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• A distribution dynamics approach is employed to examine the converge of TFEE across Chinese PAA level cities. • The findings show a clear convergence in TFEE. • Convergence comes more from efficiency drops in high TFEE cities than from efficiency gains in low TFEE cities. • The environmental protection polices in key cities improved energy efficiency. • Large-sized cities show better performance in energy efficiency than small- and medium-sized cities. Improving energy efficiency is considered the most direct route to reducing carbon emissions on a massive scale. To examine the long-run trend of China's energy efficiency, this paper employs a distribution dynamics approach to analyze the convergence of total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) across 286 Chinese cities between 2002 and 2014. The result suggests the existence of convergence, which comes more from the efficiency declines in the high TFEE cities rather than the efficiency gains in the low TFEE cities. Despite the fact that a few cities have performed well in energy efficiency, the majority of cities have converged to a low-efficiency point. Further analyses show that the inefficiency was attributed to inefficient energy use in small- and medium-sized cities. Our analysis provides strong scientific support for China's ongoing energy conservation and environmental protection policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ports are essential and strategic nodes of international trade and economic activities. The integration of port resources helps enhance the optimal division of port functions to further promote economic development. This paper explores the evolutionary trends of port integration policy from 2011 to 2021 in China through a text-mining approach. We first used the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic analysis method to analyze the port integration policies and summarize the evolutionary trends of port policies. In addition, an association analysis was conducted to explore port integration policies' impacts by examining their relationships among the environmental protection, digitalization level, and port development scale. Our findings suggested that China's port integration policy has evolved from specific and simple to abstract and complicated at the managerial level. Port development has enriched from infrastructure construction to the ideology of economic development. Our findings show that China's port integration is gradually improving the port operation. The findings of the study contribute to the extant literature by analyzing the port integration policy evolution in China and can be referred to by other countries. • Text mining method was used to explore the port integration policy evolution. • Port integration policy evolved from specific and simple to abstract and complicated. • Port development enriched from basic infrastructure to the governance model. • The evolution of port integration policy was related to reducing carbon emissions in the port sector. • The evolution of port integration policy made the ports intelligent in association with digital technology such as big data and AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies examines how a firm's position in the global value chain affects its pollutant emissions. This paper integrates China's firm-level trade data into China's multi-regional input-output tables to provide an index to measure a firm's position in global value chains. Based on a firm-level pollution dataset (2000–2014) in China, this paper conducts an empirical analysis and find that the most-downstream firms on the global value chain have lower pollutant emission intensity. Our results also suggest that the production factor structure effect, the knowledge absorption effect and the abatement investment effect together contribute to the emission intensity gap between the most-upstream firms and the most-downstream firms. These novel results are significant in guiding firms towards reducing their emissions and promoting a green global value chain, with the ultimate goal of achieving multinational environmental protection. [Display omitted] • The most-downstream firms have lower pollutant emission intensity. • A supply chain disruption shock is used as an instrumental variable. • Factor structure, knowledge absorption and abatement investment are channels. • Effects on firms with diverse ownership and trade patterns are heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing global energy demand and limited production of conventional crude oil, the extraction of unconventional heavy and extra-heavy oil is receiving unprecedented attention. China is the fourth largest producer of heavy oil. High viscosity and complex formation environments increase the difficulty of exploiting heavy oil. To alleviate the economic cost and environmental pollution pressure brought by heavy oil production, China has achieved significant advancement in the innovation of heavy oil recovery, including accelerating the transformation of thermal technology to non-thermal technology and the use of new energy technology to achieve the goal of low-carbon economy and green environmental protection. Based on the background of heavy oil in China, this paper recharacterizes the high-viscosity mechanism of heavy oil. From different aspects, including basic principles, main characteristics, applicability, limitations, and challenges, this paper comprehensively reviews existing heavy oil recovery technologies, including thermal recovery, in-situ upgrading, cold recovery, and new energy technologies. Currently, in China, the main target of heavy oil recovery is achieving the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goals, which can be described as low energy consumption, low emission, and low pollution. To facilitate the low-carbon transition in the extraction of heavy/extra-heavy oil and attain environmental sustainability goals, it is essential to increase the proportion of non-thermal factors in thermal recovery technologies, develop efficient in-situ catalysts, adopt clean cold extraction techniques, and advance the development of new energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of various daily air pollution indicators of 288 prefecture-level cities in China from January 1, 2015 to December 31,2018, this paper takes the first round of central environmental protection inspection (CEPI) as a quasi-natural experiment, and empirically analyzes its impact on urban air pollution by using multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) method. The results show that: (1) the first round of five batches of environmental inspection and two batches of "looking back" have significantly reduced the concentration of seven pollutants; (2) The first five batches of environmental inspection have a stronger impact on reducing air pollution than "looking back"; Moreover, in the short tel·in after the inspection, it still has a significant reduction effect on air pollution; (3) The impact of central environmental protection inspection on air pollution shows strong heterogeneity in different batches of inspections, urban scale and economic development level, as well as the air quality level of cities before the inspection. The research results of this paper provide corresponding policy recommendations and decision-making basis for the Chinese central government to further deepen the reform of environmental protection supervision mechanism and promote the emissions of multiple pollutants mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection and sustainable development are now profoundly ingrained in the public consciousness in the modern era of the global green revolution. First, this paper uses an evolutionary game model to theoretically analyse the impact of environmental regulation and green finance on enterprises by dissecting the game behaviour between local governments, banks and enterprises. Then, we incorporate entrepreneurial spirit into the model to determine whether entrepreneurial spirit accelerates the achievement of green sustainability objectives. Environmental regulation and green finance are found to contribute substantially to the innovation of green technologies by local enterprises, while entrepreneurial spirit accelerates this process. Finally, we empirically test the findings based on a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2020. We find that green finance has a positive impact in Central and Western cities of China, while Eastern cities are in greater need for government environmental regulation controls. For entrepreneurial spirit, the incentive effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the level of green technology innovation is more significant in Central and Western regions of China. This paper enriches the field of research on entrepreneurial spirit and regional green sustainable development by providing empirical evidence for the evaluation of environmental regulatory and green financing policy impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon transformation is the key to China's high-quality economic development. This paper uses the panel data of 278 Chinese cities to measure low-carbon total factor productivity (LCTFP) and examines the impact of environmental protection tax (EPT) reform on LCTFP. EPT significantly promotes LCTFP. The promotion effect is more significant in the lower administrative level and resource-based cities in central and western regions. EPT promotes LCTFP through three channels including green technology innovation (GTI) effect, industrial structure upgrading effect and forcing effect. EPT has a negative spatial spillover effect on LCTFP in neighboring areas. This paper provides important empirical evidence for further advancing the EPT in China. • EPT significantly promotes LCTFP. • The promotion effect is more significant in low administrative level and resource-based cities in central-western region. • EPT promotes LCTFP through green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading and forcing effect. • EPT has a negative spatial spillover effect on LCTFP in neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of China's economy has driven the growth of energy consumption. However, the domination of the energy structure by fossil energy not only increases carbon emissions but is also an important source of fog and haze in China. This will cause global warming and increase people's lung diseases. To alleviate these problems, renewable energy (RE) development is crucial in reducing CO 2 emissions, promoting economic development, and reducing fog and haze in China. Industry accounts for the highest proportion of energy consumption, so an efficient adjustment of the industrial structure will greatly contribute to overall energy development, economic development, and environmental protection. By analyzing the sales output value of China's industrial subsectors, together with energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, this paper determines which industries should be encouraged and which industries should be restricted in China. Finally, RE strategies and industrial policies are proposed for Chinese government references. The contributions of the paper are three-fold: (1) propose a novel framework for the development of China in the aspects of energy, economy, and environmental policies; (2) provide valuable information for the Chinese government to enable it to understand which industries should be encouraged to improve its economic competitiveness; and (3) use hybrid methods (e.g., entropy method and weighted sum method) to rank the energy and CO 2 productivity, and the recommendations will provide strategic guidance for China's energy development. [Display omitted] ● China's Renewable Energy Strategy and Industrial Policy. ● Which industries should be encouraged or discouraged in China. ● Energy Productivity and CO 2 Productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, a worldwide economic slump has reduced the depletion of natural resources, lowering their costs. The loss of renewable energy profitability might hinder the attainment of specified goals of sustainable development goals. By using Chinese provinces data from 1995 to 2020, this research examined the relationships between renewable energy investment (REI), green finance (GFI), growth of the economy (GDP), renewable energy production (REP), and private sector participation (PSP) in China. According to this analysis, REI, REP, and GFI are more variable throughout the given period than GDP. And PSP. A bidirectional substantial causal correlation between REI and REP was identified using the Generalized method of moments (GMM). Still, the regression coefficient between GDP and REI and REI. and GFI has a one-way causal relationship. There was no evidence that the PSP directly impacted the REI. Based on the empirical findings of this research, we propose that policies be designed to reduce volatility in REI GFI, and REP and increase support to improve sustainable economic development and environmental and renewable energy production. Examine between green financing and environmental conservation for long-term environmental quality. • There is a dire need to measure the examined the relationships between renewable energy investment (REI), green finance (GFi). • Bidirectional substantial causal correlation between REI and REP was identified using the Generalized method of moments (GMM). • There was no evidence that the PSP had a direct impact on the REI. • This paper improve sustainable economic development as well as environmental and renewable energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central environmental protection inspection is an institutional innovation in China that aims to supervise enterprises by monitoring government environmental enforcement. This paper examines the effectiveness of central environmental protection inspection in improving enterprise environmental performance by using a quasi-natural experiment of the first round of central environmental protection inspection. The study reveals that the central environmental protection inspection improves enterprise environmental performance by strengthening local government environmental enforcement and environmental attention. This is evidenced by the increase in enterprise environmental capital expenditure and the decrease in pollution discharge fees. The impact of central environmental protection inspection on enterprise environmental performance is strengthened by local governments' environmental regulation and environmental fiscal expenditure, as well as by public participation. Under the pressure of central environmental protection inspection, heavily polluting enterprises engage in production process improvement and R&D investment, which can improve their economic performance. This can ultimately lead to a competitive advantage for enterprises, promoting a win-win situation for both environmental and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest carbon sink project (FCSP) has received growing attention for its outstanding advantages in carbon emission reduction, environment protection, and achieving the carbon neutrality objective. Using a government-social capital cooperation model, FCSP helps to revitalize the ecological and economic benefits of the forest with standard and efficient management. However, the management and operation barriers of FCSP implementation are complex, multiple and indefinite in the long run, which requires a comprehensive barrier evaluation framework. Hence, this paper is devoted to constructing a barrier evaluation framework for FCSP implementation in China with an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. To this end, critical barriers are identified and the criteria system is constructed with a two-stage systematic literature review and interaction with the experts. Later, an applicable and comprehensive barrier evaluation framework is built, wherein the interval type-2 fuzzy set (IT2FS) is used to process fuzziness and uncertain information, the best-worst method (BWM) is adopted to determine the criteria weight, and the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) is introduced for comprehensive barrier evaluation. The criteria weighting results indicate that FCSP implementation encounters challenges taking into account institutional and governance barriers (criteria weight: 0.3592), management barriers (0.2384), economic and market barriers (0.1637), knowledge barriers (0.0747), technical and infrastructure barriers (0.1639), C1 "Lack of clear leadership and policies" and C5 "Forest management performance" were determined the most significant criteria, A5 and A4 respectively performed the lowest and the highest barrier level. In sensitivity analysis, the ranking results were stable when the criteria changed, and Spearman's rank correlations of B2, B4, and B5 are significant. The results were validated by a comparative analysis with other methods with the help of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, which reflects accepted high correlations (Spearman's pro values of BWM-IT2F-PROMETHEE II (Gaussian rule), BWM-IT2F-TOPSIS, and BWM-TFN-VIKOR are 1.00, 1.00, 1.00). The findings of the paper help the decision makers to develop more rational strategies and successfully implement the FCSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following its signature and ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity, China has made great progress in conserving biodiversity, and its role in global biodiversity conservation has gradually transformed from follower to key participant, and the country is becoming an active contributor. Given its long history, huge population and rapid industrialization, it is an extraordinary achievement to accomplish so much in such a relatively short period. The reason for this success partly lies in the country's social system, notably state ownership of land, and an omnipotent government. However, traditional Chinese culture, and the contemporary efforts of researchers in China also play a role. Against this background, the present paper provides an overview of the Chinese understanding of the values of biodiversity, and explains the interconnections between traditional philosophy, on the one hand, and contemporary Chinese thinking and action, on the other. The first section briefly traces the evolution of scholarly exploration of the values of biodiversity, outlines the latter's contribution, and examines indicator systems used to evaluate these values. The second section examines the core ideas found in traditional philosophy, which provide contemporary Chinese society with the conceptual resources it needs to fully understand the values of biodiversity. The last section explores the main mechanisms through which traditional philosophy influences contemporary thinking and behavior regarding environmental protection (including biodiversity conservation). • We are greatly thankful of the reviewers of this paper for their inspiring and helpful suggestions. • Special thanks also go to the editors of this series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate environmental information disclosure systems are important for controlling pollution caused by corporate activities. However, different motives associated with environmental information disclosure have different influences on the financing of companies. This paper adopts renewable energy companies instead of high pollution industries as a research object. The study analyzes the resource-dependent disclosure motivation of renewable energy companies, and the impact of environmental information disclosure on the scale and cost of direct and indirect financing. The results show the following. First, renewable energy companies in China have a resource-dependent motivation to disclose environmental information, with a gap between the level of environmental information disclosure and their actual environmental performance. Second, renewable energy companies may obtain more direct financing amount and lower indirect financing costs, but cannot obtain lower direct financing costs and more indirect financing amount by improving the level of environmental information disclosure with the resource-dependent motivation. Third, there are differences in the specific incentives for environmental information disclosure among the Eastern, Middle, and Western regions of China. The government needs to standardize the detailed rules and standards of the corporate environmental information disclosure system, and improve the environmental protection awareness and the implementation of green credit in the Western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the imminent water crisis era and stringent water environment management, enterprises play a vital role in environmental governance. However, there is seldom analysis on how the water environment regulation influences an enterprise's innovation due to data deficiency. Using our database from 2000 to 2022, we combine geographic information from water quality monitoring stations with the data on listed companies in China to pinpoint what distance firms are exposed to the monitoring stations. Results from a spatial regression discontinuity design along the geographic distances demonstrate that water environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on the quantity and quality of enterprise innovation. This paper found that it is primarily driven by the decreased usage of intermediate goods, rising industry profits from the exit of low-productivity firms, and enhanced enterprise research and development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, the positive impact is more pronounced for privately-owned firms, firms closer to suppliers, polluting firms, and politically unaffiliated firms. Our study offers scientifically valuable insights for emerging market countries in formulating effective water environmental regulation policies to incentivize firms to innovate in environmental protection. Additionally, it provides novel ideas on synergizing water environmental regulation and firm innovation to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between environmental protection and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the global call for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, China plans to reform its protected areas (PAs) system. Despite positive progress, there are still challenges in defining PAs boundaries, allocating management authority, and securing sustainable funding. This paper reviews the current state and challenges of China's PAs management and advocates a paradigm shift towards comprehensive public governance. This shift aligns with the Ecological Conservation Redline (ECR) and integrates PAs into the National Territorial Spatial Planning, for a coordinated layout of Ecological-Productive-Living Spaces. The current study emphasizes the need for a refined assessment of PAs, including ecosystem services, to balance human development rights and environmental sustainability. It also advocates for multi-stakeholder consultation mechanisms to ensure broader social participation, particularly for indigenous peoples and local communities. The current investigation highlights the importance of valuing ecological products to harmonize environmental protection with community welfare. This review contributes to the discourse on balancing ecological integrity with socio-economic progress and provides insights into the difference between human rights, ecological conservation, and sustainable development, marking a significant stride towards global sustainability goals. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

After-treatment devices of diesel engines effectively reduce exhaust emissions but deteriorate over time. Consequently, the China-VI emission regulation mandates a useful life of seven years or 700,000 km for after-treatment devices. Conventional engine bench aging methods, being costly and time-consuming, are inapplicable for long-term emission durability verification. This paper introduces an accelerated aging method based on the thermal accumulation and Arrhenius equation. Accelerated aging of four after-treatment devices of the same model at different temperatures and durations was carried out. Results revealed that barring the CDPF's PN filtration efficiency, the efficiencies of the DOC, SCR, and ASC catalysts declined with accelerated aging, especially under lower temperatures. Deterioration in conversion efficiencies of catalysts increased the NOx, CO, THC, and NH 3 emissions under cold- and warm-WHTC tests. Considering that the equivalent durability mileage of the after-treatment devices under 150 h 650 °C accelerated aging condition is approximately 870,000 km, while the CO, THC, PN, NOx, and NH 3 emission factors are 0.05 g/kWh, 0.21 g/kWh, 2.14 × 1010 #/kWh, 0.44 g/kWh, and 3.48 ppm, respectively, so the durability of the tested after-treatment devices could comply with the China-VI emission regulation. Although accelerated aging did not significantly affect PN emissions, it increased the balanced point temperature of CDPF and the proportion of sub-23 nm particles. If emission regulations further reduce the lower limit of PN measurement to 10 nm, it could negatively impact the emission durability of CDPF. In addition, comparing the 1000 h of conventional aging showed similar characteristics and results in NOx conversion efficiency and NOx emission, suggesting that the accelerated aging method is reliable. In conclusion, the accelerated aging method reduces the durability verification duration, providing a cost-effective regulatory tool for environmental protection authorities and guidance for manufacturers to optimize device performance and durability. • Accelerated aging method for after-treatment devices of diesel engines is developed • Catalyst performance deteriorates more seriously under low temperatures • NOx deterioration is most pronounced during accelerated aging • Accelerated aging is well-equated with conventional bench aging based on SCR [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's sustainable development relies on agricultural trade and carbon emissions. • Carbon emission transfer index in agricultural trade is measured. • Decoupling-recoupling model and integrated prediction model are constructed. • A unified framework for trade, environment and technology is established. Under the new development pattern of domestic and international "dual circulation" in China, studying the relationship among green technology innovation, agricultural trade deficit (ATD) and carbon emission transfer embodied in agricultural trade (ATCT) becomes crucial for achieving coordinated and unified high-quality economic development and efficient environmental protection. Based on this, the paper uses environmental input–output model, "two-stage" decoupling and recoupling model, panel vector auto-regressive model, spatial econometric model and "rolling" Grey-BP neural network prediction model to explore present status of ATD, ATCT and their relationship, driving role of green technology innovation, as well as whether that relationship will be improving in the future. The results reveal the following: (1) China's ATD and ATCT show an increasing trend year by year, and their inter-provincial differences are gradually significant over time. The overall relationship between ATD and ATCT does not display ideally, which makes it necessary to quickly transform that relationship into reasonable and ideal state. (2) Green technology innovation has significant positive "U-shaped" and inverted "U-shaped" local effects on ATD and ATCT respectively, with a reasonable range of ATD reduction while ATCT increase valuing from 0 to 0.290, and has significant positive "U-shaped" spatial spillover effect on both without any reasonable range. The short-term effect of green technology innovation on coordinated promotion between ATD and ATCT is superior to the long-term one. (3) Green technology innovation has a significant regional heterogeneity. Regional differences must be taken into consideration seriously, and the measures adapted to local conditions are crucial. The role of fundamental and progressive green technology innovation has heterogeneity, which means that targeted development and utilization of green technology products are important. (4) Regardless of the time horizon, the relationship between ATD and ATCT will improve, which can provide a key step for coordinated development of economy and environment in agricultural trade. Therefore, in order for China to implement and promote further opening-up, reduce agricultural trade dependence, ensure food security and important agricultural product supply, as well as achieve the unity of high-quality economic development and ecological efficient protection, it is necessary to reasonably reverse trade deficit and increase carbon emission transfer in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A conceptual framework and model of microagroecosystems were constructed. • Assessed the degree of landscape ecological risk in microagroecosystems. • The human activity gravity of microagroecosystems shifted to lower altitudes. • The ecological vitality of microagroecosystems is increasing. • Clarified micro-spatial human-land relations and development directions. Micro-spatial agroecosystem (AES) changes in karst mountain areas are a response to the human-land relationship of the human activity center. However, the changes and linkages between AESs and landscape ecological risks (LER) from a micro perspective in karst mountain areas (KMA) have not yet attracted in-depth attention from the academic community. This paper proposes the concept of microagroecosystems (MAESs) and constructs the MAES model based on the landscape development intensity (LDI) to evaluate the systematic landscape evolution rules and the LER intensity, which reflects the human-land relationship in KMA. We used the buffer ring with a 200 m cultivation range interval to categorize the MAES model into six models, namely, High-Mid-Low, High-Low-Medium, Medium-High-Low, Medium-Low-High, Medium-High-High, Low-Medium-High and Low-Medium-High, and the different models not only reflect the regional conditions but also represent the different stages of the evolution of AESs in KMAs. We found that AESs in karst mountainous areas are transforming from traditional food crop systems to economic fruit forest ecosystems, and at the same time, the gravity center of human activities is migrating from high to low altitude areas, and the ecological vitality of MAESs is showing a trend of enhancement. In addition, the regions with high altitudes and steep slopes in karst mountainous areas have a single landscape structure and are dominated by traditional food cultivation, while the regions with low altitudes and gentle slopes have a diverse landscape structure and are dominated by modern and sustainable agricultural development. Finally, we reveal that the LER in KMAs shows a trend of initial increase followed by subsequent decrease, the influence of the human-land relationship on the LER in the micro perspective is significant, and the coordination and trade-off between agricultural development and environmental protection is the key direction of development in the future. The study results can provide a reference for the rational allocation of landscape, ecological environment restoration, and optimization of regional human-land relationships in KMAs worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The principle of difference information and the principle of minimum information are discussed. • The proposed method can deal with the environment problem in other regions. • The unequal adjacent accumulation multivariate grey model is used to forecast the public concern about air pollution. In grey theory, the principle of difference information holds that difference is information. To mine the difference information between data, the unequal accumulation is proposed in this paper. The unequal accumulation reduces the loss of difference information and improves the forecasting performance of the grey model. Based on the unequal accumulation, the unequal adjacent discrete multivariable grey model is proposed. According to the comparison with other models, the proposed model has good forecast performance and algorithm efficiency. To further prove the practical significance of the model, it is used to predict the public concern about air pollution in three cities of China. The results show that the public concern about air pollution in cities with different air pollution conditions is quite different. Environmental protection departments could pay attention to the public concern about air pollution to better control air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An improved box-plot is used to modify the outliers in the original carbon price data. • The optimal parameter structure of the individual model is determined by a novel comprehensive evaluation criterion. • The adaptability between the optimum forecasting model and the predicted subseries is ensured by an original matching strategy. • A new hybrid optimization algorithm is employed to optimize the ensemble models parameters. Accurate carbon price forecast plays a vital role in energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection. In previous studies, more attention was focused on the prediction accuracy and stability, while the problem of disharmony between the prediction model and the data pattern is usually ignored. Considering the matching utility with deeper understanding of data and model, this paper proposes a novel approach to forecast carbon price, which combines the data preprocessing mechanism, decomposition technology, forecast module with selection and matching strategy and ensemble model based on an original hybrid optimization algorithm. According to a comprehensive evaluation index in consideration of several evaluation perspectives, the optimal parameter structures of the three forecast models are selected in this framework. Then, the data components decomposed by variational mode decomposition are reconstructed into three novel range entropy series with different levels of complexity by range entropy. As a result, the matching relation between the three forecasting models and the three range entropy series is correspondingly established. Additionally, a feedback neural network optimized by hybrid optimization algorithm, which persists more superiorities of reasonable weight assignment than the usual ensemble method, is initially used to synthesize three forecasting results of range entropy series. The carbon price data from four different trading markets in China is used to test the novel approach and the experimental results indicate that it does enhance the performance of carbon price forecasting, and provide a convincing tool for the operation and investment of the carbon markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy ideas associated with the urban minerals industry in China have shifted focus from environmental protection to industrial development in recent years. A key factor influencing the development of this industry is whether the policy system can adapt to changing policy ideas. This paper analyzes a series of policies on urban minerals issued by the central government and related departments and ministries from 1987 to 2017. Using the content analysis method, which is a quantitative methodology, the paper proposes a framework of policy tools and objects of policy intervention to analyze the evolutionary characteristics and problems associated with the development of the urban minerals industry. The research results show that the policy system of urban minerals in China has changed from the germination stage, in which urban minerals policies were embedded in environmental protection policies; to an introduction stage, in which the urban minerals policy system initially took shape; to a development stage, in which the effects of urban minerals policies have stabilized. The changing trend of urban minerals policies can be summarized as follows. First, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) gradually became the dominant policymaker. Second, the policy tools were enriched via restructuring. Third, the objects of policy intervention were continually extended to the whole industry chain. Although the policy system of urban minerals in China has promoted industrial development, certain problems remain to be resolved, such as the conflicting policies from different departments, the unreasonable combination of policy tools and improper object of policy intervention. To this end, we have proposed corresponding countermeasures and suggestions to better improve the development of the urban minerals industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Diosgenin production from Dioscorea zingiberensis with methods was reviewed. • Acidolysis, enzymolysis, and microbiological hydrolysis were normally used. • 151 diosgenin production cases were summarized with different methods. • The optimal parameters for diosgenin production were listed in Table S1. • Merits and demerits of different methods for diosgenin production were compared. Diosgenin was the starting materials to synthesize various hormone drugs and mainly generated from Dioscorea zingiberensis C. H. Wright by acidolysis, enzymolysis, microbiological fermentation, and integrated manner. Only acidic hydrolysis with strong acid such as hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid was used in practice in diosgenin enterprises due to their feasibility and simplicity, nevertheless finally resulting in a great deal of unmanageable wastewater and severely polluted the surrounding environment. Aiming to provide a comprehensive and up-to date information of researches on diosgenin production from this plant, 151 cases were collected from scientific databases including Web of Science, Pubmed, Science Direct, Wiley, Springer, and China Knowledge Resource Integrated (CNKI). Their advantages and disadvantages with different production methods were analyzed based on these available data in this review paper. Considering the fact that nearly all of diosgenin enterprises were closed for the environmental protection and the life health of the people, this review paper was beneficial for providing useful guidelines to develop novel technologies with environmentally-friendly and cleaner features for diosgenin production or facilitate the transformation of other methods like enzymolysis, microbiological fermentation, or integrated methods from laboratory scale to industry scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Qinling Mountains include unique geography, geology, climate, ecology, and culture. • Regional economic growth and environmental preservation can coexist. • The "life community" promotes eco-friendly civilization and regional growth. China geography, geology, climate, ecology, and cultural landscape are bounded to the north and south by the Qinling Mountains. It has several challenges, including the need to maintain its biodiversity and the need to accelerate economic development. Therefore, the mining area development and ecological community research has strong theoretical and practical significance. In this paper, we studies the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the key influencing factors in the model and a comprehensive strategy of green ecological development based on the three contradictions between environmental protection and mining development in Qinling Mountains. The result of the studies suggested that the solution of resource development, pollution control, and climate change concerns can be accomplished by employing four distinct classifications of enhanced and iterative intelligent, green, and low-carbon comprehensive technological systems. These systems are achievable through the implementation of an independence and self-enhancement strategy in advanced science and technology. Furthermore, the proposed model of Environmental Kuznets curve suggested that there are no significant effect on the sustainable development of mining industry and ecological protection. Moreover, the long-term effects of changes in the ecological and socio-economic environments on a given habitat, an assessment of the sustainability of the ecological environment is more comprehensive and systematic. Thus, the "life community" of ecological preservation and mineral resource development in Qinling is the consequence of the ecologically green civilization and provides the most vigor to the growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the implementation process of economic and environmental policy, a key concerned problem is the inability of some local officials to faithfully implement environmental policies made by the central government in China, as well as many other developing countries. In this paper, a multitask principal-agent model is established to make a comprehensive comparison on the role that the current incentive mechanism (CIM) and the long-term performance-oriented incentive mechanism (LTPOIM) play in policy implementation. In addition, both the incentive effect and the choice of incentive intensity in the LTPOIM are investigated. The results provide the insight that local officials may trade off the efforts of environment protection for economic growth in the CIM. However, local officials are incentivized to allocate higher efforts toward the implementation of environmental policies (IENP) to strengthen environment protection, or invest higher efforts toward IENP and the implementation of economic policies (IECP) to pursue the win-win situation for economy and environment in the LTPOIM. Besides, the chance of distributing higher efforts toward IENP and IECP in the case of complement tasks is higher than that in the case of substitute tasks. The optimal incentive intensities of long-term performance in the case of complement tasks are higher than those in the case of substitute tasks. • The long-term performance-oriented incentive motivates local officials to balance environmental and economic policies. • The central government makes use of the multitask agency problem to gain a win-win situation for economy and environment. • The adjustment of local officials' efforts portfolio and central government's incentive strategies are investigated. • The chance of distributing higher efforts toward two tasks is higher in the case of complement tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The air pollutant diffusion trend prediction plays an important role in the environment protection. The approaches in the existing studies rarely consider spatial and temporal information sequentially or cannot use spatiotemporal structure information effectively. In this paper, we propose a new deep learning-based air pollutant diffusion trend prediction model, called GATBL-Learning. It is an end-to-end neural network model consisting of Graph Attention Network (GAT) and Encoder-Decoder model. Since each city in the region will set as a node, GAT can extract spatial information from them by aggregation operation. Then Encoder-Decoder model, consisting of Bi-LSTM as Encoder and LSTM as Decoder, mines time series features and outputs the data containing spatiotemporal features. In addition, we also observe that the changes of air pollutants show seasonality discipline and training the seasonal model can improve the model adaptability. The results demonstrate the proposed prediction model is effective and superior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's attention on environmental protection (GAEP) can signal work priorities and resource allocations to firms, promoting them to implement more carbon reduction actions. Based on the data of listed manufacturing firms in China from 2012 to 2021, this paper measures the GAEP and firms' carbon reduction actions through textual analysis, and then examines the relationship between GAEP and firms' carbon reduction actions. We find that the GAEP could improve firms' carbon reduction actions. This study further indicates that the increase in GAEP leads to the better allocation of environmental subsidies, thereby further positively impacting on firms' carbon reduction actions, and we also demonstrate the positive moderating effect of government-firm relationship. In addition, GAEP could be a stronger effect for state-owned enterprises and the firms located in the eastern and central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Public environmental concerns inhibit the market entry of polluting enterprises. • Public environmental concerns affect enterprise entry with heterogeneity. • Environmental regulation, investment and innovation are internal mechanisms. • Public environmental concerns can reduce the emission intensity of new enterprises. • Public environmental concern can encourage new enterprises to layout boundary. When constructing a multigovernance environment system, it is important to systematically study the impact of the public's environmental concern on the behavior of polluting firms. In relation to the market entry of polluting firms, this paper explores whether public concern for the environment can effectively reduce the likelihood of such firms entering the market to achieve control of pollution emissions at the source. Benchmark analysis shows that an increase in public environmental concern can inhibit the market entry of polluting firms in the region. Heterogeneity analysis shows that public environmental concerns exert a stronger effect on preventing the market entry of nonstate-owned firms and firms in developed regions than on other firm types. Mechanism analysis shows that improving the severity of environmental regulations, encouraging firms to make greater investments in environmental protection, and inducing firms to pursue additional environmental R&D innovation are effective mechanisms by which public environmental concern restrains the market entry of polluting firms in the region. Expansion analysis demonstrates that public concern about the environment can lessen the pollution emission intensity of new firms and promote certain new firms to carry out boundary layout. This research offers a scientific basis and policy reference that can serve to guide the public in actively participating in environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of its rapid economic development, China is faced with serious issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution. This paper is aimed at exploring the issues of resource shortage and environmental pollution in Chinese cities by means of efficiency evaluation. Through the Super-efficiency general directional distance function (GDDF) model, this paper calculates the urban efficiencies of resource-saving (UERS) of 197 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2015. Furthermore, considering the environmental problems, it applies the Super-efficiency GDDF model with undesirable outputs, and accesses the urban efficiencies containing environmental factors (UEEF). The empirical results are listed as follows. (1) Most of the Chinese cities exhibited comparatively low UERS and UEEF, indicating great potential for the reduction of resource consumption and environmental pollution; (2) Those groups with higher levels of resource-saving efficiency tend to have poorer environmental efficiency. This means that many cities achieve good economic performance at the expense of the environment; (3) In order to realize the sustainable economic and social development, we should not only save resources, but also reduce the emission of pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial sector is one of the key sectors in China’s economic transformation and carbon emissions control. This paper applies VAR and STIRPAT models to investigate the major influencing factors of CO 2 emissions in China’s commercial sector over the period 1980–2014. According to the empirical results, per capita GDP, urbanization and energy structure have positive effects on CO 2 emissions while energy intensity has negative effect on CO 2 emissions in the long term. Besides, per capita GDP ranks as the most important driving factors of CO 2 in China’s commercial sector, followed by urbanization, energy structure and energy intensity in that order. This paper argues that reducing energy intensity and improving energy structure are the means to realize CO 2 emission reductions in the commercial sector in the short and long term, respectively. Besides, this paper forecasts that CO 2 emissions in China’s commercial sector will be 1942 Mt by 2030, which is huge and about half of the CO 2 emissions of the European Union in 2014. The findings have important implications for policy-makers to enact CO 2 emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition and cooperation in the environmental governance of cities are popular around the world. However, empirical research based on the prefecture-level city level in China is rare. Since the central government of China proposed to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization, whether there are strategic interactions of "race to the bottom" or "race to the top" among local governments is an important issue of academic and public interest. This paper constructs a game-theoretic model to reveal the strategic interactions of environmental governance among local governments. And then, based on the data of 221 prefecture-level cities collected from 2007 to 2018, the spatial econometric model is used to conduct multi-dimensional testing "race to the bottom" behavior of environmental protection expenditure among local governments. Moreover, this paper further analyses the impact of performance assessment indicators on the strategic interactions of local governments, so as to provide policy reference for improving environmental public welfare. Empirical results suggest that local governments in China show strategic imitation in environmental protection spending decisions, which is manifested as "race to the bottom", and this behavior is gradually weakening with the strengthening of environmental protection assessment. Furthermore, environmental performance indicators relieve the government's strategic imitation, while economic performance indicators intensify the government's strategy imitation. Thus, reasonable performance evaluation indicators are conducive to benign strategic interaction among governments. Finally, the current environmental protection expenditure has not yet significantly affected pollution reduction, providing new evidence for the "race to the bottom" behavior of local governments. Based on the findings of our study, the central government should optimize the performance evaluation system of local officials and strengthen the implementation of the environmental supervision system and accountability mechanism. Meanwhile, the local governments should further increase environmental protection expenditure, and enhance the supervision and utilization efficiency of environmental protection funds. • Strategic interaction among 221 prefecture-level cities in China was multi-dimensionally studied. • It has been found that China's local governments have strategic imitation as "race to the bottom". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Performance-friendly regulation is illusion in China. • We document that investments and fees for environmental protection are mutually complementary in China. • We show that regulation in China leads to better firm performance but stimulate little for environment. Porter (1991) and follow-up scholars hypothesize that environmental regulation stimulates innovation to promote performance. As a complement to the existing literature, this paper reveals an ironic reality: performance-friendly regulation as a proxy for the "win–win" solution of environmental regulation is an illusion due to ineffective intensity for sustainability. With firm-level evidence from China, we measure the intensity of environmental regulation by a firm's investments for environmental protection (IEP) or fees for environmental protection (FEP). After identifying a positive causal effect on performance of IEP or FEP, we document that IEP and FEP are complementary and thus ineffective for sustainable development. We further document that the effects between IEP and FEP are mediated by performance insignificantly from an economic perspective, thereby revealing the incentive incompatibility of a firm in IEP and FEP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental taxes can play an important role in reducing pollution issues. However, they also have an impact on the entire economy. This paper uses panel data from Shandong Province in China from 2005 to 2016 to analyze the impact of pollutant charges on the economic and environmental performances. The results show that the payment transfer of pollutant charges can influence the output but the effects varies with regions and time. Pollutant charges increase the resource utilization efficiency and promote economic growth. After controlling output and industry structure, pollutant charges on waste gas improve the air quality. This study confirms the existence of the environmental tax double dividend and provides a reference for new environmental protection taxes. • The effects of pollutant charges on economics and environment are tested. • There are heterogeneity of the effect of pollutant charges on industry structure. • Pollutant charges improves the resource utilization efficiency in Shandong. • Pollutant charges promotes economic growth and improves the environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional collaborative governance has become one of the most significant trends in environmental protection due to its importance in suppressing pollution transfer. This paper employs panel data from 285 cities in China during 2003–2019 and a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to evaluate the influence of regional collaborative governance on air pollution. Results show that regional collaborative governance significantly reduces air pollution. Heterogeneity assessment suggests that the inhibiting impact of regional collaborative governance on air pollution is long-term and increases temporally, whereas the spillover effect of regional collaborative governance is only significant in a specific range and decays spatially. In addition, the mechanism analysis reveals that regional collaborative governance reduces air pollution by increasing environmental regulation intensity, improving environmental governance efficiency, and promoting environmental protection technology. This study provides useful policy insights for policymakers seeking green and sustainable development to curb air pollution and improve environmental quality. • The impact of regional collaborative governance on air pollution is examined. • We employ a multi-period difference-in-differences approach. • Regional collaboration significantly reduces air pollution emissions. • Local effects increase temporally whereas spillover effects decay spatially. • The strongest inhibition comes from promoting environmental protection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China has implemented a huge CO 2 capture project, the 150,000 tons/year CO 2 capture and purification project of Shaanxi Guohua Jinjie Power Plant, which is the largest flue gas capture project in China. • The energy consumption level of regeneration reaches the leading level of flue gas CO 2 capture demonstration project. New energy-saving process of "interstage cooling + MVR heat pump + desorption heat energy recovery" is applied, and comprehensive regeneration energy consumption is less than 2.4GJ/tCO 2. • The final research results show that the project has technical feasibility and economic feasibility. The results show that the regeneration energy consumption per unit product is 2.32GJ/tCO 2 , and the loss of absorbent is less than or equal to 1.0 kg/tCO 2. There was little research and demonstration experience in large flue gas carbon projects in China. 150 kt/a flue gas CO 2 capture project in the Guohua Jinjie power plant, which is the largest-scale flue gas carbon capture project in China, effectively solved this technical bottleneck. The performance of the used compound amine absorbent, phase change absorbent, and the ionic liquid was described, and the compatibility of performance was considered in the project; new energy-saving processes integrated mechanical vapor recompression heat pump, interstage cooling, and split flow desorption. The plane layout of the project was put forward, and the utility consumption of the capture system was analyzed. The paper explained the health, safety, and environmental protection instructions, presented test category tables, and developed energy consumption and economic analyses. The results showed that the renewable energy consumption per unit product was 2.32 GJ/t CO 2 , the loss of absorbent was less than or equal to 1.0 kg/t CO 2 , and the total investment (excluding tax) of the project was 13.8398 million yuan. When the CO 2 sales price (excluding tax) was 203.43 Yuan/t, the yield was 0 %, and when the CO 2 sales price (excluding tax) was 260.949 Yuan/t, the yield was 8 %. The feasibility study research conclusions indicated that the project was technically and economically feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatio-temporal pattern of vegetation disturbance by open-pit mining activities such as the disturbance area and magnitude are important for coordinated development of surface mining and environmental protection. This paper proposes an automatic method (Auto-VDR) for identifying vegetation destruction and restoration of various open-pit mines. The proposed method consists of three steps: construction of the sample dataset, identification of disturbance types, and extraction of disturbance time and magnitude. First, a sample dataset with three types was constructed according to the interannual trends of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in mining areas: "Restoration after destruction (RAD)", "Destruction without restoration (DWR)" and "No destruction (ND)". Second, in order to accommodate to various open-pit mines with different background conditions (original vegetation cover prior to mining, loss rate and magnitude of vegetation due to mining, etc.), the "Shape-based distance" was used to match the NDVI curves of each pixel to the three disturbance types. Third, the disturbance time and magnitude in the destroyed regions were extracted based on the vegetated/bare ground threshold (α). The Shendong coal base in China was selected as the study area consisting of 133 open-pit coal mines. Annual NDVI was generated using Landsat time-series data. The maps of vegetation destruction and restoration caused by surface mining during 1990–2021 were drawn with accuracies of 0.82 and 0.87, respectively. The identification accuracy of the Auto-VDR is higher than Landsat-based detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) and Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC). The results show that from 1990 to 2021, a total of 400.08 km2 of vegetation has been destroyed, accounting for 35.93% of the study area. Furthermore, restoration activities mainly began in 2010, lagging mining activities by approximately three years. The accumulated area of restoration was 177.91 km2 and accounts for 15.98% of the study area. The vegetation destruction at the Shendong coal base has gone through four stages, with 2008, 2015 and 2018 as splits, corresponding to the developing stage of the China coal industry. In particular, the area of vegetation destruction per year reached the maximum of 61.16 km2 in 2008, which was 1.38 times the total area mined over the past 17 years. There were 14% of the 133 open-pit mines in Shendong coal base with a restoration rate of 0.8 and 59% of the mines with a restoration rate of 0.5. This method has been demonstrated to be able to extract vegetation destruction and restoration processes accurately and rapidly for various open-pit mines at a scale of coal base, which provides an important reference for supervising the impact of mining on the environment and assessing the effectiveness of ecological restoration. [Display omitted] • An automated method for identifying vegetation disturbance of open-pit mines. • The method is applicable to various open-pit mines at a large scale of coal base. • Higher accuracy (overall accuracy = 0.82 and 0.87) compared to other algorithms. • Maps of vegetation disturbance caused by surface mining were drawn. • A total of 400.08 km2 of vegetation has been destroyed in Shendong coal base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household rooftop photovoltaic technology not only alleviate the reliance on fossil fuels of electric power industries that benefits to environmental protection, but also to enhance rural households' income and relieve poverty. This paper explores the influence of uncertainty and time preference on rural households' adoption of rooftop photovoltaic technology using field experiment in Shandong, China. The results show that most rural households are inclined to risk aversion and ambiguity aversion, half of those are present-biased households. Risk preference, ambiguity preference and time preference obviously and positively impact the possibility of the adoption of rooftop photovoltaic technology, and time preference plays an essential positive moderating role in the impact of uncertainty preference on technology adoption. This research provides a micro view and policy recommendations for household rooftop photovoltaic technology promotion in rural China and sheds light upon how the government can formulate relevant policies to promote the technology. • Measure the households' uncertainty preference using field experiment. • Uncertainty and time preference impact rural rooftop photovoltaic technology adoption. • Time preference plays an important positive moderating role. • Household income and government subsidies affect household technological adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing the Comprehensive Environmental Administrative Enforcement Reform (CEAER) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper has adopted 179 prefecture-level cities from July 2018 to December 2020 as research sample to assess whether the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power can improve air quality through a time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) approach. Results show that CEAER can achieve better air quality improving effects, which can not only contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of Air Quality Index (AQI), but also contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and CO. And this promotion is mainly achieved through the micro mechanism of raising environmental penalties strength. Further examination of the heterogeneity in terms of economic factors, city rank, pollution abatement pressure, and political constraints reveals that CEAER's policy effects are mostly insignificant in cities with higher levels of economic development and administrative rank, and positively significant in poor historical air quality cities and key environmental protection cities. These results underscore the positive effects of the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power and provide ideas for other regions to draw on for environmental management system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing an eco-civilization is crucial in achieving green, low-carbon development, and thus bridging the gap between theory and practice is imperative to better promote urban ecological transformation. At present, there are inconsistencies and imbalances between theoretical research and practical efforts to achieve an eco-civilization. This paper uses bibliometric analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze China's progress towards an eco-civilization at the theoretical and practical levels. The 'theory' is analyzed using 632 articles, while the 'practice' is analyzed using 100 eco-civilization pilot zone reports. The two are compared, with results showing: from 2015 onwards, the theory is moving in an interdisciplinary direction, with seven themes focusing on macro topics. eco-civilization construction projects have multiple overlapping themes, and the growing connection between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental impacts driven by significant projects is the key to improving the level of regional ecological development. the theory and practice are similar in that both are concerned with environmental protection, ecological education, and ecotourism. However, eco-civilization construction projects lack forward-looking and dynamic development tracking of low-carbon research. the paper proposes that dynamic evaluation and project tracking methods should be applied to monitor critical indicators to achieve a solid link between the theory and practice during eco-construction projects. This paper also proposes academia should do more research on townships and other micro level phenomena to promote climate change and energy revolution in the construction of a Chinese eco-civilization. • Analysis of the similarities and differences between theoretical research and practical measures of eco-civilization. • Academic research focuses on sustainability, while practical activities lack attention to climate change. • Optimizing the energy-economy-environment integration project is the key to improving China's ecology. • Environmental protection, eco-civilization education, and eco-tourism are common concerns in the theory and practice. • Suggestions include focusing on crucial indicators and micro-level activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the main driving forces that influence the sustainable innovation of enterprises based on a three-dimensional framework at the organization level, individual level and system level. Using data from China's Innovation Survey, which is in line with the Community Innovation Survey（CIS）, this paper examines the behaviours and strategies of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation. The study finds that China's sustainable and innovative enterprises are generally large-scale, are long lasting, have good profitability and invest more in R&D and environmental protection. And the sustainable innovation of state-owned enterprises is significantly more than other enterprises. The primary purpose of enterprises engaged in sustainable innovation is to reduce environmental damage, but financial constraints are still an important obstacle for enterprises to overcome to carry out sustainable innovation. In addition, enterprises with more conservative senior executives and more political connections to government do not prefer sustainable innovation. The institutional pressure exerted by external environmental regulations and the cost constraints alleviated by government environmental protection subsidies are the key factors affecting enterprises' sustainable innovation. In conclusion, depicting the real situation of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation behaviour based on the survey framework and data of systematically identifying enterprises' innovation behaviour is beneficial to provide examples for developing countries related to sustainable innovation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Farm size plays a critical role in agricultural sustainability. This may have far-reaching consequences for the economic and environmental performance of agricultural production, resulting, for instance, in an excessive use of mineral fertilizers. However, the magnitude of such effects and their main causes are not well understood, while being essential for effective policy development, especially for countries like China where the agricultural sector is still largely dominated by smallholder farms. In this paper, we review the current understanding of how farm size affects agricultural sustainability using China's crop farming as an example from economic, environment and social aspects. We analyze impacts from both a Chinese and a global perspective to identify intervention points to improve agricultural performance. We found that increasing farm size has a positive impact on farmer's net profit, as well as economic, technical and labor efficiency with mean coefficients of 0.005, 0.02 and 2.25, respectively. Nevertheless, the relationships between farm size and overall productivity, total factor productivity and allocative efficiency are still not well understood and therefore require more research. Meanwhile, increase in farm size is associated with statistically significant decrease in fertilizer and pesticide use per hectare, showing clear benefits for environmental protection. In line with the experiences documented for the evolution of agricultural practices in developed countries, the expansion of large-scale farming is a critical path for modernizing agricultural production and ensuring sustainable food production from the social perspective. Measures concerning farm size should be implemented in an interaction between farmers and the government to promote the green development of agriculture. Highlights • Farm size plays an important role in the performance of agriculture. • Increasing farm size shows clear benefits for environmental protection. • Large-scale farming is a critical path for modernizing and sustaining agriculture. • Smallholders prefer to use more non-fixed inputs to increase yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Thallium (Tl) is a typical toxic metal, which poses a great threat to human health through drinking water and the food chain (biomagnification). China has rich Tl-bearing mineral resources, which have been extensively explored and utilized, leading to release of large amounts of Tl into the environment. However, research on Tl pollution and removal techniques is relatively limited, because Tl has not been listed within the scope of environmental monitoring in China for several decades. This paper reviewed Tl pollution in wastewater arising from various industries in China, as well as the latest available methods for treating Tl-containing industrial wastewater, in order to give an outlook on effective technologies for controlling Tl pollution. Conventional physical and chemical treatment technologies are efficient at removing trace amounts of Tl, but it proved to be difficult to achieve the stringent environmental standard (≤0.1–5 μg/L) cost-effectively. Adsorption by using newly developed nanomaterials, and metal oxide modified polymer materials and microbial fuel cells are highly promising and expected to become next-generation technologies for remediation of Tl pollution. With the potential for greater Tl contamination in the environment under accelerated growth of industrialization, researches based on lab-scale implementation of such promising treatment technologies should be further expanded to pilot and industrial scale, ensuring environmental protection and the safety of drinking water for sustainable development. Comprehensive insights into experiences of Tl pollution in China and in-depth perspectives on new frontier technologies of Tl removal from wastewaters will also benefit other nations/regions worldwide, which are susceptible to high exposure to Tl likewise. Highlights • Thallium (Tl) is highly toxic whereas understudied as compared to other metals. • Booming Tl pollution is occurring in China very recently. • Various sources were reviewed for soaring Tl pollution in wastewater in China. • Traditional methods are hard to meet environmental standards cost-effectively. • New frontier technologies of Tl removal benefit all nations faced high Tl exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A Super-SBM with undesirable output model is applied. • The environmental efficiency of 283 Chinese cities during 2003–2016 is analyzed. • The overall environmental efficiency performance across the Chinese cities is low. • China has achieved significant improvement in environmental efficiency across survey period. Abstract In the past decades, unprecedented dramatic economic development in the Chinese cities has also brought serious environmental problems. In line with this, the Chinese government has been investing great efforts and resources in addressing environmental problems. However, little previous studies have been conducted in examining whether this development is efficient from a win-win perspective balance between economic growth and environmental protection. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the environmental efficiency (EE) in the process of dramatic economic development in the Chinese cities. The Super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model is adopted to analyze the EE performance. Data used for analysis are collected from 283 sample cities in China. The research results indicate that the overall EE performance across the Chinese cities is relatively low, and the differences in EE performance among the 283 cities are significant. The top three EE performers are Shenzhen, Sanya and Erdos, and Baiyin, Xinzhou and Liupanshui are the bottom three performers. The results also suggest that the EE performance in the Eastern area, where most first-tier cities are located in, is significantly higher than that in the Central and Western areas (aggregated with fourth and fifth tier-cities). From the dynamic perspective, the results show that China has achieved significant improvement in environmental efficiency across the surveyed period of 2003–2016. The research findings provide valuable references not only for the Chinese policy-makers and practitioners to adopt measures for promoting a win-win balance between environmental protection and economic development in the Chinese context, but also for further studies on environmental efficiency in the international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The trilemma of economic growth, energy sustainability and environmental protection is facing China's urban sustainable development. In this paper, the ecological network analysis is applied to evaluate the whole metabolic processes of urban energy system. Then, a hierarchy analysis is conducted to diagnose and describe the energy's impacts on the whole energy metabolic processes, and reflect the dynamics and evolution of urban energy metabolic system. Using Beijing as a case study, results suggest that Beijing's strongest energy metabolic flows are electricity→service and electricity→ industrial energy use. Meanwhile, the main inflow to electricity has switched from raw coal in 2008 to natural gas in 2016. The hierarchy analysis indicates that the impacts of Natural gas and other energy are increasing while that of raw coal is decreasing. These results also suggest that Beijing's current achievements on urban energy system optimization mainly rely on structural variation in industries. It is considered that the future optimization should concentrate on promoting clean energy utilization in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear power has gradually become one of the key parts in power supply structure due to its environmental benefits, effective productivity and steady operation. However, complicated system, high investment and derivative security issues make it difficult to develop in a large scale. Nowadays, faced with serious challenges from environment protection, fossil fuel lacking and upgrading of industrial structure, China are taking measures to promote nuclear power industry to realize sustainable development. China׳s nuclear power industry has achieved large achievements in industrial policy, technical and economic condition during the last three decades. However, there still exist problems impeding its future development. Therefore, this paper first analyzes the external environment and historical stages of nuclear power industry in China. Then, it summarizes its current situation and points out the existing problems. In the end, to deal with the above problems, this paper proposes relative solutions from the aspects of industrial distribution optimization, regional resources integration, technical standard system, industrial organization mode and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of equal importance to improve the efficiency of environmental protection enterprises (EPEs) and polluting enterprises (PEs) for Environmental Protection and Green Development, which is a micro-foundation for China's economic transformation and high-quality development. This paper redefines the efficient frontier of enterprises, distinguishing between "absolute technical efficiency" (ATE) and "relative technical efficiency" (RTE), and conducts two-dimensional measurements and dynamic comparison to examine the technical efficiency characteristics of China's EPEs and PEs listed on the A-share market, based on the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method. The results demonstrate that, first, the ATE of EPEs exhibits a reverse upward trend, while the ATE of PEs and A-share enterprises as a whole is declining simultaneously. Second, in contrast to the shrinkage of the ATE and RTE of PEs, the efficient frontier of EPEs has experienced rapid expansion. Third, capital utilization efficiency, rather than economies of scale effects, appears to be the main obstacle impeding the technical efficiency performance of EPEs. Therefore, improving the capital utilization efficiency and the extent of coupling and coordination between capital and labor is the key to promoting the technical efficiency of EPEs. Fourth, targeted government subsidies and tax refunds for EPEs need to be improved and an external evaluation mechanism focusing on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) rating needs to be strengthened. Consequently, it is essential to promote the combination of top-down targeted policy support and multi-dimensional external evaluation to guide capital flows and achieve their efficient utilization, which is also the basis of the environmental protection industry's high-quality development. • First, the ATE of EPEs exhibits a reverse upward trend, while the ATE of PEs is declining simultaneously. • Second, in contrast to the shrinkage of the ATE and RTE of PEs, the efficient frontier of EPEs has experienced rapid expansion. • Third, capital utilization efficiency is the main obstacle impeding the technical efficiency performance of EPEs. • Fourth, targeted government subsidies and tax refunds for EPEs need to be improved and an external evaluation mechanism needs to be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's largest source of carbon emissions, the power sector's transition to lower levels of carbon emission intensity is critical to achieving China's carbon emission (CE) reduction commitments. In this paper, the CE intensity of electricity generation (CEIE) in 30 provinces from 2000 to 2019 is calculated, and the temporal evolution and spatial distribution characteristics of CEIE are discussed. Then, the spatial spillover effect of each driving factor on CEIE is calculated using the spatial Durbin model. The CEIE reveals a first increasing and then decreasing trend, and the regional differences gradually decrease. Simultaneously, the CEIE has a significant positive spatial correlation, and the overall spatial distribution pattern is high in the northeast and low in the southwest of the country. Economic development and foreign trade both inhibit CEIE, while electricity consumption, research and development, unit operation level, and power structure all promote CEIE. Each driving factor's influence on regional CEIE exerts a spatial spillover effect. Among them, the spatial positive spillover effects of industrial structure and environmental protection investment are the most obvious, while the spatial spillover effects of other driving factors are not apparent. Furthermore, these findings provide practical insights into policy adjustments and the coordinated interregional development of low-carbon electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese villages are a successful example of active adaptation and effective use and protection of the environment. Traditional Chinese settlement landscapes form under the influence of geographical environments and environment-friendly ideas and have specific regional identities. Core factors of these residential areas can be considered cultural landscape genes. Based on this, this paper used gene analysis to identify traditional Chinese habitat patterns and decipher their environmental significance and cultural connotations. The results show that: Living patterns can be divided into six categories: 'north-sitting or south-facing', ' Yin and Yang harmony', 'mountain-backed or water-facing', 'square-surrounded', 'psychological induction', and 'site-specific' modes. These patterns correspond to the laws of orientation: Yin and Yang , mountain and water, security, auspiciousness, and synthesis, respectively. In their process of formation and development, traditional Chinese living patterns were deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophical ideas of ' Yin and Yang ', 'the living earth', 'unity of heaven and human', and 'harmony between human and earth'. This study utilised the logical framework of gene identification, decoding, and expression to examine the characteristics and values of residential landscapes in traditional Chinese settlement patterns, and extracted the genome map of settlement pattern from a cross-regional perspective. This study has important implications for the construction of green habitats. • Traditional settlement patterns in China were reviewed. • Concepts of Chinese philosophy in relation to settlement patterns were described. • The influence of the environment on settlement patterns was analysed. • The importance of continued research was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]