Environmental Protection Industry Research Articles

Research on the impact of green insurance on regional environmental quality: evidence from China

Green insurance (GI), as an innovative product integrating environmental protection and the financial sector, not only contributes to improving regional environmental quality (EQ) but also enhances corporate environmental risk management and awareness, driving the flourishing development of green finance and the environmental protection industry. Therefore, understanding the relationship between GI and EQ is crucial. This article delves into the mechanisms through which GI influences EQ, proposing a hypothesis that suggests an inverted “U” shape impact. Subsequently, based on panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning from 2000 to 2021, nonlinear regression models and threshold regression models were constructed to test the hypothesis. The research findings indicate: (1) Results from the fixed-effects regression model demonstrate that the impact of GI on China’s EQ follows an inverted “U” shape. (2) Results from the threshold regression model also reveal an inverted “U” shape impact of GI on China’s EQ, with a threshold value of 2.196. (3) Economic level and industrial structure exhibit significant inhibitory effects on EQ improvement. Technological level and environmental regulations demonstrate notable promotional effects. Population size shows no significant impact on EQ improvement. The study identifies a nonlinear effect of GI on EQ improvement, surpassing existing linear effect research, deepening the understanding of its impact on EQ, and contributing to the enhancement of regional EQ.

The dynamic connectedness between renewable energy market and environmental protection industry based on time and frequency perspective

Renewable energy promotes the sustainable development of the environmental protection industry (EPI) and the economy. Meanwhile, the EPI provides various technologies and services for renewable energy, which is an important guarantee for the renewable energy market. This paper combines the DY and BK spillover indexes to discuss the cross-market risk contagion effect between EPI and renewable energy market from the perspective of time-frequency spillover. The results show that: (1) The spillover effect between the EPI and renewable energy market is cyclical from the perspective of frequency domain, and the total market spillover is dominated by high-frequency spillover. And the risk contagion has the characteristics of time-varying and vulnerability from the perspective of time domain. (2) The net spillover effect shows that the EPI plays the role of a net exporter in different frequency domains, the solar energy and the hydro market play more roles as risk receivers, and the role of the wind energy market is frequently converted. (3) The risk spillover network structure shows that EPI acts as an important node in the cross-market risk contagion path. Driven by EPI, the short-term risk transmission follows the path of “EPI-biomass energy-other four renewable energy markets”, and the medium and long-term follows the path of “EPI-wind energy-other four renewable energy markets”.

Evaluation of multimodal data-driven financial risk prediction methods for corporate green credit

With the rapid economic development and increasingly serious environmental problems, many regions have launched green credit policies. Green credit can reduce the loan interest rate of the environmental protection industry and lower the financing threshold. Traditional risk prediction methods cannot comprehensively evaluate the green credit risk of the enterprise based on the degree of green environmental protection and the industry environment in which the enterprise is located, resulting in the inconsistency between the credit financial risk prediction and the actual results, which increases the bank credit risk. In order to strengthen the management level of green credit and reduce the probability of non-performing loans, a scientific risk assessment method was constructed by using a combination of automatic encoding network and bidirectional long short-term memory neural network model to predict the financial risks of green credit, driven by multi-modal data. Through the study of multimodal data, this paper took green credit financial risk as the research object, aggregated the information of various enterprises to improve the bank’s capital utilization rate, and also promoted enterprises to take the initiative to transform into the direction of green environmental protection. Finally, the experiment proved that multimodal data fusion model was more superior than random forest in risk prediction, reducing the bank’s non-performing loan rate by 3.1% and improving the bank’s risk control level.

THE ROLE AND PLACE OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE COUNCIL AMONG ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY ENTITIES

The issue of state regulation of the environmental safety system was considered. It has been established that the potential of the environmental protection system in Ukraine has not been realized. The need to define the main tasks of state regulation in the environmental sphere is substantiated. Priority areas of state support have been formed for the purpose of developing the system for ensuring environmental safety. It was concluded that in ensuring environmental safety in the field of national security and defense, state regulation of the environmental protection industry should ensure the concentration of necessary resources on meeting priority needs, which will allow the adoption and implementation of management decisions on the formation and implementation of national environmental legislation in the system of collective security. The implementation of the state program for the development of environmental intelligence should include the entire set of necessary measures, united by a common goal, related to performers, resources and deadlines, which will enable the implementation of the tasks of creation and functioning within the framework of the concept of ensuring environmental security in Ukraine.

Exploring collaborative innovation evolution of China’s energy conservation and environmental protection industry: a social network analysis based on patents

Purpose Energy conservation and environmental protection industry (ECEPI) is a strategic choice to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, develop green economy and circular economy. However, China’s ECEPI is still in the stage of rapid development and the overall scale is relatively small, what development periods have the ECEPI experienced? This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of collaborative innovation evolution based on social network analysis from the perspective of multi-dimensional proximity. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this study uses social network analysis method to explore the co-evolution of multidimensional collaboration networks. It divides China’s ECEPI into four periods based on national policies from 2001 to 2020. This contribution constructs collaborative innovation networks from geographical, technological and organizational proximity. Findings The results show that the collaborative innovation network was initially formed in the central region of China, gradually expanded to neighboring cities and the core positions of Beijing, Jiangsu and Guangdong have been continuously consolidated. C02F has been the core of the collaboration networks, and the research focus has gradually shifted from the treatment of wastewater, sewage or sludge to the separation field. Enterprises always occupy a dominant position in the collaboration networks. Originality/value This research investigates the dynamic evolution process of collaborative innovation network in China’s ECEPI from the perspective of multidimensional proximity, explores the community structure, important nodes and multidimensional proximity features in the network, expands the research perspective on evolution characteristics of innovative network and the research field of social network analysis. Theoretically, this study enriches collaborative innovation theory, social network theory and multi-dimensional proximity theory.

A Review of Inline Infrared and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Applications in Flow Chemistry

As a safe and efficient synthesis technique, flow chemistry has recently gained attention in the pharmaceutical, materials, and environmental protection industries. However, researchers always face challenges in handling samples and selecting sufficiently flexible analytical techniques. Generally, real-time process analysis is crucial for monitoring reactions. The combination of flow chemistry with real-time process analysis can be beneficial for studying reaction kinetics and thermodynamics, monitoring, and control of the chemical synthesis processes, reaction optimization of macro and microreactors, and qualitative and quantitative analyses of compounds. Thus far, studies investigating the combination of flow chemistry with inline monitoring have included ultraviolet–infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and other automated conventional or unconventional methods. This review sheds light on applying inline infrared and inline NMR spectroscopies in flow chemistry.

Factor allocation efficiency of environmental protection industry in China—Based on the perspective of micro enterprises

The Environmental Protection Industry (EPI) has expanded tremendously in response to rising environmental awareness and governmental assistance. EPI development has been hampered by the disordered and unbalanced allocation of production factors caused by the complex and diverse industry mix. In this study, a micro perspective is adopted to dissect the EPI into three departments: technology, manufacturing, and management. A measuring model for determining the misallocation of factors in the EPI is constructed using a three-department Cobb-Douglas production function. The model assesses the effectiveness of factor allocation in China's national and regional EPI while taking into account provincial industrial structures. The findings demonstrate disparate performances between various factors and departments and highlight noteworthy variances in the effectiveness of factor allocation within China's EPI. In particular, capital misallocation is far worse than labor misallocation, with manufacturing misallocation being noticeably worse than other departments. The excessive concentration of factors within the manufacturing department and the severe lack of inputs in the other two departments are mostly to blame for Central and Northwest China's low factor allocation efficiency. Additionally, capital tends to cluster inside the manufacturing department, while labor tends to move toward dominant departments. Finally, relevant policy suggestions are made based on the empirical findings.

Spatial evolution of coastal environmental enterprises: An exploration of driving factors in Jiangsu Province

Abstract This article presents an in-depth analysis of the spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics of the environmental protection industry in Jiangsu Province and analyzes the dynamics of changes in the spatial pattern of the environmental protection industry as a whole using spatial visualization methods. Attribute data of environmental protection enterprises in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2022 were selected for this article, with spatial analysis methods. From 2000 to 2005, the industry expanded to include Suzhou, Changzhou, and other areas, forming a multi-core pattern, supported by a Moran’s I value of −0.049837. This clustering trend continued from 2006 to 2010, with Moran’s I values of −0.115285 in 2011–2015 and −0.117398 in 2016–2022. By 2022, new clusters emerged in the coastal areas of Xuzhou, Yancheng, and Nantong, reflecting industry growth. By detecting with multiple factors, it is found that such pattern evolution is a result of a combination of factors, which is mainly influenced by environmental and employment factors in the early stages of development, while also significantly driven by market factors in the later stages of development as the dynamics of the spatial pattern continue to evolve with the economy.

Can green investment improve China’s regional energy consumption structure? novel findings and implications from sustainable energy systems perspective

Green investment can promote the low-carbon development of energy consumption structure in direct and indirect ways through financial support for new energy industry and pulling effect on environmental protection industry, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of economy and society. Through empirical analysis of the panel data of provinces and municipalities in China, this paper finds that the impact of green investment on the energy consumption structure is highly differentiated between regions: the development of green investment in the eastern region will inhibit the increase of the proportion of coal and other polluting energy sources in the energy consumption structure, which will help the energy consumption structure tend to develop in a decarbonized way; in the central region, the impact of green investment on the energy consumption structure is insignificant; and in the western region, green investment instead promotes the development of the energy consumption structure in a decarbonized way. In the western region, green investment instead promotes the proportion of coal and other polluting energy in the energy consumption structure. The main reason for this is that there are big differences in the level of economic development, characteristics of industrial structure, population size and technological level between the East, the Middle East and the West. It is an important measure to strengthen green investment and improve energy consumption structure to dynamically adjust green development goals, strengthen financial support for energy conservation and environmental protection industries, and narrow the regional development gap in all directions.

Application of Multivariate Reinforcement Learning Engine in Optimizing the Power Generation Process of Domestic Waste Incineration

Garbage incineration is an ideal method for the harmless and resource-oriented treatment of urban domestic waste. However, current domestic waste incineration power plants often face challenges related to maintaining consistent steam production and high operational costs. This article capitalizes on the technical advantages of big data artificial intelligence, optimizing the power generation process of domestic waste incineration as the entry point, and adopts four main engine modules of Alibaba Cloud reinforcement learning algorithm engine, operating parameter prediction engine, anomaly recognition engine, and video visual recognition algorithm engine. The reinforcement learning algorithm extracts the operational parameters of each incinerator to obtain a control benchmark. Through the operating parameter prediction algorithm, prediction models for drum pressure, primary steam flow, NOx, SO2, and HCl are constructed to achieve short-term prediction of operational parameters, ultimately improving control performance. The anomaly recognition algorithm develops a thickness identification model for the material layer in the drying section, allowing for rapid and effective assessment of feed material thickness to ensure uniformity control. Meanwhile, the visual recognition algorithm identifies flame images and assesses the combustion status and location of the combustion fire line within the furnace. This real-time understanding of furnace flame combustion conditions guides adjustments to the grate and air volume. Integrating AI technology into the waste incineration sector empowers the environmental protection industry with the potential to leverage big data. This development holds practical significance in optimizing the harmless and resource-oriented treatment of urban domestic waste, reducing operational costs, and increasing efficiency.

Research on Sustainable Development of China’s Green Enterprise Economy

This paper aims to explore how China’s green economy can promote the sustainable development of enterprises. With the rapid growth of China’s economy, problems such as environmental pollution, resource depletion, and ecological imbalance have become increasingly prominent. The article first expounds the meaning and consensus of green economy and sustainable development. Then it discusses the environmental protection industry as an important part of the green economy, including its rise, international trends and development status. The article analyzes the impact of the green economy on the sustainable development of enterprises, including environmental benefits, economic advantages and social impact. Discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by enterprises in technological innovation, market demand, and policy support in the green economy. Finally, the article proposes strategies for enterprises to achieve sustainable development, including practices such as sustainable resource management, clean production technology, and corporate social responsibility. . Therefore, the author’s research provides guidance for Chinese enterprises to realize the sustainable development of green economy, and provides insights and suggestions for promoting the development of green economy and sustainable development of enterprises.

The environmental and economic utility of the third-party governance of environmental pollution in China—an analysis based on the business registration information of enterprises

The third-party governance of environmental pollution (TEG) is a market-oriented mechanism designed to attract social capital to participate in ecological environmental protection. Can this mechanism result in positive and significant environmental and economic effects in developing countries? This paper examines the practical effectiveness of China’s pollution governance system reform by analyzing data on the registered business capital of the environmental protection industry in 285 prefecture-level cities during the period of 2003–2019. The study finds the following: TEG can effectively curb urban pollution emissions and improve the urban green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities; heterogeneity analysis shows that specialization, marketization, and enterprise nature exert important impacts on its effectiveness; mechanism analysis shows that TEG can restrain pollution emissions by strengthening the tendency toward urban green technology progress; and its effects of releasing the industrial production capacity can be leveraged to improve the quality of economic development.

Does Tax‐Favored Policy Improve the Profitability of Environmental Protection Firms? An Empirical Study from the Implicit Tax Perspective

AbstractAn implicit tax is a reduction in the pretax rate of return driven by tax preferences. With increasingly stringent requirements of sustainable development, Chinese government actively promotes environmental protection with the direct corporate income tax rate preferences, which provide a unique opportunity to examine whether implicit taxes remain a significant tax cost in the environmental protection industry. This paper finds the existence of implicit taxes in environmental protection firms and the market structure impedes the realization of implicit taxes. The market power and market concentration reduce the negative effect of tax preferences on the firm's pretax rate of return. The environmental protection firms with lower competition bear lower implicit taxes. These findings are important to evaluate the effectiveness of the tax incentives on environmental protection firms and other tax‐favored industries.

Identification of Key Production Factors in China's Environmental Protection Industry Based on Deep Learning

Analyzing from the micro level of the basic unit of environmental protection industry -- enterprise, this paper takes   relevant information of more than 8000 key enterprises in China's environmental protection industry from 2018 to 2020 as the big data training samples, and uses BP neural network method to identify the key production factors that have great impact on the output of the whole China's environmental protection industry and its main subdivisions. The results show that China's environmental protection industry is still in the growing stage in the current stage, with significant capital pulling, technological innovation driving, and management innovation also plays an important role. There are differences in the performance of water, air and solid waste in the environmental protection industry. In detail, R&D expenses from the government plays the most important role in water pollution prevention and control industry. Technology innovation plays the most important role in air pollution prevention and control industry. And staff play the most important role in solid waste treatment and resource recycling industry.

Government Incentive and R&D Innovation: Based on the Research of Environmental Protection Listed Companies

We selected the public disclosure data of 158 listed companies in China’s environmental protection industry and analyzed the impact of two types of government incentives (government subsidies and tax incentives) on the R&D and innovation activities of companies. The study also analyzed the differences caused by the location and nature of ownership of the companies. The results showed that both government subsidies and tax incentives have a significant effect on R&D and innovation in the environmental protection industry. Furthermore, the impact of government incentives on enterprise innovation is heterogeneous. Compared with the western region, the impact of government subsidies and tax incentives is more significant for the eastern and middle regions. Similarly, compared with state-owned enterprises, the impact of government subsidies and tax incentives is more significant for non-state-owned enterprises.

The impact of human capital on green economic efficiency: evidence from 280 prefectural cities in China.

Balancing economic growth with resources and the environment to achieve sustainable development is a key issue in the development of all countries, and researchers are trying to find feasible development paths. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of human capital levels on green economic efficiency (GEE) and the underlying mechanisms in 280 prefecture-level cities in China and covering the 2003-2019 period. In addition, we calculate GEE including undesired outputs based on a super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model, and we construct panel regression and moderating effect models for empirical studies. The results of the baseline regression study show that the improvement in the human capital level contributes to the GEE of prefecture-level cities. Among the control variables, the economic development level, foreign direct investment (FDI), city size, and the science and technology innovation (STI) level positively affect GEE, while industrialization and environmental regulation negatively affect GEE. The study results concerning the mechanism of action indicate that industrial structure upgrading plays a positive moderating role. That is, industrial structure upgrading can strengthen the effect of human capital on GEE, which is further clarified. This study suggests that government policies must favor the cultivation of high-level human capital, especially in the environmental protection industry, and that talent support strategies should be differentiated between regions to promote industrial structure upgrading and human capital matching through green technology development. Modern human capital theory reveals the important role of human capital in improving economic efficiency and provides new ideas for achieving sustainable development. This paper explores the role of human capital in improving the GEE based on the human capital perspective, which is important for research on the pathways to achieve sustainable development.

How Do Carbon Trading Policies Affect Industrial Carbon Productivity: Quasi-natural Experiments from Chinese Provincial Data

At present, China's efforts to achieve a "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" not only put great pressure on environmental governance to industrial enterprises with relatively high carbon emissions but also bring great pressure to their economic growth. However, with the proposal of a carbon trading policy, in-depth research was carried out to explore whether it can produce the effect of "carbon reduction and economic promotion." Based on the data of 30 provinces and cities from 2005 to 2019, this study conducted an in-depth analysis on the impact and path of carbon trading policies and industrial carbon productivity through methods such as double difference and multiple mediation effect models. The results showed that the carbon trading policy could significantly improve the level of industrial carbon productivity; at the same time, the effect will vary significantly with different pilot regions; the policy can produce significant effects of environmental regulation, structural optimization, technology, and energy structure optimization. It is suggested to promote the transformation of China's industrial economy to low-carbon development by accelerating the improvement of the legal system at the environmental regulation level, accelerating the construction of a new development system for the environmental protection industry, strengthening the innovation and research and development of green technology and accelerating the optimization of the energy structure.

Research on the path of practical cooperation between China and European Union countries under the environment of carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions

Globalization is increasing daily with the development of the world economy and society. International conflicts, cooperation, and interdependence in international environmental relations have become increasingly prominent, laying a theoretical and practical basis for international environmental cooperation. The ecological protection industries of China and the EU (European Union) are facing great development opportunities. Many EU member states have advantages in developing the environmental protection industry, which facilitates all-around cooperation in the environmental protection industry with my country. Based on the target policy background of PCDE (peak carbon dioxide emissions) and CN (carbon neutrality) and domestic and foreign research, this paper proposes a study on the practical cooperation path between China and EU countries. Based on international input–output data, an economic output CDE (carbon dioxide emission) matrix is constructed to characterize countries’ economic and CDE correlation, thus forming a global CDE network. The analysis shows that the contribution rate of energy structure effect and energy intensity fluctuates slowly, indicating a positive and negative alternation; Our government should adopt an active energy optimization policy, speed up the formulation of macro policies such as carbon tax on energy-consuming industries, continuously optimize the energy structure and reduce the CDE intensity. By 2023, China’s unit GDP will remain the same by 40–50% compared with 2022. Furthermore, the practical cooperation path proposed in this paper can provide valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in both China and the EU to promote the development of the environmental protection industry and achieve the common goal of carbon neutrality. The findings of this study can be used to inform the design and implementation of policies and initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency, and promoting sustainable economic growth. Additionally, the international CDE network constructed in this study can serve as a useful tool for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of environmental policies and initiatives at the international level. Overall, this paper contributes to the scientific understanding of the complex relationship between economic development and environmental protection and provides practical guidance for promoting international cooperation in the environmental protection industry.

Dynamic comparison on the technical efficiency between China's EPEs and PEs: Two-dimensional measurement based on SFA

It is of equal importance to improve the efficiency of environmental protection enterprises (EPEs) and polluting enterprises (PEs) for Environmental Protection and Green Development, which is a micro-foundation for China's economic transformation and high-quality development. This paper redefines the efficient frontier of enterprises, distinguishing between “absolute technical efficiency” (ATE) and “relative technical efficiency” (RTE), and conducts two-dimensional measurements and dynamic comparison to examine the technical efficiency characteristics of China's EPEs and PEs listed on the A-share market, based on the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method. The results demonstrate that, first, the ATE of EPEs exhibits a reverse upward trend, while the ATE of PEs and A-share enterprises as a whole is declining simultaneously. Second, in contrast to the shrinkage of the ATE and RTE of PEs, the efficient frontier of EPEs has experienced rapid expansion. Third, capital utilization efficiency, rather than economies of scale effects, appears to be the main obstacle impeding the technical efficiency performance of EPEs. Therefore, improving the capital utilization efficiency and the extent of coupling and coordination between capital and labor is the key to promoting the technical efficiency of EPEs. Fourth, targeted government subsidies and tax refunds for EPEs need to be improved and an external evaluation mechanism focusing on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) rating needs to be strengthened. Consequently, it is essential to promote the combination of top-down targeted policy support and multi-dimensional external evaluation to guide capital flows and achieve their efficient utilization, which is also the basis of the environmental protection industry's high-quality development.

Topical Problems of Transition to the “Green” Economy in Construction, Industry and Transport: Legal Aspect

Introduction . With regard to Russia the most important task in transition to the "green" economy is first of all the development of a consistent strategy for moving towards this goal. Therefore, initially it is necessary to determine the mainstreams for applying the economic, legal, organisational and other efforts. The transition to the "green" economy in itself does not imply any conceptual breakthroughs (unlike, for example, the concept of sustainable development). This means that all the main spheres of human activity, including industry, construction, transport, etc., should undergo “greening”. The aim is to investigate the contemporary legal regulation on the environmental protection in industry, transport and construction, to identify the problems and prospects of the legislation improvement for determining the directions of these spheres further “greening” and clarifying Russia’s strategy of transition to the "green" economy. The objectives of the study are: to consider the specifics of Russia's transit to the "green" economy standards within three spheres of human activity, to identify the contemporary legal regulation for this process. Materials and Methods. In the article the generally accepted in Russia methods of scientific knowledge are used: general scientific methods (dialectical method) and specific scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, concrete historical, logical methods, etc.). Results . The main result of the study is systematisation of the contemporary environmental problems in industry, transport and construction, discussion of the mainstreams in “greening” these spheres as one of the conditions of Russia's transit to the standards of "green" economy. Discussion and Conclusions. The article is useful for scientific and educational activity, for improvement of the Russian environmental legislation. The conclusions made in the work indicate on the need to “green” all sectors of economy in order to ensure the transit of Russia to the "green" economy, however at present the implementation of the new environmental requirements into different sectors is going at a different pace. With this regard, there arises the acute need to find the legislative response to the modern threats to the environmental safety, which requires the development of "green" technologies in industry, construction and transport.