Search

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

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

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

It is extremely difficult for emerging economies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in order to close this policy gap, a comprehensive policy framework is needed. The purpose of this research is to determine the proportional impacts of domestic and foreign capital to environmental degradation in newly industrialized nations (NICs). For this reason, panel data methodology is used to evaluate, for the years 1991 to 2018, how the ecological footprint is affected by stock market capitalization, foreign direct investment, economic growth, urbanization, and energy intensity. Using the squared terms of stock market capitalization and foreign direct investment, respectively, it is also looked at whether domestic and foreign capital may have non-linear effects on the environment. According to the empirical findings, whereas local capital growth worsens the environment, increasing international capital prevents environmental degradation. There is an inverted U-shaped link between domestic capital and environmental degradation in the event of non-linearity, but foreign capital has a monotonically declining effect on environmental degradation. The study outcomes are utilized to design a policy framework to address the objectives of SDG 7, SDG 11, and SDG 13., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

There has been a call on policy makers in the African continent to formulate and implement initiatives that help to realise some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), due to the low performance of the continent in terms of meeting the targets of the SDGs. Because of this, the study sought to investigate how banks' financial outreach and intermediation contribute to sustainable development in the continent. Information was collected on 34 African economies for a period of 11 years spanning from 2010 to 2020. The study employed the two-step system generalised method of moments technique to estimate the findings. It was discovered that financial outreach has a significant positive and negative relationship with sustainable development, depending on the indicator used to measure outreach. On various dimensions, financial outreach had a negative influence on carbon dioxide emissions, a positive impact on economic sustainability, and an inverse relationship with social sustainability. It was also revealed that financial innovation has a significant negative link with sustainable development in Africa. Additionally, the findings revealed that both financial outreach and innovation serve as moderating variables in the finance/development nexus. The study recommends that governments and policy makers in various African countries work together with financial service providers to ensure fair, flexible, and alluring interest rates on loans to the underprivileged, disadvantaged ones in society, and vulnerable businesses to smooth their consumption and boost their businesses., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The study investigated "Building Ecological Civilization: the Importance of Promoting Green Investments by Chinese Companies" to examine the complex connections between the factors affecting Chinese businesses' ecological performance (EP). An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used in the study to analyze the impact of green investments (GI), the policy environment (PE), government support (GS), public awareness and perception (PAP), and technological capability (TC) on companies' earnings per share (EPS). The results show a strong correlation between GI and EP, indicating that businesses' growing use of green initiatives is essential for raising environmental sustainability. The study also shows that PE, TC, and EP have an inverse relationship, indicating the need for more supportive governmental policies and regulations and the effective adoption and implementation of green technologies. The interaction of GS and PAP significantly reduces the ecological impact of green investments, highlighting the significance of citizen involvement and the role of government in advancing ecological civilization. The findings also demonstrated that green investments, policy environments, public perception, and technology influence the ecological performance of businesses. They also demonstrate statistical robustness with low p-values. This information is essential for developing policies that support an ecological civilization, which is necessary for China and globally in light of the current climate crisis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Though construction sector development and economic openness contribute to regional economic development, they have also been debated to pose some environmental challenges. Along these lines, we explored the long- and short-term connections of intensive energy consumption, economic openness, and construction sector development with the chemical oxygen demand throughout the scales of regional development of China's 30 provincial units over the 2004-2021 period. Theoretically, we contribute to the existing knowledge by incorporating chemical oxygen demand pollution, construction sector development, and economic openness to the Kaya identity's baseline framework. Empirically, we apply a series of advanced methods of panel data econometrics for robust results. Our key findings are as follows: First, we revealed a long-term stable cointegrating association among our variables of interest. Second, using the common correlated effect mean group estimator, we unfolded that the intensive energy consumption showed a chemical oxygen demand pollution reduction influence in both the long and short term, demonstrating the most substantial influence in the high regional development panel while expressing the least powerful influence the least regional development setting. Third, we unveiled that economic openness and construction sector development showed a linear chemical oxygen demand pollution enhancement influence in moderately and least developed regions. Nevertheless, both established an inverted U-shaped linkage with chemical oxygen demand pollution for the whole country as well as for high regional development data samples. Eventually, we found consistent estimates across long- and short-term investigations regarding signs of relationships; however, long-term effects remained more powerful than short-term ones. These findings would serve as factual scientific knowledge to help local as well as national governments create the optimal environmental regulations for the construction sector to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially the Climate Action Plan (i.e., SDG-13)., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present paper aims to analyze the influence of environmental practices over the sustainable development of economies which create economic resilience for the economies classified according to different income levels. The authors aim to assess the impact of high environmental degradation (HED) on GDP growth volatility and GDP growth for economies over the long term and short term for the period of 1955-2020 in 124 countries. The findings of empirical analysis conclude that HED economies will have high growth in the long term than their counterparts. The economies of HED have a significant mean difference in volatility with their counterpart control group that implies HED economies have low volatility than the control group. Economies with HED have higher financial development relative to their control economies. The empirical analysis of robustness checks shows that economies with HED have low volatility in GDP and higher growth rates. HED economies enjoy high and sustainable financial development and high gross fixed capital formation, which signifies a high level of investment in their economy than their control counterpart., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation has been partially confirmed, yet the role of environmental regulation in it remains unexplored. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of digital finance on regional green innovation and tests the moderating role of environmental regulation using Chinese city-level data from 2011 to 2019 as a research sample. The results show that digital finance can significantly promote regional green innovation by alleviating regional financing constraints and increasing regional R&D investment. Besides, digital finance has apparent regional difference effects (the contribution of digital finance to regional green innovation is greater in eastern China than in western China, and the development of digital finance in neighbouring regions has a negative transmission effect on local green innovation). Finally, environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation. This paper explores the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation from the perspective of environmental regulation, providing empirical evidence to promote regional green innovation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Under the scenario of the complex external environment and internal structural changes in agricultural development, exploring the synergistic relationship between agricultural green efficiency (AGE) and agricultural economic resilience (AER) can offer a new path for fostering sustainable regional agricultural development. This paper fills the research gap in the interaction between efficiency and resilience in agriculture. We explore the synergistic mechanism of the two based on the perspective of sustainable development, providing a reference for constructing a synergistic theoretical system of AGE and AER. Moreover, we apply the Haken model to the field of the agricultural economy and scientifically evaluate the level of AGE and AER synergy in Northeast China from 2010 to 2020. Finally, we analyze the influencing factors of AGE and AER synergy in Northeast China from three dimensions: economic, social, and natural. The results show that AER is dominant in the AGE-AER synergistic system. The synergy level of AGE and AER in Northeast China is mainly in the higher and advanced synergy stages, with obvious spatio-temporal differences and insufficient inter-regional radiation effects. Social factors are the main factors of spatial differentiation of AGE and AER synergy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Building livable rural regions is a key objective of China's rural revitalization, and fostering coordinated and sustainable regional development in China necessitates investigating the geographical and temporal distribution and influencing variables of livability in China's rural areas. This paper compares the concept and connotation of rural livability based on regional economic development theory and sustainable development theory, integrates China's rural revitalization strategy, proposes an index system for evaluating rural livability in China, and conducts an empirical analysis of livable rural areas. Firstly, the level of rural livability development is measured by the entropy method; secondly, the aggregation effect of provinces is demonstrated by using the Moran I index, and finally, the spatial Durbin model is used to explore the influencing factors of rural livability and its spatial spillover effects. Findings of our study reveal that the results of the entropy method indicate that the livability of rural China is in a growing development trend in all provinces, but the livability shows some regional disparities. The Moran index reveals that there are obvious spatial autocorrelations in the livability of Chinese rural areas, and the most typical features are the "high" and "low" clusters. The spatial Durbin model suggests that the influences on the development of rural livability are diverse. Besides, other variables such as environmental pollution and per capita housing area show a negative association with rural livability, and investment in fixed assets, cultural atmosphere and medical health show a positive relationship with rural livability. Based on the study findings, it is proposed that in the rural revitalization strategy process, the formulation of monitoring system should be strengthened and intensify the promotion of coordinated inter-regional development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In sustainable development, energy is critical in human activities and shapes a sustainable future. Thus, it is an unignorable element in human development. This paper analyzes the contributions of renewable energy sources (RES)'s to the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development. Moreover, we add energy security as a possible fourth dimension into the analysis. For the sample size, we limit the countries members of the OECD and run generalized methods of moments for the period from 1995 to 2015. This method can produce efficient estimators under the problems of endogeneity, omitted-variable bias, measurement errors, and heteroscedastic residuals. According to the results, RES has a small reducing effect (-.007%) on output in the Cobb-Douglas production function for the economic dimension. We found that RES has a positive contribution to the environmental dimension and abates the level of carbon emission (-.093%). RES also confirms the inverted-U shape of environmental Kuznets curve. In the social dimension, RES improves human development and a 1% increase in RES consumption causes to .0045% increase in human development. In the last contribution, RES has a positive effect on sustainable energy supply security in the context of electricity generation (.032%). Although the effects of RES on the environment, social, and energy security are significant, they are limited. These limitations point to barriers that can be overcome over time. Our conclusions recommend that these effects might flourish with technical developments and political support in the long run. Furthermore, public awareness, rising income level, and economies of scale are also beneficial in this process. As a result, RES might be an excellent source for a sustainable future and development. Especially, RES might have remarkable contributions to the 7th, 11th, 12th, and 13th goals of sustainable development., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China is a rising power of the twenty-first century with its brilliant economic performance as a result of the transition to the free market economy model. However, China's economic development process has caused high environmental costs. For the past decade, China has been the leading country responsible for global carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 ). Therefore, determining the dynamics that have a reducing effect on CO 2 emissions in China is very important for the development of sustainable environmental policies. This paper aims to examine the impacts of the institutional structure on environmental sustainability in China. To this end, the study follows the method of cointegration with multiple breaks that produce robust econometric results and consider structural changes. According to the results, (i) the validity of an N-shaped EKC relationship is supported between economic growth and environmental pollution. (ii) Industrialization and trade have an increasing impact on environmental pollution. (iii) Political rights and civil liberties have a reducing effect on environmental pollution. Consequently, this study implies that political rights and civil liberties can make an important contribution to achieving sustainability goals in China.

Energy consumption for sustainable development has become a crucial issue in recent years. The anthropogenic effects of traditional energy sources (non-renewables) underscore the need for renewable energy and efforts to promote its adoption have comprised policy makers' strategies to achieve sustainable development. At the same time, institutional stability is a necessary element needed to meet the goal of sustainable development via improved management of resources and technology diffusion. The literature shows some contradictory findings on this matter and this study aims to clarify. Thus, this research scrutinizes the contribution of renewable and non-renewable energies in sustainable development while also taking into account financial development and institutional quality in ASEAN countries from 1980 to 2018. To assess for co-integration, a pooled mean group (PMG) regression technique is employed and the findings from this technique are verified by using fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), and canonical cointegration regression (CCR) techniques in conjunction with other panel-based econometric procedures to evaluate the robustness of the model. The findings reveal a significantly positive influence for renewable energy and a significantly adverse impact for non-renewable energy with respect to sustainable development in ASEAN countries. In addition, the results indicate that institutional quality and financial development have adverse effects on sustainable development. Therefore, this research recommends sustainable management of non-renewables and greater promotion of renewables by strengthening institutional quality in ASEAN countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study attempts to determine the untapped factors that affect sustainable development in 64 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries from 2006 to 2019. The study employed the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) validated through Two-stage Least Square (2SLS). The findings of system-GMM revealed a significant dynamic nature of the relationship between sustainable development and its determinants. Findings demonstrate that financial development, financial inclusion, energy efficiency ratio, per capita health expenditure, per capita income growth, governance, and integration of before and after BRI dummy show a significant positive impact by contributing to BRI countries' sustainable development path. However, e-government, natural resource rent, macroeconomic conditions, and government size have a significant but negative effect by hurting sustainable development. Integration of BRI further enhances and promotes a country and regional sustainable development path. Therefore, better regional policies for financial development, financial inclusion for poverty alleviation, and e-government development are required, boosting per-capita income and sustainable development in the coming years. The study concludes that BRI country's natural resources rent contributes to national saving but declines the natural resources. Also, it endorses the theory that a nation should adopt the "Hartwick rule" to reinvest rents from the depletion of the natural resources in reproducible capital forms to shift from a weak sustainable path. This study also proposes significant policy implications for balanced and sustainable growth in light of the current research findings., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Inclusive green growth (IGG), as a new way to attain sustainable development, aims to achieve comprehensive and coordinated economic, social, and environmental development. How to define IGG and explore its driving factors is key to realizing IGG. This study takes China as an example, using panel data from 30 provinces in Mainland China from 2009 to 2018 for research. The epsilon-based measure (EBM) model and Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index are used to evaluate China's IGG, and a spatial panel regression model of the impact of urban land resource misallocation on IGG is established. The research found that (1) China's IGG level from 2009 to 2018 displayed an upward trend, and combined with exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), it was found that IGG has an obvious spatial correlation; (2) the regression model shows that the misallocation of land resources hinders the improvement of IGG in China; and (3) the decomposition of spatial spillover effects demonstrates that the misallocation of land resources has negative externalities, which will also have adverse effects on neighboring areas., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Without enhancing the quality of the environment, the goals of sustainable development remain unachievable. In order to minimize the damage to the planet, sustainable practices need to be considered. This study is conducted to identify some of the drivers behind the increasing sustainability issues and tried to investigate the impact of natural resources, financial development, and economic growth on the ecological footprint in Malaysia from the year 1980-2019 by utilizing the dynamic simulated autoregressive distribution lag approach. It was identified that financial development, economic growth, and natural resources are the determinants behind the upsurge of the ecological footprint as all three show a positive and significant effect on ecological footprint. However, in the long run, the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis was also validated in Malaysia. Therefore, it is recommended to increase awareness among the public regarding the adoption of sustainable practices in everyday life and to use green technologies that offer maximum efficiency and minimum damage to the environment in commercial and domestic activities. Finally, based on the research results, a comprehensive policy framework was proposed which could allow the Malaysian economy to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 8, and 13., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In this study, we analyze the time-varying causality linkages between energy consumption, economic growth, and environmental degradation in 33 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, spanning the period 2000 to 2013. The curve causality approach provides evidence of a significant environmental Kuznets curve in 25 countries in the case of the ecological footprint and in 23 countries in the case of the Environmental Performance Index. However, out of them, only Italy, Slovakia, and South Korea have traditional environmental Kuznets curve, in the form of an inverted U-shaped curve. For the remaining countries, different forms of curves are valid. In particular, an N-shaped curve appears to be valid between income and environmental degradation for nearly half of the sample, i.e., for Austria, Belgium, Chile, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Turkey, and the USA. Additionally, bidirectional causality relationships are confirmed among all covariates in most countries. In view of the results, some crucial policy implications would be suggested, such as sustainable development that aims to make a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.

Considering that the rigor of economic activities has widely been linked with the turbulent nature of the increasing global atmospheric and environmental hazards thus hampering environmental sustainability, it then presented a suggestive dilemma realizing that increasing unemployment, i.e., de-economizing human activities posit a desirable environmental quality effect. Given this backdrop, and employing the more recent estimation techniques, the current study probes the validity of the novel environmental Phillips curve (i.e., negative relationship between unemployment and environmental degradation) opined by Kashem and Rahman (Environ Sci Pollut Res 1-18, 2020). In this case, the panel of BRICST (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey) economies for the selected data set over the experimental period 1992-2016 is analyzed. After using related approaches that are designed to account for probable country-specific factors, i.e., the cross-sectional dependence concern, the findings from the PMG-ARDL model affirmed the validity of the environmental Phillips curve for the BRICST countries. Thus, there is a significant trade-off between unemployment and environmental degradation. Moreover, this study concludes that renewable energy consumption improves the environmental quality, while conventional energy sources remained detrimental factors to environmental quality in the panel of the examined countries. Therefore, the study identified that the share of renewable energy in the energy mix should be escalated to improve environmental quality and maintain or improve the employment level, thus advancing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the BRICST countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Enhancing resource cities' resilience and advancing their sustainable development are imperatives, particularly in light of the "dual-carbon" agenda. Double-difference and spatial double-difference models are developed based on the panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020 to investigate the effects of implementing the National Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-Based Cities on the level of ecological resilience in Chinese cities. This paper found that the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities significantly improves the ecological resilience level of Chinese cities, and the findings are robust. The impacts of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities of different growth types, regions, and resource types are heterogeneous. Further study finds a spatial spillover effect of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities, which can improve the ecological resilience level of neighboring cities through spillover effects while improving the ecological resilience level of cities in the region. Based on these new findings, this study provides some policy implications for better advancing sustainable urban development., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Based on the system theory and Pareto efficiency theory, this paper, based on the data of listed companies in China's A-share manufacturing industry in 2011-2022, explores the impact of market-driven green finance and government-guided green finance on the carbon emission intensity of manufacturing enterprises, and analyzes the intermediary role of debt financing cost. A negative "U" relationship exists in market-driven green finance/government-guided green finance and the carbon emission intensity of manufacturing enterprises. Further research shows that under the higher debt financing cost, market-driven green finance played a weaker carbon reduction effect. The heterogeneity analysis found that market-driven green finance can have a significant non-linear impact of "promoting growth first and weakening later" on the carbon emissions of energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises, large enterprises, and enterprises with high human capital levels. Government-guided green finance has a significant non-linear impact on non-energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises and small enterprises. This paper provides the theoretical basis and practical inspiration for the government to formulate relevant low-carbon development policies and promote the innovation of green financial tools in the financial market., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Innovation in green technology is an efficient approach to reducing carbon emissions and achieving energy conservation, which is essential for fostering sustainable and green economic development. Even though the development of eco-friendly technologies is accelerating, the grasp of how political ties affect firms' adoption of green technologies remains hazy. This paper examines the effect of a firm's total political embeddedness (government ownership and political connections) along with the influencing mechanisms by employing a panel fixed effect regression approach on a dataset of Chinese A-share enterprises operating in pollution-intensive industries spanning 2012 to 2021. The findings offer conclusive evidence that political embeddedness encourages the enterprises' development of green technologies and boosts their output of innovation. In addition, mechanism analysis reveals that companies' political embedding influences their green innovation behavior through environmental disclosure. Moreover, board gender diversity and company growth rate are found to reinforce the impact of political embeddedness on green innovation. Besides expanding the current research on green innovation and corporate political involvement, the findings also provide important policy recommendations for the sustainable development of companies in emerging markets., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Innovative human capital (IHC) can boost the economic growth of nations. However, in recent years, economies have become more attuned to sustainable development. In this context, it is important to assess the potential impact of IHC on green growth. Against this background, this study empirically examines the role of IHC on regional green growth in China, considering the spatial spillover effect and focusing on the quantity and quality of human capital and its direct and indirect effects on green growth. To this end, this paper adopts the spatial Durbin model, constructs an indicator system to evaluate green growth, and establishes a calculation formula for the quantity and quality of IHC. The empirical analysis provided some important findings. First, IHC and green growth have strong spatial correlation characteristics. Second, the quantity of IHC has a significant positive impact on regional green growth; however, the quality of IHC does not promote regional green growth. Third, the quantity and quality of IHC indirectly improve the level of regional green growth through technological progress. Finally, the role of IHC and its spatial spillover effect in improving the regional green growth level are most obvious in the central and western regions of China. Therefore, promoting green growth requires enhancing the accumulation of IHC and narrowing the gap between eastern and western China in the accumulation of IHC., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Solving the crash risk problem of corporate stock price caused by information asymmetry can mitigate the negative externality of its carbon emission to become green, low-carbon, and high-quality development. Green finance generally profoundly impacts micro-corporate economics and macro-financial systems but remains a giant puzzle of whether they can effectively resolve the crash risk. This paper examined the impact of green financial development on the stock price crash risk using the sample data of non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A stock market in China from 2009 to 2020. We found that green financial development significantly inhibits the stock price crash risk; this is more obvious in listed companies with a high level of asymmetric information. And companies in high-level regions of green financial development attracted more attention from institutional investors and analysts. As a result, they disclosed more information about their operational status, thus reducing the crash risk of corporate stock price from the torrential public pressure of lousy environmental details. Therefore, this study will help continuously discuss the costs, benefits, and value promotion of green finance for synergy between corporate performance and environmental performance to improve ESG capabilities., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Continuous and rapid economic development has brought about excessive resource consumption and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is particularly essential to coordinate economic, resource, and environmental factors to achieve sustainable development. This paper develops a new data envelopment analysis (DEA) method that can be used for multi-level complex system evaluation (MCSE-DEA) to reveal the inter-provincial green development efficiency (GDE) in China from 2010 to 2018. Moreover, the Tobit model is applied to explore the influencing factors of GDE. We found that (i) the MCSE-DEA model tends to have lower efficiency scores than the traditional P-DEA (panel data envelopment analysis) model, and the top three provinces are Shanghai, Tianjin, and Fujian; (ii) the efficiency shows an increasing trend during the whole study period. The southeast region and the Middle Yangtze River region have the highest efficiency values, reaching 1.09, while the northwest region ranks last with an average efficiency value of 0.66. Shanghai performs the best, while Ningxia performs the worst, with efficiency values of 1.43 and 0.58, respectively; (iii) the provinces with lower efficiency values mainly come from economically underdeveloped remote regions, which can be attributed to issues of water consumption (WC) and energy consumption (EC). Moreover, there are much room for improvement in solid waste emissions (SW) and soot and industrial dust emissions (SD); (iv) the environmental investment, R&D investment, and economic development level can significantly improve GDE, while industrial structure, urbanization level, and energy consumption have inhibiting effects., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The financialization of entity enterprises brings both benefits and risks for economic development. In the context of green economy transformation, exploring the impact of enterprise financialization on green innovation deserves more focus. This paper takes the A-share non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as the research sample to examine how corporate financialization affects green innovation. The results reveal that the enterprise financialization is negatively associated with green innovation, which is more significant for the short-term financialization. Further analysis shows that external supervision governance (institutional investors and analysts' attention) can alleviate the hindering effect of corporate financialization on green innovation. The mechanism tests confirm that enterprise financialization prevents enterprise green innovation by increasing enterprise risk-taking level and reducing R&D investment (capital input and labor input). Heterogeneity analysis reports that higher consumer eco-friendly preference and consumption level can ease the hindering effect of corporate financialization on corporate green innovation. This paper can provide inspiration for enterprises to reasonably arrange asset investment and how to stimulate enterprises' enthusiasm for green innovation, thus powering the green development of the real economy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The increasing discrepancy between a regional economy and transportation imposes higher requirements for their coordinated development. This paper utilized the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model and entropy method (EM) to quantitatively study the coupling coordination state between regional economy and transportation and its spatial distribution of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017. The results show the following: (1) The comprehensive level of regional economy and transportation development in China has shown a growing trend, and the development of regional economy is faster than that of the transportation. (2) The CCD between regional economy and transportation in China is changing from incoordination to high-level coordination. The imbalance of CCD levels among the regions studied varies significantly. The CCD in the eastern regions is slightly higher than that in the central, western, and northeast regions. (3) In the region with a higher CCD, the discrepancy between the development of regional economy and transportation is higher than that in other regions. Moreover, suggestions are provided to promote the coordinated development from a regional perspective. This study provides references to policymakers to help them properly plan and design transportation systems while considering the regional economy, thus stimulating the coordinated and sustainable development between regional economy and transportation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Clean, affordable, and efficient energy sources are inevitable for a sustainable world. Energy crisis, especially the poor access and affordability, demand-supply mismatches, energy inequality, and high dependence on non-renewable energy sources, are the challenges before the attainment of clean energy goals for sustainable development. The 5-year review from the adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by using bibliometric and thematic analysis was conducted in this review. This review is a synthesis of 175 scientific papers on SDG 7. Policy reforms and better funding; technology innovation and inclusion; and economic growth, rapid promotion of renewable, and alternative fuels are the recommendations for the achievement of the energy goals. Future research on energy-related goals should focus on energy justice, policy reforms, energy poverty, poor affordability, off-grid transmissions, renewable energy sources, alternative fuels, reforms in the energy supply chain, and international cooperation for better implementation of projects and for attracting foreign capital and private funds. This paper invites the attention of practitioners, academicians, funding agencies, and international agencies to collaborate in the initiatives for a clean, green, and energized world., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on sustainable development (SD) in China by using a regression model. Based on a panel date ranging from 1996 to 2016, this study makes an assessment of how development is sustained by means of an impose response function model. The findings revealed that, first, FDI has an insignificant influence on environmental quality in the long run but aids in financing physical capital deficits. Second, there exists the presence of the pollution halo hypothesis. In addition, in the short-term, pollution variables (sulfur dioxide and smoke and dust) cause significant variances on the amount of FDI inflows into China. However, they significantly lose their variation effect to FDI inflows in the long run due to the utilization of advanced technologies. Lastly, it is recommended that stricter environmental policies and strategies are implemented to curtail foreign investors from defaulting.

Diverse impact of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) over the landscape of environment is generally believed in literature. As CO2 emission acutely leads to GHGs is a major contributor for global warming, it creates a serious pressure on natural resources and ecological settings. Similarly, low-carbon (CO2) economy, plenty of energy resources, and sustainable growth are a big ask for worldwide economies in this era of mechanization. This paper analyzes the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) economies, to contend the role of mega projects in BRI as an attribute for ecological detriments. The on-hand study engages fresh data information ranging from 1981 to 2016 holding with heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence as a special deliberation. The calculated outcomes expose that, mean group estimator provides strong evidence and favor the existence of EKC approximately in every region. The long-run influence is measured by pooled mean group estimators, which shows significant outcomes in every region; additionally, the EKC hypothesis affirmed in the long run especially for developed economies. Mega projects, i.e., BRI requisite immense energy sources to accomplishing the enclosed projects efficiently and effectively. The positive association between carbon emission and energy consumption troubled the governments to make policies for restraining the magnitude of carbon emission and controls energy usage for enduring environment to its original position. Next, the valuations depicted the dense recommendations for state administrations in capacity of rigorous level supremacy, trash managing campaigns, renewable energy reliance, and advance for desirable judgments to sterilize the atmosphere.

This paper explores the direct impact of new technology on the energy intensity in China. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration is utilised over the extended period of 1985-2013. The variables found cointegrated and confirm the long-run association among all the underlying vectors. Furthermore, the results of long- and short-run analysis reveal that new technology spurs energy intensity in China. A 1% increase in technological innovation boosts energy intensity by 0.4% and 0.03% in the long and short run, respectively. The findings suggest that the establishment of smart grids and solar energy parks followed by the reforms in energy sector is yet to achieve plausible efficiency in China. The existing investment and innovation policy reforms are insufficient to assist the energy sector to cope up with the country's exceptional economic growth trend. Unlike other studies, this paper accommodates structural break in the series. During sensitivity analysis, the model is found stable. Hence, the findings possess important policy implications for China and open up new discussion in the field.