This paper examines the effect of raising tax rates on reducing industrial water pollution, exploiting China's environmental tax reform in 2018 as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on micro-level data covering >19 thousand firms nationwide, we estimate that for every unit of tax rate increase, the emissions of water pollutants, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Ammonia Nitrogen (NH3−N) have fallen by 8.63% and 3.79%. High emission intensity firms reduce their emissions more than low emission intensity firms. We also document that state-owned enterprises are less responsive to the tax increase than non-state-owned enterprises. Our findings provide evidence that the increased environmental tax has contributed to significant reductions in industrial emissions in China.

To improve the industrial spatial layout and propel regional coordinated development, China has implemented the policy of NIRDZs since 2010. However, there is little literature focuses on the relation between NIRDZs and carbon emissions. Based on the balanced panel data from 284 China's prefecture-level cities during 2003–2019, this article combines the time-varying DID model, mediating model, and spatial DID model to systematically qualify the impact of NIRDZs on urban carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) NIRDZs effectively reduce recipient cities' carbon emissions, which has been confirmed by a variety of robustness checks. (2) NIRDZs' carbon reduction effect is more pronounced in cities in the central region, cities with poverty-stricken counties, large-scale cities, and resource-based cities, but exacerbates environmental demonstration cities' carbon emissions. (3) Industrial structure upgrading, foreign capital attraction, and government financial support are the three important channels through which NIRDZs influence urban carbon emissions. (4) NIRDZs have a significant spatial spillover effect on urban carbon emissions, and can significantly reduce carbon emissions in both neighboring pilot and non-pilot cities. These findings have substantially vital theoretical and practical implications for China to achieve low-carbon transformation in cities in the process of industrial transfer.

China is ambitious to develop renewable energy for the commitment of carbon neutralization in 2060. Hydropower has been regarded as one important solution to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by replacing fossil fuels, while the related ecological impacts hinder its sustainable development. This study proposes a framework to integrate life cycle analysis and ecosystem service assessment by evaluating 43 case hydropower plants (HPs) in China. Combining with the super slacks-based measurement model, the ecological efficiency of HPs is evaluated to provide optimizing pathways. The results show most environmental impacts of the whole HP life cycle are from the preparation and construction stages of HPs. The ecosystem service losses (ESLs) are mainly from the losses of biodiversity and water supply. The first cascade HP generally has a smaller ecological efficiency than downstream HPs. Furthermore, the current pricing structure of the studied HPs does not adequately account for the associated ESLs. It suggests that consumers in transmission destinations should bear a higher cost to address the ecological impacts of HP operations. Consequently, there is a need to revise the pricing mechanisms to reflect and internalize the ecological costs more accurately. Finally, based on the results, policy implications for achieving “co-benefit” of hydropower development and ecosystem protection were raised: (a) conducting the comprehensive and systematic evaluation of HPs including LCA and ESL assessment before HP planning; (b) ensuring the connectivity of natural flow and the preservation of fish areas; (c) revising the pricing mechanisms of hydropower based on the fair price.

In basins that lie across multiple administrative boundaries, for instance in international river basins like the Nile, water tends to be contested especially during times of scarcity. Riparian countries sharing a transboundary river basin may emphasize the multi-dimensionality of their water demands to obtain access to a greater portion of the available shared water. As a result, the frequency and intensity of water conflicts may increase, hindering the sustainable development of riparian countries and threatening the security and stability of the whole region. Therefore, designing a fair, reasonable, and adaptive allocation scheme is of paramount importance to ensure the integrity of livelihoods and ecosystem health. This paper analyzed the general features of transboundary river basins and built an allocation mechanism combining Bankruptcy Theory with Bargaining and Concession games. A Bankruptcy-Concession-Bargaining Game Model (BCBGM) was constructed to ensure multi-agent participation, multi-stage negotiation, and optimal allocation. Considering the different water demand preferences and linked satisfaction functions, the framework yielded an optimal solution by making concessions on the water claims of riparian countries. As a case study, the proposed model was applied to allocate the limited water resources of the Euphrates-Tigris River. To further measure the stability of model allocation results, a model was built to evaluate the stability of water allocation. The results show that the stability of the allocation output from the proposed allocation framework was relatively high compared to those obtained from classical allocation rules, such as Proportion, Adjusted Proportion, Constrained Equal Loss, and Constrained Equal Award. The model's results satisfied the Pareto efficiency, individual rationality, and maximized group utility. Therefore, for the most part, the allocation outputs of the proposed scheme were generally self-enforceable and sustainable.

An accurate assessment of wind and solar resources is important for China's future transition to clean energy and the achievement of its carbon-neutrality goals. Based on climate data, geographical information, and the latest technical and economic information, this work estimates the total technical and economic potential of wind and solar power in China and their distribution by province. The main conclusions drawn by analyzing the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the potential of wind and solar energy are as follows. (1) Both wind and solar energy have sufficient technical potential to support China's vision of carbon neutrality by 2060. (2) The potential is unevenly distributed spatially and is more concentrated in western and northern China, away from demand centers, with Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia accounting for >76% of the total technical potential of onshore wind and solar energy. The offshore wind potential is fairly equally distributed in coastal provinces. (3) In the near-to-medium term (5–10 years), fully utilized local wind and solar resources could help to meet the requirements of the non-hydro Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and could significantly ease the urgency of building long-distance cross-province power transmission lines. For provinces with below-average RPS targets, the suggested non-hydro RPS targets could be further enhanced. (4) In the long term, the construction of adequate west-east and south-north transmission lines will remain essential to the construction of a national carbon-neutral power system.

Synergistic governance of emission reduction between pollutants and CO2 (hereinafter referred to as synergistic governance) reflects China's proactive response to climate change and will become a central task in China's environmental governance over the next decade and beyond. Given this, this paper aims to systematically understand why synergistic governance is possible and what China has achieved in synergistic governance. In order to achieve these aims, this paper constructs a scientific indicator system based on synergistic governance theory and applies the composite system synergy model to assess the level of synergistic governance in China. The results show that China has made great progress in synergistic governance in the past decade, achieving a leaping development from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. The achievement mainly comes from the efforts of nearly 1/3 of Chinese provinces in advancing synergistic governance, and the improvement direction of synergistic governance in these provinces is consistent with the national level, jumping from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. However, the level of synergistic governance in some provinces has decreased rather than increased. It is worth noting that the widening gap in the level of synergistic governance within China's regions may become a vital factor that hinders the sustainable promotion of synergistic governance. This paper clarifies the operational logic of synergistic governance and provides a comprehensive evaluation method, which is beneficial to provide some references for other countries that intend to work on synergistic governance.

Equitable and effective allocation of provincial carbon allowances is the key to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets and addressing the prominent issue of resource and environmental constraints, while reasonable coupling of equity and efficiency is its prerequisite. The study first assessed the effectiveness of the mainstream allocation methods when applied to the building sector. Then, Monte Carlo simulation is used to properly couple the principles of equity and efficiency in the process of carbon allowance allocation in the building sector, and on this basis, a novel Allocation method of Regional Carbon Allowance in Building sector (ARCAB) is constructed to provide an inter-provincial allocation scheme of building carbon emission allowances in 2030 for China. The results show that the mainstream allocation methods are not applicable to the building sector, and their allocation results often appear the phenomenon of “low-hanging fruit” or “high-hanging fruit”. In addition, the coupling degree of equity-efficiency is 12% in China's 2030 allocation scheme, indicating that provincial governments should formulate more stringent carbon reduction policies to achieve this goal. The proposed ARCAB and our findings can assist decision-makers to formulate reasonable carbon allowances and differentiated emission-reduction strategies and will be of national and global significance.

As the demand for critical minerals required for solar photovoltaics (PV) technology continues to expand, there has been an increasing concern about supply risks of critical minerals, especially for large solar PV equipment manufacturers. Although supply risk has become a prominent issue, few studies were conducted on the supply risks of critical minerals from the perspective of multi-nations and the internal correlation between supply risks and economic variables. To this end, this study conducted a comparative analysis of the supply risks of chromium and gallium between China, the United States (US) and India from 2008 to 2020 and analyzed the impact of supply risks on the competitive advantage of solar PV industry by econometric models. The results indicate that: (1) For chromium, the fluctuation trends of their supply risks in China and the US are similarly stable (high risk), which are mainly affected by resource security risk and geopolitical risk, while India's supply risk fluctuates greatly with a relatively low supply risk. (2) For gallium, the supply risk of China is lower than that of the US and India, and there are obvious differences in supply risks in the three countries. (3) Resource security risk and geopolitical risk of chromium and resource security risk of gallium all have significant negative impacts on the industrial competitive advantage, and this impact varies greatly among countries.

Although the circular economy primarily focuses on closing supply chains, residual waste management, and product lifetime extensions, reducing resource use remains critical. This paper examines the system-wide impacts of reducing resource use using a multisectoral computable general equilibrium model. Although not strictly circular, the focus is on a costless ‘technology shock’ that reduces the consumption of intermediate goods in the construction sector and its system-wide effects. The results suggest that there is potential for reductions in CO2 emissions, but this is accompanied with a fall in GDP and employment, with unskilled workers experiencing larger negative employment effects. However, the scale of these GDP and employment effects is small, despite relatively large reductions in resource use. This indicates that technology-induced reductions in resource use have the potential to support the transition towards an economy that uses fewer resources without causing significant disruptions at the macroeconomic level.

Multiple stressors resulting from anthropogenic actions are increasingly recognized as a major threat to aquatic ecosystems. In general, ecosystems change as they respond to multiple threats that interact in complex ways, depending on the natural environment. This scenario poses complex tasks for researchers, managers, and policymakers, which require a well-defined framework to provide a clear roadmap that identify steps to apply in adaptive management decisions, monitoring designs and policy implementation.Building upon core elements of previous work, we present a Multiple Stressors Assessment Framework (MSAF) for aquatic ecosystems that provides a roadmap on the achievement of an improved integration between monitoring designs, data acquisition, evaluation processes, and management actions. The MSAF involves seven steps: 1) problem formulation and the definition of the ecosystem type and the spatial-temporal scale, 2) data compilation on the ecosystems' environmental characteristics and the definition of the type, identity and intensity of environmental stressors, 3) data compilation/collection on the biological/ecological receptors (endpoints) to stressors and selection of response variable to monitor (based on structure-based indicators and functional metrics), 4) characterization of the stressor-response relationships and their interactions, 5) construction of specific ecological conceptual models and choice of adequate statistical approaches to test the conceptual models' viability, 6) generation of hypotheses on interactive effects on biological/ecological endpoints, validation of models, hypotheses testing and, if possible, comparison of results with controlled experiments in realistic settings, and 7) recommendations to adaptive monitoring and if necessary, improvement of the study design, and eventual inclusion of other hypotheses and statistical approaches in the context of adaptive management actions.We review progress made in Europe, the USA and Canada in this field using case examples, highlight the approaches taken by the different jurisdictions that align with our framework and identify the linkages between multiple stressors assessments and decision-making for each region. We conclude that a disconnection remains between the investigation of the combined effects of multiple stressors and the implementation of management practices and policy translation. The way forward is through a collaborative effort to create standardized methodologies and appropriate programmes in this field. We hope the proposed framework can be used as a foundation to diagnose multiple stressor interactions and identify responses of ecological indicators to inform effective adaptive management of freshwater ecosystems globally.

A recent analysis by Stylianou et al. (2021) estimated the impact of small dietary changes in the consumption of individual foods on human health and the environment, expressed as minutes of healthy life lost or gained daily combined with dietary carbon footprints. While an appealing concept given its simplistic interpretation, we aim to draw the attention of nLCA practitioners and developers to the significant limitations and uncertainties of this analysis, based on existing evidence. Stylianou's approach produces results that fail to recognize the importance of essential nutrient density and the risks associated with ultra-processed foods, added sugar, and refined starches. The novel impact assessment undoubtedly brings a new perspective to the growing field of nutritional Life Cycle Assessment. However, the authors neglect numerous methodological limitations, fail to direct the readers' attention to (mis)interpretation risks, and draw highly definitive recommendations aiming to directly influence consumer choices and policymaking. Due to extensive data limitations and associated uncertainties in extant databases (both environmental and nutritional), we recommend caution in the use of this (or any other) food classification system to inform consumer behavior, front-of-package labelling, policies, and programs.

Since the 60s, several multidisciplinary studies have been carried out worldwide to investigate the perception of landscape modification and define appropriate methodologies of Visual Impact Assessment (VIA). The criteria typically applied to evaluate the visual impact due to landscape alteration can be categorized into two classes: direct and indirect approaches (i.e. respectively perception test and numerical quantification of landscape modification). Both the approaches intend to overcome the limit of the judgment subjectivity in the evaluation process and its dependence on the observer's specific characteristics. As a matter of fact, the effect of landscape modification needs to be objectively estimated when the VIA procedures are mandated by regulatory policies and accurate evaluation techniques are required to support decision-making. The Lvi indicator (Level of visual impact) has been formerly proposed as a tool to enable the objective quantification of the visual impact magnitude produced by extensive surface excavation (i.e. mines and quarries). This article discusses the integration of the Lvi indicator into a comprehensive Landscape Assessment Model (LAM), which includes the three succeeding steps of the visual impact assessment procedure: 1. the identification of the Key Observation Points (KOPs) (i.e. intervisibility analysis), 2. the quantification of the visual impact magnitude from the selected KOPs (i.e. visual impact estimation), 3. the comparison with predefined levels of acceptable landscape modification (i.e. visual impact evaluation). The proposed assessment procedure has been applied to a quarry of inert materials located in Sardinia (Italy) to highlight and discuss the practical implications of the proposed procedure and its inherent limitations.

Visual communication is widely and commonly used in environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice by all stakeholders. It includes maps, photographs, tables, info-graphics and other images used in environmental impact statements, as well as videos and graphics in online materials or in face-to-face consultation sessions (e.g., posters and PowerPoint presentations). The purpose of this research was to understand the practice of visual communication in EIA, focusing upon the perceptions and experiences of stakeholders. Surveys were conducted with international EIA practitioners along with observations of consultation sessions for three EIA projects in Portugal and interviews with proponents, regulators and members of the public involved. Specific focus was on (i) understanding stakeholder perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of visual communication in EIA; (ii) proponent perceptions about the creation and use of visual communication; and (iii) public perceptions regarding their understanding and experience of visual communication as recipients of this material during public engagement in EIA. The mode and content of presentation, visual literacy of stakeholders and technical arrangements interact to determine the efficacy of visual communication. All stakeholders expected visual communication to be employed in EIA, but proponents and public were found to have low visual literacy. Proponents had pre-conceived notions for visual communication, without considering the needs of their audience, resulting in complex content being delivered inappropriately – too fast, without opportunity for reflection and dialogue. Frustrated public recipients tended to distrust proponents and be opposed to their projects, an unintended emotional response arising from cognition challenges with visual communication, combined with insufficient time for explanation, interpretation, and dialogue. This paper seeks to trigger reflection by practitioners and researchers on how and by whom visual communication in EIA should be designed, and what inhibits their comprehension and understanding. Considering visual literacy levels of EIA stakeholdersand tailoring the mode and style of delivery accordingly is critical for effective visual communication.

The abundant supply of industrial land has played an important role in China's large-scale urbanization and industrialization. A large amount of industrial land is characterized by low-efficiency use and high industrial-pollution emissions. To improve industrial land use eco-efficiency (ILUE), the Chinese government is continuously strengthening the market-oriented reforms of industrial land transactions. Different from previous studies that assess the effectiveness of such an effort based on non-spatial and linear perspectives, this study explores the spatial and non-linear effects of the market-oriented reforms on ILUE, using data of 99 cities in China collected from 2009 to 2020. We evaluate the market-oriented reforms with two indicators of industrial land premium rate (ILPR) and the ratio of bidding, auction, and listing (RBAL) in industrial land transactions, then measure the spatial and non-linear effects using the spatial panel data model. The results show that the rising ILPR in adjacent cities negatively affected local ILUE, but the RBAL had no obvious spatial effects. The relationship between ILPR and ILUE showed a U-shaped curve; that between RBAL and ILUE was an inverted U-shape. The effects were heterogeneous across regions. The rising ILPR of adjacent cities positively affected local ILUE in the east, while negatively in the central region. The increasing RBAL had no noticeable spatial effects except in the central region. The western region did not show significant spatial effects. The relationships between ILUE and the two indicators showed U-shaped curves of different shapes in the three regions. The findings help to improve future ILUE by managing the industrial land markets in better ways.

This article constructs a dataset of Chinese industrial firms between 2005 and 2010 to investigate the influence of fintech developments on the coal consumption of Chinese firms. Results reveal a significant negative correlation between Fintech and firms' coal consumption. By addressing the potential endogeneity, controlling city-level variables and interactive fixed effects, and testing the unobservable bias, the benchmark results are robust to the above alternative identification strategies. Furthermore, this article investigates the potential mechanisms and finds that Fintech can be negatively connected with coal consumption at firms by elevating export and innovation performance. Finally, this article examines the heterogeneous effects of fintech development and discovers the reduction effect of fintech development on the coal consumption of firms, which is greater for young firms located in the central and eastern regions as well as for those located in regions with lower GDP growth, lower development of the tertiary sector, and a higher level of financial development. The results may contribute to China's carbon neutrality goal by 2060 and help policymakers make policies in the energy sector.

Under the public land regime, China's urban sprawl is primarily influenced by local governments' land finance incentives, compared with market-oriented forces dominant in Western countries. The study used baseline, geospatial, and nonlinear regressions to quantify land finance's temporal, spatial, and scaling effects on urban sprawl at a national scale. Baseline regressions showed that the effects of land finance on urban sprawl varied over time, initially strengthening and then gradually weakening, reflecting decreasing importance of land finance. Geospatial regressions indicated that the effects of land finance on urban sprawl increased from eastern to western cities, reflecting spatial diffusion from developed coast to developing inland. Furthermore, nonlinear regressions revealed that land finance exerted complex effects on urban sprawl, with high-ranking cities' reduction in land-driven development but low-ranking cities' reliance on land-based sprawl. These results highlighted the importance of transiting overreliance on land finance to curb urban sprawl.

Research on Public Service Efficiency (PSE) can provide effective clues for city governors to plan the public service provision well. Whilst extant studies have extensively explored PSE performance, they are hardly oriented to resident perception. In light of this gap, this study presents a PSE evaluation framework by considering the resident perception. The study aims to uncover the PSE performance and to examine the temporal evolution and spatial disparities in a sample of 35 representative Chinese cities. To this end, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist index are applied, and the data adopted covers the period from 2012 to 2020. The demonstration findings are as follows. (1) The majority of cities in the sample were found to have efficient public services, with the Central region performing better than the Eastern and Western regions in terms of PSE. (2) The Malmquist index shows an overall decline in PSE over the surveyed period except for Chongqing and Shenzhen. (3) The Malmquist index reveals that the Eastern region exhibited the highest degree of volatility, with the Western and Central regions following closely behind. Theoretically, this study provides an effective framework for investigating PSE by taking resident perception into account. The methodology adopted in this study exemplifies how to examine PSE in considering resident perception in a broad context internationally. Practically, the evaluation results can provide valuable references for local managers to customize measures to elevate PSE performance.

China is taking renewable energy seriously for meeting ambitious carbon neutrality goal, and eagerly filling available space to harness the wind power. It is therefore crucial to rethink the unintended consequences. Herein, we employ the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to assess the onshore wind farm from the perspective of aligning carbon neutrality goal in China. We find that the total carbon emissions of onshore wind farm in China in 2018 was ca. 11 Mt. CO2e, or 24.9 gCO2e per kWh on average, which indeed mitigated ca. 290 Mt. CO2e for replacing conventional coal power. Moreover, province-level carbon emissions and emission intensity outputs have been quantified. It shows that China's coastal provinces are preferred regions for the development of wind power industry after evaluating of China's onshore wind farms layout under multiple indicators. However, if existed wind farm layout mode which presents a significant conflict between resource potentials and demand market can be optimized, a scenarios-based analysis shows that 2.4 to 6.2 billion metric tons CO2e can be probably avoided every year between 2023 and 2060. This amount probably equals over half of the carbon emissions from fuel combustion in China.

Decarbonising the power system contributes to carbon emission reductions and synergetic air pollution reductions, but these co-benefits may be unevenly distributed across regions. These distributional consequences from national policies may lead to conflict of interests at subnational levels, which has often been overlooked. This study assesses provincial economic impacts and synergetic air pollutant reductions of power system decarbonisation in China, achieved by two different national policies, namely a mandatory phaseout policy and an Emissions Trading System (ETS). To this end, a multi-regional dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is developed and adopted. The scenario analysis shows that the mandatory phaseout policy is more effective in reducing air pollutant emissions from the power sector, while leading to greater GDP losses at the national level. At provincial levels, the ETS mitigates the trade-off between economic growth and air pollutant reductions, but the mandatory phaseout policy would be more favourable to the majority of provinces no matter whether the GDP growth or air pollution reduction is prioritised.

Voluntary environmental regulations play a crucial role in promoting green innovation. However, the existing literature on the subject has yielded inconsistent conclusions. To address this issue, this study utilizes data from China's list companies between 2008 and 2020, employing both the difference-in-differences (DID) and instrumental variable methods to accurately estimate the impact of ISO14001 certification on green innovation. Our findings indicate that ISO14001 certification enhances both the quantity and quality of green innovations. Furthermore, our results remain robust even after implementing the propensity score matching (PSM) method and conducting placebo tests. This paper also excludes heterogeneous treatment effect bias in staggered DID. In addition, the impact of ISO14001 on green innovation is focused on green innovation related to source control. The study also considers the impact of greenwashing and ownership on the relationship between ISO14001 certification and green innovation. Greenwashing is found to have a negative impact on green innovation, especially in terms of quality, and enterprises with more greenwashing tend to have a weaker response to ISO14001 certification. Finally, our mechanism test indicates that ISO14001-induced green technology innovation serves as a leverage effect on existing innovation activities, rather than a crowding-out effect on other technological innovations or a speculative activity aimed at defrauding government subsidies.