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The majority of existing studies argue that rich people and the residents in high-income countries and regions have stronger willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental protection. Does such a rule hold true for China at the present stage? Previous studies pay little attention to this issue due to the lack of related data. Merging the micro data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2010 (CGSS2010) with the macro data at the corresponding urban level of China, as well as two types of satellite monitoring data, this paper investigates the effect of income on residents’ WTP for environmental protection at both macro and micro perspectives based on the ordered Logit model. The results show that the rich do have stronger WTP for environmental protection. However, with the increase in residents’ income, the marginal WTP for environmental protection will decline, and a reversal occurs at the top income level. Therefore, the WTP does not always rise with the increase in income, and the middle-income class has the strongest WTP for environmental protection. Moreover, after controlling individual characteristics, residents’ WTP for environmental protection more depends on environmental pollution degree rather than urban average income level measured by both GDP per capita and the nighttime lights data from satellite monitoring. The residents in more polluted cities have stronger WTP for environmental protection. Therefore, it is not reasonable to improve people’s environmental preferences purely through economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlation between urbanization and environmental pollution is a major focus of study in geography, environmental science, and economics. Particulate matter is the primary pollutant of air pollution and made up of heavy metal, organic carbon and aromatic hydrocarbon and complicated chemicals. PM 2.5 are fine particulate matter with diameters that are less than 2.5 μm. The aim of this study on the relationship between urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is to achieve a win-win situation of both economic development and environmental protection, which is of great significance to sustainable development in China. This paper uses PM 2.5 remote sensing data and statistical yearbook data from 2000 to 2011 to build four panel data models within the urbanization-PM 2.5 concentration Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. The goal is to find out the correlations between PM 2.5 concentration and economic urbanization, population urbanization, and space urbanization. Furthermore, scenario simulations are set to predict when China will reach inflection point and achieve its target concentration. Results show that the relationship between economic urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is an inverted N-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve. Most cities in East China have reached the second inflection point of inverted-N curve to step into the win-win stage while many cities in Middle China still need 10–15 years to arrive at the inflection point of the inverted-U curve. Therefore, China is under great pressure to prevent PM 2.5 pollution and pursue more targeted PM 2.5 -reduction policies for air quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a continuous rigid segmental prefabrication and assembly bridge on Guangzhou Metro No.14 as example, railway vehicle induced vibration energy harvesting and saving was studied in this paper. By modeling multi-body dynamics system of B-type railway vehicle and the wheel-rail interaction relationship, train-track-bridge (TTB) response was calculated accurately. Through dynamic analysis of the TTB system with two different track irregularity conditions, vertical acceleration time histories of the track slab were acquired. Based on this, a new type of electromagnetic vibration energy harvesters (EM-VEHs) is proposed. Utilizing the track slab vibration, the EM-VEHs set adjacent to the track slab are demonstrated to be feasible to supply enough power for strain collection units or GPS data transmission units in bridge health monitoring system. Compared with previous research, the power density of the proposed EM-VEH device is much higher. The application prospect of the proposed EM-VEH on urban mass transit SPA bridges is worthy to be anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper designed an information integration system for prediction of the spontaneous combustion in the coal stockpile, which is characterized by real-time data acquisition, temperature cloud field formation and parameter prediction via ZigBee wireless network and industrial laser scanner, along with the ABC-MGM(1,1) hybrid model of the moving GM(1,1) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. In order to enhance the short-term prediction accuracy, a moving GM(1,1) (MGM) scheme has been provided by constantly modifying the data input; and the generation coefficient of MGM(1,1) model has been optimized by ABC algorithm. • Direct sensing and prediction method is provided to prevent spontaneous combustion. • Multilayer Zig-bee sensor network is designed to facilitate acquisition of parameters. • A novel grey prediction model is proposed based on GM(1,1) and ABC algorithm. • Better performance for hazard control is achieved in large Power plant in China. Spontaneous combustion of coal can lead to serious environmental pollution, safety hazards and huge economic losses. Hazard prevention and environmental protection requires effective monitoring network and efficient prediction methods. To acquire the real-time data of coal parameters we designed multi-layered Zig-bee based wireless sensor network. The shape of the coal pile is formed by the industrial laser scanner followed by the formation of 3D temperature point cloud field via Kriging interpolation. Afterwards, an integrated evaluation indicator Heat Loss Capacity (HLC) is proposed, which synthesizes various factors inducing spontaneous combustion. The real-time and high accurate HLC prediction is realized by using metabolic method to update the raw sequence of the GM(1,1) grey prediction model in cycle with the latest acquired sensor data. Finally, a hybrid model ABC-MGM(1,1) combining the ABC optimization algorithm with the metabolic GM(1,1) model is proposed. Experiment shows that the ABC-MGM(1,1) model has better performance in parameter optimization as well as HLC prediction, especially for short-term prediction. The proposed method has been utilized to predict spontaneous combustion of the stockpiled coal in Xutang power plant of China. The timely parameter acquisition by 25 Zig-bee nodes and effective prediction by the proposed model shows great practicability in safety and hazard prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty eradication and sustainable development are common missions of humanity and are top priorities of the Chinese government. Nevertheless, the poverty of reservoir immigrants is usually interwoven with eco-environmental and geo-disaster factors, making poverty alleviation the most challenging task in rural China. In this context, a System Dynamics Model (SDM) is used to explore interactive mechanisms of eco-environment, geo-disasters and immigrant poverty as well as enable policy makers to understand the impacts of different investment strategies on the key variables and the sustainable development of China's Poverty-stricken Reservoir Regions (CPRR). Based on data from 1998 to 2014, this paper simulates the Wanzhou reservoir area. It designs four policy scenarios to simulate changes to the major variables: sewage treatment investment, disaster control investment, soil erosion control investment and poverty alleviation fund, from 2015 to 2020. It is found that 1) China's Poverty-stricken Reservoir Regions are highly likely to achieve the poverty reduction goal by 2020 by taking the coordinated strategy and pay more attention to disaster management; and 2) the coordinated development scenario could reduce poverty, sewage discharge, disease incidence, geo-disasters and soil erosion, and increase the areas of forest cover and agricultural land systematically. The SDM method is reliable for the dynamic development analysis of CPRR. The results could offer policy recommendations to policy makers and provide a method to implement best practices for the sustainable development of CPRR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River is one of the largest and most important rivers in the world. Over the past several decades, the natural sediment regime of the Yangtze River has been altered by the construction of dams. This paper uses multi-scale entropy analysis to ascertain the impacts of large dams on the complexity of high-frequency suspended sediment dynamics in the Yangtze River system, especially after impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD). In this study, the complexity of sediment dynamics is quantified by framing it within the context of entropy analysis of time series. Data on daily sediment loads for four stations located in the mainstem are analyzed for the past 60 years. The results indicate that dam construction has reduced the complexity of short-term (1–30 days) variation in sediment dynamics near the structures, but that complexity has actually increased farther downstream. This spatial pattern seems to reflect a filtering effect of the dams on the on the temporal pattern of sediment loads as well as decreased longitudinal connectivity of sediment transfer through the river system, resulting in downstream enhancement of the influence of local sediment inputs by tributaries on sediment dynamics. The TGD has had a substantial impact on the complexity of sediment series in the mainstem of the Yangtze River, especially after it became fully operational. This enhanced impact is attributed to the high trapping efficiency of this dam and its associated large reservoir. The sediment dynamics “signal” becomes more spatially variable after dam construction. This study demonstrates the spatial influence of dams on the high-frequency temporal complexity of sediment regimes and provides valuable information that can be used to guide environmental conservation of the Yangtze River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive design strategies are important for achieving building sustainability given their proved influences over the building performance in both energy and indoor environmental aspects. The building layout, envelope thermophysics, building geometry and infiltration & air-tightness are major passive architectural parameters to improve the building energy efficiency. In this paper, a comprehensive literature review on simulation-based approaches to optimize passively designed buildings is conducted and corresponding research gaps are identified. Based on existing research methods, modelling experiments on a generic building are conducted to integrate robust variance-based sensitivity analyses with an early-stage design optimization process. Proposed mixed-mode ventilation and lighting dimming control algorithms are applied to the EnergyPlus model to simulate the total lighting and cooling energy demands by incorporating the related design criteria in a local green building assessment scheme. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is then coupled with the modelling experiment to obtain the Pareto frontier as well as the final optimum solution. Different settings of NSGA-II are also investigated to improve the computational efficiency without jeopardizing the optimization productivity. Furthermore, the sensitivity of optimum design solutions to external environmental parameters in hot and humid areas are explored. Findings from this study will guide decision-makers through a holistic optimization process to fulfill energy-saving targets in a passively designed green building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of regional eco-efficiency is a significant approach to achieve coordinated development of China's economic development and environmental protection, and an effective environmental regulation system is a crucial driver to the improvement of regional eco-efficiency. Based on the panel data of China's 30 provinces during 2000–2013, this paper divides environmental regulation into three types: command-and-control regulation, market-based regulation and voluntary regulation. STIRPAT model is employed to test the effects of these three environmental regulations on eco-efficiency in the eastern, central and western regions of China. Research results turn out that: (1) in the eastern region, market-based and voluntary environmental regulation have a positive impact on eco-efficiency improvement while command-and-control environmental regulation has no significant impact, and (2) in the central region, command-and-control and market-based environmental regulation can promote eco-efficiency more significantly compared with voluntary environmental regulation, and (3) in the western region, command-and-control environmental regulation plays a positive role in eco-efficiency improvement whilst market-based and voluntary environmental regulation have no significant impacts. These findings indicate that the effects of different types of environmental regulation on eco-efficiency apparently differ in regions. Finally, to optimize and adjust the environmental regulation tools, policy recommendations targeting different regions are concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent academic endeavours have questioned whether the rapidly unfolding Payments for Environmental Services (PES) may have profound influence on land tenure which would in turn impact the conservation efficacy of PES. This paper developed a game-theory model in the context of rural China, which describes the endogenous formation of land rights as a bargaining process between ordinary villagers and village leaders. This model gave rise to theoretical predictions pertaining to the implications of two PES schemes in China for land tenure, namely the Sloping Land Conversion Programme (SLCP) and the Ecological Public-Benefit Forest Compensation Programme (EPBFCP). The theoretical predictions were tested using primary data collected through large-scale field surveys. These data were analysed using the Propensity Score Matching method and panel data models. Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical results find that the SLCP has likely enhanced land tenure security by increasing the bargaining costs of village leaders' attempts to reallocate SLCP lands to other households. On the other hand, villagers tend to have less motivation to de-collectivise those forest lands enrolled in the EPBFCP, which somewhat stands in the way of the country's agenda to further de-collectivise communal forests and allocate them to individual households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two major aims of watershed management are regional economic development and watershed ecosystem protection. In this paper, constructed wetland (CW) technology is employed to examine watershed ecosystem protection under a certain regional economic load. The Chaohu Lake watershed in China was chosen as the target study area and fuzzy random variables used to describe the uncertainties. Then, a bi-level optimization model for watershed-scale CW planning was developed and applied to the Chaohu Lake watershed with the aim of protecting ecosystem health. To solve the model, a fuzzy random simulation-based nested simulated annealing algorithm was designed. The results showed that there was a “finite sum game” relationship between economic development and ecosystem health within the Chaohu Lake watershed. Under a probability and possibility of 0.9, to achieve the ecological goal F 1 = 70, it was estimated that a 348.19 (ha) CW needed to be constructed. The impacts of environmental policies and economic development on the watershed ecosystem were found to be significant. One of the key practical results indicated that: in the Chaohu Lake watershed, the water environmental treatment of rivers should take precedence over that of lakes; a result which could be of assistance to local government policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air source heat pump (ASHP) technology is widely accepted for the merits of energy-saving and environmental protection, and has been served as the heating and cooling source in most part of China. This paper presents a numerical model to predict the performance of a typical ASHP system in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The theoretical analysis shows that the occurrence of the frost is hard to be found on air-side heat exchanger due to the low relative humidity, which can improve the performance of the ASHP system. The numerical results show that the ambient air temperature and atmospheric pressure have a great effect on the system performance. For the case of without considering frosting problem, the COP of the system is reduced by 9.5%–12.5% than that for standard pressure (101.325 kPa). The heating capacity of the system is reduced by 16.2%–19.8% than that for standard pressure. For the case of considering frosting problem, the heating capacity and COP of the ASHP system in Lhasa are 37.5 kW and 1.98, respectively under the outdoor design temperature, which are almost same or higher than most cities in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of China’s port industry has caused numerous problems, among which the most significant is environmental pollution. A major goal for government and port enterprises alike is the achievement of both effective environmental protection and operational efficiency. Therefore, environmental factors should be considered when evaluating port efficiency. However, most of the available data envelopment analysis (DEA) models that have been used in previous studies enable each decision-making unit (DMU) to choose its favorite weight-combination with a rather careless approach. This may have caused some DMUs with very good economic indexes but very poor environmental indexes to be evaluated as fully efficient. This paper proposes a non-radial DEA preference model, based on the assumption of variable returns to scale (VRS) and the Directional Distance Function (DDF). The proposed model has been used to evaluate and analyze the efficiency of Chinese-listed port enterprises. The efficiency results showed the average efficiency to be low for all ports when environmental factors are considered. The regression results show that port assets, berth quantity, and the geographical location can significantly impact the environmental performance of Chinese port enterprises. This study also classified all ports into four categories, based on throughput and efficiency. Recommendations for the implementation for improvements of different environmental policies have been made for the individual ports in each category based on the actual situation of each port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of remanufacturing is gaining popularity in practice, its effect on environmental protection and energy saving is significant, which has attracted widespread concerns, especially in the automotive components field. Automotive components remanufacturing (ACR), as a prominent part in automotive life-cycle development, can dramatically reduce resources-waste and mitigate energy-crisis, which has become a prominent direction to promote sustainable development of Chinese economy. Thus, influence factors analysis and enterprise operation patterns assessment which primarily contribute to ACR industry development are of paramount importance. This paper elaborates the criteria influencing the ACR industry operation and analyzes the main operation patterns for ACR in China. To overcome the uncertainty of the evaluation process, a new hybrid multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) model that combines fuzzy AHP (analytical hierarchy process) and fuzzy G-TOPSIS (combining gray relation analysis and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) is proposed to determine weights of influence criteria and evaluate ACR production operation patterns. In addition, sensitivity analysis is applied to monitor the robustness of the method. The study refers to the experience of Chinese end-of-life vehicle (ELV) laws and implementation requirements of extended producer responsibility (EPR). The obtained results provide the new guideline to revise the regulations of Chinese ACR industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The factors that affecting urban carbon emissions efficiency (CEE) are explored. • The carbon emissions of 282 cities are estimated with the aid of nighttime light data. • Urban CEE has significant and positive spatial spillover effects. • Industrial agglomeration and collaboration are key to green production efficiency. This paper explores the factors that improve the efficiency of urban carbon emissions. Based on nighttime light data, the carbon emissions of 282 cities in China from 2004 to 2018 are estimated, and the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) is measured. The spatial autocorrelation results show that CEE in Chinese cities has significant and positive spatial spillover effects. The LISA low-low type cluster area of CEE presents an evolutionary trend of westward migration, and eventually formed two low-efficiency centers in the Central Plains city group and the Sichuan-Chongqing city group. The empirical results of the spatial Durbin error model show that urban population expansion, economic growth and R&D investment have effectively improved CEE, but industrial scale and agglomeration adversely affect CEE. In addition, human capital investment and foreign investment have not exerted their due green growth effects. Manufacturing agglomeration had a negative impact on local CEE, but had a warning effect on neighboring regions. Different from the manufacturing industry, the agglomeration of producer services industry can bring significant improvement to CEE, accompanied by a demonstration effect which can promote the CEE in adjacent regions. Further, this paper finds that developing the synergy between manufacturing and producer services industries can significantly restrain the negative effects of industry on CEE. This paper enriches the performance evaluation framework of low-carbon city development in theory, and varies the situations that previous researches only concerned about carbon emissions while ignoring emissions efficiency. This paper is a beneficial policy practice of the coordinated development of economic growth and ecological environmental protection in the regional coordinated development mechanism, which indicates that strengthening industrial collaboration can effectively improve the efficiency of green production in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, resources such as iron ore were transported to the upper-middle reaches of the Yangtze River by river-sea combined mode in order to support the rapid economic development of Yangtze River Economic Zone. However, emissions from vessels have caused serious negative effect on the environment along the Yangtze River. Therefore, the Chinese government took a series of measures so as to control the emissions in this area. This paper draws comparisons among river-sea combined mode, river-sea mode and mixed mode (combination of the river-sea combined mode and river-sea mode) based on the ship emissions inventory of SO x , PM 10 , PM 2.5 , NO x , CO, HC, CO 2 , N 2 O and CH 4 for 13 common cases in the existing network by bottom-up method. In addition, the paper carries out in-depth analyses, providing evidence for future ship operation directions. The results indicate river-sea mode and mixed mode which implement river-sea vessels record less unit emissions compared to the traditional river-sea combined mode. Moreover, shorter transshipment (lightning) times, proper ports of transshipping and cleaner fuels are able to reduce ship emissions significantly. Hence, we conclude that first, river-sea vessels should be encouraged; second, the initiative of a deep-water channel of the Yangtze River should be continued; and last, stricter regulations of fuels have played a significant role in reducing ship emissions. • Vessel operation is closely related to ocean environmental protection. • Emissions of bulk Carriers in China's East Coast-Yangtze River network are assessed. • Vessel operation modes are compared based on the ship emissions inventory. • Case study and future ship operation directions are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, more people are becoming aware of the importance of ecosystem protection. As a crucial part of the human well-being, ecological well-being has always had essential scientific research value. In this paper, authors take the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone as a case study, based on the theory of land ecosystem services to study the ecological well-being. With the help of expert coefficient value assessment for different types of land use, authors have researched the spatiotemporal differentiation and influence mechanism of regional ecological well-being, using the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) model and Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The results found small differences in change of resource well-being (RW) and large differences in change of environmental well-being (EW) from 1990 to 2020, and the RWs and EWs of the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core, Kenli, Hanting Core and Changyi are higher than those of their surrounding counties. The coupling coordination relationship of RW and EW in the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core and Changyi is larger than in their surrounding counties. Population urbanization (PU) and industrial urbanization (IU) are important factors of change in land use and ecosystem services which influence the human well-being, PU affects RW more significantly, and IU affects EW more significantly. In order to further promote the sustainable ecological well-being of the Yellow River Delta region, authors recommend the conservation of land resources, technological innovation of environmental management and the formulation of environmental law. It provides significant enlightenment and decision support for strengthening the environmental protection of the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone. In this paper, authors take the Yellow River Delta high-efficiency eco-economic zone as a case study, based on the theory of land ecosystem services to study the ecological well-being. With the help of expert coefficient value assessment for different types of land use, authors have researched the spatiotemporal differentiation and influence mechanism of regional ecological well-being, using the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD)Model model (CCDM) and Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The results found small differences in change of resource well-being (RW) and large differences in change of environmental well-being (EW) from 1990 to 2020, and the RWs and EWs of the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core, Kenli, Hanting Core and Changyi are higher than those of their surrounding counties. The coupling coordination relationship of RW and EW in the central cities including Dongying Core, Hekou Core and Changyi is larger than in their surrounding counties. Population urbanization (PU) and industrial urbanization (IU) are important factors of change in land use and ecosystem services which influence the human well-being, PU affects RW more significantly, and IU affects EW more significantly. In order to further promote the sustainable ecological well-being of the Yellow River Delta region, authors recommend the conservation of land resources, technological innovation of environmental management and the formulation of environmental law. The study has important value for realizing regional sustainable development and improving human well-being, and also provides a new research idea for exploring the relationship between man and land by using the intersection of sociology, geography, and ecology. [Display omitted] • It provides a new perspective for studying ecological well-being based on ecosystem services. • It analyzed the spatial characteristics of ecological well-being in the Yellow River Delta of China. • 3. It explored the mechanism of urbanization on ecological well-being with GWR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of modern industrialization has caused heavy environmental pollution. Environmental protection is a basic national policy of China. In 2011, China began to implement the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Environmental Protection" (12th FYP_NEP). Using the survey data of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Shandong Province of China, this paper empirically explores the impact of 12th FYP_NEP on the energy utilization and operating efficiencies of SMEs. It is found that the environmental policy "12th FYP_NEP" has a significant incentive effect on both efficiency performance of Chinese SMEs, and has a greater positive impact on operating efficiency. Our heterogeneity analysis showed the following results. The incentive effect is different in different industries and enterprises of different sizes. The policy "12th FYP_NEP" has a greater positive impact on the energy utilization efficiency of SMEs in China's first and second tier cities, but it has no significant impact on their operation efficiency. This shows that SMEs in first and second tier cities are more effective in coping with the national environmental policy reform strategy. It can be seen that the promulgation of China's environmental policies can significantly improve the energy utilization awareness of these SMEs. The incentive effect of the policy on the two efficiency performances of SMEs in cities with "heavy air pollution" is greater, indicating that the implementation effect of "12th FYP_NEP" on SMEs in such cities is better. The enlightenments are as follows: the current situation of Chinese SMEs is that the energy utilization efficiency is low, while the operating efficiency is high. Most enterprises attach great importance to their own operating profits and economic development, and the awareness of energy utilization needs to be greatly strengthened. "12th FYP_NEP" has obvious positive effect on the energy utilization and operating efficiencies of SMEs, but there are slight differences among different types of enterprises. It is suggested that governments can refine their own environmental regulation standards and implement different environmental regulations for different types of enterprises, so as to enhance the performance of domestic enterprises most effectively. • This paper used the China survey data on SMEs over the period 2010–2013. • It is found that the Chinese "12th FYP_NEP" has a significant incentive effect on efficiency performance of Chinese SMEs. • The incentive effect is different in different industries and enterprises of different sizes. • The policy makes for improving the energy efficiency of SMEs in first and second-tier cities and heavy-polluted cities. • Chinese SMEs should attach great importance to energy utilization rather than operating profits only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The feasibility of preparing road base materials from various industrial solid wastes is reviewed. • The properties of road base materials prepared from various industrial solid wastes were compared. • The synergistic effect of various industrial solid wastes on the preparation of road base materials was discussed in detail. • Critical suggestions are given for the preparation of road base materials from industrial solid waste. The accumulation of industrial solid wastes has led to serious environmental pollution. Resources and large-scale utilization of industrial solid wastes is an effective way to solve the problem of solid waste accumulation in China. This paper reviews the feasibility of using coal-based solid waste, metallurgical slag, tailings, industrial byproduct gypsum and municipal garbage incineration waste as road base materials. The properties of road base materials prepared from industrial solid wastes are similar to those of traditional materials. In addition, the unconfined compressive strength of road base materials prepared from different industrial solid wastes was compared. It was found that the type of industrial solid wastes and the proportion of designed raw materials can be reasonably selected according to the actual road demand and the source of industrial solid wastes. Moreover, the composite synergistic effect has been reported between various industrial solid wastes. This will help to improve the performance of road base materials prepared from multi-industrial solid wastes. Therefore, applying industrial solid wastes to road base materials can accomplish the large-scale utilization of industrial solid wastes and broaden the range of road base material selection. Finally, critical suggestions are given for the preparation of road base materials from industrial solid wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms investing in environmental issues often suffer from increased operating costs and reduced profits. Therefore, rigorous environmental legislation is required to motivate firms to conduct more green innovations. This paper takes the promulgation of China's New Environmental Protection Law as an ideal quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of rigorous environmental legislation on corporate green innovations. By reconsolidating the "compensation effect" and the "crowding-out effect", we find that China's New Environmental Protection Law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations, but inhibits the quality of green innovations. The potential mechanisms regarding green innovation quantity and quality are strikingly different. China's New Environmental Protection Law promotes green innovation quantity mainly through alleviating government favoritisms and increasing the risk of environmental litigations. However, since high-quality innovations require higher investment costs and greater tolerance for failure, China's New Environmental Protection Law also tightens financing constraints and exacerbates managerial myopia, which crowds out high-quality green innovations. Moreover, China's New Environmental Protection Law causes short-term corporate performance losses, but it indeed promotes environmental performances. Our results are crucial to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of environmental legislation and provide policy inspirations for the government concerning the environment. • Based on China's New Environmental Protection Law, we test the effect of environmental legislation on quantity and quality of green innovations. • The law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations, but inhibits the quality of green innovations. • The law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations by alleviating government favoritisms and increasing environmental litigation risks. • The law inhibits the quality of green innovations by tightening financing constraints and exacerbating managerial myopia. • The law causes short-term corporate performance losses, but it indeed promotes environmental performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs the ecological footprint accounts for 30 provinces in China, and explores the effects of environmental policies from the perspective of various ecological footprints. We innovatively focus on the impact which pollution fees superseded environmental protection tax on ecological footprints. The effects of these two environmental policies in China is compared with the panel smooth transition regression model (PSTR). In comparison with pollution fees, environmental protection tax has a stronger inhibition on ecological footprints. Pollution fees can lessen the cropland's ecological footprint, but this negative effect presents marginal diminishing. As for the ecological footprints of fishing grounds and fossil energy land, when pollution fees exceed 2.002 and 2.011 (‱ of GDP) respectively, there will be a restraining effect. Pollution fees has no effect on reducing the ecological footprints of grazing land, forest land, infrastructure, and the total. The environmental protection tax has a negative impact of linearity on the ecological footprints of fishing grounds and forest land. When environmental protection tax exceeds the corresponding thresholds (1.226, 3.482, 1.867 and 3.083), it will decrease the ecological footprints of grazing land, infrastructure, fossil energy land, and the total. The negative effect of environmental protection tax on cropland's ecological footprint is not obvious. Further, the change charts of influence coefficient on ecological footprints are drawn to directly reflect the optimal tax range for environmental protection tax to diminish ecological footprints. The heterogeneity analysis reveal that the current environmental protection tax only inhibits the total ecological footprint of eight provinces, mostly in northern China. These conclusions have reference significance for the government to adjust the appropriate environmental protection tax rate. [Display omitted] • The ecological footprint accounts of 30 provinces in China are constructed. • Environmental protection tax outperforms pollution fees in abating eco-footprints. • The optimal tax range for lessening various ecological footprints is put forward. • Only 8 provinces reduce total ecological footprint by environmental protection tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms investing in environmental issues often suffer from increased operating costs and reduced profits. Therefore, rigorous environmental legislation is required to motivate firms to conduct more green innovations. This paper takes the promulgation of China's New Environmental Protection Law as an ideal quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of rigorous environmental legislation on corporate green innovations. By reconsolidating the "compensation effect" and the "crowding-out effect", we find that China's New Environmental Protection Law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations, but inhibits the quality of green innovations. The potential mechanisms regarding green innovation quantity and quality are strikingly different. China's New Environmental Protection Law promotes green innovation quantity mainly through alleviating government favoritisms and increasing the risk of environmental litigations. However, since high-quality innovations require higher investment costs and greater tolerance for failure, China's New Environmental Protection Law also tightens financing constraints and exacerbates managerial myopia, which crowds out high-quality green innovations. Moreover, China's New Environmental Protection Law causes short-term corporate performance losses, but it indeed promotes environmental performances. Our results are crucial to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of environmental legislation and provide policy inspirations for the government concerning the environment. • Based on China's New Environmental Protection Law, we test the effect of environmental legislation on quantity and quality of green innovations. • The law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations, but inhibits the quality of green innovations. • The law promotes the quantity of corporate green innovations by alleviating government favoritisms and increasing environmental litigation risks. • The law inhibits the quality of green innovations by tightening financing constraints and exacerbating managerial myopia. • The law causes short-term corporate performance losses, but it indeed promotes environmental performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China's policymakers are being forced to balance socioeconomic development with the need for environmental protection. In this paper, we have briefly discussed the main characteristics of the environmental problems that China will face in the 21st century and the challenges that must be met in order to develop policies that will support environmental management. As our discussion in this paper shows, the negative effects of China's economic development on its environment will continue to rise for some time, despite strong efforts to reverse the situation. It will also be necessary to change China's resource-intensive mode of economic development, change the economic development philosophy to one in which controlling pollution is as important as economic development, and raise public awareness of the need for environmental protection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Chinese herbal medicine has a long history spanning more than 2000 years, and it is widely used to prevent and treat diseases in China and even in Southeast Asia. Given the popularity of Chinese herbal medicine and the continuous development of the pharmaceutical industry, large amounts of Chinese medicine residues are produced in China every year. Chinese medicine residues are mainly made up of medicinal plant materials intended for human utilization that are subsequently discharged, lost, degraded or contaminated. The traditional methods of disposal of Chinese medicine residues include incineration, stacking and burying. However, these methods not only affect the ecological environment but also cause a great waste of Chinese medicine residues. In the past few years, the utilization of Chinese medicine residues for industry and environment protection has aroused widespread concern. Extensive studies have explored Chinese medicine residues, especially with regard to energy generation applications. In this work, the origin, chemical composition and potential of Chinese medicine residues in terms of energy generation, paper making, composite material preparation, re-extraction of bioactive components and environmental protection are summarized. This review is aimed at providing an overview of the current progress on the utilization of Chinese medicine residues for industry and environment protection and discussing the existing problems and future development. • Developing biomass energy is a promising solution for Chinese medicine residue. • Chinese medicine residue is a potential material for producing paper and composite. • Re-extraction of bioactive components is necessary for Chinese medicine residue. • Chinese medicine residue can be used to curb environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have verified that zombie firms have serious negative effects in the economic field, but it is unclear whether those effects will extend to the environmental field. Based on China's firm-level data, this paper investigated the impact and mechanisms of zombies on wastewater discharge behavior by normal firms. The empirical study showed that the higher the proportion of zombies in a province is, the greater is the wastewater discharge by normal firms, which proves that zombies also have serious negative effects in the environmental field. The first mechanism is tax burden, which means that an increase in the proportion of zombies will induce the local governments to raise the actual tax rate on normal firms, which will worsen their financial situation and prompt them to increase wastewater discharge. The second one is institution quality, which means that the higher the proportion of zombies in a province is, the worse is the institution quality. In a low-level institutional environment, it is difficult to form effective governance on pollution. The last one is regulation power, which means that the higher the proportion of zombies is, the stronger is the incentive for local government officials to pursue GDP by relaxing environmental regulations. The contribution of this study is an extension of the research on zombies to the environmental field, which is significant to the in-depth understanding of the widespread, global problem of zombies. This study provides an important idea for countries committed to environmental protection. In addition to direct channels such as environmental regulation, indirect channels such as reducing unreasonable government intervention, speeding up the clearance of inferior firms, and creating a healthy market environment are also of enormous importance. • This paper pushes forward the researches on the negative effects of zombie firms to the environmental field. • The higher the proportion of zombies in a province is, the greater is the wastewater discharge by normal firms. • Tax burden, institution quality and regulation power are important mechanisms. • For government, less intervention may also play a significant role to enhance the environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzed the interactions among China’s economic growth and its energy consumption, air emissions and air environmental protection investment during 2000–2007. Conventional energy and emergy are applied to quantify energy consumption and emissions’ impact, respectively. The five indicators based on money, energy and emergy, including ratio of nonrenewable energy to renewable energy (RNR), energy use per unit GDP (EUPG), environmental cost per unit GDP (ECPG), impact of emissions per unit energy consumption (IEPEC), and environmental benefit per unit environmental protection investment (EBPEI), are presented to depict the relationships among economic growth and energy consumption and impact of air emissions and air environmental protection investment. The results show that energy consumption rapidly rises with China’s fast economic growth; however, energy efficiency and environmental loading intensity from energy consumption are reduced simultaneously but their improvements fall far behind economic growth rate. Impact of air emissions, mainly composed of impact of emissions on human health (especially dust), is slightly decreased. The performance of air environmental protection investment is obviously declined in the study period. Generally speaking, the conflict among economy, energy and air environment protection is slightly mitigated but still acute due to great dependence of China’s economy on fossil energy and inefficient environmental protection measures. Finally, this paper discusses the corresponding issues, and then puts forward some related suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper adopts the contingent valuation method to study people's willingness to pay for the adoption of new energy buses in the four most developed cities of China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. An interval regression model is employed to analyze the influencing factors of people's willingness to pay and estimate the exact amount of extra money people would pay per fare. The results show that approximately eighty percent of the respondents in the four cities would like to pay extra fare to support the adoption of new energy buses and the specific amount is 0.653 RMB/fare among all the respondents. Those with higher household income, who are younger, who think the adoption can significantly improve air quality and who deem that they live in a place with good air quality are willing to pay higher. But public concern about energy security issue in China does not have significant impact on the willingness to pay. It is therefore recommended that setting a higher price for new energy bus fare is reasonable and more knowledge of new energy buses should be conveyed to the public, especially its purpose of improving air quality and alleviating the high pressure of energy security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental management has external effects such that companies typically regard environmental input as a cost with no clear benefit. If the investment only leads to additional costs, companies will not take the initiative to achieve long-term environmental protection. Therefore, if environmental protection can bring economic benefits, indicating that environmental protection and economic interests are in harmony, companies will actively fulfill their responsibility to protect the environment. Thus, it is important to examine the relationship between corporate environmental management and financial performance. This paper examines the relationship between environmental management and financial performance of Chinese listed firms from 2007 to 2011. Results indicate that environmental management is significantly positively related to financial performance in the following year, implying that environmental management can significantly improve future profitability. However, as environmental investment consumes capital and resources, results indicate that environmental management is not significantly related to improved financial performance in the current year. In addition, this study examines the relationship between different environmental protection measures and financial performance, finding that two methods of environmental protection, “recycled harmful substances to the environment (Rec)” and “other methods to control pollution (Other),” positively impact future financial performance. However, these measures also do not have a significant impact on the financial performance of the current year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane (CH 4 ), the second largest greenhouse gas emitted in China, hasn’t been given enough attention in the country’s policies and actions for addressing climate change. This paper aims to perform a bottom-up estimation and multi-regional input–output analysis for China’s anthropogenic CH 4 emissions from both production-based and consumption-based insights. As the world’s largest CH 4 emitter, China’s total anthropogenic CH 4 emissions in 2010 are estimated at 44.3 Tg and correspond to 1507.9 Mt CO 2 -eq by the lower global warming potential factor of 34. Energy activities as the largest contributor hold about half of the national total emissions, mainly from coal mining. Inherent economic driving factors covering consumption, investment and international exports play an important role in determining regional CH 4 emission inventories. Interregional transfers of embodied emissions via domestic trade are equivalent to half of the national total emissions from domestic production, of which two thirds are energy-related embodied emissions. Most central and western regions as net interregional CH 4 exporters such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have higher direct emissions, while the eastern coastal regions as net interregional importers such as Guangdong and Jiangsu always have larger embodied emissions. Since China’s CH 4 emissions have significant contributions to global climate change, a national comprehensive action plan to reduce CH 4 emissions should be designed by considering supply-side and demand-side emission characteristics, mitigation potentials and emission responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing an equal and effective emissions trading system is a long-term strategy to promote sustainable environmental protection and stronger economic growth. Due to regional divergences in economic development, resource endowment and geographical CO 2 emissions space, this paper focuses on a comprehensive emissions reduction allocation solution based on the Shapley value method and estimating economic welfare effects through interregional emissions trading in China. Our empirical results verify that the Shapley value-based allocation criterion is an equal and effective emissions reduction target allocation. The Eastern and Southern coast, and the Northeastern and Middle Yellow River regions are the main emissions permit buyers, and they incur windfall economic losses because of greater marginal abatement cost, while the Southwest, Northwest, Northern coast and Middle Yangtze River regions are the main emissions permit sellers, and they earn windfall economic benefits because of the emissions reduction potential of energy-intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The sustainability of Chinese economy has attracted attentions from all over the world since China''s reform & opening up policy. This paper attempted to evaluate the relationships among Chinese economy, energy and its impact of emissions during 1991–2009 using several novel indicators based on emergy, energy and monetary units. The results show that NH3-N in wastewater has taken main responsibility for impact of emissions, the hidden environmental cost per unit economic output has been continuously reduced, education and R & D investment has cut pollutants generating intensity since 1997, and environmental protection investment has cut emission intensity since 1996. Generally speaking, the coordination degree of structure and scale of China''s economy has been improved to different degree from 1991 to 2009. However, the growth of education and R & D investment and environmental protection investment has not prevented impact of emissions from increase caused by economic aggregate growth, and the turning point has not appeared in this period. Finally, this paper discusses some related issues and puts forward the corresponding suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Conservation investments are increasingly being implemented through payments for ecosystem services (PES) for the protection and restoration of ecosystem services around the world. Previous studies suggested that social norms have substantial impacts on environmental behaviors of humans, including enrollment of PES programs. However, it is still not well understood how social norms are affected by the design of PES programs and how the evolution of social norms may affect the efficiency of conservation investments. In this paper, we developed an agent-based simulation model to demonstrate the evolution and impacts of social norms on the enrollment of agricultural land in a PES program. We applied the model to land plots that have been enrolled in China's Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP) to examine reenrollment in an alternative payment program when the current payments ceased. The study was conducted in Wolong Nature Reserve where several thousand plant and animal species, including giant pandas, may benefit from the reenrollment. We found that over 15% more GTGP land can be reenrolled at the same payment if social norms were leveraged by allowing more than 10 rounds of interactions among landholders regarding their reenrollment decisions. With only three rounds of interactions, an additional 7.5% GTGP land was reenrolled at the same payment due to the effects of social norms. In addition, the effects of social norms were largest at intermediate payments and were smaller at much higher or much smaller payments. Even in circumstances where frequent interactions among landholders about their enrollment decisions are not feasible, policy arrangements that divide households into multiple waves for sequential enrollment can enroll over 11% more land at a given payment level. The approach presented in this paper can be used to improve the efficiency of existing PES programs and many other conservation investments worldwide. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• System GMM model was applied to test the mechanism of environmental regulation on the pollution-intensive industry transfer. • The transfer shows a general trend from the east to the central and western in China. • The central and the western have become "pollution paradise" for pollution-intensive industries. The pollution associated has intensified the environmental pressure within industrial transfer between the central and the western region in China. It's the key issue that how to use environmental regulations to promote the orderly pollution-intensive industries transfer and the optimization of industrial structure to realize the construction of ecological civilization during the transformation and upgrading of economic. By constructing the index of environmental regulation and industry transfer, this paper analyzed the spatial-temporal change of pollution-intensive industry transfer. We collected panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2016 and studied the spatial differences of pollution-intensive industry transfer from the perspective of environmental regulation. This paper studied the path and mechanism of environmental regulation on the pollution-intensive industry transfer theoretically and empirically with System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. The conclusions are as follows: Firstly, the pollution-intensive industry transfer in China shows a general trend from the east to the central and western regions. Secondly, there are obvious differences in environmental regulation between different regions. Thirdly, there are some differences in the impact of environmental regulation on industrial transfer. Therefore, the central and western regions should coordinate economic development and environmental protection when undertaking industrial transfer from the east, to optimize and upgrade industrial structure, and promote long-term economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is a large country of egg consumption, the study on China's laying hens breeding green total factor productivity (LHBG) is conducive to reducing pollution emissions while improving the productivity of laying hens to promote the cleaner production. Obviously, existing studies on laying hens breeding neglect regional and scale differences as well as serious pollution issues. Therefore, based on the directional distance function (DDF) - Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, this paper constructs a three-level Metafrontier-Malmquist-Luenberger (MML) index, considering negative output, to evaluate LHBG from 2004 to 2018. Firstly, in terms of scale, the results show that LHBG is the largest in middle scale, followed by small scale and large scale. Secondly, from a regional point of view, the results indicate that China's LHBG presents a reverse stair-step distribution, that is, LHBG is the lowest in the eastern region, followed by the central region and the highest in the western region. The differences between regions and provinces are affected by the traditional farming habits, non-agricultural employment opportunities, the level of urbanization and resource conditions. Thirdly, this paper obtained that the three decomposition efficiencies of LHBG are manifested as the decrease in management efficiency, and the increase in scale structure efficiency and technical efficiency. Fourthly, climate factors have an impact on the laying hens breeding. According to the empirical results, this paper finally puts forward policy suggestions for improving LHBG and environmental protection policy recommendations for layer breeding. • Research on the efficiency of China's laying hens, which subject is innovative. • Environmental factors are introduced into the evaluation system. • The scale heterogeneity and regional heterogeneity of laying hens are considered. • Construct three-levels DDF-MML model and decompose into three efficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analysed the influencing factors of urban eco-efficiency in Western China. • The US-SBM model and spatial econometric models were used for 84 cities' data. • Urban eco-efficiency showed a fluctuating upward trend during 2004–2017. • Economic development and urbanization had U-shaped impact on urban eco-efficiency. • Four explanatory variables showed a positive impact on urban eco-efficiency. Improving eco-efficiency can promote sustainable development. This study first evaluated the urban eco-efficiency of 84 cities in Western China from 2004 to 2017 by the undesirable-super-slack-based measure (US-SBM) and analysed their spatiotemporal characteristics, and then investigated its influencing factors using spatial econometric models. The results indicated that the urban eco-efficiency in Western China was at a relatively low level and showed a fluctuating upward trend with the highest average value of 0.65; however, capital cities of Western China have improved their eco-efficiency rapidly. Furthermore, there were obvious spatial spill-over impacts of the urban eco-efficiency in Western China. This paper also found that both the economic development level and urbanization level have "U" shaped impacts on Western China's urban eco-efficiency, which decreases at first and then rises. Similarly, increasing the proportion of secondary industry promotes urban eco-efficiency, and FDI, trade activities, improved environmental regulations as well as technological innovation capabilities have a positive impact on urban eco-efficiency in Western China. This paper also put forward corresponding policy suggestions to promote Western China's urban eco-efficiency. The present study may be helpful for policy-makers to balance economic development and environmental protection in Western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise environmental protection investment has recently become increasingly essential to address environmental problems. Based on the data from China's A-share heavy pollution industry listed companies from 2007 to 2018, this paper empirically examines the impact of the degree of resource slack on enterprise environmental protection investment and the moderating effect of environmental management maturity on both. The results show that the degree of resource slack has a significant negative impact on the scale of enterprise environmental protection investment. As the maturity of environmental management increase, the negative impact of the degree of resource slack on the scale of enterprise protection environmental investment is significantly weakened. This paper further finds that there are significant differences in the moderating effect of environmental management maturity in enterprises of different life cycles on the relationship between the degree of resource slack and the scale of enterprise environmental protection investment. Compared with the enterprises in the recession period, the environmental management maturity in the growth and mature period can more alleviate the negative relationship between the degree of resource slack and the scale of enterprise environmental protection investment. The results are conducive to clarifying the important impact of implementing voluntary environmental management and strengthening internal control capabilities on enterprises' active environmental investment. It provides ideas for enterprises to dynamically adjust their environmental management methods, promote the improvement of internal governance and sustainable development. At the same time, it also provides a theoretical basis for the government to issue differentiated environmental regulations and improve the efficiency of government environmental governance. • From the perspective of enterprises' environmental responsibility, the economic consequences of resource slack have been studied. • We hypothesize that environmental management maturity has a moderating effect on the relationship between SLACK and EPI. • From the dynamic level of enterprise development process, the difference of regulating of enterprise environmental management maturity is further analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of primary energy, the main utilization of coal is combustion. Coal combustion is the greatest atmospheric pollution source in China. In this paper, the authors analyze the evolution of the coal fired power plant/thermal power plant (CFP/TPP, denoted by CFP) in China from the past, when there were no measures taken against pollution, to the present, when the interest is aroused to provide depollution systems and installations. The results indicate that it is more efficient to introduce a desulfur installation rather than to introduce denox or decarbon systems for a CFP burning fuel with relatively high sulfur content. The plant is globally evaluated from the point of view of its energy ecological efficiency in this paper. Using the results of the analysis for the CFP, the authors similarly propose measures to improve the energy ecological efficiency of existing CFPs. To comply with the national norms regarding pollutant emissions for new units and those that are to be continued in use, particular measures should be taken to increase the ecological efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China has created the rapid development of the economy, but it has also negatively impacted the ecosystem. In China's affluent and innovative pearl river delta urban agglomeration (PRDUA), how to balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection is related to the realization of local green development strategy. Consequently, to carry out green development more accurately and scientifically, the primary task is to conduct scientific research and judge the relationship among regional resources, environment, and economy. Therefore, it's of tremendous significance to study the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of the PRDUA, including resources and environmental factors. Combining the fixed Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index and the slack based measure (SBM) model with undesirable output, this paper proposes a novel method, called slack based measure-Malmquist-Luenberger (SBM-ML) model, to measure GTFP. This method was used to measure the GTFP of the PRDUA from 2005 to 2018 and analyzes its changes from time and space dimensions. The results show that: from the perspective of time, the GTFP of all cities in the PRDUA increased in a wavelike increasing trend during the sample period, and the change of the annual average GTFP of the PRDUA can be roughly divided into four stages. From the perspective of space, the GTFP of Shenzhen has been at the top-level during the sample period. Meanwhile, the disparity of GTFP between cities in PRDUA becomes narrowing in the overall trend. Finally, according to the empirical results of the GTFP of the PRDUA, this paper puts forward targeted policy recommendations to facilitate greener development in the PRDUA. • GTFP of PRDUA region is measured by SBM-ML model combining ML index and SBM model. • GTFP of all cities in PRDUA increased in a wavelike increasing trend. • Change of the AAGTFP of PRDUA can be roughly divided into four stages. • GTFP of Shenzhen has been at the leading level during the sample period. • The disparity of GTFP between cities in PRDUA becomes narrowing in overall trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Spatiotemporal variation in vegetation on the Loess Plateau was investigated. • Precipitation was the greatest driving factor. • There was a bivariate or nonlinear enhancement between all factors. • Key factors' adaptation range or type suitable for vegetation cover was identified. Vegetation, being a core component of ecosystems, is known to be influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors. Studying vegetation cover dynamics variation and its drivers is critical to understanding the interactions between vegetation and ecosystems. The Loess Plateau (LP) is located in a semi-arid and semi-humid region with severe soil erosion and fragile ecology. This paper used the annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI ymax) and growing season mean NDVI (NDVI gsmean) as the vegetation cover indicator. The vegetation cover variation of LP from 2000 to 2020 was analyzed using Sen's slope and Mann-Kendall test. Then the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on the driving mechanisms of spatial vegetation differentiation was explored by the Geodetector model. The results revealed that the growth trends of NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean were 0.075/10 years and 0.038/10 years, respectively, and the areas with improved vegetation cover accounted for 92.67 % and 88.58 % of the total area. The vegetation cover of the southeastern and northern parts of the LP decreased significantly; however, the central, southwestern, and northeastern parts exhibited a remarkable improvement. Precipitation, vegetation type, soil type, temperature, and land use type were the key driving forces, ranked differently on NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean. However, precipitation was the most critical factor both on NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean. The interaction detection showed non-linear and mutual enhancement, with no independent factor. The findings of our study can assist in identifying the vegetation cover status of the LP, as well as the driving forces, which can provide theoretical support for the formulation of environmental conservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, air-supported membrane structures have been widely used in China's environmental protection of closed coal yards and in sports stadiums. There have been breakthroughs year by year in the numbers constructed, unit area, and span. At present, the largest span of an air-supported membrane structure coal shed has reached 198 m. As the span increases, the force-bearing performance of the structure is more closely related to its shape. In this paper, based on a 225m × 198m × 66m(Length × width × height) long-span air-supported membrane structure test model, the form-finding and state-finding analysis of the air-supported membrane structure with longitudinal and transverse cable nets were carried out, and the results were compared with the forming test results. The results show that the prestressed state of the structure obtained by the state-finding analysis is closer to the test results. However, there is a specific difference with the target height. At the same time, the form-finding analysis can accurately find the target height, but the structure's cable force and section shape are quite different from the test results. • The shape of the membrane surface and the force characteristics of the cable net was measured through the experiment. • Two numerical analysis methods are used to obtain the force characteristics of the air-supported membrane structure. • The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are obtained by comparing the experimental and simulation results. • The problems that should be paid attention to in the design of large-span air-supported membrane structures are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing power consumption in China and the urgent demand for environmental protection, promoting the development of clean energy power generation industry is the only way to optimize the energy power generation structure. It is very important to effectively predict the development trend of China's clean energy power generation system with complex, changeable and limited data. To address this issue, this paper defines a novel fractional self-adaptive reverse accumulation sequence, and combines discrete modeling techniques and time power terms to propose a novel fractional self-adaptive reverse accumulation with time power terms. The parameter estimation and time response formula of the new model are derived. The matrix perturbation theory is used to prove that the new model satisfies the new information priority principle. The Grey Wolf Optimizer is used to optimize the self-adaptive parameter r and non-negative constant α. Finally, the prediction model is constructed for the power generation capacity of five representative types of clean energy in China: biomass, wind, nuclear, natural gas and hydro power, the prediction result shows that the new model has higher prediction accuracy and data applicability than the other five grey models. According to these prediction results, relevant suggestions on the development of China's clean energy are provided to decision makers. • A novel fractional order self-adaptive reverse accumulation sequence is proposed. • A novel fractional order self-adaptive discrete grey model is developed. • The case experimental results show that the new model is much better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of the process of industrialization and urbanization, energy shortage and environmental protection have become the new problems faced by Chinese economic development. The electric power industry is the pillar industry of Chinese economic development. While the economic development puts forward higher requirements for electricity companies, power enterprises should not only focus on the quantity and quality of the power generation side, but also pay more attention to demand side management. Demand side management (DSM) receives more and more attention in China in recent years. As one of the solutions of DSM, demand response plays an important role in ensuring the stable operation of electric network and controlling the rise of electricity tariff. At first, this article describes the status quo of the demand response implementation, related technologies, and pilot projects. Then, it analyzes Chinese demand response technology frame from the grid side, the communication side and the user side. It also puts forward suggestions for the implementing progress and specific procedures of orderly electricity consumption. At last, this paper points out the problems in the technology and policy of electricity demand response implementation in China by the analysis of the demand response status quo and the implementing comparison between China and foreign countries, as well as gives recommendations for future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is an important factor in achieving a low-carbon economic development path in China. This paper investigates the factors influencing renewable electricity consumption in China. Specifically, the factors that influence the share of renewable electricity in total electricity consumption in China is investigated using data from 1980 to 2011 and employing the Johansen cointegration technique and vector error correction model. The result of the analysis shows that there is a long run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and GDP per capita, trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial development and share of fossil fuel in energy consumption. Economic development and financial development promotes renewable electricity consumption while foreign direct investment, trade openness and the lobby of conventional energy sources undermine the share of renewables in total electricity consumption in China. While the effects of shocks to the other variables appear to die out over time, the “lobby effect” is persistent and explosive. The results also show that there is a uni-directional short run causality from financial development to renewable electricity consumption and from renewable electricity consumption to trade openness. The Chinese government should pursue policies that not only increase the amount of renewable electricity, but also increase the share of renewables in total electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual strengthening of environmental supervision, how to coordinate the relationship between environmental protection and full employment has become an urgent problem. This paper takes China's carbon emission trading policy as the research subject, and evaluates the employment effect of carbon emission trading policy from the perspective of micro enterprises under the premise of considering the spatial spillover effect. This paper aims to verify and evaluate the spatial spillover effect of China's carbon emission trading pilot policy on labor demand of enterprises, and study the effect of environmental policies on the employment market in China. Firstly, from the theoretical point of view, comparisons among the differences of the average employment effect, spillover effect and total effect coefficient of carbon trading right policy are conducted under the condition of spillover effect or not. Secondly, from the empirical perspective and relaxing the STUVA conditions, a Triple Difference Model is constructed to evaluate the impact of carbon emission trading policy on the labor demand of enterprises by using the panel data of China A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2017. Thirdly, this paper further uses the synthetic control method to analyze the employment effect differences of carbon emission trading policies in different pilot areas of China. The results show that the carbon emission trading policy in China has an about 10 percent positive spillover effect on the neighboring provinces in pilot areas. Moreover, the results indicate that China's carbon emission trading policy has generated some employment dividend, and the total effect is about 11.5 percent when the ratio of individual sample is considered. In addition, the impact of carbon emission trading policy on employment is gradually increasing, and the employment effect of carbon trading policies in different pilot areas of China is quite dissimilar. The findings of this paper confirm the positive employment effect of China's carbon emission trading policy, and have important policy implications for the further promotion of the national carbon emission trading market. At the same time, it helps to clarify the relationship between environmental protection and full employment. • Verifies and evaluates the spatial spillover effect of carbon trading policy. • Constructs a Triple Difference Model for evaluating the impact of carbon trading policies on the labor demand of enterprises. • Finds about 10% positive spillover effect of the carbon emission rights trading policy in China. • Shows about 11.5% total employment effect of carbon emission trading policy when the individual sample ratio was considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of the implementation of central environmental protection inspection, a campaign style enforcement, across China to address the upsurging environmental issues in recent years, very few studies have revealed the effect of central environmental protection inspection on corporate environmental actions in China. This paper focuses on China's central environmental protection inspection to evaluate the effectiveness of campaign-style enforcement in promoting corporate environmental actions. Using a regression discontinuity design and one of the most comprehensive datasets of environmental statistics on firm-level pollution from 2011 to 2018 in one province in south China. Based on 15,154 enterprise observations, we find that the central environmental protection inspection is associated with substantial changes in corporate environmental actions. We also find that the number of polluting firms shrank by 48% (and by even more among small and micro firms) after the implementation of the central environmental protection inspection. Furthermore, the central environmental protection inspection significantly reduces industrial chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions by at least 46.5% without affecting the production output of surviving firms. These findings are robust to alternative specifications and different sampling strategies. This paper opens up a new viewpoint to focus on the effect of the central environmental protection inspection on corporate environmental actions. The available evidence leads us to cautiously conclude that environmental campaign-style enforcement promotes firms meeting emissions reduction goals in the short term through end-of-pipe abatement. A long-term inspection mechanism and incentives for firms to carry out green transformations are thus recommended for future practice. Image 1 • The Central Environmental Protection Inspection has caused a large number of polluting firms to be closed. • The surviving polluting firms reduce pollutant by carrying out end-of-pipe emission reduction. • Campaign-style enforcement can improve the corporate environmental performance in the short term. • In the long run, effective supporting policies should be employed to guide firms to achieve green transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, PM 2.5 is still one of the most serious air pollution issues in China. By empirically testing the actual inhibitory effect of China's total factor energy efficiency progress on PM 2.5 , this paper can provide a new evaluation index for energy conservation in China and help Chinese cities understand the beneficial environmental effect of total factor productivity (TFP) progress under the constraint of energy consumption to point out an effective path of energy conservation and emission reduction that is highly in line with China's current high-quality development strategy. Based on the panel data of 105 key environmental protection cities in China, this paper evaluates total factor energy efficiency with range directional model (RDM) and global Malmquist (GM) productivity index based on data envelopment analysis (DEA); it then uses spatial econometric models to test the impact of energy efficiency progress on PM 2.5 concentration. The efficiency evaluation results show that the total factor energy efficiency of 105 key environmental protection cities has increased by an average of 35.9% from 2004 to 2015, with an average annual progress rate of 2.2%. Compared with Eastern and Central China, the progress of energy efficiency in the western region during 2004–2015 is relatively lagged. The average energy efficiency progress rate of higher administrative hierarchy cities and super cities with more than 10 million permanent residents is much higher than that of other cities. The results of GM index decomposition show that technological progress is the main driving force of energy efficiency progress. The spatial econometric analysis results show that there is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation in the concentration of PM 2.5 in sample cities, and the energy efficiency progress can significantly inhibit the PM 2.5 pollution in local and adjacent cities. The influence of each explanatory variable on PM 2.5 concentration is mainly composed of the spatial spillover effect. Image 1 • DEA-based RDM and Global Malmquist index are used to evaluate energy efficiency. • The energy efficiency of 105 cities has increased by an average of 35.9% in 12 years. • Technological progress is the main driving force of energy efficiency progress. • Energy efficiency progress can significantly reduce PM2.5 concentration. • The impact of each factor on PM2.5 is mainly composed of spatial spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture, a strategic industry that secures the country and stabilizes society, has invariably been valued by China to feed its 1.4 billion people. However, the long-term extensive development of agriculture has led to a series of water problems such as groundwater overexploitation, water shortages, and water pollution in some areas of China, resulting in great pressure on the ecological environment and social economy. In this paper, we constructed a dynamic optimization simulation model based on the input–output (I–O) approach within the horizon of 2012–2025 to explore the synthetic optimal policies for achieving both socioeconomic development, and water resources and water environment protection in a node city on the middle route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, Handan. Six scenarios based on various synthetic policies were adopted. The simulation results show that during the simulation period, the maximum development of the social economy can be achieved under the premise of achieving the specific objectives of water resources and water environment protection in a comprehensive scenario. In addition, the water environment improved: the annual chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions reduced by 7.5%, 10.3%, 5.0%, and 5.9% in pig farming, cattle farming, chicken farming, and households, respectively. Furthermore, the water supply–demand structure was optimized. The water demand of wheat planting and groundwater extraction decreased at an annual rate of 9.1% and 7.7%, respectively. The supply of reclaimed water increased at an annual rate of 9.2%. The model adapted in the paper can simulate and evaluate the impact of all the feasible synthetic policies on the economy, water resources, and water environment, and provide targeted, scientific recommendations for solving the agricultural water use problems in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving the peak of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions requires a large amount of green and low-carbon investment. Whether the green finance system can efficiently support the capital need for achieving the CO 2 emissions target in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic is a matter of concern. This paper constructs a system dynamics model (SD model) to illustrate the quantitative relationship between the green finance system and CO 2 emissions and introduce the COVID-19 epidemic as a variable to analyze ten simulation scenarios regarding the carbon emissions commitment realization under different green finance and economic growth status. It is shown that: (1) Regardless of the impact of COVID-19, China can meet its commitment by reaching its CO 2 emissions peak in 2030 and realizing a 20% non-fossil energy proportion in 2025; (2) Under the impact of the epidemic, the goal can not be obtained in all energy consumption scenarios when the government expenditure on the environment is low. The target year of reaching CO 2 emissions peak becomes 2033, 2037, and 2040. The results indicate that reducing government expenditure on environment protection makes the CO 2 emissions peak target less likely to be achieved within a given time frame. We also concluded with important policy implications according to the result of the simulations. Overall, this study makes a reference for other economies and researchers to quantitatively predict the interaction relationship between the green finance system and CO 2 emissions in the context of COVID-19, which provides policymakers with insights into a joint power of energy consumption upgrading and green capital guidance. • Providing empirical studies regarding the mechanism of the inhibitory effect of green finance on CO 2 emissions. • Using systems dynamics model to address the missing data problem. • Making solid suggestions under COVID-19 Epidemic. • Building the relationship between the green finance system and CO 2 emissions and making forecasts for "3060" mission result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the feasibility of constructing multi-energy complementary systems in rural areas of China is examined. First, the rural energy structure and energy utilization in the eastern, central, and western regions of China are analyzed, and the development and utilization modes of multi-energy complementary systems in different regions are evaluated based on the differences in the resource endowment in different regions. Second, the input-output status of the multi-energy complementary mode in different regions is analyzed. Then, based on the assumption of technical feasibility, the feasibility of the multi-energy complementary system is analyzed in terms of various dimensions, such as economic, energy conservation, environmental protection, and social benefit. Finally, an empirical study is conducted by comparing the proposed multi-energy complementary system with traditional energy supply system. The results show that the development of a multi-energy complementary system in each region is feasible from the perspective of multiple dimensions to reduce environmental pollution, create employment opportunities, and improve the economy. Moreover, the system can significantly reduce the peak-valley difference and improve energy efficiency. • This paper analyzes the differences in energy structure in the different regions of China. • Construct a multi-energy complementary system in each region. • Demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a multi-energy complementary system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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