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China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI) has been always the main carbon emission source in recent years. However, the analysis on influencing factors of carbon emissions from this industry is insufficient. To address the issue, the CO 2 emissions from CPPI are estimated in the period of 2005-2019, the driving factors of CO 2 emissions are investigated by the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, the decoupling state of economic growth and CO 2 emissions is determined by Tapio decoupling model, and finally, future CO 2 emissions are predicted under four scenarios by the STIRPAT model to explore the potential of carbon peaking. The results show that CPPI exhibits a rapid increase and a fluctuating downward trend in CO 2 emissions during the period of 2005-2013 and 2014-2019, respectively. The main promoting and inhibiting factors to the increase of CO 2 emission are per capita industrial output value and energy intensity, respectively. There are five decoupling states of CO 2 emissions and economic growth during the study period, and the CO 2 emissions exhibit a weak decoupling state with the industrial output value growth in most years of the study period. It is very difficult to realize the carbon peaking goal by 2030 under the baseline and fast development scenarios. Therefore, efficient low carbon and strong low-carbon development policies are necessary and urgent for the realization of carbon peaking goal and the sustainable development of CPPI., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Currently, global warming and air pollution are the world's most urgent issues partly caused by carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emissions, and prompt actions are needed to address these global concerns. Sustainable development cannot be attained until we reverse the negative impact of economic factors on the quality of the environment. It is noteworthy to offer a new indication on whether and how the empirical liaison between product diversification and environmental degradation evolved in China from 2008 to 2019. Product diversification (PD) is a remedy for reducing environmental degradation (ED). It is a crucial component of energy demand, which a significant impact on reducing energy consumption and ED. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of PD on ED in China using the provincial panel dataset. Employing the fixed effects-Driscoll-Kraay standard errors (FE-DKSE) and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) methods, we discover an inverted U-shaped link between PD and ED. The control variable urbanization (URB) and technological innovation (TI) reduce ED significantly. However, industry value added (IVA) and energy consumption (EC) promote ED. Our results are robust with the addition of various controls in all models. The policy implication from our findings is that, to achieve a target of carbon neutrality, countries should adopt the product diversification strategy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Growth target management drives China's economic expansion, leading to potential carbon emission externalities. This study examines the impact of economic growth target setting on carbon emission performance in 257 Chinese localities from 2004 to 2020. Using cluster standard error regression, 2SLS instrumental variable regression, and the spatial Durbin model, the results show that moderate growth targets improve urban carbon emission performance. Conversely, aggressive targets do not enhance regional carbon emission performance. Moderate growth targets foster innovation in green technology, while aggressive ones encourage investment in fixed assets and new city growth, impeding performance. Cities in the eastern and western regions, with larger populations and less reliance on natural resources, benefit more from effective economic development targets. The establishment of local targets negatively affects neighboring regions' carbon emissions performance, particularly at a spatial scale of 100 to 200 km. This paper contributes to understanding the environmental consequences of growth target setting and offers insights for balancing economic growth with carbon emission governance in emerging market countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The study analyzes the impact of renewable energy investments (RENIV) on the environment in China. In doing so, the study uses sectoral carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions as the environment indicator, considers RENIV as the explanatory variable, includes monthly data from 2004/1 to 2020/6, runs quantile on quantile regression approach as the fundamental model, and further performs quantile regression for the controlling. The study reveals that RENIV curb CO 2 emissions in all sectors at higher levels of sectoral CO 2 emissions. Also, RENIV have a varying impact based on quantiles and sectors. Moreover, the results are robust based on the alternative approach. Thus, RENIV have a significantly decreasing impact on sectoral CO 2 emissions in China. Accordingly, China policymakers should continue to focus on providing a decrease in energy and industrial sector CO 2 emissions as the highest emitting sectors., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In China, the proportion of elderly population is growing, influencing economic development and energy consumption. Our study investigates the relationship between population aging and energy consumption in China from 1997 to 2020, considering both short and long-term effects. The analysis employs the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation and explores the underlying mechanisms using mediating effects and threshold effects models. The PMG results reveal a negative long-term impact of population aging on energy consumption, indicating that a 1% increase in population aging leads to a 0.348% decrease in energy consumption. Additionally, GDP per capita and capital stock exhibit positive correlations with energy consumption, while the industrial structure shows a negative correlation. Technological progress is found to significantly increase energy consumption. The mechanism analysis suggests that the mediating role of scale and technological effects contributes to the negative effect of population aging on energy consumption. Furthermore, a nonlinear relationship between population aging and energy consumption is observed, influenced by both population size and technological progress. The policy implications call for a comprehensive approach that addresses elderly population growth, enhances energy efficiency, and promotes sustainable technologies to ensure sustainable economic development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the context of the new normal, enhancing digitalization to empower the transition to a green economy is a critical instrument to promote China's economic transition from virtual to real sectors. It is also a necessary approach to realize the high-quality economic development in China. Based on panel data of 282 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2011 to 2020, the study employs panel regression, spatial metrics, and other methods to explore the impact of urban digitization on the transition to a green economy from the dimensions of direct and indirect transmission mechanism, as well as heterogeneous effects. The findings reveal that digitalization not only exerts a positive effect on the green transition but also generates significant spatial spillover effects. The influence of digitization level on green economic transition exhibits notable regional heterogeneity. Advancement in digitization can foster green economic transition by catalyzing green technological innovation. While digitalization contributes to the green transition by optimizing the structure of energy consumption, its mediating effect is relatively modest. Therefore, it is essential to fortify the supply of digital innovative technology and strengthen digitalization and green technology innovation to jointly facilitate the transition to a green economy. This necessitates the implementation of differentiated development paths for digitization-enabled green economic transition in various regions., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the light of China's carbon-neutral goal, this study examines how food production, forest cover, trade openness, and rural population contribute to the quest of addressing China's agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Time series data ranging from 1971 to 2018 was used for analysis in this study. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique was employed to evaluate potential cointegration as well as to ascertain the long and short-run effects of food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population on agricultural nitrous oxide emission. The Toda-Yamomoto causality analysis was also used to identify the causal relations between covariates (food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population) and the outcome variable (agricultural nitrous oxide emission). The long-run evidence is that rural population in itself tends to increase agricultural nitrous oxide emissions likewise food production. There is also validation of the existence of environmental Kuznets curve for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Moreover, income interacts with rural population to reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in the long-run. Causality analysis indicated rural population affects the level of forest cover; forest cover is found to cause agricultural nitrous oxide emissions but the converse is not established, and income as well as the interaction between income and rural population determines agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. The short-run dynamics results establish an oscillatory equilibrium convergence for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in event of structural disturbances. From the findings, the EKC hypothesis is relevant by offering avenue to reduce emission. Thus, income growth remains helpful in addressing nitrous oxide emission from the agricultural sector. However, research is needed to unravel why nitrous oxide tends to increase in many forest areas. Since food production cannot be halted, policy makers need to enhance the uptake of efficient food production technologies including developing and using more renewable energy for food production. It is important for authorities to attend to rural development in order to mitigate agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in China., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (COCZs) which as a platform for China's foreign investment and trade has a potential impact on CO 2 emissions, while strengthening bilateral investment and trade between China and the host countries. Since most of the COCZs are located in countries along the "Belt and Road," the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of COCZs on CO 2 emissions of the countries along the "Belt and Road" and the mechanism of this impact. We constructed a panel data of 63 countries along the "Belt and Road" from 2000 to 2020, and conducted an empirical study using the difference-in-difference (DID) model. Our research result show that COCZs can significantly increase the CO 2 emissions of the countries along the "Belt and Road." Then, we conduct a series of robustness tests and endogeneity test on the estimation results of the baseline model, and the results of the tests all support the conclusion reached by the baseline model. Our heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of COCZs on CO 2 emissions is more significant in Asian countries with lower national income or industrialization and higher country risk. Finally, we analyzed industrial value added and energy depletion as possible impact mechanisms, the results of mechanism model shows that COCZs can increase the industrial value added and then significantly increase CO 2 emissions, but energy depletion was not an efficient mechanism. Our paper provides a new insight into the impact of bilateral economic and trade cooperation zones on CO 2 emissions in host countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), spearheaded by China, is anticipated to bolster trade, investment, and economic growth among participating countries to advance the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 7 through international trade. Within this context, renewable energy has emerged as a promising avenue to address environmental degradation and foster sustainable development. However, the impact of BRI's trade volume on renewable energy development and adoption in these nations remains unresolved. To address this, our study examines the influence of trade openness, foreign direct investment, economic growth, and oil prices on renewable energy consumption in 94 BRI countries with varying income levels from 2000 to 2019. Employing panel data analysis, including fixed effects (FE), random effects (RE), and the system generalised method of moments (GMM), we present findings across income groups: i) Trade openness exhibits a positive effect on renewable energy consumption in high-income and upper-middle-income countries; ii) In contrast, it diminishes renewable energy consumption in lower-middle-income countries; iii) Trade openness demonstrates insignificant effects on renewable energy consumption in low-income countries; iv) On the panel level, trade openness significantly and positively impacts renewable energy consumption. Our research underscores the significance of trade openness as a crucial instrument for advancing renewable energy development in high-income BRI countries, thereby fostering environmental sustainability. Policy interventions targeting renewable energy hold promise for enhancing environmental quality in low-income countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Sustainable consumption is crucial in reducing the growing pressure of environmental crises. This study proposes the Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach to evaluate sustainable consumption toward green growth. The proposed approach assesses criteria weights in Interval Valued Neutrosophic Sets (IVNSs) using the Method of Maximizing Deviation. The proposed method evaluates sustainable consumption for ten selected developed and developing countries, including Canada, France, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The evaluation process encompasses four main criteria with eight sub-criteria, namely environment (population density, CO 2 ), energy (total natural resource rents, renewable electricity), economics (value added of agriculture, forestry, and fishing, GDP per capita), and health (fertility rate, mortality rate). The countries are ranked based on the relative closeness coefficient. The results reveal that two economic sub-criteria are pivotal in the sustainable consumption rankings. Canada emerges as the country with the highest degree of green growth, attributed to its extensive land area and potential for renewable energy. Based on the findings, this study proposes some policy implications for Vietnam, including balancing fertility and mortality rates and regulating economic growth and resource exploitation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) policy is an important strategic initiative to lead green and high-quality economic development. Based on panel data from 2012 to 2019 of 287 Chinese cities, this study systematically investigates the effect of the PFTZ policy on carbon emissions by building the staggered difference-in-difference (DID) model. The results showed that the PFTZ policy significantly reduced carbon emissions and that this reduction effect increased over time. These findings hold true after robustness tests. Additionally, the heterogeneity analysis showed that the carbon emission reduction effect was more significant in coastal areas. In terms of impact mechanisms, the main driving force of carbon emission reduction from the PFTZ policy is technological progress. Furthermore, the PFTZ policy has a spatial spillover effect, which can drive neighboring cities to reduce their carbon emissions. This study provides useful policy insights for building a green low-carbon trade system and helps achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, environmental issues have become controversial, and policymakers are discovering new predictors of carbon emissions. Some economists/researchers have advocated for fiscal decentralization to improve the quality of the environment by offering more financial authority to provincial/local and sub-national governments. Therefore, this work aims to inspect the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth and environmental quality in India by taking data from 1996 to 2021. This work applies both ARDL and NARDL econometric models for empirical examination. The findings of this study suggest that expenditure decentralization has asymmetric long-term and short-term consequences on economic growth, and carbon emission in India. The result of the asymmetric ARDL model also indicates that positive and negative shock in expenditure decentralization contrarily affects economic growth and carbon emission. Moreover, the positive and negative shock in revenue decentralization helps in reducing carbon emissions both in the long run and short run in India. These outcomes are useful for policy analysis from the Indian economic policy perspective. The study also laid out potential outcomes that may benefit India's local governments and central government in resolving the issues of economic growth and environmental degradation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

One of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the current millennium is the need to mitigate climate change, and one of the most viable options to overcome this challenge is to invest in renewable energy. The study dynamically examines the links between renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, climate change, and economic growth in five emerging Asian countries during the period 1975-2020. Variables selected in the model have long-term cointegration, as explored by the Pedroni cointegration test and the Westerlund cointegration test. The long-term estimated parameters of the augmented mean group (AMG) method show that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces climate change, while non-renewable energy consumption significantly promotes climate change. The results also show that GDP, investment in transport infrastructure, and urbanization can significantly contribute to climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Moreover, the results validate the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis for emerging Asian economies. Country-specific analysis results using AMG estimates shows that renewable energy consumption reduces climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Non-renewable energy consumption and investment in transport infrastructure have had significant progressive impacts on climate change in all countries. Urbanization contributes significantly to climate change, with the exception of Japan, which does not have any significant impact on climate change. GDP contributes significantly to climate change in all countries; however, GDP2 has significant adverse effects on climate change in India, China, Japan, and Korea, validating the inverted U-shaped EKC assumption for all countries except Bangladesh. Moreover, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test confirmed a pairwise causal relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and GDP, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The results suggest that the best option for climate change mitigation in selected emerging Asian countries is to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A key strategy for social development and sustainable urban expansion is building sustainable and affordable transport systems. In this study, we aim to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and reveal the impact of infrastructure investment in transportation systems in China, Turkey, India, and Japan over the period 1995-2020 on environmental degradation. According to dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) method analysis, per capita GDP and per capita GDP 3 have a significant positive impact on per capita CO 2 emission, while per capita GDP 2 has a significant adverse impact on per capita CO 2 emission. These results confirm the validity of the N-shaped EKC assumption, while inconsistent with the results of the FMOLS technique, showing that per capita GDP is significantly positive, while per capita GDP 2 and per capita GDP 3 have a significant negative impact on per capita carbon emissions. Moreover, as clarified by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and DOLS methods, road infrastructure investment (RO), aviation infrastructure investment, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment (RA) has a significant negative effect on per capita carbon emission. Country-level estimates of per capita carbon emission-based DOLS strategies in the model show that only China and Japan have N-shaped EKC hypothesis. Road infrastructure investment, aviation infrastructure investment, and trade openness have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment has a significant negative effect on per capita CO 2 emission in selected central and east Asian countries. The latest electrified rail systems are well thought out and less polluting, so the contribution of rail infrastructure investment to the transport mix can support sustainable and safe transport systems at city center and intercity levels and reduce environmental pollution in central and east Asian countries. Moreover, the implementation of the basic environmental settings of trade agreements should be strengthened to condense the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As a typical practice of regional innovation policy, national innovation demonstration zones (NIIDZ) plays an important role in empowering green technology innovation. Analyzing the internal logic between NIIDZ and green technology innovation is of great practical significance to enhance China's independent innovation capability and accelerate the ecological civilization construction. Based on the panel data of 280 cities from 2005 to 2020, we use the difference-in-difference model (DID) to evaluate the policy effect of NIIDZ on green technology innovation from the dual perspective of quality and quantity. The results show that NIIDZ effectively contributes to the quantity of green technology innovation (GTI) and the quality of green technology innovation (GTQ), especially GTI. The conclusion is still valid after robustness tests like PSM-DID and eliminating the pilot interference of innovative cities. The test of the intermediary mechanism shows that regional innovation policy can not only directly drive GTI and GTQ but also indirectly promote them through accelerating talent gather, driving industrial clusters, and increasing government financial support. Spatial heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effectiveness of regional innovation policy demonstrates a decreasing trend from east to west, and this positive effect is more significant in cities with a higher level of financial development. Our results provide important policy insights for the Chinese government to further stimulate the effectiveness of green innovation in the NIIDZ, accelerate the construction of an innovative country, and achieve high-quality green economic development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The digital economy, which boasts general technology, intense penetration, platform ecology, and low marginal cost, is a product of advanced digital technology. This new engine has become a driving force for high-quality economic development. From the three aspects of development momentum, efficiency, and structure, this paper profoundly explores internal mechanisms to lead the high-quality growth of the regional economy. By constructing an econometric model, the influence effect and means of the digital economy on the high-quality development of the regional economy are empirically tested. The digital economy and its three sub-dimensions can significantly promote the high-quality development of the regional economy. However, industrial digitalization has the most vital role in promoting it. The digital economy has shown a more vital promotion role in the central and western regions and provinces with low total factor productivity, and it can indirectly impact high-quality economic development by promoting dynamic, efficient, and structural changes.

Based on the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China, this paper uses the dynamic spatial Durbin model to explore the impact of digital finance on green innovation from the dimensions of "quantity" and "quality." The results show that digital finance has a positive impact on both the quality and quantity of green innovation in local cities, but the development of digital finance in neighboring cities has a negative impact on the quantity and quality of green innovation in local cities, and the impact on the quality of green innovation is greater than that on the quantity of green innovation. And after a series of robustness tests, it was shown that the above conclusions are robust. In addition, digital finance can have a positive impact on green innovation mainly through industrial structure upgrading and informatization level. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the breadth of coverage and the degree of digitization are significantly related to green innovation, and digital finance has a more significant positive impact in eastern cities than in mid-western cities., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Given a new perspective on the environmental hypothesis, this paper systematically investigates the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), pollution haven, and pollution halo hypotheses using carbon efficiency as the dependent variable. Applying the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulations based on the annual time series data over the period 1990-2019, the study found that real GDP per capita has negative effects on China's environmental quality both in the short and long run, whereas the square of real GDP per capita has positive impacts. This validates the EKC hypothesis for China. Furthermore, foreign direct investment has negative effects on environmental quality in China, implying that the case of China exemplifies the pollution haven hypothesis and not the pollution halo hypothesis. The empirical results also demonstrate that energy efficiency and trade openness improve China's environmental quality both in the short run and long run. These findings, therefore, provide insights into achieving the ambitious climate goals in China by 2050., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As resource shortages and environmental problems keep coming up, economies urgently need renewable energies as the new driving force for development. As one of the representatives of renewable energy, the photovoltaic (PV)'s trade has received much attention from all walks of life. Based on bilateral PV trade data, complex network methods and exponential random graph models (ERGM), this paper constructs global PV trade networks (PVTNs) during 2000-2019, describes detailed evolution features and verifies the influencing factors of the PVTNs. We find that (1) PVTNs have obvious characteristics of the small-world network, accompanied by disassortativity and low reciprocity. (2) Asia, North America, and Europe are the top 3 leading regions in the PVTNs. (3) China is the largest exporter, and the US is the leading recipient. Germany is an essential importer as well as exporter of PVTNs. (4) The formation and evolution of the PVTNs are significantly affected by transitivity, reciprocity, and stability. PV trade is more possible when economy-pairs are WTO members, located on the same continent, or with asymmetrical urbanization rates, industrialization rates, technological level or environmental supervision strength. Specifically, economies with higher industrialization rates, technological levels, stricter environmental regulations or lower urbanization rates are more likely to import PV. Economies with higher economic development, larger area, and greater trade openness are more inclined to trade PV. Besides, economic partners that share a religion or language, have common historical colonial ties or geographic borders or sign regional trade agreements are more likely to trade PV., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green finance is an essential way to cope with environmental pollution, promote the transformation of industrial structure and upgrade, and finally construct a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society and achieve the goal of sustainable development. This study explores the influence of green finance on industrial reasonability and is based on sample data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019. Through the application of the spatial panel Durbin model with the weight matrix based on the geographical distance, the influence of green finance on the industrial structure as well as its spatial spillover effects are analyzed. The degree of industrial reasonability and the index of green finance development are also examined by applying the Theil index and the entropy method. The empirical results demonstrate two things. First, there is a strong aggregation of the spatial distribution of industrial reasonability, and the spatial pattern remains relatively constant over the 11 years. The main aggregated types are the H-H and L-L between the regions. Second, green finance can promote the industrial reasonability of this region, while it has a significant negative spatial spillover effect on the process of industrial reasonability in adjacent regions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Accurately assessing the impact of low-carbon urban construction on green economic development has great significance for achieving economic development with environmental protection, and for building an ecological civilization and a beautiful China. Based on panel data for 271 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, multi-period and spatial difference-in-difference econometric models were used to comprehensively investigate the impact of three batches of low-carbon city pilot policies on green economic development, finding the following: The contribution of low-carbon urban construction on urban green economic development is significant and positive, and still holds under a series of robustness tests. Parallel trend tests also show a lag in the policy effect, and the effect is strengthened over policy implementation time. Green orientation of technological progress, green transformation of industry, and green upgrade of consumption are important channels for the effect of the policies. The promotion effect of low-carbon city construction is stronger in the central and northern cities, and in cities with high green economic development, than in western and southern cities, and those with low green economic development. Construction of low-carbon pilot cities not only promotes their own green economic development, but also that in neighboring cities, exerting a demonstration effect. This effect is greater in urban areas. This study provides empirical support for policy planning to promote low-carbon urban construction across the country., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years there has been a great deal of research into environmental pollution using a variety of techniques in response to growing environmental concerns. Convergence analysis, one of these techniques, helps determine whether the developing countries will catch up with the rich countries in pollution using unit root tests. However, the vast majority of the research in the field has generally used conventional unit root tests. Since many economic series contain structural breaks, using unit root tests that account for structural breaks is essential for accurate prediction. More specifically, if the series has a fractional process, conventional unit root tests may erroneously conclude that the departure from linearity is permanent. Moreover, the existing literature mainly uses gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, which represent pollution weakly. Therefore, we use per capita ecological footprint (EF hereafter) as a more comprehensive pollution indicator of environmental degradation. In this direction, the study aims to determine whether BRICS-T countries' EF converges to the average of the BRICS-T for the 1992-2017 period. Besides the ADF unit root test, we employed the Fourier ADF unit root test, which considers the structural breaks, and the Fractional Frequency Fourier ADF unit root test, which accounts for structural breaks by considering fractional values. Our results showed that EF converges in Russia and Turkey according to the conventional ADF test, in China and Russia according to the Fourier ADF test, and in Brazil and China according to the Fractional Fourier Frequency test., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

This study aims to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, financial development, economic growth, globalization, innovation, and urbanization on the carbon dioxide emissions in China by using long-ran time series dataset from 1970 to 2021 which for the first time used the newly developed dynamic autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) simulation model for results analysis. Dynamic ARDL simulation model removes the shortcomings of the traditional ARDL models by predicting the actual change (positive and negative shocks) in the independent variables and its impact on the main dependent variables by 5000 simulations through graphical representation. The findings of the long-run dynamic ARDL simulations indicate that FDI inflow, globalization, and innovation negatively and significantly impact the environmental degradation while financial development, economic growth, and urbanization cause to increase the environmental degradation in China. Recommendations are suggested based on the findings of this study., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China has significantly increased trade in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Since most of these countries are developing and emerging economies, the pressure to reduce carbon emissions poses a leading challenge for them. Carbon productivity has become a key indicator for assessing the degree of low-carbon development, as it can link economic development with CO 2 emission reduction. However, few studies have investigated how international trade affects carbon productivity. Based on panel data from 43 countries along the B&R during 2001-2019, this paper uses a system GMM model to explore the impact of international trade on carbon productivity. Then, we divide the 43 countries in the sample into two groups according to their income levels to compare the different effects of international trade on carbon productivity. The results show that, first, the carbon productivity of the examined B&R countries has an overall increasing trend, and there is a significant heterogeneity of carbon productivity among countries with different income levels. Second, the effects of international trade, export, and import on carbon productivity are all significantly positive, and export's effect is higher than import. In the high-income group, carbon productivity is more likely to be improved by trade than in the middle (low)-income group. Third, economic development level, urbanization, and energy productivity are positively associated with carbon productivity, while CO 2 per capita and government size inhibit carbon productivity improvement. Insight into the impact of international trade on carbon productivity provides theoretical support for B&R countries to better leverage foreign trade activities to achieve a green economy., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper aims to develop a construction and operation cost model of wastewater treatment for the paper industry in China and explores the main factors that determine these costs. Previous models mainly involved factors relating to the treatment scale and efficiency of treatment facilities for deriving the cost function. We considered the factors more comprehensively by adding a regional variable to represent the economic development level, a corporate ownership factor to represent the plant characteristics, a subsector variable to capture pollutant characteristics, and a detailed-classification technology variable. We applied a unique data set from a national pollution source census for the model simulation. The major findings include the following: (l) Wastewater treatment costs in the paper industry are determined by scale, technology, degree of treatment, ownership, and regional factors; (2) Wastewater treatment costs show a large decreasing scale effect; (3) The current level of pollutant discharge fees is far lower than the marginal treatment costs for meeting the wastewater discharge standard. Key implications are as follows: (l) Cost characteristics and impact factors should be fully recognized when planning or making policies relating to wastewater treatment projects or technology development; (2) There is potential to reduce treatment costs by centralizing wastewater treatment via industrial parks; (3) Wastewater discharge fee rates should be increased; (4) Energy efficient technology should become the future focus of wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of high-quality development of the national economy, the development of each city is also facing transformation and upgrading. Cities need high-quality development, and high-quality talents are the key. The problem of attracting high-quality talents in domestic small and medium-sized cities in high-quality development needs to be solved urgently. This paper takes Huai'an, a third-tier city in China, as an example, to understand the intentions and confusions of college students when they seek employment. The qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews is employed. The study finds that in small and medium-sized cities, factors hindering college students from staying in local cities for employment include that the intensity of the government in publicizing high-quality development has not reached to most college students, the guide courses in colleges and universities meet difficulties in the process of delivery, and college students' own career planning are not guided well. In response to the above problems, this paper puts forward suggestions such as strengthening the positive interaction between schools and college students, enhancing the publicity of high-quality urban development among college students, and closely integrating college students' career guidance courses with local development. Quality development attracts more high-quality talents.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental regulations on inward foreign direct investment in China. For this purpose, a panel threshold model was constructed to assess the threshold effects of environmental regulations on the influx of foreign direct investments (FDI) . The findings indicate that, under the influence of human capital, the impact of environmental regulations on FDI in China was characterized by a V-shaped curve, indicating an initial inhibitory effect followed by a subsequent increase. A plausible explanation is that specific pollution-generating FDI must withdraw from China because of stringent environmental regulations before human capital reaches a certain threshold level. Meanwhile, impaired by the adverse selection effect, some cleaner-production FDI cannot easily enter China. As a result, environmental regulations in this stage have an inhibitory effect on FDI in China. However, part of the pollution-generating FDI is converted into cleaner production after the human capital level reaches the threshold limit. Further, due to the positive selection effect, additional cleaner-production FDI can also enter China from different destinations. At this stage, environmental regulations boost overall FDI entering China., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

At present, tourism is counted among those industries which have gained global attention due to rapid growth. Hence, a constant diversification in terms of destination is needed in tourism development. The recent trends of industry highlight the demand of alternative tourism types, among which nature-related tourism appears to be an emerging concept. In this regard, the present article investigates the impact of economic conditions and sustainable rural development on the sustainability of tourism development in China. The current research has gathered secondary data from the World Bank from 1981 to 2020. The quartile autoregressive distributed lag model has been applied to test the association between the variables. The results revealed that GDP, inflation, FDI, exchange rate, energy use, gross savings, and sustainable rural development have a significant and positive association with the sustainability of tourism development in China. Findings offer managerial implications recommending the local government to focus on the sustainability of rural development and economic conditions that may lead to the implementation of tourism-related development projects. This study also guides the policymakers in establishing policies related to tourism development using different economic conditions and sustainable rural development., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Green growth refers to the economic growth strategy, which is less detrimental to natural assets, predominantly the environment. Therefore, the main motive of investment and innovation activities should be to attain economic growth while sustainably utilizing natural assets. In this regard, we aim to explore whether ICT diffusion and financial development matter for attaining green economic growth in BRICS economies. The long-run autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) results show that internet development exerts a positive influence on green growth in four BRICS economies excluding India. However, the long-run estimates of mobile cellular subscriptions are positive only in Russia and China. On the other side, the increase in bank credit and insurance premium also contributes to the long-run green economic growth in almost all BRICS economies. Policymakers should focus on the increased use of ICT in the economy that would replace the physical resources in the economy with information resources. Besides, financial services should be provided to individuals and small and medium enterprises involved in green consumption and production activities., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The alarming impact of climate change and environmental pollutants has increased the focus of policymakers and think tanks' focus on formulating environmental regulations. Environmental regulations may reduce emissions directly and indirectly, as postulated by the famous Porter Hypothesis. It shows that environmental regulation may enhance pollution-reducing innovation by reducing agency costs while at the same time increasing firms' private benefit. The study is designed to investigate environmental regulations' direct and indirect impact on CO2 and GHG emissions using innovations as mediation factors. The study employs a structural equation method using data on G7 economies from 1990 to 2020 to test the relationship between regulations, innovations, and pollution. The study findings confirm that environmental regulations help reduce emissions directly. Our findings also confirm the Porter hypothesis whereby regulations encourage innovations and result in reduced emissions through this indirect channel. The study findings have significant implications for controlling pollution through placing environmental regulations and encouraging innovations., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study analyzes the effects of transportation infrastructure on carbon emissions (CE) based on the level of urban economic agglomeration. For this purpose, 281 Chinese cities are considered during the period 2003-2017. A Moran's I index is used to assess the spatial distribution characteristics of transportation infrastructure and CE. In addition, a spatial Durbin model is employed to explore the spatial spillover effect of transportation infrastructure on CE. Furthermore, economic agglomeration is considered as a crucial transmission mechanism. The empirical results show that (1) a significant spatial autocorrelation exists between transportation infrastructure and CE. (2) Transportation infrastructure significantly aggravates CE, with the "neighboring effect" being surprisingly more potent than the "local effect." (3) Economic agglomeration is a valid transmission channel through which transportation infrastructure affects CE, the intensity of which varies with the level of economic agglomeration. Our recommendation is that policy-makers should pay attention to the development of local transportation, as well as their neighboring cities, and should accelerate the advancement of green transportation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Under the "Digital China" strategy and "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" goal, it is significant to explore the carbon reduction effect from the digital economy development in a multi-dimensional way. Based on the panel data of 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region from 2011 to 2019, this study uses mechanism test model, threshold effect model, and spatial Durbin model which empirically test the influence mechanism and spatial spillover effect of digital economy development on regional CEI. The research found that (1) the digital economy development in the BTH region can reduce regional CEI, and it passes the endogenous test; (2) the digital economy indexes of 13 cities in the BTH region have significantly increased with time evolution, but there is obvious spatial unevenness; the CEI of each city except Tianjin decreases significantly with time evolution, and Tianjin shows a trend of decreasing and then increasing; (3) digital economy has a positive spatial correlation, showing the characteristics of "H-H" and "L-L" clustering. Furthermore, the digital economy has a spatial spillover effect on the CEI of neighboring cities; (4) the digital economy development can promote the industrial structure rationalization and upgrade, improves the urban green innovation quantity and quality, then reduces the regional CEI through them; and (5) the impact strength of digital economy on CEI varies at different threshold intervals of the mechanism variable., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate action got attention from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although a large number of studies are investigating the said phenomenon, however, the literature on the top five responsible countries is unable to evaluate the role of environment-related technologies (ERTs) and institutional quality (IQ). The top five consumption-based carbon dioxide (CBCO 2 ) emitting economies, i.e., China, India, Japan, Russia, and the USA, are considerable stakeholders in this challenge. To fill this void, with the latest data available from 1992 to 2017, short- and long-run relationships are estimated with dynamic common correlated effects estimator and augmented mean group in the framework of EKC hypothesis. Reported results indicate the negative effect of ERTs and IQ towards CBCO 2 , which means that adoption of ERTs and better IQ is supportive in controlling environmental degradation. Findings are also robust to the policy implications for the UN's SDGs., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Low-carbon innovation plays an essential role in carbon reduction worldwide. This study investigates the nexus between low-carbon innovation, economic growth, and carbon emissions by the dynamic spatial Durbin model from 2007 to 2020. First, the Moran index results verify the provincial spatial agglomeration of carbon emissions. High-emission provinces concentrate in major economic zones and energy extraction areas. Second, the effect decomposition results show that long-term and short-term effects are consistent. Low-carbon innovation has a significant mitigation effect on carbon emissions in local regions, which effect, however, is not significant in the adjacent areas. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is validated locally, but all provinces and cities have not reached the inflection point of the environmental Kuznets curve, and the linkage effect in adjacent regions remains insignificant. The above results have been tested to be robust. Third, the results of the mechanism analysis show that environmental policies, absorptive capacity, and financial development play a moderating role in the relationship between low-carbon innovation and carbon emissions. Finally, the heterogeneity test showed significant differences between Eastern, Central, and Western. The direct effect of low-carbon innovation exists in Eastern and central regions; the spillover effect of low-carbon innovation is only in the eastern region. In addition, corresponding measures are proposed based on the conclusions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)