Dynamic Linkages Among Energy Consumption, Environment and Health Sustainability: Evidence from the Different Income Level Countries

The Environment-Economy Synergistic Improvement Effect of the "Two-Oriented Society" Pilot Area in China

The establishment of the "two-oriented society" pilot zone is China's effort to explore an economic-environmental synergistic growth approach, and it is an important basis on which to solve the dilemma between economic development and environmental protection in less developed countries. By constructing an inter-provincial panel dataset and taking the "two-oriented society" pilot area as a policy intervention event, a quasi-natural experiment was conducted to evaluate the observed differences in economic growth and pollutant emissions using counterfactual estimation. The results show that, during the policy intervention period, the emission of solid waste in Hubei and Hunan provinces was significantly reduced, and the level of haze particles in Hunan province was also remarkably suppressed; however, the environmental emission problems such as water pollution were not improved in comparison to the national level. At the same time, the economic growth rate of Hubei and Hunan provinces was clearly better than the counterfactual control group after the policy pilot, showing the economic promotion effect of the construction of the "two-oriented society" pilot zone. We conclude that the establishment of the "two-oriented society" provides a reference for a successful path to sustainable growth, and there is no absolute contradiction between economic growth and environmental friendliness.

An Exploratory DEA and Machine Learning Framework for the Evaluation and Analysis of Sustainability Composite Indicators in the EU

One method that has been proposed for the measurement of sustainability is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Despite its advantages, the method has limitations: First, the efficiency of Decision-Making Units is calculated with weights that are favorable to themselves, which might be unrealistic, and second, it cannot account for different perceptions of sustainability; since there is not an established and unified definition, each analyst can use different data and variations that produce different results. The purpose of the current paper is twofold: (a) to propose an alternative, multi-dimensional DEA model that handles weight flexibility using a different metric (an alternative optimization criterion) and (b) the inclusion of a computational stage that attempts to incorporate different perceptions in the measurement of sustainability and integrates machine learning to explore country sustainability composite indices under different perceptions and assumptions. This approach offers insights in areas such as feature selection and increases the trust in the results by exploiting an inclusive approach to the calculations. The method is used to calculate the sustainability of the 28 EU countries.

International Environmental Efficiency Trends and the Impact of the Paris Agreement

This study estimates the environmental efficiency of 150 economies during the period of 2010–2017 to understand the environmental efficiency trend worldwide. This research adopts the meta-Malmquist approach to compare and capture the dynamic change in environmental efficiency among different income groups. The empirical results indicate that among the four income groups, only the low-income group suffers from regression in terms of environmental efficiency, while the high-income group achieves the greatest progress. For the high-income group, the source of improvement originates from the frontier shift rather than from efficiency change. By contrast, the improvement of the lower-income groups results from the catching-up effect. With regard to the effect of the Paris Agreement, only the lower middle-income group exhibits a statistical difference between the two periods, and environmental efficiency increases after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The fight against global warming cannot succeed by relying only on specific countries. The whole world must cooperate and improve together, and thus, additional help must be devoted to the low-income group. The statistical results support that differences exist in terms of environmental efficiency among the four income groups. In particular, the low-income group is deteriorating.

Pollution, Inflammation, and Vaccines: A Complex Crosstalk

The importance of pollution in determining human health is becoming increasingly clear, also given the dramatic consequences it has had on recent geopolitical events. Yet, the consequences of contamination are not always straightforward. In this paper, we will discuss the effects of different pollutants on different aspects of human health, in particular on the immune system and inflammation. Different environmental pollutants can have different effects on the immune system, which can then promote complex pathologies, such as autoimmune disorders and cancer. The interaction with the microbiota also further helps to determine the consequences of contamination on wellbeing. The pollution can affect vaccination efficacy, given the widespread effects of vaccination on immunity. At the same time, some vaccinations also can exert protective effects against some forms of pollution.

Air Pollution's Impact on the Economic, Social, Medical, and Industrial Injury Environments in China

In this era of rapid economic development, it is inevitable that economic activities eventually cause serious damage to the environment’s air quality, making it the focus of global public health. If the treatment efficiency of medical accidents can be improved, then this can significantly stabilize society and improve production efficiency. Past research has mainly focused on work safety and health issues, seldom discussing economic, social, medical, and environmental pollution issues together, and, most generally, adopted static methods that fail to recognize how air pollution affects the overall economy, society, medical care, and external environment. In order to more deeply understand the changes among social, economic activities, and environmental issues due to air pollution, this study proposes a meta-two-stage undesirable dynamic DDF (Direction Distance Function) that, under an exogenous model, divides the 30 provinces of China into high-income regions and middle-income regions and explores the economic, social, medical, and environmental efficiencies between the two areas to resolve the lack of related static analyses. The empirical results are as follows. (1) The AQI (air quality index) significantly impacts the efficiency of medical injuries in various regions. (2) When the AQI is considered, the medical insurance expenditure efficiency score value of high-income areas is lower than the value without the AQI. (3) When the AQI is considered, the efficiency value of the number of work injury insurance benefits in the middle-income area is lower than the efficiency value without the AQI.