Environmental Protection In China Research Articles

Research on the Impact of Environmental Regulation on Enterprise Innovation from the Perspective of Official Communication

Many developing countries including China are implementing increasingly stringent environmental regulations to achieve sustainable development. However, we have limited understanding about whether environmental regulations promote enterprise innovation. To address this research gap, this study empirically analyzes the impact of environmental regulations which is represented by the China Environmental Protection Law (2015) on enterprise innovation and it explores the moderating effects of official communication on environmental regulations and corporate innovation. The Super-Slacks-Based Measure (Super-SBM) model and Multiple Nonlinear Regression model are used to analyze 34,074 samples in China’s A-share market during the 2015–2017 period. Our results show that, in general, a higher intensity of environmental regulations is more beneficial to incentivize enterprises to implement innovation. Meanwhile, there is an inverted U-type relationship between official communication and innovation of enterprises. Furthermore, at present, the average level of official communication in China is too high, which will weaken the role of environmental regulation in promoting enterprise innovation. Overall, this study can help us better understand the politics behind enterprise innovation in countries.

Low dose of sulfur-modified zero-valent iron for decontamination of trace Cd(II)-complexes in high-salinity wastewater

Achieving Cd removal standards is a difficult task due to the strict Cd discharge standards for industrial wastewater. Moreover, the low concentration of Cd remaining in industrial wastewater after pretreatment often exists in a complex state, and the wastewater has a high salinity. Hereupon, we propose to use a small amount of sulfur-modified zero-valent iron (S-NZVI) to remove residual low-concentration Cd complexes in high-salinity wastewater. EDTA-Cd (2000 μg/L) was completely removed when the dose of S-NZVI was only 0.05 g/L. Moreover, the removal process was almost unaffected by salinity. Even when the salinity was 5%, the adsorption capacity still reached 39.5 mg/g, and the concentration of residual Cd was less than 50 μg/L, which meets the China Environmental Protection Administration emission standards (less than 0.1 mg/L). In addition, S-NZVI can almost completely remove EDTA-Cd in the pH range of 2–7. It shows good removal performance for the other four Cd carboxyl complexes (DTPA, citrate, glycine, and tartrate). Furthermore, S-NZVI also shows good performance in the case of high concentrations of coexisting ions (CaCl2, MgCl2, Na2SO4, NaNO3) and organics (Na2EDTA, imidazole, thiourea, acetone). However, the performance of S-NZVI is certainly inhibited by the presence of complexing substances or reducing substances. The mechanism EDTA-Cd removal by S-NZVI is that S-NZVI leaches Fe3+ into the solution, and the Fe3+ completes the replacement of EDTA-Cd. The LMCT produced by EDTA-Fe under natural light promotes the replacement process, and finally, the released Cd2+ is captured by S-NZVI and removed as CdS and Fe-O-Cd.

Can environmental centralization help reduce pollution? Evidence from an administrative reform in China

Amid the longstanding dispute over the centralization and decentralization of environmental regimes, most discussions have focused on developed countries. Few studies have tested the mechanisms underlying centralization and decentralization. The establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China in 2008 has led to various changes in the degree of environmental centralization. Based on this reform, we use standard and continuous difference-in-difference designs to estimate the effect of environmental centralization on pollution in developing countries and to test the underlying mechanisms. We find that the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection has effectively led to reduced pollution in provinces with higher degrees of environmental decentralization. Furthermore, centralization has restricted local governments' free riding and reduced emissions at the borders. It has also strengthened local governments’ incentives for environmental governance. The implication is that environmental centralization is conducive to reducing the free-riding behavior and race-to-the-bottom problems of developing economies, thus contributing to environmental well-being.

Impact Analysis of Large-Scale Environmental Spot Inspection Policy on Green Innovation: Evidence From China

The spot inspection policy has been widely applied in environmental protection in China. This paper collects environmental enforcement announcements and green patent data published by Chinese government agencies from 2006 to 2015. First, it studies the impact of spot inspection on green innovation with the spatial Durbin model. Then, it analyzes spatial heterogeneity according to the eastern, central, and western regions including 29 provinces. The spot inspection policy significantly increases the green innovation of a current region with a negative spillover effect on neighboring regions. Even though this policy has the best performance in the eastern region, it leads to pollution transfer into the western region, while being ineffective in the central region. Further, analysis on the spatial spillover effects of the 29 provinces proves that 21 provinces have a positive spillover effect, while eight provinces have a negative spillover effect. The research study shows that although spot inspection is generally beneficial to green innovation, pollution transfer and policy failure exist because of spatial heterogeneity.

Environmental Effects of Credit Allocation Structure and Environmental Expenditures: Evidence from China

This article studies how the allocation structure of bank credit capital between state-owned and private enterprises and government environmental expenditures affect environmental pollution in China. The present literature argues that credit allocation and government environmental expenditures may play an important role in environmental quality improvement. However, these studies rarely consider the credit allocation structure between State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private enterprises; in addition, they overlook the interaction effects of credit allocation and government environmental expenditures. Based on these, we put forward three hypotheses. Moreover, the study applies relevant spatial data for 2011–2017 from 31 provinces in China to a spatial econometric model, and the results indicate that (1) environmental pollution among provincial regions shows a significant positive spatial autocorrelation. (2) Environmental expenditures and environmental pollution display an inverse U-shaped relationship, which supports the numerical simulation results. (3) The interaction effect of credit allocation structure and environmental expenditures on environmental pollution is significantly positive, which means that the allocation of more credit capital to private enterprises will restrain the effect of government environmental expenditures. With the increasing significance of environmental protection in China, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of private enterprises’ environmental pollution behavior, expand government expenditures on ecological protection, and promote regional collaborative environmental governance to improve environmental quality.

Talk the talk, but walk the walk: what do we know about marital demography and corporate greenwashing?

AbstractUsing a sample of 21,628 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market during the period of 2008–2017, this study finds that the divorce–marriage ratio, the proxy for marital demography, is significantly positively associated with corporate greenwashing. This finding suggests that higher divorce–marriage ratio is associated with stronger individualistic social atmosphere, lower conformity to social norms, and more unfavorable attitude towards environmental conservation, abets firms to talk the talk rather than walk the walk, and foments corporate greenwashing. Moreover, China's Environmental Protection Law attenuates above positive relation. Lastly, our conclusions are robust to sensitivity tests using the divorce rate, alternative proxies for greenwashing, and individual-level divorce data, and further our findings are also valid after addressing the endogeneity issue.

Negotiating the impacts of policy interventions among tourism organizations: Adaptation and sensemaking

Adaptation, as a response to changes in business environments, is imperative for organizations. Despite the significance of this issue to tourism businesses, the link between sensemaking and organizational adaptation is rarely studied in the context of policy intervention. This study investigates tourism organizations' adaptation strategies, using policy interventions for environmental protection in China as an example. Drawing upon interviews with 23 business owners and secondary documentary data, the results identify two stages of adaptation. In the first stage, there are convergent interpretations, and the sensemaking leads to reactive adaptions. In the second stage, the inconsistent policies stimulate various patterns of sensemaking among different types of businesses and lead to three approaches to adaptation: cost-based approach adaptation, targeted approach adaptation, and resilience-oriented approach adaptation. The analysis suggests livelihood diversification, occupation switching, and joining issue networks are common adaptation actions. Implications for policymakers and tourism organizations are discussed.

Analysis and Implementation of Economic Means of Environmental Protection in China

Since the reform and opening up, China has been adhering to the extensive economic growth model, which has led to serious environmental damage, energy depletion, global warming and environmental pollution and other environmental problems have been increasingly prominent. The root of environmental problems lies in external diseconomy. Environmental pollution has obvious negative external effects, as environmental resources are public goods, enterprises will not increase their own costs in using or consuming public goods, but the society has to bear the marginal cost in providing the goods, which will lead to the inconsistency between social cost and private cost, thus causing excessive damage to the domestic environment. In the past, our country mainly governs by administrative means, and the shortcomings such as high management cost and poor effect in the implementation process are increasingly obvious. Combined with the treatment process of environmental pollution in western countries, economic measures have a good effect on the external diseconomy of environmental problems. According to the current environmental problems and governance status in China, environmental governance means in urgent need of transformation. Based on the literature, this paper analyzes the current situation of environmental pollution in China and the mechanism of economic means in environmental protection, puts forward the means of environmental governance and protection from the economic level, and discusses the future direction of environmental governance.

Combined Remediation of Eutrophic Water by Phoslock® and Aerobic Denitrifying Bacteria

Nitrogen and phosphorus are the leading causes of water eutrophication, and it is challenging to remove nitrogen and phosphorus effectively through a single water remediation method. In this study, an aerobic denitrifying bacterium (AD-19) isolated from eutrophic water was used to construct an immobilized biofilm and combined with Phoslock® to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. The phosphorus control efficiency of Phoslock®, nitrogen removal performance of the denitrifying bacteria, and combined remediation performance for the eutrophic water were studied. The results demonstrated that the removal rate of PO43--P in the simulated eutrophic water reached 95% with a dosing ratio of 80 (mass ratio of Phoslock® to PO43--P), and phosphorus release from sediment was effectively inhibited at the same time. Strain AD-19, which was identified as Pseudomonas sp. Using the 16S rDNA method, had a good heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification ability, and more than 97% of the nitrogen was removed when NH4+-N or NO3--N was used as the nitrogen source. The feasibility of the combined remediation of the eutrophic water was demonstrated using a lake simulation device. Furthermore, this technique was used to restore a eutrophic pond in a park in Wuhan city. After 16 days of treatment, the water quality indices for nitrogen and phosphorus were improved from worse than Grade Ⅴ to Grade Ⅲ (GB 3838-2002, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, 2002) and remained stable for more than 270 days, indicating that Phoslock® combined with the immobilized biofilm could quickly and effectively restore eutrophic water as well as maintain the water quality for long periods.

Impact of subsidies on innovations of environmental protection and circular economy in China

Technological innovations in China's energy conservation and environmental protection industry (EEPI) are capital-intensive and useful to mitigate environmental externality, thus they need policy support and government subsidies (GSs) at the emerging stage. Nevertheless, research is limited on the influence of GSs onto innovation performance of China's EEPI, with particular to the effect of GSs from enterprise level. This study investigated 62 listed energy conservation and environmental protection enterprises (EEPEs) in China's market in 2013–2018. The innovation performance of these enterprises was quantitatively evaluated, and multivariate regression models were devised to examine GSs and other potential drivers that might influence the innovation. Key findings include (1) EEPEs' investment in R&D and protection of intellectual properties played a positive intermediary and regulatory role between GSs and enterprise innovation performance (correlation at the significance level of 0.05 (p = 0.045; p = 0.036)). (2) There is a significant positive correlation at the significance level of 0.05 (p = 0.011), which indicates that the strongest positive relation between GSs and innovation performance was identified in an environment of low external regulation and high internal regulation, and the effects were more significant for non-state-owned EEPEs(correlation at the significance level of 0.05 (p = 0.018)). (3) The promotion of GSs to innovation was found less effective in the three most developed regions in China, i.e., the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area. Nonetheless it was more effective for enterprise engaged in the circular economy and resource recycling (correlation at a significant level of 0.05 (P = 0.048)). These findings may shed lights on decision making of green technology development for environmental conservation and circular economy.

Regulatory State Building under Authoritarianism: Bureaucratic Competition, Global Embeddedness, and Regulatory Authority in China

The regulator's existence under authoritarianism is a precarious one. They must carefully address the regime's desire for safer food, stable financial markets, and cleaner air without antagonizing politically favored firms or generating social unrest. At the same time, they face reputational pressures from their international counterparts to implement global best practices at home. This article highlights how enterprising officials have quietly sought to expand their authority in the context of an authoritarian regulatory state. By focusing on aviation, financial services, food safety, and environmental protection in China, I highlight how agencies, responding to domestic bureaucratic competition and embeddedness in global networks, have led to the emergence of four distinct types of regulatory authority: regulatory command, subversion, coordination, and ensnarement.

Market segmentation impact on industrial transformation: Evidence for environmental protection in China

This study breaks through the limitation of traditional analysis that only considers the economic development factors and further explains the reasons for the existence of inter-provincial market segmentation in China from the perspective of industrial transformation performance by combining environmental protection. The study examines panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017. It uses a super-efficiency slacks-based measure model to evaluate the performance of industrial transformation considering environmental protection and a fixed-effect model to analyze the impact of market segmentation on industrial transformation performance. The results show that market segmentation has an inverted "U" effect on the region’s immediate and future industrial transformation performance. That is, for most regions, market segmentation can significantly improve the performance of industrial transformation. For regions with higher environmental regulations, market segmentation is more conducive to the improvement of industrial transformation performance, which shows that local governments will give up some market efficiency while carrying out environmental protection. The research results not only confirm the relationship between market segmentation and industrial transformation performance but also have important promotional significance for China’s economic green development.

Measurement of the Degree of Coordination in Regard to Carbon Emissions, Economic Development, and Environmental Protection in China

Driven by economic development, the dramatic increase in carbon emissions has led to global warming and a series of environmental problems. The question of how to ensure harmonized coordination between economic development, carbon emissions and environmental protection has become increasingly important. The conflicts between the use of energy and emission reductions in China have become more intense. It is an inevitable requirement for China’s sustainable development to promote a low-carbon circular economy and the simultaneous and coordinated development of carbon emissions, the economy and the environment. The present study took 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions directly under the Central Government) as the research objects (Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are not included in the study due to the lack of relevant data), and applied quantitative analysis methods, such as three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, coupling coordination degree models and spatial analysis models, to construct a measurement index system. On the basis of the measurement of its carbon emission efficiency, the level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection at both spatial and temporal dimensions was analyzed comprehensively in order to reveal its temporal and spatial characteristics. The conclusions are as follows: (1) China’s overall carbon emission efficiency displayed a gradual upward trend, although the overall level was not that high. Therefore, there is still much scope for further improvement. (2) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection showed a steady yet rising trend. All provinces reached different levels of coordination development, and there was no province that displayed a disorderly declining trend. However, the number of provinces that reached or went beyond the intermediate level of coordination development was quite limited. (3) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection displayed obvious spatial aggregation patterns at the provincial level, showing an apparent spatial dependence and heterogeneity. Over time, the level of spatial aggregation patterns in regard to coordination degree tended to weaken. Overall, the values were high in the eastern region and low in the western region, decreasing from the eastern coastal zone towards the western inland zone, thus demonstrating a contrasting east-west spatial distribution pattern.

Focus on the Chicken Manure Power Generation in China: How to Promote the Biomass Waste Industry?

With the vigorous growth of animal husbandry, animal feces in the agriculture sector gradually deteriorate the environment. The chicken manure power generation is becoming viable and useful for energy conversion to comply with the context of environmental protection in China. Based on resource endowments and technical conditions, this paper studies the current situation of chicken manure power generation in China. Combined with the policy environment, the research conducts a PEST-SWOT matrix analysis to thoroughly look into the strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and challenges. Then, the paper analyzes the distribution of chicken manure and gives some solutions from respects of government regulatory behavior, industrial-organizational behavior and corporation strategic behavior. Finally, it is concluded that: 1) the government should strengthen policy support by actively improving the subsidy mechanism and lowering the threshold of financing and credit; 2) enterprises should focus on improving power generation technology and boiler treatment technology.

The role and progress of EIA in environmental protection in China

The Environmental Impact Assessment system, referred to as the EIA system, is to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the plan or the construction and operation of the project on the environment, combine the surrounding environmental quality status, propose ecological or environmental protection measures,then evaluate the effectiveness of the measures, and draw a conclusion on the feasibility of the project(planning) in terms of environmental protection.This article summarizes the role and progress in environmental protection in the two aspects of planning and construction projects in recent years.Comprehensively selected cases found that both planning or construction project environmental assessment have played an important role in predicting the possible impact of planning or construction projects on the environment and ecology, and proposed feasible and effective environmental protection measures.After the planning or construction project adopts the conclusions and suggestions, as long as the "Three Simultaneous" regulations are followed, the impact of the planning or construction project on the environment or ecology can be prevented or effectively reduced. When it is necessary to conduct postevaluation of environmental impact, verify the actual conditions of the construction project, such as emissions and actual production processes.

The impact of electric vehicle penetration: A recursive dynamic CGE analysis of China

China is now the largest oil importer in the world. In 2018, the external oil dependence of China exceeded 70%. Restrain the oil consumption is important for China's energy security and environmental protection. The electric vehicle is considered to be the main method to solve these problems. This paper adopts a logistic model to depict the growth path of vehicle ownership. Base on the empirical results, a recursive computable general equilibrium model is constructed to predict future oil demand and simulate the impact of electric vehicles on oil demand, macro-economic, and emission. The result reveals that the development of electric vehicles can make China's oil demand peak in 2029. The increase in electric vehicle penetration rate can positively promote the economic output and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Though the carbon emissions will increase under the current power structure, the development of electric vehicles may provide enormous CO2 mitigation potential if the non-fossil energy can dominate the electricity structure in the future • China's oil consumption can achieve peak at 2028 with the development of EV. • The growth of EV has a stimulating effect on the domestic economy. • NOx emission will decline but CO2 emission may increase under current structure. • The carbon emissions will increase under current power generation structure. • The adoption of EV and power generators transformation should be simultaneous.

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.

Securitization of Climate and Environmental Protection in China’s New Normal

Around 2009, China’s economy has become the largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Climate protection policies have gradually entered the ‘high politics’ sphere in China particularly when climate and environmental protection have proved to be effective tools in achieving other political goals. When Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has entered into the “new normal” with a more comprehensive economic strategy that includes or even elevates a wide range of climate and environmental protection policies. China’s economic development is now shifting the balance of growth away from heavy-industrial investment and toward a more sustainable growth. Why – and how – did China change its tune? The key driver of change on the political importance of climate and environmental protection is China’s effort to recentralize governance. At the same time, while acknowledging that centralization is itself not the end but also a means to other political goals, this paper focuses on how the securitization of climate change and environmental protection has effectively served multiple purposes. It serves as a guiding principle on socioeconomic development and it serves as legitimacy to reestablish control by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Xi at the helm. With the linkage of climate and environmental protection to these political goals, China’s experience becomes distinct from the usual securitization process. Also, China shows that while most political processes do not formally include democratic deliberation or the direct approval of an audience, climate and environmental protection does encourage more latent forms of participation not only of citizens, but of experts. Therefore, the process of securitization is also feasible in non-democratic societies

Dynamics of pollutants’ shadow price and its driving forces: An analysis on China’s two major pollutants at provincial level

The rapid change in environmental protection in China raises our interests in evaluating the shadow price of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), and in developing a framework for analyzing the association between pollutants’ shadow prices and their driving forces: technological change, scale efficiency change, and pure efficiency change. The imbalance across the provinces also draws our attention to a provincial-level analysis. The results show that the national average shadow prices of SO2 and COD showed a substantial upward trend during 2001 and 2015, with the mean value being $2582.67/ton and $1639.79/ton, respectively. In most eastern provinces, the shadow prices of both pollutants were relatively higher than those in the central and western regions. For the eastern region, technological change, scale efficiency change, and pure efficiency change that brought about by a variety of measures impacted the social marginal abatement cost of SO2 significantly. For the western region, these three factors significantly impacted the marginal abatement cost of COD. For the central region, a change in scale efficiency brought about by the adjustment of production scale and/or industrial structure significantly impacted the marginal abatement cost of SO2, and the other two factors significantly impacted the marginal abatement cost of COD. The results suggest the importance of establishing a regionally differentiated policy framework, emphasizing on the measures that previously have not impacted the social marginal abatement cost, and setting up better coordination of synergies between multiple pollutants.

The Status Quo of the Criminal Accountability for Marine Illegal Fishing in China: From the Perspective of Judgment Analysis

Over the past few years, China’s marine economy has been vigorously booming, while strong measures have been equally undertaken to ensure superior quality of the marine environment. However, the country is still suffering illegal fishing problems, which hinder the marine ecological environment and fishery resources from reaching sustainable development both internally and globally. To this end, the Chinese government has ratified a series of legal documents to provide the basis for judicial departments to hold individuals and groups responsible for practicing illegal fishing at sea. Although the measures have indeed performed well in some instances, a number of legal obstacles remain to be fixed. In this article, to realize the status quo of the control of maritime illegal fishing in China, all the criminal judgments relevant to illegal fishing at sea from 2014 were collected and analyzed not only qualitatively but also quantitatively, through which the existing problems of accountability for illegal fishing at sea in China were summarized. In addition, a number of related studies were examined and in-depth interviews were organized to clarify the main reasons for these problems and propose some necessary solutions. It is believed that our findings would not only help to improve the control of maritime illegal fishing and boost the marine ecological environment protection in China, but also to establish a possible reference for other countries in the world.