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The relationship between environmental regulation and firm productivity has been widely debated but inconsistencies in findings across different studies. Using detailed firm-level micro-data from 2000 to 2007, this paper employs difference-in-difference combined with matching based on entropy balancing method to explore the effect of environmental regulation on firm total factor productivity (TFP) in pulp and paper industry in China. Our main findings are as following: Firstly, stricter environmental regulation, as represented by the Wastewater Discharge Standards for Pulp and Paper Industry in Shandong province, increases firm TFP significantly. Moreover, the coefficients of interest are robust to multiple robustness checks. Secondly, dynamic effects estimates reveal that when faced with this phase-in environmental regulation, firms take the foreseeably increasing strictness into account from the very beginning and prefer to take one-step adjustment to reach full compliance. Thirdly, potential mechanism analysis finds that the positive effect mainly comes from the improvement of resource allocation efficiency within firms. Fourthly, the heterogeneity test indicates that the effect of environmental regulation on firm TFP is heterogeneous across firms with different sizes, ages, ownerships, capital intensity, and export status. Finally, this paper provides convincing and insightful evidence that environmental regulation has the potential to achieve the dual goals of environmental sustainability and economic growth and is thus of broader significance for understanding the enforcement of environmental regulation in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Patriotic education in China is a state project that serves the Chinese government. However, current discourse on Chinese patriotic education basically views inward and outward aspects of patriotism as separate and incompatible, which downplays the intricate relationship between them. Arguably, a more nuanced understanding of patriotism is needed to better explore patriotic education in the context of China. This paper begins by elaborating the differences between inward and outward patriotism as illustrated by Marianna Papastephanou's Janus-faced nature of patriotism. It then proceeds to give background information on Chinese patriotic education and illustrate how inward patriotism has been intrinsic to patriotic education in China from its beginnings. The paper further reveals that outward patriotism has been increasingly emphasized in today's China. Finally, it proposes that the risks and potentials of both inward and outward patriotism should be realized and given full consideration and explains how balanced patriotism can help accommodate diverse needs and make Chinese development more sustainable.

China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI) has been always the main carbon emission source in recent years. However, the analysis on influencing factors of carbon emissions from this industry is insufficient. To address the issue, the CO2 emissions from CPPI are estimated in the period of 2005–2019, the driving factors of CO2 emissions are investigated by the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, the decoupling state of economic growth and CO2 emissions is determined by Tapio decoupling model, and finally, future CO2 emissions are predicted under four scenarios by the STIRPAT model to explore the potential of carbon peaking. The results show that CPPI exhibits a rapid increase and a fluctuating downward trend in CO2 emissions during the period of 2005–2013 and 2014–2019, respectively. The main promoting and inhibiting factors to the increase of CO2 emission are per capita industrial output value and energy intensity, respectively. There are five decoupling states of CO2 emissions and economic growth during the study period, and the CO2 emissions exhibit a weak decoupling state with the industrial output value growth in most years of the study period. It is very difficult to realize the carbon peaking goal by 2030 under the baseline and fast development scenarios. Therefore, efficient low carbon and strong low-carbon development policies are necessary and urgent for the realization of carbon peaking goal and the sustainable development of CPPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A closed-loop material flow analysis model is established for China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI), followed by a comprehensive quantitative analysis from both retrospective and prospective perspectives. • By implementing sound plans and stricter regulations and standards, China has improved recycling and material use efficiency, reduced the organic material with wastewater, and shifted towards recovered paper as a raw material over non-wood fiber. • Lowering the waste paper recycling rate to increase carbon storage is not suitable for China, due to the limited virgin fiber and growing demand. • The growing paper demand requires efforts from both ends of virgin fiber supply and waste paper management towards the sustainable development of CPPI. As the largest global producer and consumer of pulp and paper, China faces significant sustainability challenges in fiber supply and waste paper management. A comprehensive material flow analysis of China's pulp and paper industry (CPPI) is needed to understand the interaction between raw material supply and waste paper management. Here, we construct a closed-loop material flow analysis model for CPPI, examine the evolution patterns of material metabolism from 1990 to 2019, and explore the demand for paper production, waste paper recycling, and virgin fiber supply in 2030 and 2050 under multiple scenarios considering critical factors. Results show that the industry has undergone rapid expansion, increased material use efficiency, and a shift towards recycled pulp from 1990 to 2019. China's paper demand will grow to 186 Mt in the next 30 years, resulting in a significant increase in both demand for fibers (173 Mt) and the generation of waste paper (138 Mt). To ensure a sustainable fiber supply for CPPI, domestic waste paper recycling needs to be prioritized. However, attention should also be paid to the availability of virgin pulp supply and proper disposal of organic solid waste. Proper management of these factors is crucial for achieving a circular economy in the industry and reducing its environmental impact. The findings highlight the importance of addressing both raw material supply and waste paper management for CPPI's sustainable development. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulp and paper companies are characterized by high‐energy consumption and high‐emission in production, placing a heavy burden on the environment. Exploring ways to improve their environmental performance is urgently needed. External coercive pressure from environmental law and internal proactive environmental strategy both enable companies to perform better, but little is known about the difference between them. To close this knowledge gap, our analysis is conducted on a case company in pulp and paper industry to compare the differential impacts of the New Environmental Protection Law of China and the proactive environmental strategy on its environmental performance. In addition, accurately evaluating the environmental performance of pulp and paper companies is essential while research on this topic is scant. Therefore, a novel environmental performance evaluation system for pulp and paper companies (EPESPP) is constructed, including not only internal but also external evaluation indexes based on news reports of various media measured by SNOWNLP sentiment analysis. According to the system, the environmental performance of the case company from 2010 to 2018 is evaluated by the entropy‐weight‐based catastrophe progression method (EWCPM). The results of our case study show that the implementation of a proactive environmental strategy is more conducive to comprehensively improving corporate environmental performance. In other words, the driving effect of the New Environmental Protection Law is not as strong as that of the proactive environmental strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Index of recycling sustainability for assessing waste paper recycling. • Integrating methodology of GIS and value chain model. • Historical changes of informal recyclables distribution sites in Beijing. • Value chain of waste paper recycling in Beijing may face challenges in the future. • Policy implications to improve waste paper recycling in Beijing. China established a self-organized and market-driven recycling system, which was dominated by the informal sectors. In recent years, the amount of domestically-recycled waste paper grew slower than expectation in China, which may be resulted from a decline in economic sustainability of current recycling system. For understanding the waste paper recycling system in most cities in China, the economic mechanism remains unclear and the city-level data is extremely insufficient. In this work, an index of recycling sustainability (IRS, benefit divided by cost) is analyzed with a resolution of 1 km2 grid in Beijing City, by adopting value chain and GIS methodology. Five degrees of IRS are defined, from high-degree (IRS > 1.10) to low-degree (IRS < 0.95). Different stakeholders in the informal waste paper recycling system were interviewed to fill the data gap. Results show that: (1) from 2015 to 2018, the informal recycling of waste paper accounted for approximate 80% in Beijing; (2) the number of informal recyclables distribution sites decreased from 27 to 11, and their average distance to the city-center rose from 27.5 km to 40.9 km; (3) in 2015 and 2018, the grids with high-degree IRS accounted for 99.5% and 89.2%, respectively, indicating a sustainable waste paper recycling industry in Beijing; and (4) according to the scenario analysis, if the operating cost rises by 30%, the grids with low-degree IRS accounts for 98.5%, indicating a nontrivial challenges when the recycling cost keeps increasing in the future. Policy recommendations are put forward for a more sustainable paper waste recycling system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guiding industries to produce in an effective and environmentally sustainable manner has become a key issue for governments around the world. Over the past 15 years, series of regional and industrial development policies have been introduced by the Chinese government. This has influenced the geographical distribution and energy efficiency performance of China’s industries. This paper quantifies the influence of enterprises geographical distribution on energy efficiency improvement in the paper industry and aims at providing some helpful suggestions on industrial development to policy makers. The main results show that, firstly, the paper industry in eastern China shows obvious characteristic of agglomeration. The average location quotient is 1.2278. However, following the industrial and regional development policies, the characteristic of agglomeration is weakening. Secondly, only when agglomeration reaches a certain level (location quotient is above 0.5447) will industrial agglomeration positively impact on industrial energy efficiency improvement (a 1% increase in agglomeration will increase dynamic energy efficiency by at least 0.23%). Thirdly, the regional development policies carried out by the government slow the pace of energy efficiency improvement in China’s paper industry. The empirical results indicate that the government needs to consider regional characteristics and consciously guide industrial enterprises to concentrate in the dominant area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.)

Amidst resource loss and environmental protection constraints, achieving green development necessitates enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP) as a means of promoting rational and efficient resource allocation, thereby balancing economic growth and environmental preservation. Meanwhile, literature on the subject matter of GTFP from a sustainability viewpoint is minimal. As a result, this study employs the panel dataset from 30 provinces of China spanning the period 2005 to 2020 and utilizes the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) developed by Machado and Santos Silva (2019) to analyze the heterogeneous role of green innovation, environmental regulations, and fiscal expenditure on GTFP. Moreover, the controlling variable for this study includes renewable energy and economic growth. Furthermore, this study investigates the heterogeneous combined impact of green innovation and fiscal expenditure (GTE*FSE) on GTFP. The findings of the MMQR reveal that green innovation has a positive impact on GTFP, while fiscal expenditure, environmental regulations, and renewable energy consumption have a negative impact. GTE*FSE has a positive and significant effect on GTFP, indicating that FSE can reinforce and increase the positive impact of GTE on GTFP in the long run. The study also reveals that economic growth has a mixed effect on GTFP, depending on the quantiles. Furthermore, environmental regulation has a significant and negative impact on GTFP, contradicting the Porter hypothesis. Likewise, the robustness of the findings is confirmed by the results of the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimations, which indicate a similar impact of the determinants on GTFP as observed in the MMQR analysis. This reinforces the validity of the findings and suggests that the observed relationships are robust to different estimation techniques. Furthermore, the findings of the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) panel causality test reveal significant bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and GTFP and fiscal expenditure and GTFP. Policy-makers need to channel a large chuck of their fiscal spending into green innovation so as to boost sustainability., (© 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.)

Background and Aim: China's economic and societal development, education reform, and increasing demand for quality education, independent colleges' advantages waned. Issues like "schools within schools," lack of independence, unclear property ownership, and weak internal governance arose, necessitating restructuring and new directions. Thus, this article examines Edvantage Group's response to independent college restructuring through dynamic capabilities theory, analyzing bottleneck issues, exploring measures taken for reform and development, and investigating a sustainable development path post-restructuring. Materials and Methods: Through semi-structured interviews and practical investigations, this paper analyzes the development strategy of the independent college under Edvantage Group. Results: the group's development presents a dynamic and evolutionary growth process, and dynamic ability is the key ability for the group to gain a foothold in the market and gain development advantages. Under the background of the current government's efforts to promote vocational education, the Group should incline its internal resources more to vocational colleges and technical schools. To give full play to its advantages, seize opportunities and make up for its disadvantages, it is necessary to improve the internal governance system, improve the system construction, strengthen and stabilize the teaching staff, enhance the social influence of the group, further promote the restructuring of internal resources of the group and improve the utilization efficiency. Conclusion: The transformational development challenges, private education groups need to find a distinctive, high-quality, and sustainable path to development. Dynamic capabilities are crucial, and this paper takes the case of Edvantage Group, investigating its development strategy based on dynamic capability theory.

Since the end of the twentieth century, the world has observed a considerable upsurge in carbon emissions as several countries have surfaced as industrial centers and production monsters worldwide. The present study contributes to the existing literature examining the effects of carbon-based emissions, industrial value added, trade openness, transport services, railway lines, and globalization index on per capita GDP growth in China. The study covers a period of 40 years, from 1982 to 2021, introducing the impact of railway transport on GDP growth in contemporary environmental empirics. A vector error correction model (VECM) was applied to achieve the study's envisaged objectives. The findings of this study reveal that carbon emissions are responsible for the reduction of per capita GDP growth in China. On the contrary, industrial value added, transport services, railway lines, and globalization index positively support the per capita GDP growth-dependent variable. The study proposes that pragmatic policies are needed to control pollution resulting from carbon emissions. The eventual effect of maintaining greenhouse gases is expected to assist in achieving sustainable growth of per capita GDP leading to the accomplishment of sustainable development goals in the economy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: The global COVID-19 epidemic has posed significant challenges to the development of innovation and entrepreneurship education in Chinese and foreign universities, and the application of artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) technology has presented both opportunities and challenges to its development. The purpose of this study is to summarize advanced experiences and models of new engineering innovation and entrepreneurship education development in Chinese and foreign universities, as well as to analyze the influencing factors. Taking the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into account, this study qualitatively proposes enhancement paths and improvement suggestions based on the application of AIGC technology, providing a reference for promoting the sustainable development (SD) of innovation and entrepreneurship education in Chinese universities. Design/methodology/approach: By using the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), this paper studies the interaction mechanism between the influencing factors of innovation and entrepreneurship in universities under the background of SDGs. This paper selects 12 representative universities with different cultures and strengths. Meanwhile, this paper analyzes the content of 2,535 publications on innovation and entrepreneurship education and summarizes seven influencing factors as comparison criteria. Then, this paper codes, summarizes and uses configuration to assess the primary factors influencing the development of innovation and entrepreneurship in colleges and universities at home and abroad. Findings: On the quality of new engineering innovation and entrepreneurship education, comprehensive, diverse influencing factors and upgrading paths are obtained. Furthermore, this research proposes that the SD of innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities should make effective use of "AI plus education" and actively construct practical and teaching platforms. Meanwhile, the ChatGPT is being used to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship curricular system and talent training mode. The research also makes recommendations for improving teachers' ability to acquire intelligent tools and promotes three-way teaching modalities of "teacher-AI-student" by taking into account the influence of various aspects. Originality/value: This research uses the QCA research method, which analyzes not only influencing factors on the SD of innovation and entrepreneurship education but also explores the interaction mechanisms among factors. Furthermore, the research incorporates SDGs and AIGC technology application scenarios into the field of domestic innovation and entrepreneurship education, which will be helpful in SDGs of innovation and entrepreneurship education on both theoretical and practical levels.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the potential of implementing an action competence teaching model as a framework for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education. The paper seeks to draw insights from the students on the potential of this teaching model. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative research design in exploring the potential of an action competence teaching model. This study used self-report measures to obtain insights into the objective of the study. Findings: The action competence teaching model was seen as useful in equipping students with knowledge about a problem, confidence and willingness to act. However, some issues like the design of the projects, teamwork and instructional practices were identified and discussed. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to implement an action competence teaching model to help draw insights from students on its potential. This paper documents certain aspects of action competence that require attention before being implemented in higher education. This information so far lacking in scientific literature contributes to ongoing discussions on SDGs while unveiling strengths and weaknesses to be considered.

Under the sustainability strategy, a company's ability to enhance its financing capacity through improvements in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is crucial for fostering high-quality development. This study empirically examines the impact of corporate ESG performance on commercial credit financing (CCF) using data from China's A-share listed companies between 2009 and 2021. The findings of the panel regression analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between a company's ESG performance and CCF. Further analysis of the influencing mechanisms indicates that a company's ESG performance can increase its likelihood of obtaining CCF by reducing environmental, social, and governance risks. Specifically, we found that ESG performance facilitates access to CCF by promoting green innovation, enhancing social reputation, and mitigating operational risk. This study expands and enriches the theory of informal financing of enterprises while incorporating the more comprehensive assessment criteria for sustainable development., (© 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.)

Involving the global issues as listed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is necessarily done in the education process, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. Exposure to global issues is known to improve students' understanding, awareness, and ability to solve urgent issues faced by global society. This paper aims to find out the trend of research on the coverage of SDGs in students' learning process. This systematic literature analysis was done by applying Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Method. A total of 25 studies were recognized through a systematic search by using Sustainability, SDGs, and EFL as keywords. The result shows that the trend of associating SDGs with EFL settings was done mostly in Indonesia. In the recent year 2022, it reached the highest number of studies in the particular matter with 7 total of research. It was also found that the study involving SDGs on EFL learning was mostly done in the tertiary setting, compared with K-12, junior high school, secondary, high school, and other educational institutions. It was also discovered that the specific area of study enhances EFL students' learning achievement, environmental awareness, global citizen values, as well as students' levels of self-norms, beliefs, and self-value.

The review article presents an analysis of the literature on environmental literacy in sustainable development. By utilizing techniques to examine multiple documents published between 2013 and 2023, including citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, subject area analysis, and keyword analysis, this study aims to provide valuable information and insights into the research landscape surrounding environmental literacy and its contribution to promoting sustainable development. A systematic search was conducted to gather several scientific articles, conference papers, and publications from the Scopus database from 2013 to 2023. The findings of this analysis shed light on authors, influential institutions, and active research groups that contributed to the study of environmental literacy and sustainable development. This comprehensive review offers an understanding of the state of research in this field while identifying areas for further exploration and research gaps. The insights gained from this study can be highly beneficial for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to advance knowledge and take action toward promoting literacy's role in sustainable development. This analysis is a foundation for advancing our understanding of literacy's significance while emphasizing its vital role in sustainable development efforts.

The pursuit of a green transformation agenda in China is an important aspect of achieving sustainable development. The role played by green financial development efficiency (GFDE) in this pursuit cannot be overlooked. This paper explored the impact of GFDE on China's green transformation agenda and its contributions toward sustainable development. The study adopts a systematic approach to examine the relationship between GFDE and green transformation, utilizing relevant data and literature. The study aligns with previous research in the field that highlights the importance of green finance in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable development in China. It also adds to the existing literature by specifically focusing on the role of green financial development efficiency in the pursuit of a green transformation agenda in China. The study found a significant improvement in GFDE over the period of 2010 to 2020 in promoting green transformation in China. Both systems generalized method of moments and fixed-effect models revealed that trade openness, foreign investments, technological innovation, and government budget positively influenced GFDE while energy consumption and economic policy uncertainty had a significant adverse effect on GFDE. The results of this study inform policymakers and stakeholders of the importance of green finance in promoting sustainable development. The study intimated that the financial sector should provide support for green technologies and businesses by offering range of green products such as green bonds, funds, and loans., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As an important policy instrument to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction, carbon emissions trading has also promoted the green transformation of enterprises while achieving carbon reduction targets. This study uses the implementation of the Chinese carbon emissions trading pilot policy (CETPP) as a quasi-natural experiment and analyzes the impacts of the CETPP on the green transformation of enterprises with the difference-in-differences (DID) method based on a sample of 297 listed Chinese A-share high-energy-consuming enterprises. The result findings show that CETPP can significantly promote the green transformation of enterprises. The heterogeneity analysis also reveals that CETPP has differential effects on enterprises belonging to different industries, which is caused by the fact that enterprises in different industries differ significantly in their green transformation paths and modes. Moreover, CETPP has a significant facilitating effect on the green transformation of non-state-owned enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises. Finally, marketization and enterprise social responsibility are two major mechanisms for the CETPP to promote the green transformation of enterprises. Our findings reveal that policymakers should further deepen the dynamic management of carbon emission allowances and guide enterprises to actively undertake social responsibility, thus leveraging the market regulation mechanism to promote the green transformation of enterprises., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper investigates the role of export quality in climate action goal of the sustainable development goals in emerging Asian countries. For this purpose, the empirical model that observes the impact of real GDP, energy use and export quality index on carbon emissions is constructed and is analyzed by ARDL bounds testing approach for the period from 1970 to 2014. We also include the square of real GDP as independent variable to observe the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis which implies the parabolic relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The findings show that increase in export quality leads to a fall in CO 2 emissions for China and India. In contrast, the effect of increasing export quality increases CO 2 emissions in Thailand and the Philippines. Lastly, our asymmetric causality results show that the positive shocks of export quality causes positive shocks of CO 2 emissions in Thailand and Indonesia. Furthermore, we found that positive export quality shocks cause negative CO 2 emissions shocks in India while negative export quality shocks cause positive CO 2 emissions shocks in China. We also confirm the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in China and Thailand., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Achieving food-system sustainability is a multidimensional challenge. In China, a doubling of crop production since 1990 has compromised other dimensions of sustainability 1,2 . Although the country is promoting various interventions to enhance production efficiency and reduce environmental impacts 3 , there is little understanding of whether crop switching can achieve more sustainable cropping systems and whether coordinated action is needed to avoid tradeoffs. Here we combine high-resolution data on crop-specific yields, harvested areas, environmental footprints and farmer incomes to first quantify the current state of crop-production sustainability. Under varying levels of inter-ministerial and central coordination, we perform spatial optimizations that redistribute crops to meet a suite of agricultural sustainable development targets. With a siloed approach-in which each government ministry seeks to improve a single sustainability outcome in isolation-crop switching could realize large individual benefits but produce tradeoffs for other dimensions and between regions. In cases of central coordination-in which tradeoffs are prevented-we find marked co-benefits for environmental-impact reductions (blue water (-4.5% to -18.5%), green water (-4.4% to -9.5%), greenhouse gases (GHGs) (-1.7% to -7.7%), fertilizers (-5.2% to -10.9%), pesticides (-4.3% to -10.8%)) and increased farmer incomes (+2.9% to +7.5%). These outcomes of centrally coordinated crop switching can contribute substantially (23-40% across dimensions) towards China's 2030 agricultural sustainable development targets and potentially produce global resource savings. This integrated approach can inform feasible targeted agricultural interventions that achieve sustainability co-benefits across several dimensions., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

China is the largest paper producer and consumer in the world. However, China's paper industry is inefficient in its consumption of natural resources. Whereas the proportion of wood pulp used by the paper industry in developed countries is up to 63%, the corresponding figure for China is only 23%, leading to high energy and water consumption and severe environmental pollution. This article presents a systematic risk analysis using life cycle assessment and carbon footprint calculation associated with China's straw-pulp and wood-pulp paper industries. Risk prevention measures are proposed based on the results of this analysis. The study has important ramifications for the sustainable development of China's paper industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Guidelines on Building a Market-Oriented Green Technology Innovation System, which was released by China in 2019, has become a powerful signal to guide the development of green technology innovation (GTI). In the current digital strategy of China, the public media has become a key factor for promoting the transparency of enterprise environmental information. This paper measures the GTI efficiency of the listed paper enterprises in China as well as incorporating media attention into the research framework to explore the influencing factors of GTI of the listed paper enterprises in China during the digital economy era. The results showed that a positive media report had a positive impact on GTI and has become a new driving factor in promoting sustainable production in the digital era. Government support and openness also have a positive impact on GTI. However, negative media reports, environmental regulations, and technological innovation abilities have an inhibitory effect on the GTI efficiency of paper making enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breaking through the company's own green knowledge barriers through school-enterprise cooperation has become an important means for companies to expand market competitive advantages and environmental governance. This article uses China's non-financial listed company data from 2010 to 2021 to study the causal effect of school-enterprise cooperation on corporate green innovation. The results passed a series of robustness tests and confirmed that school enterprise cooperation can improve the level of green innovation of enterprises. This paper also uses the instrumental variable method to mitigate the causal relationship between the two. The results show that school-enterprise cooperation can still significantly improve corporate green innovation. The results of the mechanism test confirm that school-enterprise cooperation will promote corporate green innovation by reducing corporate green innovation risks and easing corporate financing constraints. At the same time, the heterogeneity analysis results show that school-enterprise cooperation has a better effect on improving green innovation for enterprises in heavily polluting industries, enterprises in years with low economic policy uncertainty, and enterprises with a high degree of government-enterprise connection. The findings of this article help to understand the intrinsic mechanism between school-enterprise cooperation and corporate green innovation, and confirm that school-enterprise cooperation can improve the climate and environmental innovation system, which has important practical significance for the construction of the industry-university-research system.

Abstract: Recent years have seen increasing demand for wider application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA), especially SEA of major policies, as a powerful instrument to safeguard the environment during the rapid industrialization and urbanization in China. Debates on SEA are concentrated on its feasibility and effective implementation in practice. This study applies Emergy analysis within the framework of social–economic–natural complex eco-system theory to overcome the limitations of methods used for assessing regional sustainability so far. This established model is tested in the case of Chinese paper industry to assess the sustainability of 5 policy scenarios. The results show that Emergy-based Indices (EbI) are more effective to measure the sustainability of industry complex ecosystem, thus EbI approach is very useful in SEAs on policy scenarios of a given complex ecosystem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a traditional energy and carbon intensive sector, it becomes imperative for the global paper industry to realize green development. This paper aims to provide guidance for the green transformation of global paper industry by evaluating the global paper industry green development level in a systematic and dynamic way. This paper employs text-mining method to develop paper industry green development evaluation indicator system and adopts market-extended LCA model and entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the paper industry green development level of 48 countries/regions. The results show that during 2000–2030 the paper industry green development level of developing countries improves faster than developed countries, where those of developing and developed countries increase from 0.3369 to 0.3938 and from 0.5120 to 0.5517 respectively and the gap between them narrows from 0.1751 to 0.1579. The comparative analysis reveals that the paper industries of developed and developing countries are in different green development stages. Developing countries, represented by China, improve greatly in economic and social dimensions, but decline seriously in ecological dimension due to enlarging resource consumption and environmental damages. On the contrary, developed countries tend to saturate in economic and social dimensions and have been improving fast in ecological dimension, gradually realizing the decoupling of industrial economic development and environmental damages. To further promote the global paper industry green development, developing countries should focus on promoting the coordinated development between economic growth and environment protection and developed countries should play a leading role in the global green transformation by promoting optimal allocation of resources and cross-regional communications of green technologies. • A paper industry green development indicator system is developed based on text mining. • A global paper industry green development model is built with market-extended LCA. • Complex interactions among the indicators are internalized in the evaluation. • A spatial-temporal analysis is performed on global paper industry green development level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to analyze the impacts of capital misallocation and technological innovation on green development efficiency in China by using the panel data from 2000 to 2018. We employ the Super-SBM model to evaluate green development efficiency and use the system generalized method of moments (GMM) for empirical estimation. The results suggest that capital misallocation has a significant inhibitory effect on green development efficiency. Moreover, capital misallocation restrains technological innovation, which plays an important role in improving green development efficiency. Further research on the effect of regional heterogeneity indicates that the negative impact of capital misallocation on green development efficiency is more significant in the central and western regions, while the effect is not significant in the eastern region. Our findings provide useful policy implications for improving green development efficiency in China., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With the expanding use of English around the world, it is important to understand various stakeholders' attitudes towards it from a Global Englishes (GE) perspective. The GE perspective has challenged native speakerism and recognized the multilingual nature of the English language. In particular, a GE perspective leads to the sustainable development of a language from both sociolinguistic and ecolinguistic perspectives. Echoing the diversity and complexity of the English language use and teaching, this paper investigates senior high school students' attitudes towards the local variety of English in China, and unpacks their negotiation and construction of identity through their English-language learning journey. Through a series of interviews, this study found that the students still perceive English as a school subject, and see themselves as perennial learners of English. As the GE perspective was not widely recognized, and that students have not developed their awareness of the global use of English, several implications of teaching English from the GE paradigm, from curriculum design and teaching materials, are provided to increase the awareness of the global use of English. This paper also highlights the importance of viewing the development of English from an ecolinguistic perspective for the sustainable development of the language.

Academic support is an important part of quality education provision in higher education institutions (HEIs). Although many researches discuss about the different approaches and their effectiveness of academic support in retaining students and meeting their diversified needs, there is not so much literature written on the academic support in transnational education (TNE) under the strategic goal of sustainability. Based on an integrated analysis of a Chinese-Finnish TNE program, this paper uses mixed methods with qualitative and quantitative approaches in a case study to analyze what academic support should be provided to students, how and when it should be provided. Findings show that students need academic support in the aspects of employment-related issues and courses learning most. And Fu Dao Yuan is suggested to be the links between students and academic support mechanisms. The paper also proposes a longitudinal model of academic support to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which can be a reference model adopted in other TNE in the Chinese context.

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.)

The study on the "Technology Innovations in Supply Chains: Unlocking Sustainability and SDG Advancement," offers a thorough examination of the intricate connections between technological innovation, supply chain management, sustainability development, and the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in various Chinese cities. The study explores how developments in artificial intelligence (A.I.), the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data have changed supply chain practices and their consequent effects on environmental and sustainability results. It does this by utilizing a substantial dataset spanning a decade. The findings showed that different patterns of technological adoption and their impacts might be seen in the assessed cities. While it is clear that technology innovation is essential for improving supply chain effectiveness and encouraging sustainability, not all regions see the same advantages. Variations in supply chain complexity, city size, technology advancement, and environmental legislation are all blamed for these discrepancies. The report also offers detailed knowledge of the connection between the development of modern supply chains and the advancement of the SDGs. Even though many cities showed high relationships, others showed less alignment, pointing to the importance of additional economic, sociopolitical, and environmental factors. The report concludes by highlighting the potential of technology to advance sustainability and the SDGs while emphasizing the necessity for a deliberate and context-specific approach to technology integration. Additionally, it emphasizes how crucial supportive regulations are in maximizing the advantages. These findings significantly impact business executives, educators, and legislators who want to use technology to advance sustainability and the SDGs., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

To contribute to the research on the role of financial activities in corporate development, this study addresses the critical issue of short-term debt financing for long-term investment (SDFLI) and its impact on the sustainable development of carbon-intensive enterprises in China. By analyzing panel data from the A-share listed carbon-intensive enterprises in China spanning from 2010 to 2021, this study aims to shed light on the significance of this phenomenon and its implications. The empirical findings reveal the existence of a maturity mismatch between investment and financing in carbon-intensive enterprises, which exerts a significant negative impact on total factor productivity (TFP) and poses challenges to their sustainable development. Furthermore, the adverse effects of maturity mismatches vary across different types of enterprises based on factors such as ownership, industry characteristics, financing constraints, and internal controls. The results of the mediation effect model demonstrate that maturity mismatch hampers the sustainable development of carbon-intensive enterprises by reducing investment efficiency and increasing agency costs. Additionally, the moderating role of innovation in carbon-intensive enterprises between maturity mismatch and sustainable development is also examined. This research provides insights to establish policies for facilitating sustainable development in carbon-intensive enterprises., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper tries to explain the economic significance of “pursuing green development and promoting harmony between humanity and nature” in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from the following eight aspects. First, it explains how to respect, adapt to, and protect nature through the confirmation of ownership, valuation classification and incentive. Second, it analyzes why China should work actively toward the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality from the new security concept, new challenges, new situations, and new tasks brought by the urgency and severity of climate change risks. Third, it expounds on the difficulty and complexity of addressing climate change from multiple aspects, such as the ratchet effect, Giddens’s paradox, prisoner’s dilemma, lock-in effect, asset stranding, intergenerational equity, and the Wandering Earth scenario. Fourth, it recognizes the importance of stability, overall planning, and coordination based on the overall planned and coordinated triangle of high-quality development, carbon neutrality, and energy security. Fifth, it emphasizes the importance of green and low-carbon technological innovation by means of the IPAS equation. Sixth, it explains the essence of carbon neutrality as the industrial transition based on the energy transition, which is an economic logic. Seventh, taking the carbon market as an example, it explains the economic principle that the market mechanism plays an important role. Eighth, it explains how finance empowers the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality as well as high-quality development. Finally, this paper is of guiding significance for economics, finance, international trade, and policy research, and in the meantime, provides new research tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable leadership is a necessity to achieve the goals of sustainable development, such as addressing complex global issues, preserving environmental and social balance, ensuring the well-being of future generations, and promoting innovation. Sustainable leadership in education is important to contribute to sustainable development goals by equipping future generations with environmental, social, and economic responsibilities and integrating sustainability principles into the education system. This study aims to determine the current state of research containing the term "sustainable leadership" by conducting a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science (WoS) database. The VOSviewer software is employed to visually represent the data obtained from the WoS database. According to the comprehensive bibliometric analysis results, research related to the theme of "sustainable leadership" began to emerge in 2002, with a total of 390 publications identified in the period from 2002 to 2023. The majority of these publications are in the form of articles, reflecting the interest and curiosity within academic circles in this field. However, considering the lower presence of other document types such as conference papers, book chapters, and review articles, there appears to be a growing need for these types of sources. The bibliometric analysis reveals that research on sustainable leadership is predominantly published in the form of articles, with a significant increase observed, particularly in publications from 2019. The VOSviewer analysis of the "sustainable leadership" field categorizes the most commonly used terms into three clusters: "sustainability", "sustainable leadership", and "leadership". In terms of the distribution of articles in the field of sustainable leadership by citing countries, the countries with the highest number of citations are Thailand, South Africa, the United States, and China, respectively. The findings of the analysis are believed to contribute as a resource for future research and benefit researchers in exploring potential topics related to the theme of sustainable leadership in the near future. Additionally, it is noted that there is limited research on sustainable leadership in Turkey, and recommendations are provided for its further development.

The severity of plastic pollution is increasing, and delaying sustainable development is not an option. China is a large consumer of plastic, so it is essential to encourage the use of eco-friendly shopping bags there. The paper focuses on the recognition and use of eco-friendly shopping bags among young people in Guangdong Province, China, and determines what factors can lead to a rise in the use of these bags. A questionnaire was utilized to gather data from 392 young people in Guangdong Province using a quantitative research approach. According to the data from the questionnaire, they generally are supportive of eco-friendly shopping bags. Ultimately, the paper's data emphasize the positive effects of materials (paper material), function (internal compartment), and design (green label). For the purpose of advocating sustainable development, this paper provides helpful guidance for the design of eco-friendly shopping bags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovered paper is one of the major raw material for recycled papermaking industry. In China, the domestic recovered paper recycling system is incomplete and the amount of recyclable recovered paper cannot satisfy the papermaking demand. Therefore, the recycled papermaking industry is extremely dependent on imported recovered paper as their raw fiber source. In 2018, Chinese government announced a ban on unsorted recovered paper and tightened the import quota for recovered paper, which resulted in a dramatic drop in the importing amount of recovered paper. It is an urgent issue to explore alternative production routes that are more economical and environmentally friendly. Herein, life cycle cost assessment is used to compare and analyze the recycled papermaking industry based domestic recovered paper and three alternatives (including straw, imported deinked pulp and imported wood pulp) as the raw materials. The results show that the life cycle cost of domestic recycled paper based recovered papermaking is significantly lower than the other three alternatives, whereas its external cost is higher than that of the production routes based on the imported deinked pulp and imported wood pulp. With the increasing price of the domestic recovered paper, imported deinked pulp is the trend of recycled papermaking industry in China. • Life cycle cost assessment is applied to the recycled paper industry in China. • LCC of four papermaking schemes based on different raw materials were assessed. • LCC for six types of paper products ranges from 924 to 1227 USD/t in 2017. • Imported recovered pulpboard is the best choice of wastepaper material supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Higher education institutions have a critical role in creating and disseminating the knowledge required to address the complex global challenges faced by global society, as summarized in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This role of higher education is linked with the concept of internationalization, which has recently been called upon to help contribute to tackle the global challenges and meet the SDGs, particularly through more attention to "Internationalization at Home" (IaH). This paper aims to examine the role of higher education in addressing the SDGs, especially with respect to the links between IaH and the SDGs. Design/methodology/approach: A case study of the International Campus of Zhejiang University (iZJU) is conducted to illustrate how iZJU, which is a pioneer of "Internationalization at Home" and an exemplar of sustainable campus in China, contributes to the value of the SDGs and makes an impact. Findings: The authors examine the practice of IaH at iZJU in the dimensions of organization, curriculum, people and campus, and the authors find evidence from the iZJU model in addressing the value of the SDG4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. Originality/value: First, the authors contribute to the literature on the role of higher education in addressing the SDGs, especially with respect to the links between IaH and the SDGs. Second, the authors contribute to the IaH literature by examining IaH from a Chinese perspective, as there has been little exploration of what IaH means beyond the European context. Third, the authors build on the analytical framework in the IaH literature in the dimensions of organization, curriculum and people and extend with a new dimension of campus. Fourth, the authors show that IaH is a comprehensive approach to include both curriculum internationalization and campus internationalization.

The exponential growth of China's economy, coupled with the surge in online commerce, has led to a significant expansion of the logistics industry. In 2022, China's express delivery industry generated approximately 9 million tons of waste paper and 1.8 million tons of plastic. This study analyzed the current composition and utilization of logistics waste in China, with suggestions for recycling. Logistics waste can be defined as the packaging waste generated in the logistics industry. Corrugated paper and plastic waste were chosen as the objects for utilization. Due to its high cellulose content, corrugated paper can be utilized along with other paper waste for biomass resourcing. Biodegradable plastics can also be converted into biomass resources through the action of specific microorganisms. These polymers can be enzymatically depolymerized by certain bacteria and fungi, yielding valuable organic products. In general, logistics wastes all have potential for biomass resource recovery. By adopting appropriate recovery and conversion technologies, these waste streams can be transformed into high-value bio-based products, such as biofuels, biochemicals, and biopolymers, thus contributing to the development of a circular and sustainable economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.)

Sustainable development can be mainly achieved by promoting the green transformation and development of the world economy and by improving the efficiency of regional green development, which often receive extensive attention from the academia. This paper uses a spatial econometric model to estimate the impact of manufacturing agglomeration on green development efficiency based on the panel data of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The results show an overall large gap of green development efficiency between regions in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, mostly due to the extremely uneven development of green development efficiency in the upper reaches. Opposite to the middle and lower reaches, manufacturing agglomeration in the upper reaches of the YREB improves green development efficiency. Manufacturing agglomeration is conducive to the improvement of green development efficiency in adjacent areas. Nonetheless, it may hinder green development efficiency by inhibiting green technological innovation. This paper provides empirical evidence and policy implications for applying manufacturing agglomeration to promote green development efficiency in accordance with local conditions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental regulation (ER) and industrial agglomeration (IA) are important factors that affect green development efficiency (GDE). However, there is a lack of studies on their relation in the context of the marine economy. This paper integrates ER, IA, and marine GDE (MGDE) into a unified analytical framework and uses balanced panel data from China's 11 coastal provinces during 2008-2019 to quantify the linear, nonlinear, and spatial spillover effects between the three using the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and threshold effect model. The results show that ER has a negative impact on local and surrounding MGDE through the direct and spatial spillover effects. IA has a positive impact on local and surrounding MGDE through direct and spatial spillover effects. The synergistic impact of ER and IA can significantly boost local and surrounding MGDE. When ER surpasses a certain threshold, it amplifies the positive impact of IA on MGDE. These findings offer theoretical and practical references for the Chinese government to formulate marine environmental governance and industrial development policies., (© 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.)

Based on the data of listed renewable energy enterprises in China from 2009 to 2020, I study the impact of fintech on the sustainable development of renewable energy enterprises. The results show that fintech promotes the sustainable development of renewable energy enterprises. The mechanism tests show that fintech promotes the sustainable development of renewable energy enterprises by improving investment efficiency. The cross-sectional results show that the implementation of green credit policies and the improvement of information disclosure quality promote the positive impact of fintech on the sustainable development of renewable energy enterprises. This study enriches the literature in the field of fintech and renewable energy enterprises and provides empirical evidence and policy enlightenment for fintech to promote sustainable development in renewable energy enterprises., (© 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.)

Capital providers have placed increasing importance on risks associated with transitioning to a low-carbon economy. This study investigates the causal link between energy regulation and cost of debt financing by exploiting regional variations in stringency of the dual control system of total energy consumption and energy intensity (dual controls) to construct a continuous difference-in-difference model. We use a sample of A-share listed firms in 2010-2020 and find that tighter energy regulation leads to higher cost of debt financing. We find that the underlying mechanism is risk premium brought by compliance cost and uncertainties. Further analysis indicates that the impact of dual controls is mainly driven by non-state-owned firms. Lastly, capital providers did not differentiate the interest rates they charge companies based on their level of green transition., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)