Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment最新文献

In 2010, the National Development and Reform Commission launched the low-carbon city (LCC) pilot program. The scope of the pilot program was then gradually expanded to address the dilemma concerning economic development and low-carbon transition. Selecting the second batch of LCCs in China, this study uses a combination of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences models to determine the effect of LCC pilot policies on CO₂ emission intensity. We also used the mediation effect model to further investigate its internal mechanism. The findings of the study are as follows. First, the LCC pilot policy plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions. Second, LCC pilots policies reduce CO₂ emissions through intermediary paths of output adjustment and technological innovation. Third, our heterogeneity analysis reveals that cities with higher levels of economic growth and better levels of human capital have superior carbon emission reduction effects; lastly, non-resource-based cities have better carbon emission reduction effects.

Rural areas are multifunctional and often have production, living, and ecological functions. The high-quality and balanced development of these three functions is key to sustainable rural development (SRD). Thus, the evaluation of SRD based on rural multifunctionality is of immense significance. This study clarifies the relationship between multifunctionality and sustainable rural development. An evaluation index system with six sub-components was established for calculating the SRD. In addition, we included 129 counties from the Sichuan Province in our case study, and used this index system to analyze the characteristics of rural multifunctionality for evaluating the SRD. The results showed indisputable evidence of multifunctional development. At the county level, rural multifunctionality faces the challenge of insufficient and uneven development, particularly in production functions. Significant spatial differences existed in rural multifunctional development, and the suburban counties generally performed better. Moreover, a mutually reinforcing relationship between production, living, and ecological functions was established; however, there was still a significant gap in realizing SRD. Our results emphasize the necessity of a differentiated SRD strategy that should be formulated and implemented based on rural multifunctionality differentiation rules. Our study offers useful guidance for realizing rural multifunctional and sustainable development.

To optimize the overall layout of water resource allocation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the adaptability of the water resource system to the regional social-ecological systems has to be enhanced. Based on the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework, this study constructs an evaluation index system to analyze the adaptability mechanisms of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei’s water resource system according to the three major constituent social-ecological systems (i.e., economic, social, and ecological systems). Moreover, it adopts the technique of order preference similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) to comprehensively evaluate the adaptability of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei’s water resource system based on three constituent social-ecological systems (i.e., economic, social, and ecological systems) and identifies the spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics of the region. Our results showed that, ① from 2000 to 2020, the adaptability of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei’s water resource system, as a whole, significantly improved. In terms of stages, from 2000 to 2007, the adaptability of the water resource social system was significantly higher than that of economic and ecological systems in the region. From 2008 to 2015, by accelerating the transformation and upgrading of industrial structures, improving the efficiency of economic water utilization, and strengthening the governance of the water ecosystem, the adaptability of water resource economic and ecological systems rapidly improved; however, that of the water resource ecological system was still the lowest. Additionally, the adaptability of the water resource economic system exceeded that of the social system. From 2016 to 2020, the gap in adaptability of the water resource system to all three major constituent systems gradually narrowed. By 2020, the three systems entered a relatively balanced development stage, with the adaptability of the entire water resource system and the three major constituent systems maintaining a high level. ② The economic system was significantly affected by per capita GDP, per capita water resources, and the efficiency of economic water utilization. Additionally, the social system was significantly affected by water consumption per unit of irrigation area. Meanwhile, the ecological system was significantly influenced by precipitation, water pollution discharge performance indicators, and the structure optimization indicators of water supply. According to the evaluation results, we propose countermeasures and provide recommendations to optimize the overall layout of water resource allocation and promote the coordinated management of water resources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

As a crucial environmental reform system to realize “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality”, the pilot policy of low-carbon cities (LCCs) puts pressure and challenges on high-carbon emitting enterprises (HCEEs) while providing opportunities for these firms to take the path of independent transformation. Employing the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2006 to 2016 and adopting a difference-in-differences (DID) model, we evaluated the impact of LCC construction on the upgrading of HCEEs and its mechanisms. The results indicate that LCC construction enhances the upgrading of HCEEs in the pilot cities. The conclusions remain stable after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism analysis reveals that LCC construction triggers the upgrading of HCEEs by promoting resource allocation efficiency, R&D investment, and green technology innovation. The heterogeneity results indicate that this positive effect is more pronounced for HCEEs in regions with more stringent environmental law enforcement. This study also observes that the upgrading impact is more prominent for state-owned enterprises, enterprises with higher bargaining power, and enterprises whose managers have a long-term vision. The above results provide directions for upgrading HCEEs and replicable evidence for cities in developing economies to fulfill the win–win target of environmental protection and economic transformation.

Unlike prior research that shows climate policy improves enterprise value, this study reveals the negative impact of emission trading schemes (ETSs) on enterprise value under China’s unique institutional backdrop and identifies the mechanism through which this impact occurs. Data from a sample of 1 267 listed companies in the Chinese stock market from 2005 to 2018 models are analyzed using difference-in-differences (DID) and propensity score matching methods (PSM). The results suggest that ETSs have an average short-term negative impact on enterprise value, which peaks in the second year of the ETS and diminishes from the fourth year. Further analysis reveals that ETSs did not cause significant operating losses for firms but reduced their value through the market response mechanism. ETS enterprises experienced significant declines in their annual stock transaction amounts and in returns on individual shares. This indicates that investors expect ETSs to adversely affect pilot enterprises and accordingly adopt disinvestment strategies. Despite the short-term negative effect, ETSs effectively encourage enterprises to innovate green technologies to mitigate long-term carbon risk.

Grassland resource governance is an important part of ecological civilization construction, and it directly affects grassland governance performance. This study deploys principal-agent theory and uses social network analysis to compare grassland resource governance modes in China in terms of institutional settings and institutional network characteristics. This study found three types of grassland resource governance modes: self-designed, docked, and integrated. The self-designed mode forms a network structure with dual centers and multiple members, and has the second-best structural mode of the three types. The docked mode forms a network structure with a single center in which the institution is the absolute core and is relatively divergent. It has the weakest structural advantage of the three types. The integrated mode forms a network structure with a single institution at the core and other institutions distributed evenly throughout the structure. This mode has the strongest structural advantage among the three types. This study offers the practical application of improving the practice of grassland governance in China and is theoretically significant because it can contribute to improving grassland governance modes and enriching the public goods resources governance.

The growing awareness of climate change worldwide has led the urban tourism market to focus on balancing tourist tailored experiences and CO₂ emissions. Therefore, designing personalized tourist routes with environmental pollution consideration is preferable in this context. This study proposes an evolution algorithm based on reinforcement learning (FSRL-HA) to design a personalized day tour route that simultaneously considers the utility of tourists and the carbon emission. We conducted a case study in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, to evaluate this algorithm's performance. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms selected baseline methods. Furthermore, the approach can provide more diverse route choices for different tourists, and an experiment was conducted to explore how tourist preferences affect tourist utilities.

Forest certification has positive environmental spillovers. Considering environmental spillovers, this study analyzed the social welfare effects of forest certification using partial and general equilibrium methods. The results of the partial equilibrium analysis showed that social welfare in producing countries tended to increase under the market expansion of certified forest products. The general equilibrium analysis results indicated that, in autarky, or economic independence, the production amount of certified forest products could increase. If conventional forest products are imported and certified forest products are exported, then the level of utility in free trade condition is greater than that in autarky. If conventional forest products are exported and certified forest products are imported, then the price of imported products must be compared with the price of the autarky domestic market to determine the utility level of free trade and autarky. If the price of certified products is less than the price at the time of autarky, then the total utility level increases; otherwise, it decreases. The social welfare effect of forest certification can be increased through expanding the market demand of certified products and giving these products subsidies in production and price incentives in importing.

The development situation and patent technology of Catalyst Wastewater Treatment are analyzed. Catalysts have a wide range of applications in industrial productions. However, wastewater produced during their production has restricted the development of related enterprises. The state of the art, trends, and technological routes of patent technology of catalyst wastewater treatment is analyzed, using statistical analysis, relied upon China National Intellectual Property Administration’s Patent Search and Service System. It is provided a reference for the innovation of future catalyst wastewater treatment technology.

Interprovincial counterpart support is a cooperative system used by local governments to achieve horizontal flow of resources based on cross-regional cooperation. Existing research has mainly focused on governance efficiency, institutional advantages, and ranking incentives while ignoring the scrambling behavior and operational mechanisms of local governments formed by ranking incentives and territorial responsibilities. This study selected the Wenchuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake, and COVID-19 as three typical cases. We constructed a theoretical framework for competition among provincial local governments and found that competition in interprovincial disaster counterpart support followed a dual behavioral logic of “striving to be first” and “fear of being last”. Specifically, local governments will choose striving to be first under the logic of time coercion, content games, and territorial responsibility; they will choose fear of being last under the logic of responsibility avoidance and moral pressure. This type of scrambling-based horizontal competition reflects the logic of local government competition tournaments. This study further revealed the specific processes, mechanisms, and results of horizontal local government competition, which can provide inspiration for cross-regional and provincial cooperation.