Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency

Incentive-compatible mechanism for manufacturing carbon emission supervision under carbon control policies in China

Enhance performance in manufacturing carbon emission (MCE) reduction has become a widespread consensus and a necessary part, which cannot be achieved without the joint participation of manufacturing enterprises and supervisory departments. Accordingly, how to coordinate the interests of both sides and design a reasonable incentive-compatible mechanism becomes an urgent task at present. Considering the two subsidy funding channels of peer funds and government finance, this study applies the evolutionary game model to analyze feasible schemes for designing incentive-compatible mechanism of MCE supervision, discusses and simulates the realistic scenarios and influencing factors of incentive-compatible mechanism under the non-subsidized and subsidized schemes. The results show that MCE supervision is in an incentive-incompatible state under the non-subsidized incentive scheme, while in a constrained incentive-compatible state under the subsidized incentive scheme. With the increase of peer funds and penalty coefficient or the decrease of subsidy coefficient, the period of MCE supervision to reach an incentive-compatible state becomes shorter. However, a lower peer fund and penalty coefficient or a higher subsidy coefficient will contribute to a state of incentive-incompatible or a periodic cycle state of "incentive-compatible → incentive-incompatible →incentive-compatible→…" in the MCE supervision.

Can strengthening environmental justice promote carbon reduction? Evidence from environmental courts in China

Environmental justice is an important safeguard for pollution control, and this paper is interested in its ability to promote carbon emission reduction. One unique facet of reinforcing local environmental justice involves the establishment of environmental courts by Intermediate People's Courts. Taking this as the starting point, this study constructs a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the strengthening of urban environmental justice. Analyzing empirical data from 283 prefecture-level cities in China spanning 2006 to 2019, we employ multi-period and spatial difference-in-differences approaches to probe the impact of environmental justice strengthening on carbon reduction. Our results indicate a substantial contribution of strengthened environmental justice to reducing carbon emissions. Specifically, the establishment of environmental courts can curtail carbon emissions by an estimated range of 11.7 to 12.9%. Also, the mechanism analysis underscores that the carbon reduction effect primarily arises from enhanced efficiency in processing environmental cases. Moreover, this effect is notably pronounced in regions with robust governmental environmental regulations. Notably, in areas with limited public environmental concern, environmental courts effectively complement existing environmental regulations. Furthermore, a significant positive spillover effect of environmental courts on carbon emission reduction is observed in geographically adjacent economic zones.

Coupling coordination evaluation and driving path of digital economy and carbon emission efficiency in China: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis based on 30 provinces

Enhancing the level of coupling coordination between the digital economy (DIE) and carbon emission efficiency (CEE) is not only an inevitable choice for achieving the goals of energy conservation and emission reduction and promoting green development in China, but also a key path to implementing China's "Double Carbon" strategy. Based on the relevant statistical data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from the period covering 2011 to 2019, this paper empirically analyzed the coupling coordination between the DIE and CEE and its influencing factors. In this study, an improved coupling coordination degree (CCD) model was used to evaluate the degree of the coupling and coordinated development of the DIE and CEE in provincial regions of China. Finally, based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to identify the realization path of the coupling and coordinated development of the DIE and CEE from the perspective of configuration. The results demonstrated that the coupling coordination between the DIE and CCE in China demonstrated a gradual upward trend, and exhibited regional differences, showing a decreasing trend of east > middle > west. Regarding the influencing factors, no single influencing factor could act as a necessary condition for the high CCD, the coupling and coordinated development of the DIE and CEE is a multifactorial synergy. There were five paths for the high degree of coupling coordination between the DIE and CEE, which were divided into three types: organization-environment-led type, environment-led type, and technology-organization-led type. Furthermore, technological innovation level and industrial structure could substitute for one another in some conditions, and environmental regulation and economic development level were synchronized. These conclusions provide a theoretical basis for countries to formulate policies to promote the coupling and coordinated development of their DIE and CEE.

Study on the influence of industrial intelligence on carbon emission efficiency-empirical analysis of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt

How to achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" and explore the compatibility of industrial and ecological civilization is a major challenge for China today. This study analyzes the impact of industrial intelligence on industrial carbon emissions efficiency in 11 provinces of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt, measuring the efficiency of industrial carbon emissions through the non-expected output slacks-based measure (SBM) model, selecting industrial robot penetration to measure the level of industrial intelligence, establishing a two-way fixed model to verify the impact of industrial intelligence on carbon emission efficiency, and testing for intermediary effects and regional heterogeneity. The results show that: (1) the industrial carbon emission efficiency of the 11 provinces shows year-over-year improvement, with significant differences between upstream, midstream, and downstream, where downstream is the highest and upstream is the lowest. (2) The development of industrial intelligence is highly uneven, with the upstream level being the weakest. (3) Industrial intelligence can improve the efficiency of industrial carbon emissions by enhancing green technological innovation and energy use efficiency. (4) The effect of industrial intelligence on industrial carbon emission efficiency also shows regional heterogeneity. Finally, we present policy recommendations. This research provides mathematical and scientific support for achieving carbon reduction targets at an early stage and helps accelerate the construction of a modern, low-carbon China.

Research on spatial and temporal differences of carbon emissions and influencing factors in eight economic regions of China based on LMDI model

With the gradual increase of international willingness to reach the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this paper decomposes the influencing factors of China's carbon emission changes from 2008 to 2019 using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index model (LMDI), and analyzes the contribution amount and rate of each influencing factor. The results found that: for the whole country, the cumulative growth of carbon emissions during the study period is about 416,484.47 (10⁴ tons), among which the economic growth effect plays a major role in promoting, with a cumulative contribution rate of 284.16%; The increase in regulation intensity and the optimization of industrial structure, however, suppress carbon emissions well, with a cumulative contribution rate of about - 199.21% and - 64.75%, respectively, during the study period. For economic regions, the cumulative influence direction of each driver is the same as that of the whole country, while the population size effect in the northeast economic region and the regulation input effect in the eastern coastal economic region act in the opposite direction from other economic regions, and the carbon emission reduction direction of the energy intensity effect varies from one economic region to another. Accordingly, this paper proposes policy recommendations to enhance regulatory intensity, optimize industrial and energy consumption structure, implement localized emission reduction strategies, and promote synergistic emission reduction in economic zones.

The impact of Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot on urban green innovation: the case of China

As an essential part of ecological civilization, water ecological civilization has significant influence on the green and sustainable development of cities. Under the background of China's Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot (WECCP), based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2019 by using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we empirically analyzed the influence of the WECCP establishment on urban green innovation and explored the impact mechanism in depth using a mediating effect model, which aimed to verify whether the "Porter hypothesis" holds true in China. The result indicated that the WECCP had made a remarkable contribution to enhancing urban green innovation in the pilot cities. Further research found that the input mechanism played an important mediating role. In addition, the heterogeneity test indicated that cities in the central region, at low administrative levels, and in the first batch of pilots gained more from the policy establishment. This paper has theoretical implications for understanding the derived innovation benefits of the environmental policy, practical implications for identifying new drivers of urban innovation, and provides related experience for the country to further promote and expand water ecological civilization construction and useful policy inspiration for other developing countries to formulate ecological and environmental policies.

Threshold Effect of Environmental Regulation and Green Innovation Efficiency: From the Perspective of Chinese Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Protection Inputs

In the context of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 visionary goals of national economic and social development, to achieve the national dual carbon goals, an innovation-driven green development strategy must be implemented, and the relationship between environmental regulation and green innovation efficiency must be clarified. Based on the DEA-SBM model, in this study, we measured the green innovation efficiency of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2011 to 2020 by introducing environmental regulation as the core explanatory variable, and two threshold variables, environmental protection input and fiscal decentralization, to empirically analyze the threshold effect of environmental regulation on green innovation efficiency. We found that: (1) The green innovation efficiency of 30 provinces and municipalities in China is spatially distributed as strong in the east and weak in the west. (2) A double-threshold effect exists with environmental protection input as the threshold variable. Environmental regulation showed an inverted N-shaped relationship of first inhibiting, then promoting, and finally inhibiting green innovation efficiency. (3) A double-threshold effect exists with fiscal decentralization as the threshold variable. Environmental regulation showed an inverted N-shaped relationship of inhibiting, promoting, and then inhibiting green innovation efficiency. The study results provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal.

A Habitable Earth and Carbon Neutrality: Mission and Challenges Facing Resources and the Environment in China-An Overview

Since the Industrial Revolution, the impacts of human activities have changed the global climate system, and climate warming has had rapid and widespread effects on the planet. At present, the world is experiencing a series of natural disasters, such as climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and sea level rise, which pose a serious threat to the livability of the Earth. An international consensus has been reached that achieving carbon neutrality is the key to tackling climate change; it is also crucial to building a livable planet. To achieve carbon neutrality, energy is the main aspect, for which technology regarding resources and the environment is essential. In this context, we collected data, performed an in-depth analysis of the basic and structural characteristics of the development of the coal industry and environmental remediation, studied and judged the trends in regional economic development and demand growth, and closely examined the requirements of China's development strategy, which focuses on the ideas of carbon peak and carbon neutralization in line with local development trends and economic system characteristics. We must build a livable Earth, promote the green and low-carbon transformation of regional energy, promote high-quality economic development, and ensure the safe supply of energy.