Environmental Protection In China Research Articles

Environmental protection tax, green innovation, and environmental, social, and governance performance

This study investigates the impact of China's Environmental Protection Tax Law, implemented as a quasi-natural experiment, on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of listed industrial enterprises from 2012 to 2022. The objective is to gain a better understanding of how this tax influences corporate behavior toward sustainability, addressing a gap in the literature regarding the effect on nonfinancial performance indicators. By employing a dataset of 9077 observations from the Wind and CSMAR databases, we determine whether the tax leads to improved ESG outcomes and fosters green innovation within these enterprises. The findings reveal that the tax significantly enhances the ESG performance of firms, particularly in environmental aspects, by encouraging green innovations. Moreover, the tax's impact is more pronounced in nonstate-owned enterprises than in state-owned ones. These results suggest that similar fiscal policies can effectively drive corporate sustainability; hence, policymakers should leverage economic tools for environmental management.

Research on the Impact of Environmental Protection Tax on Green Technology Innovation of Enterprises

Research on the Impact of Environmental Protection Tax on Green Technology Innovation of Enterprises

Can PM2.5 concentration reduced by China's environmental protection tax?

The responsibility of enhancing environmental quality is shouldered by China's Environmental Protection Tax (EPT), which constitutes a vital element of China's tax system greening initiative. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) method, the effects of the EPT on PM2.5 concentration were empirically examined in this study, through panel data of 218 cities in China from 2015 to 2021. The results indicate that the EPT can effectively reduce PM2.5 concentration by approximately 2.4 %, and this conclusion remained unchanged after a series of robustness tests. In the channel analysis, it can be found that the reduction of PM2.5 concentration by the EPT was achieved through the alleviation of financing constraints, technological advancements, and optimization of industrial structure. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the negative impact of the EPT on PM2.5 concentration was more significant in northern cities, inland cities and non-national environmental protection model cities. Further analysis found that EPT has a stronger inhibitory effect on PM2.5 concentration within 100 % of tax increase. The conclusions remain consistent when spatial spillover effects of PM2.5 are taken into account. This paper provides important empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of emission reductions of EPT and provides valuable insights for the future improvement of EPT.

Study on the regulatory alienation effect of China's Environmental Protection Tax Law during the strict epidemic control period: based on a sample test of 1000 tax personnel

The enactment of the Environmental Protection Tax Law was a major event in the process of China's economic and social development. This law has achieved certain results in the first two years since enactment, but there have also been many problems. During the three-year strict pandemic control period, the normal process of Environmental Protection Tax Law implementation was impacted, causing alienation and reducing the quality of implementation. This study empirically reveals the alienation mechanism in the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law by taking 1000 Chinese tax professionals, and randomly divides the sample equally into two parts, utilizing 500 samples for the initial test and another 500 samples for the robustness test. This research shows that pollutant emission monitoring (correlation coefficient is 0.07), preferential tax policies (correlation coefficient is 0.03) and the quality of tax personnel (correlation coefficient is 0.06) are not conducive to realizing the crowding-out effect of the Environmental Protection Tax Law, while preferential tax policies (correlation coefficient is 0.05), information-sharing platforms (correlation coefficient is 0.06) and the quality of tax personnel (correlation coefficient is 0.05) hinder the incentive effect, and the remaining elements passed the correlation coefficient test within certain confidence intervals. Therefore, the implementation of China's Environmental Protection Tax Law should be improved in the following ways: the accuracy of the environmental protection departments' supervision of pollutant emissions as well as the scientificity and rationality of preferential tax policies should be improved, the construction of environmental protection tax information-sharing platforms should be strengthened, and compound tax collection and management talent should be created.

How does digital trade impact urban carbon emissions efficiency? Evidence from China's cross-border e-commerce pilot zones

In the context of global warming and dynamically evolving economic circumstances, improving carbon emissions efficiency (CEE) has significant practical importance for addressing the dual challenges of economic development and the environmental protection in China. Currently, digital trade (DT) is a pivotal force driving CEE improvement in China; however, limited literature has explored the interconnection between these two elements. In this study, the application of the cross-border e-commerce pilot zone (CEPZ) policy serves as a quasi-natural experiment to analyze the impact of DT on CEE. The article implements a difference-in-differences approach with a panel dataset of 283 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2021. The results suggest that DT significantly contributes to enhancing CEE; a finding remains sound following several robustness tests like varying the sample size, dependent variables, and sample structure. The impact mechanism analysis reveals that DT has the potential to enhance urban CEE indirectly by influencing green technology innovation, industry clustering, and energy mix optimization. Heterogeneity tests indicate that DT may be more effective in fostering CEE in the eastern region, high-level cities, and nonresource-rich cities. Additionally, a noteworthy spatial spillover of DT extends to cities in close proximity to the pilot areas. The study's findings underscore the vital role of DT in improving CEE, providing empirical evidence to substantiate advocacy for sustainable economic development and the achievement of carbon peak and neutrality targets.

Mitigating boundary pollution: Evidence from China's environmental protection inspection centers

The efficacy of a vertical environmental protection system in managing transboundary pollution has not been extensively explored. Through a quasi-natural experiment facilitated by China's six environmental protection inspection centers (EPICs), this study assesses their impact on boundary pollution intensity and compares it with their effect on non-boundary pollution intensity. The findings demonstrate that the institution of EPICs significantly mitigates the intensity of boundary pollution, with a more pronounced reduction effect compared to non-boundary areas. Analysis of mechanisms reveals that both boundary and non-boundary enterprises achieve a reduction in pollution intensity through the enlargement of production capacities, enhancement of investments in pollution control, and a decrease in total pollution emissions. Given that boundary enterprises exhibit a greater magnitude in reducing total pollution emissions, the resultant effect on pollution intensity reduction is more significant among these entities. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of EPICs on reducing pollution intensity is more substantial among samples with minimal political connections, elevated political incentives, and within heavily polluting industries, with boundary enterprises experiencing a more pronounced influence. This article unveils that strengthening coordination between central and local authorities, alongside fostering corporate actual investment in environmental protection, serves as pivotal mechanisms, offering innovative strategies for global environmental governance and advancing both the practice and theory of sustainable development.

The Impact of Environmental Protection Tax Policy on the Financial Performance of Heavy Pollution Enterprises

<p>Leveraging the implementation of China's environmental protection tax (EPT) policy in 2018 as a focal point, this study employs a quasi-natural experiment via the double-difference method to investigate the EPT's impact on the financial performance (FP) of publicly listed companies in heavily polluting industries. The findings reveal the EPT's sustained and positive dynamic effect on the FP of these enterprises, a trend validated through parallel trend and placebo tests. Furthermore, the research highlights that non-state-owned and large-scale firms exhibit more substantial incentives for enhancing their FP.</p>

The convergence of total-factor energy efficiency across Chinese cities: A distribution dynamics approach

Improving energy efficiency is considered the most direct route to reducing carbon emissions on a massive scale. To examine the long-run trend of China's energy efficiency, this paper employs a distribution dynamics approach to analyze the convergence of total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) across 286 Chinese cities between 2002 and 2014. The result suggests the existence of convergence, which comes more from the efficiency declines in the high TFEE cities rather than the efficiency gains in the low TFEE cities. Despite the fact that a few cities have performed well in energy efficiency, the majority of cities have converged to a low-efficiency point. Further analyses show that the inefficiency was attributed to inefficient energy use in small- and medium-sized cities. Our analysis provides strong scientific support for China's ongoing energy conservation and environmental protection policies.

Dynamic evolution of China's government environmental regulation capability and its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment

Effective environmental governance in China is crucial for promoting global environmental governance initiatives. The government's environmental regulatory capacity (GERC) is a core metric reflecting the effectiveness of China's environmental governance. This paper aims to investigate the strength of China's GERC and empirically verify its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment (CEE). We use a multiple indicators and multiple causes model (MIMIC) to measure the governmental environmental regulation capabilities of 30 provinces in China, from 2007 to 2018. Then, the econometric model is used to test the impact of the GERC on CEE. The results show that, although the GERC exhibits an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. The GERC in different regions of China exhibits a certain gradient effect, with a weak polarization trend. The increase in the GERC of regions with high levels of economic development is significantly faster than that in regions with low levels of economic development. Moreover, the improvement in the GERC has not promoted coordinated development between the economy and the environment, which means that there is still a mutual “crowding out effect” between economic development and environmental protection in China.

Public–private partnerships and carbon reduction targets: evidence from PPP investments in energy and environmental protection in China

Public–private partnerships and carbon reduction targets: evidence from PPP investments in energy and environmental protection in China

Decomposition of industrial SO2 emission in China with firm entry and exit

The difficulty of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution control task has deepened step by step in recent years, while the marginal cost of environmental protection in China has also been higher. Therefore, it is necessary to study the main impact factors of China's industrial SO2 pollution. Based on China's Industrial Environmental Statistics Database from 2004 to 2013, this paper extends the Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) with firm entry and exit to conduct a micro-level decomposition study. The industrial SO2 emission in China is decomposed into scale effect, composition effect, firm growth effect, and firm selection effect. Also, we use the Dagum Gini coefficient to analyze the spatial differences of firm growth effect and selection effect between the eastern, central, and western regions in China. This paper finds that the main contribution of industrial SO2 emission control in China is the firm growth effect, which was −103% between 2004 and 2013. And the second largest contribution term is the firm selection effect, which is −18%, while the composition effect is −15%. In terms of temporal patterns, the size of the firm growth effect shrinks as time grows, and the composition effect changes from negative to positive after 2009. For spatial difference analysis, the Dagum Gini coefficient of technique effect and firm growth effect between different regions have become smaller and smaller over time, while the spatial differences of firm selection effect between regions remain unchanged.

Environmental tax and highly polluting firms' green transformation: Evidence from green mergers and acquisitions

Taking China's Environmental Protection Tax Law, implemented in 2018, as an exogenous shock, this study investigates the effect of an environmental tax on firms' green transformation behaviors. Our baseline results show that this environmental tax policy has a positive impact on promoting highly polluting firms' green mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect of the environmental tax on green M&As is moderated by firm characteristics (state ownership, innovation capacity, and reputation), industry ones (competition and barriers to entry), and regional ones (legal system strength, environmental pollution severity, and pollution tax rates). Finally, we find that the capital market responds more positively to green M&As in highly polluting firms after the implementation of the environmental tax. This study has important policy implications, providing empirical evidence that may be useful for corporate green transformation.

Future Land Use Spatial Conflicts and Habitat Quality Impacts Based on SSPs-RCPs Scenarios—Qin-Ba Mountain City

In the future, the pursuit of high-quality economic development and a focus on ecological environmental protection in China will inevitably result in significant conflicts between land use and ecological land use. Land use conflicts primarily occur in peri-urban areas characterized by prominent economic development and urban agglomeration. As a municipality situated in the Qin-Ba mountainous region, Ankang has been promoting ecological preservation for a span of two decades. The allocation of construction areas primarily focuses on the proximity of watersheds, while the northern and southern regions are predominantly characterized by mountainous and hilly terrain, thus exhibiting distinct regional attributes. Previous studies have mainly focused on analyzing the effects of land use on habitat quality during intense urbanization, with fewer studies focusing on integrating eco-regions with urbanization to assess changes in habitat quality. However, it is important to recognize that land pressure encompasses economic, ecological, and social aspects. Additionally, it aims to provide insights for the harmonious development of land use in eco-region-oriented cities. Using the SSPs-RCPs scenarios provided by the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), this paper employs a system analysis method, the emerging Patch-Generating Land Use Simulation model (PLUS) model, Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, and Land Use Conflict Measurement model to dynamically simulate the future habitat quality and spatial conflict patterns of land use in Ankang City. The study explores the spatial coupling effect of both factors under different scenarios. The results indicate the following: (1) The overall development trend reveals an intensification of land use conflicts and a decrease in habitat quality. The expansion rate of construction land is increasing and exhibiting aggregation, while agricultural land area is expanding, and forest land area is continuously decreasing. (2) Land use intensity exhibits a significant positive correlation with land conflict levels, while land conflict levels demonstrate a significant negative correlation with habitat quality. (3) Under different future shared socioeconomic path scenarios, land use intensity, and land conflict levels follow the order of SSP585 (high forcing scenario), SSP370 (medium to high forcing scenario), SSP245 (medium forcing scenario), and SSP126 (low forcing scenario), with intensity and conflict decreasing accordingly. These findings suggest that land use has had some impact on the ecological environment, with indications of habitat degradation. Even in Ankang, where ecological development is highly valued, the city will gradually face conflicts between ecological protection and economic development in future scenarios. The city already has the environment at heart, so it will be worse in cities where the priority is economic development. Therefore, it is crucial to allocate sufficient space for economic development while simultaneously prioritizing ecological protection. The results of the study can provide a reference for analyzing the trade-offs between land development and habitat protection in eco-mountainous cities and for eco-cities to avoid falling into the conflict dilemma of economic cities.

The Enlightenment of Marx's View of Nature to Improve Our Country's Environmental Problems

In the new era, China's environmental protection work is still facing many problems, has become the important factor that determines the social economic development fast. Accelerating social development and the transformation of various industries and promoting the construction of ecological civilization have become the top priority in the new era. Marx's view of nature is an important part of Marxist theory, which contains a rich thought and theoretical content of ecological civilization, and reflects on the real relationship between man and nature, which not only provides an important theoretical foundation to promote the harmony and unity of man and nature, but also points out the direction to solve the environmental problems of our country.

Developing co-management for conservation and local development in China’s national parks: findings from focus group discussions in the Sanjiangyuan Region

Environmental protection in China has progressed significantly in the past decades, including introduction of more collaborative approaches in the management of protected areas and the establishment of a new national park system, and many milestones have been achieved. While such developments are driven largely by national and global goals, the people who are most affected are those who reside in the protected landscapes. A range of strategies have been proposed and tried in relation to local development, with many important lessons learned, yet little has been heard to date directly from the community stakeholders themselves. In this study we report on feedback and recommendations received from focus group discussions in vicinity of China’s first national park, Sanjiangyuan, regarding lived experiences of “community co-management” by Tibetan herders and local officials. Overall, the most recent National Park model is deemed successful, albeit with some notable perceived limitations. Focus group discussions' participants recommend more balanced compensation opportunities including for communities living outside but in close proximity to the park, eased restrictions on ecotourism, provision of public services for communities in the park (especially waste management and health care) and establishing a more effective compensation or insurance system to offset economic losses due to wildlife damage.

Quantifying the dynamical interactions between carbon pricing and environmental protection tax in China

China's environmental protection tax (EPT) has been in effect since the beginning of 2018 to combat the country's severe air pollution problems. Meanwhile, carbon tax (CTX) has been identified as the most effective way of climate change mitigation. The combined effects of these two policies, in conjunction to their dynamical interactions, however, have yet been thoroughly studied. Utilizing a multiple-province computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, we compare the effects of EPT and CTX policies solely and jointly in 2030. The results show that the EPT policy has limited impact on energy-related air pollution and CO2 reduction, while the CTX policy effectively targets CO2 emissions from energy combustion processes and provides significant co-benefits in reducing air pollutants. The integration of these two policies enhances emission reduction efficiency, with the CTX policy complementing the EPT policy. Implementing CTX alongside EPT leads to substantial emissions reductions, particularly in high-industrial provinces. However, there are economic implications, as certain provinces may experience GDP losses, emphasizing the importance of equitable burden distribution. Policymakers should carefully evaluate and adjust carbon tax rates to ensure both effectiveness and fairness in achieving environmental goals.

Design Optimization of Hammer Blade Crusher to Improve the Crushing Performance

China is a large agricultural country, each year will produce a large number of straw. The recycling of straw to China's agricultural development and environmental protection are very helpful, the recycling of straw is mainly energy, fertilizer, feed several uses, different uses need different crushing fineness, so adjust the crushing fineness can improve the recycling rate of straw. This paper mainly on the impact of straw crushing fineness factors for This paper focuses on the theoretical analysis and study of the factors affecting the fineness of straw crushing, and provides a general design plan for the crushing chamber.Firstly, the effect of different hammer and sieve gaps on the pulverisation fineness is studied and the straw pulverisation fineness is changed by changing the hammer and sieve gaps. The effect of hammer blade material, structure, arrangement, distribution density and hammer blade speed on the fineness of the straw is studied. Study the effect of the aperture size and arrangement of the sieve on the fineness of the crushing, and adjust the fineness of the crushing by changing the aperture size of the sieve. The study of the material in the crushing process generated by the "ring flow layer" mechanism, and by changing the shape of the crushing chamber structure to destroy the "ring flow layer" on the impact of the crushing performance of the crusher.Secondly, according to the production requirements of the hammer mill, the structure and material of the hammer blade and screen plate are designed and selected, and the hammer blade is analysed statically using Ansys, the rotor is analysed modally, a complete model of the crushing chamber is designed, and a three-dimensional model of the crushing chamber is built using SolidWorks.Finally, after simulation calculations, the design of the rotor headquarters structure is reasonable. An adjustable hammer and sieve clearance was achieved, reducing costs and improving the efficiency of the pulveriser crushing.

Regional Economic Growth and Environmental Protection in China: The Yellow River Basin Economic Zone as an Example

This study used the coordinated development of the regional economy and ecological environment in the Yellow River basin as the research object and selected 13 indicators representing the regional economic subsystem that reflect economic scale, economic structure, and economic efficiency in order to explore a path of high-quality economic development suitable for China’s national conditions and realize the modernization of China with common prosperity for all people. The coupling weights of each indicator were then calculated separately, along with the degree of orderliness between the two subsystems of the regional economy and ecological environment. Finally, the degree of synergy between the two subsystems was calculated. The subjective weights and objective weights of each indicator were first estimated using hierarchical analysis (AHP) and conflicting correlation among criteria (CRITIC). The findings reveal a strong growth tendency in the regional economic development of the Yellow River basin and a wave-like growth pattern in ecological environment indicators. Since it overtook the ecological economy in 2017, the orderliness of the regional economic subsystem has continued this growth trend, demonstrating that the regional economy is in front of the ecological environment and is in a dominant position. The Yellow River basin’s composite system of regional economic and natural environment exhibits a low-level synergy stage and an M-shaped development pattern of alternating increases and decreases. As a result, many solutions are suggested, including promoting high-quality growth with greater levels of opening, modifying the regional economic structure, and stepping up ecological environmental protection.

Tackling China's local environmental policy implementation gap: An evolutionary game analysis of China's environmental protection inspection system

Despite China's stringent environmental regulations, there has been a persistent policy implementation gap at local level, specifically due to local protectionism and inadequate enforcement measures. To address this issue, the Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) initiative was launched in 2016, replacing the Regional Environmental Protection Inspection (REPI) system. This study examines why the REPI failed to tackle the implementation gap and how the CEPI works. This is achieved by constructing a tripartite evolutionary game (EG) model consisting of the central government, local governments, and polluting enterprises. Using system dynamics (SD), the study simulates and analyzes the behavior and strategies of the three game players in two scenarios, namely weak and strong negative incentives. Then, this study analyzes the evolutionary process of environmental protection inspection (EPI) by means of a case study. The results show that: (1) the strategy adopted by polluting enterprises depends on the actual signal conveyed by the local governments. In addition, whether the strong regulatory signal of the central government can be effectively transmitted to polluting enterprises mainly depends on the attitude of the local governments. (2) The CEPI conveys a reliable commitment and provides effective external stimuli that adjust the incentive structure of local governments. Meanwhile, the REPI lacked significant punishment measures, which made it difficult for the central government's environmental regulatory signals to reach polluting enterprises in an effective manner. This study contributes to a better understanding of the evolutionary process and causes of the EPI system, as well as how the Chinese government tackles the local environmental policy implementation gap.

Environmental protection tax and green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises: A quasi-natural experiment based on the implementation of China's environmental protection tax law.

Environmental protection tax is an important tool for directing environmentally friendly growth in heavily polluting enterprises, but existing research has yet to provide consistent conclusions on whether and how environmental protection tax can promote green innovation in heavily polluting industries. The paper uses a double difference model based on data from Chinese listed companies in heavily polluting industries from 2012 to 2021 to empirically investigate whether environmental protection tax drives green innovation behavior of heavily polluting enterprises. The findings show that the environmental protection tax increases the degree of green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises, primarily through the anti-driving effect, in which an increase in environmental management expenses forces firms to increase their R&D investment, which improves the degree of green technical innovation. Furthermore, the environmental protection tax has a strong promotion effect on heavy polluters' green innovation for state-owned enterprises and those in growing period or located in high marketization regions. However, this promotion effect is insignificant for non-state-owned enterprises and those in recession period, and environmental protection tax hinders green innovation of enterprises in mature period and those located in low marketization regions. Accordingly, it is suggested to improve preferential tax policies, increase investment in corporate green innovation and strengthen the supervision of environmental tax.