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

The role of digital financial inclusion in economic development has been widely appreciated, and its carbon emission mitigating effect on the household sector needs to be noticed. This study investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion on household carbon emissions based on panel data for 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. The results show that digital financial inclusion has a significant and robust mitigation effect on household carbon emissions and that digital financial inclusion impacts mainly from the breadth of coverage and the degree of digitization. The heterogeneity test results show that this mitigation effect is mainly found in the central and western inland regions as well as in the northern regions with high winter heating demand. In addition, this mitigation effect is mainly found in urban rather than rural areas. The results of the mechanism analysis show that digital financial inclusion reduces household carbon emissions through two pathways, electricity consumption and natural gas consumption share, and no significant mediating effect is observed for residential consumption share. The results of this study shed light on the relationship between digital financial inclusion and carbon emissions in the household sector and provide a reference for decision-making to address household carbon emission mitigation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction has become an important concern worldwide. During the past century, human activities have been a significant cause of the increase in the level of greenhouse gases. Past research mainly focuses on evaluating the nexus between unidimensional population factors and CO2 emissions, while few prior studies in a developing country have reported the impact of multidimensional demographic factors on CO2 emissions. As an initial attempt, this study investigates the short- and long-run associations between population factors, low-carbon innovation, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for a panel consisting of 285 cities by employing the pooled mean group (PMG) estimator under the framework of the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Our main findings are as follows: (1) Population size and population density could increase CO2 emissions, while population quality and low-carbon innovation were essential factors that alleviate carbon emission pressure in the long run. (2) Economic development, foreign direct investment, and industrial development were found to be factors causing the increase in carbon emissions. (3) The split-sample analysis demonstrated that the improvement of population quality still has a positive and significant long-run effect on environmental quality. Simultaneously, low-carbon innovation could realize the enormous dividends of carbon emission reduction in the long run, especially in existing relatively larger CO2 emission areas. Finally, the paper presents important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study first attempts to use the parameterized quadratic directional distance function (DDF) approach to calculate China's provincial carbon abatement cost and carbon reduction potential (CRP) under different scenarios from 2000 to 2017. Afterward, considering three different scenarios, we analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics and the dynamic evolution pattern of CRP. We also employ spatial Durbin model (SDM) to investigate the influencing factors of CRP. The results are obtained as follows: (1) CRP across the three scenarios varies considerably across provinces and different-located groups. CRP higher areas are mainly located in the economically developed eastern coastal regions, while most provinces with low CRP are concentrated in the western region. (2) Provinces with a similar CRP showed a significant geographic agglomeration, and the agglomeration effect was strengthened first and then weakened. Simultaneously, the local spatial distribution of moderation carbon reduction potential (MCRP), fairness carbon reduction potential (FCRP), and efficiency carbon reduction potential (ECRP) shows a slight spatial polarization feature. (3) Through the SDM analysis and spillover effect decomposition, we find that improvement of regional CRP not only depends on economic development, industrial structure adjustment, and energy efficiency elevation, but also involves energy structure optimization, low-carbon innovation, and population. The low-carbon innovation provides critical support for local CRP under the efficiency scenario but restrains the local CRP under the fairness scenario. Therefore, the central government should emphasize local conditions and the ex-ante scenario assessment, strengthen regional interactive governance, optimize energy efficiency, and promote the application of clean energy to enhance CRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe3O4/P(GMA-DVB)/PAMAM/Au microspheres are fabricated to research the catalytic performances to 4-nitrophenol. In the preparation process, Fe3O4 microspheres act as magnetic cores, PAMAM dendrimers growing up on the surface of P(GMA-DVB) polymer work as carriers, and Au nanoparticles serve as catalytic materials. The stability of the prepared microspheres is evaluated by successively catalytic experiments to measure the conversion of 4-nitrophenol, and catalytic efficiency can still maintain up to 78.7% after ten cycles. Moreover, the effects of major factors including the concentration of the prepared microspheres and the temperature of reaction system on the conversion of 4-nitrophenol are also investigated in detail. The manuscript reveals that 4-nitrophenol can be almost converted to 4-aminophenol within 7 min at 45 °C in the case of using 1.0 g/L Fe3O4/P(GMA-DVB)/PAMAM/Au microspheres. Such excellent catalytic properties are ascribed to the optimum structure of the prepared microspheres, which favors the sufficient contact between Au nanoparticles and 4-nitrophenol. The results and strategies exhibited here provide insight into the preparation of sophisticated structures of catalysts to treat wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]