Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment最新文献

Meituan Waimai, which was officially launched in November 2013, has created a huge market for food delivery in China. After years of development, China’s online food delivery market reached RMB 664.62 billion in 2020. In 2022, Meituan Waimai and Ele.me, two food delivery platforms, have created a duopoly in China’s food delivery industry. Due to the success of the food delivery industry, a significant amount of food delivery packaging waste has caused far-reaching harm. This literature review primarily organizes the research on the impact of online food delivery packaging from the perspective of environmental protection. It uses the criterion layer index of online food delivery waste management ecosystem to analyze the impact of the government, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), garbage recycling processors, consumers, online food delivery platforms, takeaway merchants, and takeaway packaging manufacturers. The review shows that scholars generally believe that takeaway waste management is a complex process involving multiple factors. The implementation of policies at the government level is inadequate, and studies at the environmental NGO level are scant. At the consumer level, more environmental awareness education is required. Online food delivery platforms and takeaway merchants should assume greater corporate social responsibility, and manufacturers of takeaway packaging need prioritize the substitution of environmentally friendly materials. There is a consensus that paper-made and recyclable packaging boxes are more environmentally friendly than degradable packaging, which is not as environmentally friendly as is commonly believed. The academia and the industry have conducted various studies and pilot projects on recyclable packaging. If all levels cooperate well, this will be an effective way to manage takeaway packaging garbage. At last, we propose the following assumptions for future research: Besides environmental hazards, takeaway garbage has caused direct or indirect physical harm to humans and animals. Increasing consumer awareness may increase their propensity to participate in governance. Additionally, existing food delivery platforms may need to improve their corporate social responsibility awareness to provide environmentally conscious consumers with sufficient and effective plastic reduction guidance measures during the ordering process. Moreover, will biodegradable plastic products face the same ironic situation as biofuels? That is, the initial intention of technology development is to improve the environment, but the actual process of production or processing may controversially aggravate the environment.

This study investigates and analyses empirically the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows on the exports for a panel series of five large-scale manufacturing industries of Pakistan during the period 2000-2020. For this purpose, we establish export production function as based on endogenous growth theory in which role of FDI is considered as additional determinant of export. The Pedroni residual-based co-integration test and Error Correction Model (ECM) are applied for the long and short-run relationships. Pedroni residual based approach highlighted that human capitals, domestic capitals, foreign direct investments, exports, and domestic sales are co-integrated in the long run. According to results of ECM, coefficient of FDI appears to have statistical significant impact on exports and has a positive sign in the long run. Whereas, FDI does not contribute to export growth in the short run but it takes time to influence the growth patterns of the sector. On the basis of theoretical notion of endogenous growth theory, long-run coefficient of FDI may be interpreted as evidence in favour of the hypotheses that FDI has an impact on exports via export development. Thus, it can be concluded that “FDI-based endogenous growth theory” is valid in the case of Pakistan.

Based on a panel dataset spanning from 2003 to 2019 and encompassing 284 prefecture-level cities in China, this study treats the implementation of the carbon emissions trading policy (CETP) as a quasi-natural experiment. In addition, it employs a spatial difference-in-differences (DID) framework to quantify both the direct and spatially mediated impacts of CETP on urban carbon emission efficiency (CEE). The investigation further delves into the underlying channels of influence and variations within this context. The findings demonstrate that CETP effectively enhances CEE within the cities chosen for piloting; however, it concurrently dampens CEE in nonpiloting neighboring cities. These conclusions remain robust across diverse sensitivity tests. The analysis of mechanisms reveals that CETP’s influence on urban CEE primarily operates through the avenues of technological innovation and optimization of energy structure. Moreover, the study of variances discloses that CETP’s direct effect significantly advances CEE in eastern, old industrial base, and central cities. In terms of indirect effects, a pronounced adverse spatial spillover effect is observed in eastern and old industrial base cities, while noteworthy positive spatial spillover effects emerge in central cities. Notably, the spatial extent of CETP’s influence on urban CEE declines after reaching a distance of 900 km. These insights furnish valuable guidance for China in refining its nationwide carbon market and expediting the shift toward a low-carbon economy.

China has paid considerable attention to developing and implementing a carbon labeling system in response to increasing environmental issues such as global warming. This paper aims to provide a theoretical basis for formulating and implementing a carbon labeling system in China through a study of consumer acceptance behavior and its influencing factors. This paper constructed an extended model of consumers’ acceptance behavior of carbon neutral labels based on the theories and methods of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and analyzed the effects of five factors (carbon label cognition, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating factors) on consumer carbon neutral label acceptance and adoption. The structural equation model analysis revealed that carbon label cognition, performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating factors significantly, and positively impact consumers’ acceptance of carbon neutral labels. Moreover, carbon label cognition, performance expectancy, and facilitating factors significantly, and positively affect consumers’ carbon neutral label adoption behavior. Meanwhile, carbon label cognition, and effort expectancy have no significant impact on consumers’ willingness to accept carbon neutral labels, which in turn significantly impacts consumers’ carbon neutral label adoption behavior. According to the research findings, increasing the promotion of carbon labeling and improving the practical strategies and management recommendations for carbon label design are proposed.

International tourism is highly dependent on air travel, which enhances destination countries’ economic growth and living standards while causing environmental degradation. This study investigates the effect of air travel on environmental degradation in BRICS nations. The study used feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) to evaluate the environmental Kuznets curve using data spanning 1995 to 2018. The study finds evidence of N-shaped EKC in the economies of the BRICS nations. We also find a positive relationship between tourism, urbanization, and environmental degradation (as measured by CO₂ and SO₂ emissions from civil aviation) and a negative relationship between economic development and environmental degradation. To achieve sustainable growth and environmental protection and promote green technology, the BRICS governments should devise policies that address the aviation industry’s short- and long-term needs.

The innovative city pilot policy (ICPP) is an essential manifestation of China’s construction of an innovative and green-driven development country. We incorporated urban green total factor productivity (GTFP) growth into the evaluation of ICPP. Based on the panel data of 223 cities in China from 2005 to 2020, we used the difference-in-differences model to empirically assess the influence and mechanism of the ICPP on urban GTFP growth. The main results show that (i) The ICPP has maintained an effectively fluctuating promotion on urban GTFP growth, mainly manifested in the urban green technological progress improvement. (ii) The ICPP has urban heterogeneity in promoting GTFP growth in pilot cities, mainly affecting key cities such as provincial capitals. (iii) The interaction between the agglomeration of producer services and the ICPP inhibits GTFP growth in pilot cities.

The transformation of Chengdu Tianfu New Area, a state-level new district, from the first site of constructing the “Park City” to the representative of the “Park City”, contains a unique path of “Chinese Style Governance”. To expand the diverse paths of constructing megacities, the current research references the nudge theory of behavioral science, adopts the extended case method, and takes Chengdu Tianfu New Area as a typical case to summarize the “nudge” path of “Party City” construction. The study found that the government achieves the lock-in effect by the priming mechanism and uses the nudge strategy of improving environment and guiding public opinion, thereby helping the people make free choices. It realizes the framework effect by the salience mechanism and uses the strategies of highlighting key information and optimizing information delivery methods, which directly affects the behavior of the public. It achieves the commitment effect by the comparison mechanism, including the horizontal comparison and vertical comparison strategies, and gradually realizes the policy goals. It realizes the social norm effect by the imitation mechanism and uses the strategies of creating peer pressure and playing celebrity effect, which in turn influence people’s choices. With the help of the “nudging” mechanism, the construction of the park city has realized the interactive cycle of “government output-citizen feedback” and achieved the goal of “making great change through small actions”. As a new behavioral intervention tool, “nudging” provides an alternative explanation for the construction of the park city in Tianfu New Area and opens up new ideas for the construction of megacities. This study concludes that the construction of megacities can achieve the goal of “common return” through different ways and provides practical inspiration for future urban construction.

Green development has become an increasingly important global initiative. Therefore, this study focuses on the impact of green product exports on carbon emissions in China. Firm-level datasets are used to estimate provincial green product exports between 2001–2016. This study estimates the impact of green exports on carbon emissions using the system generalized method of moments methodology. In addition, heterogeneity and asymmetry of the nexus are explored. The following findings are highlighted: (1) China’s green product exports show a significant upward trend during the study period; (2) increased green product exports, especially those of high-technology manufacturers, can effectively mitigate CO₂ emissions; (3) the influence of green product exports on carbon emissions is regional heterogeneous but consistent across quantiles; and (4) technique and scale effects are significant mediators, whereas the composition effect is not. These findings provide new evidence supporting methods to mitigate China’s CO₂ emissions by adjusting green product export structures.

Minimalism has become a new consumer trend that can guide low-carbon innovation behaviors. This study uses two experiments and one survey to explore the mechanisms underlying the relationships among minimalism, quantitative behavior, and low-carbon innovation behavior. The results show that (1) minimalism can positively influence consumers’ low-carbon innovation behavior; (2) the interactive effect of minimalist and quantitative behavior on low-carbon innovation behavior is significant; and (3) meaning in life can play a significant mediating role in the relationship between minimalism and low-carbon innovation behavior. Finally, corresponding strategies for theory and management practices are proposed.

As the largest manufacturing country, China is striving to improve the development quality of its power industry with the goal of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality, in order to sustain its high-quality economic growth. In this regard, it is of importance to reveal both the regional development level of China’s power sector and its characteristics in terms of inspiring the next improvement direction. Motived by this purpose, this paper constructs an evaluation indicator system from three dimensions at the province level based on the connotation of high-quality development of the power industry (HDPI). Next, it calculates the HDPI indexes of 30 provinces and explore their development trend and spatial pattern. The results indicate that the total comprehensive performance of all regions was improved in general in the recent decade, but the spatial distribution characteristics of clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient are different. In the aspects of improvement space in future, not only do actively ameliorate the related management regimes or technical fields so as to improve the corresponding indicators’ value, but also passively rely on the macro-development such as China’s urbanization level improvement, technological level improvement, and industrial structure upgrading as usual.