The green conundrum

Environmental regulation and green innovation: Does state ownership matter?

Research on the Effect of Environmental Regulation on the Competitiveness of Coal Enterprises in Henan Province

The effect of environmental regulation on external trade: empirical evidences from Chinese economy

Nitrate sources and transformations along the Yangtze river and its changes after strict environmental regulation

A major issue in the debate about imposing environmental standards on polluting firms is the possibility of negative effects on employment. We examine the impact of environmental regulations on employment in an empirical analysis. Norwegian data are used to study three manufacturing sectors with high shares of units under strict environmental regulations. We find that for two of these sectors, firms under strict environmental regulations had a higher tendency to increase employment and a lower tendency to exit than firms under weak or no environmental regulation. For the third sector, environmental regulations had no significant impact on employment.

What types of firms are attracted or deterred by strict environmental regulations? In this paper, we contribute to answering that question by identifying configurations of firm capabilities that favor their exposure to relatively stricter or laxer regulations in their global operations. We propose that firms’ bundles of technical capabilities- in the form of technological and environmental capabilities-, multinational mobility capabilities, and non-market capabilities -in the form of political and social capabilities-, shape their ability to comply vs. arbitrage. We study the 709 international acquisitions and divestments of polluting activities of 50 French multinationals over 2005-2017. The results of our fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis suggest that, on the one hand, some firms target countries with strict regulations when investing in polluting industries, primarily because their bundle of capabilities reduce the cost of compliance they face relative to peers, and on the other hand, some firms target countries with lax regulations because their mobility and non-market capabilities reduce the cost of regulatory arbitrage. Thus, our paper contributes to research on firms’ responses to environmental regulations, speaks to the resource based view of the firm and to non-market strategy research.

This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation in exporter and importer economies on crossborder carbon flows. While stricter environmental regulations help reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from domestic production, leading to lower CO2 emissions embodied in exports, stricter regulations on the importing side lead to higher CO2 emissions embodied in imports. Moreover, stricter environmental regulations could encourage further outsourcing of intermediate inputs by exporters, prompting carbon leakages in the upstream segment of global value chains.

Airborne PCDD/Fs in two e-waste recycling regions after stricter environmental regulations

This paper employs the global Malmquist Luenberger (GML) index and the System Generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method to investigate the influence of both environmental regulation and financial development on green total factor productivity in 41 cities of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China from 2003–2019. We select the relevant input-output data to measure the green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its decomposition index including undesirable output. The results show that the GTFP and its decomposition index in the YRD have a slow fluctuating upward trend. The YRD mainly depends on improving the level of technological progress and environmental governance to promote the improvement of regional economic green development level. The empirical research results show that there is an inverted U relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP in the YRD, too strict environmental regulation will inhibit the growth of green total factor productivity. By adding control variables, the inflection point of environmental regulation is 0.5034, which is lower than that without control variables. There is a strong interaction and superposition effect between financial development and environmental regulation, which is closely related to the established financial cooperation mechanism, perfect financial system arrangement and cross-regional financial cooperation platform in the YRD. Government intervention should be reduced, the introduction of foreign capital should be controlled appropriately, foreign capital should be guided to green industries, and the use efficiency of foreign capital should be improved. This paper holds that we should pay attention to the strength of environmental regulation, prevent overcorrection, increase the guidance of credit funds, deepen the reform of the financial system, appropriately intervene in the market by the government, strengthen the guidance of foreign capital, and promote the development and transformation of the green economy in the YRD region with the help of several policies.

The energy constraints and environmental issues become more important in this green development era, in order to measure the quality of economic growth, this paper first introduces the definition of green total factor productivity, and then tries to find the relationship among environmental regulation, FDI and green total factor productivity. This paper also applies Luenberger productivity index and SBM directional distance function to measure provincial green total factor productivity of China from 2006 to 2017. The final results show that the environmental regulation influences green total factor productivity positively, and FDI has a negative relationship with green total factor productivity. Strict environmental regulation can improve the environmental threshold of FDI and play a role of screening for FDI. And the positive interaction between environmental regulation and FDI is an important factor affecting the promotion of green total factor productivity.

Strict environmental regulations in Kazakhstan limit flaring during well cleanup, creating technical challenges for high-pressure wells under sour gas conditions (SPE-172339-MS). Conventional surface Well testing equipment could not meet these constraints, risking delays in production. This paper addresses these challenges through the deployment of ultra-high pressure zero flaring Surface Well Testing package for High Pressure well testing. It evaluates field application, operational feasibility, and implications for regulatory compliance in ultra-high-pressure environments. In comparison, global standards such as the European Union, ETS and US EPA, Subpart W also impose strict controls on flaring and greenhouse gas emissions. By aligning with these frameworks, Kazakhstan's regulatory stance demonstrates both local compliance and broader applicability to international sustainability practices. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO), operator of one of Kazakhstan's largest gas condensate fields, faced this challenge directly. Many of its wells on the low-pressure (LP) reservoir have wellhead pressures lower than the production system, and the presence of sour gas added further technical complexity. To address this, SLB and KPO developed the Zero-Flaring package with a surface pressure-boosting system to reinject multiphase well effluents into the production line. First deployed in 2018, it eliminated flaring during LP/HP cleanups. However, the package could only handle wells, which are connected to production line with flowing pressure up to 130barg. Beyond this injection pressure, there was a need to develop an ultra-high-pressure package (UHP) capable of well cleanup and injection at production line pressure exceeding 130barg. Flaring remained the only technically feasible industrial option for UHP well cleanup due to the unavailability of suitable surface equipment capable of cleaning and reinjecting in the production line at ultra high pressure (> 130barg). This approach conflicted with Kazakhstan's strict environmental regulations, which imposed severe flaring limits and threatened to delay or halt production from new UHP wells. To overcome this, Zero-Flaring Ultra High-Pressure (UHP) separation package - a groundbreaking solution enabling flaring-free cleanup of high-pressure wells was developed. The solution was successfully deployed in 2024 during three UHP cleanup operations at the Karachaganak field. The package performed safely and reliably under ultra-high-pressure and sour gas conditions, eliminating flaring and associated CO₂ emissions. It also enabled earlier production readiness, avoided regulatory noncompliance, and significantly reduced carbon footprint. This deployment marked the industry's first field use of a 220-bar-rated separator for surface well testing. The integration of high-specification pressure components and optimized flow assurance management contributed to the system's success under challenging well conditions. This paper discusses the design, execution, and performance of the technology and highlights its scalability for future HP developments requiring environmentally compliant, zero-flaring operations. This paper presents the first deployment of a 220barg rated surface separator used for zero-flaring UHP well cleanup an innovation that sets a new benchmark for ultra-high-pressure operations. It offers insights into equipment application under extremely sour gas conditions and operational workflows that ensure regulatory compliance. The paper provides scalable, field-proven solutions toward low-emission, sustainable energy production.

Membrane distillation hybrids for water production and energy efficiency enhancement: A critical review

Impact of industrial intelligence on green total factor productivity: The indispensability of the environmental system

Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China

The relationship between domestic environmental regulation and international competitiveness has evoked various speculations. The common neoclassical train of thought is that strict environmental regulation is detrimental to the competitiveness of industry,and that it induces phenomena such as ecological dumping,ecological capital flight,and regulatory `chill’ in environmental standards. A different view is that strict environmental regulation triggers industry’s innovation potential,and subsequently increases its competitiveness. The impact of environmental regulation on competitiveness has been analyzed in terms of international capital movements,new firm formation,and international trade. The paper presents a statistically supported evaluation of the literature,in order to assess what the main conclusions regarding the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness are when it comes to studies on international trade flows. The synthesis of the literature is subsequently used to present guidelines for future primary research in this area.