Regional Environmental Pollution Research Articles

Can carbon emission trading improve regional eco-efficiency? Based on the environmental innovation perspective.

This paper uses green innovation and environmental pollution as the mediating variables to construct a mediating effect model to investigate whether China's carbon emission trading policy can improve regional eco-efficiency by reducing regional environmental pollution and stimulating green innovation. This study is based on panel data from 30 provinces and municipalities directly under China's central government and autonomous regions from 2003 to 2019. The eco-efficiency of these provinces is measured using the super-efficiency DEA model and the difference-in-difference method (DID). The results show that (1) China's emission trading policy significantly improves regional ecological efficiency and the per capita GDP. The improvement can effectively improve regional ecological efficiency. (2) The mediating effect of green innovation and environmental pollution is significant. That is, China's carbon emission trading policy further improves regional ecological efficiency by stimulating more green innovation and reducing the synergy brought by environmental pollution. (3) There are differences in the feedback of this impact mechanism between different regions: It shows the characteristics of the western region being more significant than the eastern region. The central region has no significant effect. The research conclusion can provide a policy reference for the subsequent unified promotion of the construction of a carbon emission trading market nationwide and a theoretical basis for helping to achieve the "dual carbon" goal.

The Impact of Intergovernmental Cooperation and Local Fiscal Autonomy on Environmental Regional Governance: Evidence From China Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Previous research on regional environmental pollution acknowledge that cross-level government cooperation plays an important role in controlling regional environmental pollution. However, the balance between local fiscal autonomy and governance costs has received little attention. To fill this research gap, this paper argues a model of local fiscal autonomy moderating the efficiency of environmental governance, which provides a basis for studying the effect of local fiscal autonomy on intergovernmental cooperative environmental governance. We collected the data set of the China Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, using Tobit regression model to evaluate the effect of local fiscal autonomy on cooperative arrangements and the moderating effect. The results show that higher local fiscal autonomy will positively affect vertical intervention actions and improve the efficiency of environmental governance. In addition, we found that more special funding for environmental projects will weaken the performance of horizontal cooperation on regional environmental governance.

Spatio-temporal prediction of groundwater vulnerability based on CNN-LSTM model with self-attention mechanism: A case study in Hetao Plain, northern China

Located in northern China, the Hetao Plain is an important agro-economic zone and population centre. The deterioration of local groundwater quality has had a serious impact on human health and economic development. Nowadays, the groundwater vulnerability assessment (GVA) has become an essential task to identify the current status and development trend of groundwater quality. In this study, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models are integrated to realize the spatio-temporal prediction of regional groundwater vulnerability by introducing the Self-attention mechanism. The study firstly builds the CNN-LSTM model with self-attention (SA) mechanism and evaluates the prediction accuracy of the model for groundwater vulnerability compared to other common machine learning models such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). The results indicate that the CNN-LSTM model outperforms these models, demonstrating its significance in groundwater vulnerability assessment. It can be posited that the predictions indicate an increased risk of groundwater vulnerability in the study area over the coming years. This increase can be attributed to the synergistic impact of global climate anomalies and intensified local human activities. Moreover, the overall groundwater vulnerability risk in the entire region has increased, evident from both the notably high value and standard deviation. This suggests that the spatial variability of groundwater vulnerability in the area is expected to expand in the future due to the sustained progression of climate change and human activities. The model can be optimized for diverse applications across regional environmental assessment, pollution prediction, and risk statistics. This study holds particular significance for ecological protection and groundwater resource management.

Effects of carbon emission trading system on corporate green total factor productivity: Does environmental regulation play a role of green blessing?

Extant studies focus on the impact of environmental regulation on regional economic growth or environmental pollution, and a lot of research outcomes have been made. However, from the perspective of corporate green sustainable development, the question of whether carbon emission trading represents a “green blessing” remains unclear. To address this issue, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences model to investigate the effects and mechanisms of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy (CETPP) on the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of listed manufacturing companies in China. Our results demonstrate that: a) CETPP can effectively promote corporate GTFP, and the robustness of this result is verified through a series of checks; b) the mediating role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is critical in the relationship between CETPP and corporate GTFP, with environmental and governance performance serving as two key transmission channels; and c) CEO green experience and public environmental concern both play the moderating roles on the relationship between CETPP and GTFP; d) CETPP has a stronger positive impact on GTFP of private enterprises and enterprises in the maturity life cycle; and e) CETPP has a spatial spillover effect on GTFP, and the effect will decay as spatial distance increases. Our study offers both theoretical and practical implications for enterprises to achieve their green economic development objectives, so as to promote China's high-quality development.

Source apportionment of soil heavy metals based on multivariate statistical analysis and the PMF model: A case study of the Nanyang Basin, China

Analyzing the spatial variation characteristics of heavy metals in soil and identifying their sources is crucial for preventing, controlling, and managing regional environmental pollution. In this study, 5778 surface soil samples were collected from the Nanyang Basin. The content characteristics of five heavy metals (As, Cr, Cd, Hg, and Pb) were determined and analyzed. The spatial distribution characteristics of these heavy metals in the soil were investigated using inverse distance interpolation and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Additionally, the sources of heavy metals in the soil were qualitatively and quantitatively explored through PCA and PMF models. The results revealed that the mean values of all elements, except As and Hg, exceeded the country soil background values. Spatially, the distribution of soil heavy metal elements showed evident heterogeneity and autocorrelation, with obvious differences between the western and eastern regions, where heavy metal concentrations were generally higher in the west and lower in the east. Four sources of heavy metals were identified in the study area: mining sources, natural sources, transportation sources, and a combined source of atmospheric deposition and agricultural activities. The element As was primarily derived from natural sources (80.90%). The element Cr was influenced by multiple factors, mainly from mining sources (66.20%) and natural sources (31.80%). Transportation sources (46.30%) and mining sources (44.80%) were the primary influences on the element Cd. The element Pb was influenced by transportation sources (64.70%) and natural sources (18.11%). The element Hg was mainly influenced by both atmospheric deposition from coal combustion and agricultural activities (90.50%).

The nexus between electronic commerce and environmental pollution: The roles of energy efficiency and resource consumption

AbstractThe platform economy is growing fast in the world. Its expansion, exemplified by industry giants like Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber, is reshaping societal lifestyles and commercial businesses. However, its environmental impacts are uncertain. Currently, the relationship between electronic commerce (e‐commerce) activities and environmental pollution has attracted a lot of attention. This paper attempts to construct a comprehensive theoretical model to investigate the nexus between e‐commerce and regional environmental pollution, with a particular focus on the effects of air pollution and waste pollution. Fixed effect models and China's provincial data during the period from 2008 to 2018 are employed to examine the roles of energy efficiency and resource consumption in such a nexus. The findings suggest that the development of e‐commerce is linked to a reduction in regional air pollution through the channel of improving transportation energy efficiency. The results also show that e‐commerce is associated with an increase in regional waste pollution due to the mechanism of resource consumption in the express packaging industry. As a result, the relationship between e‐commerce and environmental pollution is quite complex at the regional level, transcending a binary distinction of solely positive or negative impacts. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the complex environmental impacts of e‐commerce and helps governments design more efficient and targeted policies to reduce regional pollution.

The Location Choice and Survival of Polluting Firms under Environmental Regulation in Urban Agglomerations of China

There are few studies discussing the relationship between the increasing intensity of environmental regulation in the central cities of urban agglomerations, which is the main method used to solve the problem of regional environmental pollution, with the survival status of polluting firms in different spatial locations. In order to more clearly describe the evolution trend of the spatial distribution of polluting firms and coordinate inter-city environmental regulation policies in a more targeted manner, we examine the impact of polluting firms’ location choice on their survival under the central–periphery spatial structure in national-level urban agglomerations from 1998 to 2013 with the accelerated failure time (AFT) model and Cox proportional hazards (Cox PH) model and using matching data of the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database and the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Emission Database. The results find that (1) under the influence of central cities’ environmental regulations, there is likely to be an inverted U-shaped relationship between the survival of polluting firms and their spatial distance from the central cities; (2) the inverted U-shaped relationship is the motivation of the interaction between environmental regulation and market potential, which means increases in the environmental regulation intensity in the central cities of the urban agglomeration will have a negative effect on the survival of polluting firms, and the central cities’ market potential will partially offset the negative impact; (3) the inverted U-shaped relationship is more significant for private firms, and it does not necessarily exist for new entrants. The above results help to provide important policy inspiration for promoting the joint prevention and control mechanism for pollution in urban agglomerations and coordinate the effects of environmental regulation and economic transformation policies between central and peripheral cities.

Examining the impacts of implicit economic policy on urban environmental pollution: Unveiling pathways for sustainable recovery

Local governments face challenges in achieving environmental control amidst economic policy uncertainty, particularly in the context of the mining, non-fuel minerals, energy minerals, fossil fuels, or metals industries. This study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on environmental pollution using data from Chinese prefecture-level cities, focusing on these industries. The findings reveal a positive correlation between EPU and pollution, with each unit increase in EPU associated with a 0.1% decrease in wastewater emissions and a 0.2% decrease in exhaust emissions. To examine the mechanism, the study analyzes local government behavior, enterprise behavior, and local economy performance in these industries. Results indicate that EPU reduces investment but encourages innovation, particularly in green technologies, in these industries. Furthermore, EPU promotes innovation, the growth of the tertiary sector, and the entry of high-tech firms while reducing investment. The mechanism analysis confirms that EPU mitigates regional environmental pollution through technological and compositional effects while curbing the scale effect, particularly in the mining, non-fuel minerals, energy minerals, fossil fuels, or metals industries. These findings provide insights for local governments and stakeholders in these industries to address environmental pollution governance amidst economic policy uncertainty.

The pollution control effect of regional integration: An empirical study based on Urban Agglomeration Planning in China.

Regional integration is an important trend of economic development worldwide, which helps to break the restrictions of administrative divisions on economic development and pollution control. According to the relevant theories of environmental economic geography, regional integration will have an important impact on regional pollution control. Based on China's urban panel data, we empirically tested the impact of regional integration on regional environmental pollution and its mechanism by using econometric analysis methods, such as the difference-in-differences model and the mediating effect model. We found that regional integration can effectively reduce urban pollutant emissions and that the emission reduction effect of regional integration is characterized by significant heterogeneity at different pollution levels. The mechanism analysis showed that the green technology innovation effect of regional integration is an important mechanism for promoting urban emission reduction. The conclusions of this paper enrich the relevant theories of environmental economic geography and provide new ideas to implement integration strategies to promote sustainable economic development in developing countries.

Discussion on the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution from the perspective of new structural economics

How to effectively protect the ecological environment while socio-economic development, to achieve the harmonious and sustainable development of human society and the natural ecological environment, has been paid more and more attention by governments and academic circles around the world. Therefore, the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution is proposed from the perspective of new structural economics. Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this paper provides a new explanation of the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution, according to the economic and technical indicators related to ecological environmental pollution, with the help of the subjective and objective empowerment method combined with the analysis of hierarchy method and entropy method, the weight of each ecological environment pollution evaluation index in the evaluation and division of ecological environmental pollution level is studied, and the comprehensive evaluation method is used to construct the ecological environment pollution technology rating evaluation model, and the compensation value of regional environmental pollution is finally obtained by combining the panel regression model. The method of this paper has wide applicability and significant advantages. The experimental results show that the COD emission of the North Water Source Area (QZ) of the Qingzhang River is 208t/a, and the upstream of the drinking water source area needs to compensate 3.88 million yuan downstream for water quality and water ecological restoration.

Economic growth and environmental pollution in China: New evidence from government work reports

In China, economic growth targets significantly affect the economic behavior of local governments. This paper analyzes a dataset of the economic growth targets from 230 city government work reports from 2004 to 2019 to reveal how economic growth targets affect local environmental pollution. The empirical results show that the economic growth targets are “overweight” from the higher-level governments to the lower-level governments, which significantly aggravates regional environmental pollution because of environmental regulation relaxation, blocked industrial structure upgrades and technological innovation inhibition. Furthermore, to exceed the economic growth targets, local governments usually adopt the “riding a seesaw” strategy for the treatment of different pollutants. If the economic growth target statements are ambiguous or attainable, then environmental pollution is reduced. Interestingly, the “preemptive” city government, which sets economic growth goals before its province, is more inclined to maintain growth at the expense of the environment. This study provides important evidence for the literature on the impacts of government behavior on environmental pollution.

Bioaccumulation characteristics of typical pollutants in seafood from coastal waters of Jiangsu, China

With the increasing human activities, marine ecosystems and biodiversity are under serious threat, in particular, pollutants in the environment can be enriched in organisms and transmitted along the food chain, potentially posing a health risk to humans. Accordingly, with the common economic swimming animals in the coastal waters of Jiangsu as the research samples, this study analyzed the content and distribution characteristics of typical pollutants (heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)) enriched in their bodies, and assessed their dietary exposure and health risks to humans. We showed that the bioaccumulation capacity of swimming animals for Zn and Cu was high, with the lowest accumulated content of Hg, and that crustaceans were more easily enriched with heavy metals than fish. The overall evaluation results showed that the heavy metal content in Jiangsu coastal swimming animals was relatively safe, but the health risk of some swimming animals was high and warranted certain attention. Additionally, PAHs was more enriched in inshore swimming animals than in marine ranch area and was consistent with the enrichment characteristics of swimming animals for heavy metals, with crustaceans being more enriched in PAHs. PAHs in swimming animals had the highest proportion of 2–3 ring PAHs, accounting for 75.82%, and their incremental lifetime carcinogenic risks (ILCR) in swimming animals were all within the acceptable risk values. These findings shed light on the effects of typical pollutants on swimming animals in the coastal waters of Jiangsu, provide a scientific basis for accurately assessing the effects of marine environmental pollution on marine fishery resources and food quality and safety, and contribute to new data support for regional fisheries management and environmental pollution monitoring.

Has building innovative provinces reduce environmental pollution?--evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

The implementation of innovative provinces as a pivotal pilot measure to promote the in‐depth advancement of ecology in China is a critical undertaking. An accurate assessment of the environmental effects of these innovative provinces is necessary to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of pilot policies and facilitate the promotion of future policies with precision. In this study, the difference‐in‐differences method and the mediation model are employed to analyze the effect and mechanism of the pilot policies for innovative provinces on regional environmental pollution in 30 provinces in China from 2008-2020. The results demonstrate that the innovation provincial policies have resulted in an average reduction of 14.6% in environmental pollution annually in the pilot areas. This conclusion is still valid after robustness tests are eliminated. Furthermore, the mediation effect model provides evidence that the innovation provinces pilot policy reduces environmental pollution through technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading. Additionally, the heterogeneity analysis finds that innovation provinces pilot policy have led to a reduction of 17.4% in environmental pollution in coastal regions and a reduction of 11.7% in inland regions annually. Overall, this research contributes to the existing literature by underscoring the importance of innovation‐driven development for environmental governance and effectively promoting the construction of a resource‐saving and environment‐friendly society.

Influence of government attention on environmental quality: An analysis of 30 provinces in China

Scholars have argued that government attention can exert influence on public policy formulation. Yet the impact and process of how government attention affects regional environmental pollution emission outcomes remains unclear. This study uses the China Provincial Government Environmental Attention Database (2003–2019), constructed by examining environmental keywords in government work reports (GWR), to elucidate how government attention influences environmental quality, and the synergistic mechanisms between government attention and environmental social feedback. Key results include the following, (1) government environmental attention is showing a fluctuating upward trend. (2) Government attention significantly contributes to regional pollutant emissions reductions. Each 1% increase in the government attention index contributes to regional pollution abatement of 0.130 units. (3) Environmental enforcement and environmental fee are the two most effective channels to promote pollution abatement. (4) There exist synergistic effects between environmental social feedback and government attention. Our findings highlight how government attention influences enterprise pollution emissions by the signal and pressure effects, shedding new knowledge on the relationship between government, environmental department, enterprise, and the public. Based on the findings, this paper proposes that keeping government attention stable, implementing multiple environmental instruments, encouraging environmental participation, and raising central government supervision will lead to improved environmental quality.

Regional geochemistry of mercury in the Sino-Mongolian border region

The Sino-Mongolian border region is a hotspot for international geoscience research and exploration. Mercury (Hg) can be used as a reference element for geochemical exploration and ore prospecting. This is because the change in Hg concentration and its spatial distribution can indirectly reflect the regional mineral distribution and regional environmental mercury pollution. Hg pollution caused by anthropogenic activities has received extensive attention because of its hazardous nature and Hg is generally regarded as a global pollutant. Although geochemical explorations have been conducted in the Sino-Mongolian border region, there have been relatively few studies with detailed and consolidated analyses of single elements such as Hg. To address this research gap we have examined the concentration and spatial distribution of Hg in this region. Influencing factors including the geological background, geomorphological landscapes, mineral distribution, development and use, and human activities, were also explored. The Hg concentration in the catchment sediment samples had a median value of 16.5 ng/g considered the geochemical background value, mean value of 18.9 ng/g, and a range of 0.5–712.5 ng/g. Low Hg concentrations are distributed in the Gobi Desert areas of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia in China, and in the southern Gobi region of Mongolia because of the poor adsorption capacity for Hg by quartz-rich windblown sand. Areas with high Hg concentrations are distributed in the eastern and northwestern parts of the study region. Fifteen anomalous Hg enriched areas were delineated in the study region, among which 24 high Hg concentration centers (>25.4 ng/g, > Q85%) reached the scale of geochemical provinces. The high concentration of Hg in these centers is attributed to the widespread distribution of minerals containing elevated concentrations of Hg, minerals that produce substantial quantities of Hg as a by-product, and anthropogenic contributions such as mining and smelting activities. The enrichment of Hg in certain areas is an effective indicator of the occurrence of ore deposits. The Hg geochemical data obtained from the Sino-Mongolian border region is an important reference for further studies on geology, mineral exploration, and environmental protection.

Application of data mining combined with power data in assessment and prevention of regional atmospheric pollution

The continuous development of society has destroyed the living environment of human beings to a large extent. The problem of air pollution is becoming more and more serious, which affects people’s daily life and threatens human health and the natural environment. It is very important to evaluate and prevent air pollution. The existing atmospheric environmental pollution assessment system has problems such as low accuracy of prediction results and incomplete analysis of problems, resulting in untimely prevention and control of regional atmospheric environmental pollution. This paper analyzes the needs of atmospheric environment data mining, monitoring the prevention and control of atmospheric environment pollution, using data mining technology combined with power data to evaluate and prevent air pollution. Through the real-time detection and evaluation of the regional environmental pollution index, it is possible to carry out timely treatment when the atmospheric environmental pollution does not meet the standard. Through the prediction accuracy test, the environmental pollution index test, the atmospheric environment quality score test and the prevention and control effect test in different regions, it is found that the data mining technology is used for prevention and control. The prediction accuracy increased by 4.18%, and the environmental pollution index decreased. It is more conducive to the control of regional atmospheric pollution, the rate of atmospheric environmental quality score has been increased by 2.38%, and the control effect has been optimized by 3.1%. Data mining technology is more conducive to the assessment and prevention of regional air pollution.

Exploring industrial agglomeration and green finance impact on regional environmental pollution in China based on system-GMM model.

The boom of building various industrial agglomerations in China has continued for many years. The relationship between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution is the core issue of this paper. At the same time, green finance is a new financial development model that takes environmental protection as the core, and effectively promotes the sustainable development of the environment, the economy, and society while maintaining its own sustainable development, so green finance is a major direction for future financial development. This paper selects the data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2020 as the research object and uses a system-GMM method to verify the relationship between industrial agglomerations, green finance on regional environmental pollution. It provides theoretical reference for improving global climate change and reduces environmental pollution (EP), concludes as follows. (1) Industrial agglomeration can exacerbate EP level in China, and also exacerbates EP in the western region, but the effect of industrial agglomeration on EP in the eastern and central regions has been insignificant. (2) Green finance can improve environmental pollution. The intensity of EP in economically less developed regions is more sensitive to green finance policies. (3) The correlation effect of industrial agglomeration and green finance can improve environmental pollution, i.e., green finance has an important role in improving EP. However, there are significant differences in different regions. The interaction term between industrial agglomeration and green finance with a non-significant positive coefficient in the eastern region, and it is non-significant negative coefficient in the central region, and a significant negative coefficient in the western region. The work has important theoretical value for achieving the goal of regional sustainable development and green transformation.

Regional Corruption, Foreign Trade, and Environmental Pollution

As an effective means and an important guarantee for environmental pollution management in China, enhancing the level of foreign openness and reducing the level of regional corruption, respectively, the successful implementation of both are key steps in determining the future development of China’s transformation of trade development and green transformation. This paper attempts to systematically examine the mechanisms of regional corruption and foreign trade on environmental pollution from both theoretical and empirical levels. Using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017, this study constructs a dynamic panel model with a one-stage pollution index. The system GMM is used to verify the relationship between corruption, trade, and the environment. Empirical results show that corruption reduces investment in environmental governance, R&D, and the introduction of environmental technology, and it increases environmental pollution by reducing the implementation and control of environmental policies. After excluding the effect of corruption on trade, foreign trade is conducive to the improvement of environmental pollution. Meanwhile, the intensification of corruption on pollution will be weakened with increased openness; that is, China’s expansion of foreign trade is beneficial to attenuating the pollution effect of corruption on the environment. These findings suggest that expanding trade will ultimately improve the environment and even mitigate the negative impact of corruption on the environment. Therefore, China should dredge the channel of factor flow, give full play to the vitality of market players, strictly investigate corruption, and encourage opening up.

Contemporary Research and Developments in the Low-Toxic Chelating Reagents for the Extraction of Non-Ferrous and Noble Metals from Poor Polymetallic Ores and Processing Tailings

An urgent technological, economic and environmental task of mining and metallurgical enterprises is to involve poor, off-balance and hard-to-beneficiate ores in the technological process, as well as accumulated and current waste from mining and metallurgical industries. As the reserves of developed deposits are depleted, technogenic objects may become a priority, and in some cases the only, source of mineral raw materials. Mining wastes represent a large reserve of raw materials for the extraction of non-ferrous and precious metals, and at the same time, they are centers of local or regional environmental pollution. Stale waste re-processing may promote territorial cultivation and reduce the environmental burden. The conventional methods of poor ore and waste treatment do not fully provide for a sufficient separation degree of high metal extraction, and lead to significant valuable ore losses, while the quality of the obtained concentrates often does not meet the requirements for subsequent technological process. In this regard, the development of novel chelating agents with specific functional groups that can selectively adsorb on the mineral surface, change the contrast of chemical surface composition and improve the flotation properties of mineral complexes, is an innovative solution for increasing their flotation selectivity. Furthermore, the synthesis and application of novel flotation reagents may help to replace toxic reagents by ecologically friendly or less-toxic ones.

How does the urban-rural income gap affect regional environmental pollution?--Re-examination based on the experience of cities at prefecture level and above in China.

Based on the traditional "EKC" theory, this paper examines the impact of urban-rural income disparity on environmental pollution in Chinese cities above the prefecture level from 2005 to 2015 using nonlinear models and spatial correlation models and tests the mechanism of action from two perspectives: demand scale and human capital. The results show that the urban-rural income gap has an obvious "inverted U-shaped" trend on environmental pollution. Both demand size and human capital are the main mechanisms affecting the environmental pollution effect of the urban-rural income gap, and the marginal pollution effects of both are "negative first and then positive" as the urban-rural income gap widens. The pollution effects of the urban-rural income gap are significantly spatially correlated at both the national and regional scales. The strength of environmental regulation is an important factor affecting the urban-rural income gap and has a significant "U-shaped" effect on regional pollution through the urban-rural income gap.