacturer to the dealer. However, it discusses a different combination of carbon policies chosen for manufacturers and retailers in their countries. According to the findings, changes in carbon pricing, CT, and exchange rates under various policy combinations have varying effects on the entire supply chain, each member's interests, and the social benefits of reducing carbon emissions. It seeks to provide useful information to decision-makers in businesses or supply chains, especially multinational corporations, to make decisions related to fixed rate CT and cap partial deficit cases, long cycle time, reasonable profit with small value, and long term and low cost of green technology investment. The main objective is to find the best material sourcing, production, and distribution strategy for manufacturers and the best replenishment strategy for retailers to maximize the overall joint profitability of the supply chain. In summary, sensitivity analysis has provided an optimal solution management implication based on certain key parameters and CT size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the carbon emissions trading pilot policy in China, this paper takes Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2012 to 2020 as a sample, and analyzes the role of company's cost transfer capability (ECTC) in the mechanism of market‐incentivized environmental regulation policy (MERP) influencing company green transformation. This paper finds the following four primary results. First, ECTC significantly strengthens the green transformation driving effect of MERP in general. However, results based on the division of ECTC by percentiles show that MERP‐induced green transformation is more pronounced in the top 25% of companies, which distinguishes them from companies in the top 25%–50%, whose cost transfer capacity hampers MERP's contribution to the green transformation. Second, the level of regional economic development, emission regulation, and business reputation have heterogeneous influences on the moderating effect of ECTC. Third, the results based on the moderated mediation model show that ECTC can influence the green transition driving effect of MERP by moderating the two paths of risk‐taking ability and financing constraints of companies. Finally, there is a diffusion effect on the green transformation driven by MERP through cost transfer among companies in non‐pilot industries and non‐pilot regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation is a critical factor in ensuring the long-term stable development of renewable energy enterprises. Based on the super network theory, this paper constructs a network model of green technology innovation influencing factors of renewable energy enterprises, which includes the knowledge sub-network of green technology innovation of renewable energy enterprises, the research and development member sub-network of green technology innovation team of renewable energy enterprises and the policy sub-network of green technology innovation of renewable energy enterprises. It explores the mechanism of its influence on innovation in the preparation stage. Simulation analysis by Netlogo software concludes that innovation knowledge sharing, R&D membership, and innovation policy all have a significant positive impact on green technology innovation in renewable energy companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how monetary policy can be calibrated to promote a greening of finance. The paper reviews existing literature and notes a tendency to either focus narrowly on one policy instrument or provide a menu of options, without much depth or discrimination. This Perspective paper undertakes a theory-based analysis of green monetary policy options using an institutional approach to monetary economics. In so doing, it identifies a policy mix that would reorient finance by structurally modifying the relative incentives of financing green vs dirty assets. More specifically, the proposed green central banking strategy consists in the combined adoption of several, recalibrated monetary policy instruments. The two main ones are core elements of central banks' collateral policies: making (more) green assets eligible in credit operations with central banks and using so-called 'haircuts' to give green assets preferential treatment over dirty assets in those credit operations. Combined, the adoption of the proposed, recalibrated instruments promises to reorder the collateral asset hierarchies that are the backbone of modern financial systems, providing strong financial incentives for enhanced financing of investment in green assets and divestment from dirty assets. Monetary policy can help speed up a greening of the financial sector. Enhanced financing of green assets, as well as divestment from dirty assets, can be incentivized through a range of monetary policy tools. Among the most potent green monetary policy tools is differentiated treatment of green and dirty assets in credit operations, known as collateral policy. Several green monetary policy options can be pursued without compromising other monetary policy objectives (such as price stability). While most central banks currently remain reluctant to engage proactively with such policy tools, the increasing manifestation of climate change is likely to erode such resistance in coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and collects firm-level green innovation data that matches it with provinces and cities. Then, this paper executes quasi-natural experiments on green innovation to examine the effects of China's emission trading policy on green innovation. Further, this paper introduces the interactive terms of the pilot time and pilot area dummy variables into the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and spatial dynamic panel model (SDPM) to construct quasi-natural experiments to examine the spatial effect. The findings confirm a negative association between the 'policy treatment effect' and green innovation. The results also indicate a significant negative association between the emissions trading policy and clean energy. Besides, the empirical results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and green innovation; clean energy promotes green innovation in the region and the surrounding areas. This paper complements existing research and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for developing clean energy, promoting green innovation, and improving the emission trading policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether administrative accountability can successfully reduce policy implementation deviations is crucial for the effective implementation of environmental regulations. This study investigates the effect of administrative accountability pilot policy on corporate environmental violations. Based on panel data of listed firms in highly polluting industries from 2012 to 2017, this paper adopts the difference-in-differences model to examine the effects. The results show that the official accountability policy significantly reduces corporate environmental violations in pilot cities compared to non-pilot cities. The study also shows that improving environmental enforcement is potential channel. Further analysis shows that the policy also helps to correct implementation deviations and improve the environmental transparency of subordinate governments. In addition, this paper finds that the official accountability policy performs better in areas with less pollution dependence and more environmental attention, and firms with a history of violations and state-owned enterprises are also more proactive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-pandemic era, the complexity of the international shipping situation, such as environmental policies, port congestion, and local conflicts, poses challenges to the stability of liner shipping, which requires strict adherence to schedules. This paper addressed the issue of schedule recovery for liner ships operating under Emission Control Areas (ECAs) regulations in the face of disruptive events. It established a bi-objective nonlinear programming model based on recovery costs and delay severity and designed a bi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm based on two traversal of voyage leg path selection and port skipping decisions of feasible solutions to solve it. The effectiveness of the algorithm was validated through a case study of a 6000 TEU liner ship, summarizing the correlation laws of operational decisions such as port skipping, voyage leg path selection, and speed adjustment, and proposing the optimal recovery strategy for liner ships under long-term ECA constraints while ensuring short-term schedule resilience. The findings demonstrate that, in compliance with emission restrictions, ships operating within ECA are required to slow down to mitigate costs. In contrast, ships operating outside of ECA regions must accelerate their pace to adhere to established shipping schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose a new model to evaluate the impact of potential governmental policy as a green transition to decarbonise road freight transport. Contrary to the classical literature on the topic, our approach employs a bilevel structure optimization scheme. More precisely, a single-leader-multi-follower (SLMF) model is developed, where the state represents the leader and the freight companies act as the followers. A carbon tax is the selected public policy to foster the shift to less polluting freight technologies. The model responds to an exogenously determined demand that must be satisfied by a fleet that remains constant in size through time. The aim is thus to determine to what extent the tax policy will generate an evolution of the fleets of the different companies towards greener vehicles. An additional scientific contribution of the paper is that the SLMF model is solved thanks to a new numerical approach based on the so-called SOS1 technique. The implementation is applied in the case of the Ecuadorian freight transport and the results highlight an interesting evolution of the fleets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science) is the property of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science Edition) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: While sustainability experts point to interrelated social, economic and environmental goals, students may think about sustainability primarily as natural resources. To prepare students to tackle global challenges to well-being, this paper aims to show that educators need to assess and address students' shortcomings in considering socioeconomic dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: This study coded essays on the meaning and components of sustainability written by 93 undergraduate and graduate students in environmental policy, business and engineering courses at US and Austrian universities. Then, the study reviewed a teaching strategy using diverse experts, case studies and assignments. Finally, the analysis evaluated students' final projects proposing sustainability legislation with social, economic and environmental dimensions. Findings: Students usually connect sustainability with limited natural resources affecting current and future generations, but seldom think that sustainability means acting on prominent socioeconomic challenges like poverty, food insecurity, pandemics and violence. Teaching in diverse courses through multidimensional case studies and legislation broadened and deepened students' understanding and preparedness to act. Originality/value: Despite experts' attention to the interconnected Sustainable Development Goals, educators and policymakers need information on whether students associate sustainability with socioeconomic challenges. Open-response questions can reveal gaps in the respondents' sustainability beliefs. In a wide range of courses, teaching can use diverse experts and multidimensional case studies and legislative assignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Opuntia Brava is the property of Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas de Las Tunas, Centro de Documentacion e Informacion Pedagogica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study focuses on deforestation, a key aspect of the current environmental decline linked to worldwide economic development and increasing populations. It examines how renewable energy consumption (RENC), GDP per capita, urbanization (URB) and foreign direct investments (FDI) have influenced the expansion of forest areas (FAG) in Romania from 1990 to 2022, utilizing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the Bayer–Hanck cointegration approach. The main results of the paper are the following: GDP has a positive and statistically significant long-term influence on FAG; URB and FDI have a long-term negative impact on FAG; and RENC is not a significant determinant of FAG. In the short term, a 1% increase in URB leads to an 809.88% decrease in FAG, while a 1% increase in the first and second lag of URB leads to a 323.06%, and 216.26% increase in FAG. This suggests that as more land is developed for urban use (like building homes, businesses, and infrastructure), the immediate consequence is a significant reduction in the area available for forests. This effect indicates a strong inverse relationship between urbanization and the availability of land for forests in the short term. Our results underscore the importance of sustainable development strategies, including green urban planning and robust forest conservation, to offset the adverse effects of increased FDI on Romania's environmental conservation, emphasizing the need for careful strategic planning and strong environmental policies to balance economic growth with forest protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on the relationship between environmental regulation (ER) and technological innovation efficiency of defence industry (TIE-DI) mainly focus on variability and complexity, while few empirical studies have incorporated environmental flexibility into models, and most of them are based on questionnaires. Therefore, this paper takes environmental regulation and environmental policy complexity (EPC) as the entry point, so as to discuss the feasibility of improving the technological innovation efficiency of China's defence industry enterprises (CDI), which aims to empirically test the mechanism of ER and EPC on improving the efficiency of applied technological innovation of China's defence industry enterprises. The research conclusion provides sufficient theoretical basis and empirical support for strengthening the technical innovation efficiency support, standardising the market order and the market leading, establishing the information disclosure mechanism and improving the internal control of industrial enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how climate change has an impact on the road transport infrastructure of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). There is no empirical component to this paper. Thus, desk research or secondary research was used. The desk research method entails gathering pre-existing data from a range of sources, such as government documents, the internet, critical scholarly reviews, books and conceptual analyses. This paper finds deplorable road infrastructure elements that are highly vulnerable to climate change. It discusses various options for responding to the growth of road transport infrastructure during the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance phases. The paper shows that a key factor in responding is the design aspect and emphasises the necessity of enhancing institutional capability to implement policy execution of mitigation action. It suggests expanding the current environmental impact assessment risk to incorporate an analysis of the impacts of climate change. The limited amount of literature that is available in the context of the South African local government points to the need for additional research in the fields of road transport and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand whether or not the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model and the Shingo Model promote and are embedded into the three pillars of sustainability, as well as to propose a conceptual model for excellence in business towards sustainability. Methodology/Approach: Following the PRISMA methodology, 102 articles were included in the review. A bibliometric co-citation network was created based on those publications to understand the link between the topics, using the VOSViewer software. This paper presents a literature review on the topics of the EFQM and Shingo Model, Corporate sustainability (CS), and the relationship between the excellence models and CS. Findings: Findings from the literature review indicate that effectively the new version of the EFQM Model and the Shingo Model guide organisations towards achieving sustainable economic, social, and environmental results. Research Limitation/Implication: There are still a restricted number of articles on the Shingo Model and on the relationship between the Shingo Model and CS, as well as, on the latest version of the EFQM Model and therefore on the relationship between this model version and CS, which presents a limitation to this paper. Originality/Value of paper: This paper contributes to filling the literature gap regarding the lack of studies evolving the EFQM 2020 model version and the Shingo Model, as well as its relationship with CS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies explored the interaction effect between policy instruments and the policy environment on environmental governance. Based on policy instrument theory, this paper conducts fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the combined effect of policy instruments and the policy environment on the environmental governance efficiency of local governance. This study found four effective configurations of local government environmental governance, which can be summarized as the mandatory mode and the cooperative mode, and three inefficient configurations that can be summarized as the out-of-control mode. The results show that the regions adopting the mandatory mode are economically underdeveloped, while the regions using the cooperative mode are developed. Besides, local government competition leads to the softening of policy instruments, while government-enterprise collusion exacerbates the failure of environmental policy instruments. This paper summarizes the effective modes and reveals the reasons for the low efficiency of local government environmental governance in China. The conclusions provide not only empirical evidence for the study of policy instrument theory but also beneficial insights for the selection of environmental policy instruments and environmental governance practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pair of papers examines and describes the state action necessary to make markets function as environmental policy instruments and as strategies of governance. They do this through a detailed look at the mechanics of environmental credit compliance markets in the US states of Oregon, Ohio, and North Carolina in which stream credits are privately created and sold to developers who have impacted protected stream systems. In this paper, we examine the tools, techniques, and people involved in the creation of a value-bearing stream credit out of a physical stream or river site. These observations reveal important principles of how science functions within governance, as well as where gaps and resistances appear that create unforeseen outcomes in market-led policy. We examine the construction and use of instruments that define natural processes as objects with value; these techniques and tools include databases and spreadsheets, algorithms, and field scoring tools that have been scavenged from a wide range of scientific and governance practices and are not themselves inherently capitalist or developed for capitalist purposes. In three different state settings, the move from measure to value is made in different ways that depend on the local institutional and social context. However, they all act to render a network of interacting ecological forces as a field of discrete ecosystem objects amenable to governance with markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has long been a key issue of scholarly interest. The Porter hypothesis posits that environmental regulations can effectively promote innovation. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has changed. Through a theoretical analysis, this paper finds that the development of the Internet can not only directly promote innovation but also inhibit innovation through environmental regulations. This paper uses Chinese city-level data from 2014 to 2016 to empirically test the relationship among the Internet, environmental regulation, and innovation. The study finds that (1) the increase in the Internet level and in the intensity of environmental regulations promotes innovation, and the results remain stable after the replacement of the Internet level metrics, (2) the increase in the Internet level inhibits the positive effect of environmental regulations on innovation, but its inhibitory effect is lower than the promotion effect of the Internet on innovation, and (3) the Internet and environmental regulations have a significant promotion effect on the application and acquisition of three types of patents, including invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, with the application and acquisition of utility model patents having the greatest promotion effect, and (4) the analysis of heterogeneity shows that environmental regulation has a greater effect on innovation in eastern and provincial capital cities, and the Internet has a greater effect on innovation in western and nonprovincial capital cities. Finally, this article puts forward policy recommendations based on three aspects: strengthening Internet construction, implementing environmental regulations and policies based on local conditions, and increasing support for R&D and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Man's overdependence on the environment in the pursuit of economic growth has continued to degrade it. This degradation calls for proper resources management through regulations so that a balance is maintained. However, in Nigeria despite decades of efforts at achieving environmental sustainability the problem of degradation and pollution is on the increase. Relying chiefly on existing literature, the paper examined drivers of environmental degradation in Nigeria and appraised the existing national environmental policies and programmes for the attainment of environmental sustainability. This paper concluded that rethinking existing economic, social, political and technological decisions and approaches that induce harmful practices and evaluating the current policies in the light of current reality will steer Nigeria towards environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental and sustainability policies despite having limited constitutional powers in the management of natural resources. The Commonwealth Government has, over the past three decades, developed strategic policies aimed at sustainably managing forests, water, soils and agricultural lands. The design and implementation arrangements of environmental policies that have endured is not well studied, and this paper addresses this knowledge gap in the context of a federal system. The National Forest Policy Statement, the National Water Initiative and the Natural Heritage Trust have endured centre-left Labor and centre-right Coalition Governments, and serve as case studies. These policies have required structural adjustments to industries to varying degrees to limit impacts on the environment, leading to contestations about policy objectives. The policy cycle serves as the primary heuristic for analysis and the research finds that policy objectives are constrained by the Commonwealth Government's limited constitutional powers on environmental matters. Its participation in strategic policies is driven through notions of resolving a crisis and the policies endure in a phase of indifference to the original policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to present the research results on some environmental challenges and priorities of climate resilience. The research work was carried out in 2021 and referred to the analysis of the transcendence character corresponding to the environmental policies according to the strategic guidelines of recovery and resilience for sustainable development and green transition. Although sustainable development of the Romanian water sector has been approached in the past, the present paper has new research related to the water security and its role in building the climate resilience of agriculture and rural development in the European Union and our country. From a methodological view, there are used accumulations and outcomes from the specialty literature, from previous researches, the own data processing in figures and tables to describe some conceptual relationships, comparative analyses of the developmental state and the climatic vulnerability of the Romanian water infrastructure sector. The conclusions and recommendations highlight backlogs, needs and opportunities in the context of implementing the European Green Deal and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world becomes more concerned about carbon emissions, the Chinese government, which is a large contributor to carbon emissions, has also begun to pay attention to the issue of carbon emissions. Environmental regulatory policies have been implemented to improve the environment, but are these policies really conducive to improving firms' eco-innovation performance? This paper empirically investigates the relationship between environmental regulation policies and firms' eco-innovation performance in China and finds that: firstly, environmental regulation in China is inadequate and that manufacturing eco-innovation performance is generally low; secondly, there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation policies and firms' eco-innovation performance; thirdly, there is significant industry and regional heterogeneity in the induced effects of environmental regulation tools; and fourthly, there is a mediating effect of industrial agglomeration on the promotion of firms' eco-innovation performance. The conclusions of this paper are: firstly, that the Chinese government should continue to improve environmental regulations and strictly enforce them so that green becomes the colour of 'economic recovery'; secondly, that the Chinese government should develop scientific and reasonable environmental regulatory policies according to local conditions; thirdly, that Chinese companies should increase their spending on research and development; and fourthly, that the Chinese government needs to optimise the industrial layout and support mechanisms. The Chinese government should play an active role in industrial agglomeration in technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low efficiency of environmental policy implementation is an important issue in China's environmental governance. The Environmental Protection Interview (EPI) policy is an administrative means for the central environmental protection department to urge local governments to earnestly fulfill their environmental protection responsibilities. This paper takes China's EPI policy as a quasi-natural experiment. We use panel data of 261 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2018 as research sample and use spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model to investigate the effect and mechanism of EPI policy on air pollution. The results show that EPI policy can effectively improve air quality, EPI policy has obvious spatial spillover effects. Namely, the EPI policy can not only reduce the local air pollution, but also reduce the air pollution in neighbouring cities. The EPI policy reduces the air pollution in the neighbouring cities within a spatial attenuation boundary of 400 km.The results of mechanism test show that the EPI policy can improve air quality by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technical advancement. Moreover, the pollution reduction effect of EPI is more significant in resource-based cities. The research results of this paper provide important reference for China and other developing countries to improve air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentalists believe that the Coasean approach is economically efficient but environmentally unsustainable. While acknowledging that this approach is not always sustainable, this paper emphasises its important advantage—the presence of a criterion determining when an activity will/will not lead to an efficient/sustainable outcome. Coase formulated this criterion on what is termed in this paper "Coase's proviso"—the balance between the net benefits of an institutional change (rearrangement of entitlements) and transaction costs associated with this change. The article also defines the terms "best use", "second (or next) best use" and "best user". On this basis, the paper restates Coase's proviso and argues that there is no inherent contradiction between economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. According to the restated proviso, when the transaction costs associated with the institutional transformation establishing the best use of a resource are lower than the net benefits of this transformation, the result will be economically efficient and environmentally sustainable. However, if the transaction costs outweigh the net benefits of the best use, a second (or next) best use may be established, which will still be economically efficient, but most likely environmentally unsustainable. The paper explores a case study to check the relevance of the restated proviso. [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]