Chinese Environmental Protection Research Articles

Policy Topic Research on Chinese Environmental Protection by an LDA Model of Text Mining

Policy Topic Research on Chinese Environmental Protection by an LDA Model of Text Mining

Incorporating source apportionment and health risk assessment of heavy metals from indoor dust of an industrial area in Dhaka, Bangladesh

A total of 45 deposited dust samples were collected from the preselected 15 households near an industrial area at Savar, Bangladesh. The concentrations of metals were measured by EDXRF spectroscopy and was found at the following trend: Ca > Fe > K > Ti > Mn > Zr > Sr > Rb > Zn > Cu > Pb > Co. The average concentrations of Cu, Zn, Zr, and Pb were found to be higher than that of the soil background values set by Chinese Environmental Protection Administration (CEPA) and the upper continental crust (UCC), while the average concentrations of K, Ti, Fe, and Rb were found to be higher than that of the background values and lower than that of UCC. Alternately, %RSD for some toxic metals (i.e., Fe, Co, Zn and Pb) in the dust samples were ranged broadly (%RSD: 33.54–86.88 %), which indicates that these trace metals might be present in indoor dust samples due to anthropogenic sources, which is consistent with the ANOVA test. In this study, the contamination levels of metals were assessed based on the enrichment factor (EF), pollution load index (PLI), and geo-accumulation index (Igeo). The two ways ANOVA (Fcal = 3.86 >Fcritic = 1.78, df = 14) for EF data had revealed the heterogeneity of metal enrichment in the study area, whereas PLI values were close to 1.0 or > 1, which indicated that the indoor dust samples in the study area might be deteriorated of site quality by the studied metals. The analysis of Igeo also revealed that these dust samples are slightly to extremely polluted. Conversely Pearson correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis were employed to identify the possible sources of such heavy metals, which suggested that the anthropogenic sources are the main sources of the examined heavy elements. Subsequently, the human health risk assessment strategies were applied to identify the routes of exposures based on the US EPA health risk models. For non-cancer effect, ingestion of dust particles is the main exposure route to both the children and adults. The total hazard index (HI) values indicate that both children and adults are vulnerable to non-carcinogenic effect, but children are more vulnerable than adults (tstat = 1.97 >tcritic = 2.039, p = 0.029) at a 95 % confidence level. Nevertheless, no significant carcinogenic health risk due to the presence of Co was found for both children and adults in the study area. According to sensitivity analysis, the ingestion rate (IR) and the concentration of Co posed the most significant impact (> 79.9 %) on cancer risk estimation.

Does the environmental tax affect the within-firm pay gap? Evidence from China

The impact of the environmental tax on internal income distribution within firms is a crucial extension for evaluating the economic effects of environmental regulation policies. However, the existing literature focuses primarily on environmental effects and the Porter hypothesis, giving little attention to this topic. Using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2018 to 2021, we examine how the Chinese environmental protection tax affects intrafirm wage disparities. Our findings indicate that the environmental tax widens the pay gap between managerial and ordinary employees. Mechanism tests show that the environmental tax's governance effect raises managerial compensation levels, whereas cost effects decrease wages for ordinary employees. This effect is particularly pronounced in nonstate-owned firms, competitive industries, and regions with stricter environmental tax collection standards. This study makes an empirical contribution to our understanding of the effects of the environmental tax on income distribution in practice.

How does social media use affect employee voice behaviour?

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for employees to communicate and share their opinions. Yet, there are still some gaps in the social media use research. We investigated leader–member exchange and voice efficacy mediation of social media use on employee voice behaviours. The study sample comprised 359 Chinese environmental protection employees and their 79 leaders. PROCESS model regression results showed that social media use had a significant positive influence on leader–member exchange, employee voice efficacy, and on voice behaviour. Both leader–member exchange and employee voice efficacy partly mediated the influence of social media use on employee voice behaviour. Leader–member exchange mediated the relationship between social media use and employee’s voice behaviours were greater than that of employee voice efficacy. Findings align with social exchange theory and social cognitive theory in that leader–member exchange and voice efficacy played important roles in the relationship between social media use and employee voice behaviour. From these findings, we suggest that organisations should provide timely services and support (social media tools), set exemplary leadership in social media usage, and foster open communication to improve employee voice.

Toward a leading-agency coordinated collaboration model? lessons learned from interagency collaboration in Chinese environmental protection

ABSTRACT In this study, we are interested primarily in how a structural factor – social capital – relates to Chinese national government agencies’ partner selection in environmental protection. Our study finds that their partner selection is associated positively with activity closure and popularity closure while being negatively influenced by cyclicity closure. Moreover, their partner selection is characterized predominantly by a leading-agency coordinated collaboration model, which favors the engagement of a shared third agency and emphasizes the similarity of interests. This study expands the theoretical connotations of social capital and provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying actors’ partner selection in interagency collaboration.

Political influence and air pollution: Evidence from Chinese cities

The influence of the political system, and official mobility on the economy, finance, and environment has been confirmed by numerous studies, political cycle may bring a critical impact on the functioning of the economic system. Cities in China change their party secretaries every few years, providing a good context for our analysis. In this study, we analyze the impact of the political cycle on air pollution in 247 Chinese cities from the year 2002–2017. The main results indicate that the Chinese Communist Party Congress bring a significant effect. Air pollution has been significantly reduced in the year before and after the Party Congress, which means the political cycle plays an important role in current Chinese environmental protection or pollution control. In addition, the closer the city is to the capital, the stronger the pollution control, and the city's environmental pollution will be reduced.

Impact of Environmental Taxation on Financial Performance of Energy-Intensive Firms: The Role of Digital Transformation

ABSTRACT In the new wave of the scientific and technological revolution, clean production and digital transformation are the primary directions of development for energy-intensive industries. In this study, we examined the impact of the 2016 Chinese Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL2016) on energy-intensive firms’ financial performance and explored the role of digital transformation using panel data from Chinese A-share-listed companies. Using the difference-in-differences method, we found that the EPTL2016 has significantly improved energy-intensive firms’ financial performance by incentivizing their digital transformation but has at the same time moderated the economic benefits of digital transformation. Moreover, state-owned enterprises have been more effective at improving their financial performance through digital transformation under the pressure of the EPTL2016. From a regional perspective, the EPTL2016 has enhanced energy-intensive firms’ financial performance primarily through digital transformation in regions with better digital infrastructure, and through green transformation in regions highly dependent on resource and in regions with stricter environmental governance.

WITHDRAWN: Identifying the endogenous optimization pathways for improving environmental performance

Improving environmental performance has been widely regarded as a key action to promote environmental sustainability. However, in most environmental performance models, the optimization pathways are pre-determined, neglecting the heterogeneity of the optimization pathways inherent in different producers, which can lead to a potential risk of distorting the results of environmental performance and generating misleading policy implications. This study reveals how endogenous optimization pathways for improving environmental performance can be identified. We first develop a distance function with endogenous direction to identify the endogenous optimization pathways for improving environmental performance and then propose an environmental performance index based on the identified endogenous optimization pathways. We apply our approach to a sample of 101 Chinese cities by considering two major pollutants (i.e., SO 2 and NOx emissions). It is found that our approach can capture the heterogeneity of the optimization pathways across different cities and pollutants well. A majority of cities prefer to improve their environmental performance by reducing NO x emissions rather than reducing SO 2 emissions. • Introduce endogenous optimization pathways into environmental performance measurement. • Develop DDF models with endogenous directions to identify the heterogeneous optimization pathways. • Construct a new environmental performance index based on endogenous optimization pathways. • Conduct an application study on 101 Chinese environmental protection cities.

Comparison of the Sino-US prohibition order system in environmental protection

Environmental protection has become a hot topic today, environmental pollution, the awakening of environmental protection consciousness, lead to environmental protection innovation in the legal system, environmental protection prohibition system in recent years also on the hot plate of protecting the environment, but the prohibition system in our country is corresponding in the civil procedure law, but there are many defects compared with other countries. This paper mainly compares with the American environmental protection prohibition system to find out the system suitable for the further development and improvement of the Chinese environmental protection prohibition system. Mainly compare the environmental protection prohibition system and start subject, application conditions, audit procedures, the rights of the applicant, according to China's national conditions and environmental protection practice, suitable for the development of our country environmental protection prohibition specific system, in order to perfect the system and can well applicable to the field of environmental protection in our country.

Source Apportionment of Heavy Metal Contamination in Urban-Agricultural-Aquacultural Soils near the Bohai Bay Coast, Using Land-Use Classification and Google Satellite Tracing

Heavy metal concentrations of Cd, As, Pb, Cu, Cr, and Hg were investigated for 86 soil samples in Jinzhou near the Bohai Sea in China, in order to identify what anthropological activities influenced their distribution levels. Ordinary cokriging (OCK) was utilized to map six heavy-metal distributions by incorporating their main environmental influencers. The resultant p values for the six OCK mapping models of 0–2.78% indicated good statistical significance of the models, and the relative mean absolute errors of 4.82–12.53% and relative root mean square errors of 6.23–18.21% indicated allowable predication precision for their concentrations. The contamination distributions by OCK mapping were then graded based on the standards of the China National Environmental Monitoring Center and the Chinese Environmental Protection Administration, which showed that Cu and As contaminations in parts of this area were over the natural level but not polluted, Cr contamination was omnipresent over the natural level in this area and even reached the polluted level in parts of this area. The graded contamination maps that were overlapped with land-use maps and Google satellite maps, as well as the verifications reported in literatures, enabled correlations of the different contamination levels of As, Cu, and Cr with human activities. Resultantly, it indicated that As and Cu contamination over the natural level may be related to agricultural planting and aquacultural activities along the coast of Bohai Bay, with the contaminants transported via watercourses; Cr contamination over the natural level may have been due to vehicle emissions; and, Cr pollution may have been from steel manufacturing and geochemical factories

Columnar Water Vapor Retrieval by Using Data from the Polarized Scanning Atmospheric Corrector (PSAC) Onboard HJ-2 A/B Satellites

As the latest members of Chinese Environmental Protection and Disaster Monitoring Satellite Constellation, the first two of HuanjingJianzai-2 (HJ-2) series satellites were launched on 27 September 2020 by China and are usually abbreviated as HJ-2 A/B satellites. The polarized scanning atmospheric corrector (PSAC) is one of main sensors onboard HJ-2 A/B satellites, which is mainly used to monitor atmospheric components such as water vapor and aerosols. In this study, a columnar water vapor (CWV) retrieval algorithm using two bands (865 and 910 nm) is developed for PSAC. The validation results of PSAC CWV data based on ground-based CWV data derived from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) show that PSAC CWV data has a high accuracy, and all statistical parameters of PSAC CWV data are better than those of Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) CWV data released by NASA. Overall, there is no obvious overestimation or underestimation in PSAC CWV data. The root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), relative error (RE), and percentage of CWV data with error within ±(0.05+0.10∗CWVAERONET) (PER10) of PSAC CWV data are 0.17 cm, 0.13 cm, 0.08, and 78.19%, respectively. The RMSE, MAE, RE, and PER10 of MODIS CWV data are 0.59 cm, 0.48 cm, 0.28, and 16.55%, respectively. Compared with MODIS CWV data, PSAC CWV data shows a 71% decrease in RMSE, a 73% decrease in MAE, a 71% decrease in RE, and a 372% increase in PER10. In addition, the results of day-to-day comparisons between PSAC CWV data and AERONET data show that PSAC CWV data can effectively characterize the change trend of CWV.

Spatial Pattern and Spillover of Abatement Effect of Chinese Environmental Protection Tax Law on PM2.5 Pollution.

Particulate matter () pollution is a threat to public health, and environmental taxation is an important regulatory mode controlling pollution. In 2018, China implemented the Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) targeting pollution. Based on in-situ monitoring and emission inventory data, a Bayesian hierarchical spatiotemporal model combining a two-period trends difference method was employed to measure the abatement effects of China’s EPTL on pollution (AEEPTLPM). On this basis, a spatial spillover index (SSI) of the AEEPTLPM is proposed. Applying this index, we calculated the spatial spillover characteristics of the AEEPTLPM in mainland China at a provincial scale in 2018–2019. The results show that the EPTL has had significant abatement effects on both in-situ-monitored concentrations and local total industrial emissions. Additionally, the two types of AEEPTLPM display distinct spatial heterogeneity. A correlation between the AEEPTLPM and the degree of pollution was observed; areas with serious pollution have higher AEEPTLPM levels, and vice versa. The SSI indicates that the AEEPTLPM exhibits significant spatial spillover characteristics, and spatial heterogeneity is also present.

Aerosol Optical Depth Retrieval Based on Neural Network Model Using Polarized Scanning Atmospheric Corrector (PSAC) Data

As the successors of the HuanjingJianzai-1 (HJ-1) series satellites in the Chinese Environmental Protection and Disaster Monitoring Satellite Constellation, the first two of HJ-2 A/B satellites have been successfully launched on the September 27 of 2020. The Polarized Scanning Atmospheric Corrector (PSAC) sensors, onboard the HJ-2 A/B satellites, are served as the synchronously atmospheric correction instrument requiring high speed and accurate aerosol optical depth (AOD) algorithm. For this purpose, we proposed a neural network based AOD retrieval model (named the AODNet), which takes full advantage of the multispectral measurements of PSAC for AOD retrieval with a high speed. The training of AODNet is conducted by the simulated observation data (currently applicable for the China region) from the forward calculation using the radiative transfer model. In this way, the land surface reflectance (LSR) is no need for our well trained model. It is expected to be one of the effective ways to solve the ill-pose problem in the decoupling of the atmosphere and surface information in AOD retrieval. Either of Sun-sky radiometer Observation NETwork (SONET) AOD or AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) AOD was used to validate the AODNet AOD. The correlation coefficient is higher than 0.85 and more than 60% of the AODNet AOD can fall into the expected error envelope of ±(0.05+20%). The cross-comparison shows that the AODNet has better accuracy than MODIS Dark Target (DT) and Deep Blue (DB) algorithm. The air pollution episode is well characterized by the AODNet AOD using PSAC data.

Partycypacja społeczna jako filar demokracji środowiskowej w Chińskiej Republice Ludowej

The latest revision from 2014 of the Chinese Environmental Protection Law introduced a new mechanism of public participation in environmental law-making. It forces the Chinese legislative process to be more transparent and inclusive, that is to say — involve civil society and NGOs. Generally, this development deserves support and approval; there are, however, several shortcomings that should be addressed in the future. For instance, neither the level of cooperation between legislature and civil society nor the outcomes of public participation do always meet social expectations.
 The purpose of this work was to research the Chinese model of public participation in environmental decision-making, bearing in mind the authoritarian governance of the People’s Republic of China. Then, to analyze the real impact of the international cooperation and standards on the application of this model. Specifically, the EU–China Environmental Governance Programme (2010–2015) was discussed as a very influential example.
 The outcome of the research shows that Chinese environmental law has been notably shaped by public international and European law. There are considerable similarities between the legal instruments of environmental democracy applied in China and public international law standards promoted by the United Nations and the European Union through the implementation of the Aarhus Convention of 1998. And, without doubt, it has to be recognised that the People’s Republic of China has its own rich and diversified, however contradictory during the course of history, doctrines and a jurisprudence body of work considering civil society’s participatory role in decision-making.
 Each of the successive Chinese forms of government — beginning with despotism, then a glimpse of democracy, totalitarianism, and, finally, authoritarianism — did leave their mark on the Chinese political thought and law regarding the desired participation level of society (i.e. various civil movements and NGOs) in state affairs. In this day and age, social interest and support for the environmental protection is well-accepted by the Chinese government, especially due to the current plan of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to build an “ecological civilization” in China.

The evolution of collaborative networks: A social network analysis of Chinese environmental protection policy

Interagency collaboration helps governments to better resolve various complex societal problems. This contribution examines the mechanisms underlying the collaboration of disparate national government agencies engaged in Chinese environmental protection. We test three dominant mechanisms, namely, the institutionalization of collaborative networks, resource interdependence and exchange, and preferential attachment. It is concluded that a collaborative network over time becomes cohesive, that national government agencies prefer to collaborate with popular agencies and tend to collaborate with those whose resources are different from their own, and that popular agencies tend to maintain their core positions over time. Our study enriches the current governance and policy literature through adding building blocks for the evolution of collaborative network and network partner selection.

Sources of toxic elements in indoor dust sample at export processing zone (EPZ) area: Dhaka, Bangladesh; and their impact on human health.

In industrial areas, increased human activities generate high emissions of metals that contaminate the environment, and eventually affect human health. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the sources of toxic elements in indoor dust samples, and to evaluate possible health risks due to expose of human body through dermal contact, inhalation, and ingestion. A total 36 indoor dust samples were collected from the windows of twelve (12) industrial buildings, which are facing the main roads in the biggest export process zone (DEPZ) in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. The indoor dust samples were analyzed using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique for the determination of Cu, Zn, As, Pb, Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, K, Ca, Ti, Rb, and Sr. This investigation revealed that Cu, Zn, Pb, Fe, and Sr concentrations were slightly higher in various degree than that of the background value in soil recommended by the Chinese Environmental Protection Administration (CEPA). Subsequently, ANOVA (α = 0.05, p < 0.001) test and %RSD values (33% to 168%) showed that the concentrations of these metals were present non-homogeneously in different sampling points. However, statistical analysis and several geochemical indices have been proposed that these heavy metals might be come in indoor dust samples because of anthropogenic events. This investigation also showed that the most-extreme permissible hazard index (HIs) levels known as non-cancer risk for As, Mn, and Zn because of dust exposure in the study area were below than that of the safe limit (HI = 1) but with an exception of Pb (HI = 1.9E+00) for children. On the other hand, the degree of cancer-causing risk linked with exposure to arsenic in indoor dust (i.e., 0.502E-06 to 0.121E-05) falls within the range of threshold values (10-6 to 10-4). Therefore, following USEPA health risk models, it has been suggested that these metals present in indoor dust samples might not have significant impact on causing non-cancer and cancer risk to children and to adult at this moment in the DEPZ area, Bangladesh. However, a continuous monitoring should be needed to assess more accurately the non-cancer and cancer risk to children and adult.

Removing low concentration of Cr (III) from wastewater: Using titanium dioxide surface modified montmorillonite as a selective adsorbent

In this work, titanium dioxide surface modified montmorillonite (TMC) were prepared by sol–gel method, so as to improve its selective adsorptivity for trivalent chromium ions (Cr3+). When it was applied to remove low concentration of Cr3+(10 mg/L) from wastewater, the remaining concentration of Cr3+ was less than 1.5 mg/L, meeting the emission standard required by the Chinese Environmental protection agency (GB4287-92). The phase, structure and morphology of TMC were determined by means of XRD, CEC, IR, Raman, XPS, SEM, TEM and BET. It was found that titanium dioxide (TiO2) was uniformly dispersed on the surface of montmorillonite (MMT), and the spacing of MMT layer was almost unchanged via filling with Na+, so that the selective adsorptivity of MMT for Cr3+ was achieved. At the same time, theoretical calculations based on first principles and density functional theory confirmed the adsorption selectivity of MMT for Cr3+. In addition, the structural advantages of TMC addressed the shortcomings of MMT surface negative potential that it could not perform adsorption selectivity. Moreover, the adsorptive process of Cr3+ with TMC followed the pesudo-second-order kinetic equation, and Langmuir equation could better describe the adsorption mechanism (the maximum adsorption capacity was 194.1 mg/g). After five cycles, the removing efficiency was still over 89%. Therefore, TMC accompanied with high selective adsorptivity, simple synthesis process, as well as high regenerative performance, had great potential for removing low concentration of Cr3+ from wastewater.

Elemental analysis in surface soil and dust of roadside academic institutions in Dhaka city, Bangladesh and their impact on human health

The increasing industrial activities, number of vehicles on road and population in large cities causes the contamination of air in urban environment, and eventually affect human health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to collect soil and dust samples from twelve roadside academic institutions in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. One of the twelve sites is control site for this study. The elemental (Ca, Fe, K, Ti, Sr, Zn, Zr, Rb, Cr, Ni, Pb and Cu) concentration in soil and dust samples were analyzed by XRF technique. The metals concentration in dust and soil samples followed the following order: Fe > Ti > Sr > Zn > Zr > Rb > Pb > Cu, and Fe > Ti > Zr > Sr > Rb > Zn > Cu > Pb > As, respectively. As expected, the most elemental concentration at the control site, which was situated inside a village and ~ 1 km far away from the road, was lower compared with those in soil and dust samples. Average As concentration (16.52 mg/kg) in soil was observed to be three times higher than its background value. The concentration of Pb in the dust sample of a school at Sadarghat (136.04 mg/kg) was significantly higher than the other sites. We observed that the mean concentration for most of the metals had a higher concentration than the background values set by Chinese Environmental Protection Administration (CEPA), except for K and Zr. Soil samples were analyzed to determine the percentage of organic matter by dry combustion technique, and the average amount of organic matter in soil samples was 1.42%. Conversely, the contamination levels of heavy metals were assessed based on the geo-accumulation index ( I geo ), enrichment factor ( EF ) and contamination factor (CF). Subsequently non-carcinogenic health risk was determined using lifetime average daily dose ( LADD ). The non-carcinogenic health risk was found to be more prominent for children than that for adults. No significant carcinogenic health risk was found in the study area. • Concentration of Ca, Fe, K, Ti, Sr, Zn, As, Zr, Rb, Cr, Ni, Pb and Cu in soil and dust were determined by XRF • Average concentration for most of the metals have higher concentration than the background value. • Average arsenic concentration in soil was observed to be three times higher than its background value • Non-carcinogenic health risk was found to be more prominent for children than that for adults. • No significant carcinogenic health risk was found in the study area.

R&D investment and financing efficiency in Chinese environmental protection enterprises: perspectives of COVID-19 and supply chain financial regulation

ABSTRACT Efficient financing is a key focus of enterprises and financial institutions. Using the DEA-BCC method and panel Tobit model to construct a basic regression model and moderating effect model to conduct an empirical analysis of 23 listed Chinese environmental protection enterprises, this study finds that their technological level directly enhances their financing efficiency, but if the technological level is low, then investments in R&D are likely to dilute capital, thus reducing their financing efficiency. Such constraints are more significant in 2020, which saw the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The regulatory effects of supply chain financing methods alleviate the inhibiting effects of investment in R&D and stimulate improved financing efficiency. Therefore, this study argues that the financing efficiency of China's environmental protection enterprises can be improved through enhancements at the fund management level, strengthening R&D investment, encouraging the effectiveness of technological progress, and actively promoting supply chain modes of financing.

Turnover of environmental protection officials and transboundary water pollution

Considering the situation of the frequent turnover of Chinese environmental protection officials (EPOT), this paper analyzes its impact on transboundary water pollution. The results show that EPOT can reduce transboundary pollution. EPOT can reduce the concentration of DO by 0.261 and NH3-N by 0.167 in the downstream river. And the impact shows a first strong and then weak change over time. EPOT can restrain transboundary pollution by reducing the production of polluting enterprises and promoting public pollution reporting, and it aggravates transboundary pollution by reducing environmental law enforcement and collaborative governance. In addition, the impact of EPOT on transboundary pollution has a distance effect. Within the regulatory distance of 50 km, EPOT has strong inhibition on transboundary pollution. When the governor and the environmental protection official (EPO) change tenure at the same time, the inhibition of transboundary pollution is the strongest. In addition, EPOs from the central government and with working experience in environmental protection departments can control transboundary pollution better.