Guided High-Quality Development, Resources, and Environmental Forcing in China’s Green Development
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The mathematical model presented by the authors is of scientific theoretical interest. However, the practical results are more interesting for the national economy. But the results of the analysis for the world community are rather mediocre, there is no understanding of the relative criteria for the development of green technologies in China. Authors are encouraged to provide comparable analytical information for other developed countries.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
We appreciate very much the constructive comments raised by the reviewers. We believe that these comments helped to significantly improve our next research.
Yours sincerely,
Point 1: The mathematical model presented by the authors is of scientific theoretical interest. However, the practical results are more interesting for the national economy. But the results of the analysis for the world community are rather mediocre, there is no understanding of the relative criteria for the development of green technologies in China. Authors are encouraged to provide comparable analytical information for other developed countries.
Response 1: In further research, the samples will be expanded to OECD, which including 36 countries. The comparable analytical information for other developed countries will be shown.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
I recommend the paper for publication after some revisions, namely:
1. The aim of the paper should be defined more precisely in the Introduction section and be consistent with the presented results. There is no reference to the research aim in the Conclusions section.
2. Methodology should be shortly mentioned in the Abstract.
3. The “Results” section lacks the empirical results interpretation from the perspective of the Literature Review results (only 4 new references, not included in the Literature Review section are discussed). Explain how your findings relate to the prior literature (reported earlier in the literature review).
4. The Literature Review section should be significantly developed (suggest doubling the number of references). See for example:
Liu, Y.; Huang, X.; Chen, W. Threshold Effect of High-Tech Industrial Scale on Green Development—Evidence from Yangtze River Economic Belt. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1432.
Wang, M.; Zhao, X.; Gong, Q.; Ji, Z. Measurement of Regional Green Economy Sustainable Development Ability Based on Entropy Weight-Topsis-Coupling Coordination Degree—A Case Study in Shandong Province, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 280.
5. Rethink the “Conclusions” section - at the moment it lacks the Limitations and the Future Research subsections. Try to:
· highlight key findings in your “Results” section,
· place the paper within the context of how your research advances past research about the topic,
· describe how a previously identified gap in the literature (your literature review section) has been filled by your research,
· demonstrate the importance of your ideas and recommendations/suggestions,
· define the limitations of your research,
· propose possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem.
I do hope you find the comments helpful as you move forward with your paper.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
We appreciate very much the constructive comments raised by the reviewers. We believe that these comments helped to significantly improve our manuscript.
As advised, we have substantially revised the manuscript. Overall, the revised manuscript is more consistent, accurate, and focused than the previous version. Please see our point-by-point responses to reviewers’ comments in the following pages.
Yours sincerely,
Point 1: The aim of the paper should be defined more precisely in the Introduction section and be consistent with the presented results. There is no reference to the research aim in the Conclusions section.
Response 1: In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, this article has been revised as follows:
1) In the Introduction section.
The aim of this paper is to identify the key factors of green development, test the policies effectiveness of high-Quality development guiding and resources & environment forcing, and make suggestions on appropriate path for China's Green Development. It is also important to solve real economic issues, minimize social conflicts between development and protection, which further motivate this study.
2) In the Conclusions section.
According results of this study, we believe that high-Quality development guiding is the key factors in China green development compared with the resources & environment forcing, continuously improving the quality of economic development can effectively promote the improvement of green development level. So China's green development policies should pay more attention to how to improve TFP and the quality of economic development.
Point 2: Methodology should be shortly mentioned in the Abstract.
Response 2: In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, this article has been revised as follows in the abstract:
A research framework of synergetic evolvement is established, the Haken model is applied to analyses the different effect of high-quality development guiding and resource & environmental forcing mechanisms.
Point 3: The “Results” section lacks the empirical results interpretation from the perspective of the Literature Review results (only 4 new references, not included in the Literature Review section are discussed). Explain how your findings relate to the prior literature (reported earlier in the literature review).
Response 3:
The current literatures mainly focus on influence effects, green development system itself is seldom regarded as the research subjects. As a result, there are few available literatures for explaining difference, only one is compared. In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, this article has been revised as follows:
The results of Zhang [38] (pp.14-17) showed that the energy efficiency was the order parameter in green development. Energy efficiency is the key factor to determine the sustainable development in China's energy-economy-environment (3E) system. It has a profound impact on the reduction of atmospheric pollutant emission intensity. Neither energy efficiency nor pollutant emission intensity had a benign synergistic effect, and pollutant emission intensity had a restraining effect on energy efficiency. The results of this study are different. The reason for this is that Zhang [38] (pp.14-17) only tested energy system and environment system. The economic system of 3E wasn’t discussed. In addition, it is insufficient that sample data were only three years of 2010, 2005 and 2000 in Zhang [38] (pp.14-17).
Point 4: The Literature Review section should be significantly developed (suggest doubling the number of references). See for example:
Liu, Y.; Huang, X.; Chen, W. Threshold Effect of High-Tech Industrial Scale on Green Development—Evidence from Yangtze River Economic Belt. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1432.
Wang, M.; Zhao, X.; Gong, Q.; Ji, Z. Measurement of Regional Green Economy Sustainable Development Ability Based on Entropy Weight-Topsis-Coupling Coordination Degree—A Case Study in Shandong Province, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 280.
Response 4: The Literature Review section has been perfected. The number of references increase to 50, including mentioned with [3] and [15] in references.
Point 5: Rethink the “Conclusions” section - at the moment it lacks the Limitations and the Future Research subsections. Try to:
Point 5.1 highlight key findings in your “Results” section,
Response 5.1:
In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, this key finding in Conclusions has been revised as follows:
1）High-quality developmental is the order parameter of China’s green development. It is the key factor of green development in China, and it determines the evolution direction and the change in speed of the green development. Improving the quality of development has a synergistic effect on the environmental forcing. This will promote a reduction in pollution. Contrary to what may be expected, the environmental forcing mechanisms have not promoted an increase in the development quality. The environmental forcing mechanism has no obvious effect on green development. This study has also noted that economic development quality has no synergistic effect with the resource forcing mechanism. Although high-quality development promotes green development, but the effect needs to be increased, because there are no synergistic effects of interaction among them.
2) The synergy static point of China’s green developmental system is 0.5686. The east exceeded the static point and has entered into a highly-synergistic development stage. The economic developmental quality of the east had a synergistic impact on environmental pollution, which decreased the overall pollution emissions. While the northeast, central, and west regions will remain at relatively low synergy levels. At the provincial level, 7 provinces and cities were determined to have a higher green developmental synergy impact: Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Shandong.
3) High-quality development should be taken as the preferred policy for green development. According results of this study, we believe that high-Quality development guiding is the key factors in China green development compared with the resources & environment forcing. Continuously improving the quality of economic development can effectively promote the improvement of green development level. So China's green development policies should pay more attention to how to improve TFP and the quality of economic development.
Point 5.2: place the paper within the context of how your research advances past research about the topic,
Response 5.2: In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, this article has been revised as follows:
The academic contribution and practical value of this study is threefold. First, compared to the previous studies focusing on the external impact mechanisms, this study establishes an evolutionary research framework of China’s green development from the internal view. Internal systems of green development are study subject, which provides a new research angle for green development. Secondly, this study applies Haken model to observe the impact of the high-quality development guiding and the environment & resources forcing mechanisms in China. The different outcomes were analyzed to identify the feasible path of green development. It also programs operational methods and possible routes for China’s green development, as well as theoretical and practical results. Thirdly, the study introduces a critical point algorithm of a potential function, quantitatively draws judgmental bases of green development in broader China, and analyzes the stages, merits, and weaknesses of different areas to avoid zero conclusion of quantitative analysis.
Point 5.3: describe how a previously identified gap in the literature (your literature review section) has been filled by your research,
Response 5.3: This article has been revised as Response 5.2.
Point 5.4: demonstrate the importance of your ideas and recommendations/suggestions,
Response 5.4: In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, the suggestions has been revised as follows:
1）Establishing a correct outlook on development. China’s economy be entering into a new state with an increasing amount of uncertainty and more serious difficulties and challenges. It is import to foster a correct view of economic development and environmental protection, and it is a guide for meeting challenges, maintaining sound economic development, avoiding falling into the middle-income trap. Many scholars suggest that it is impossible to have both fish and bear's paw. In their view, it is worthwhile to protect the environment at the expense of economic development. Sacrificing economic development for an improvement in the resources and environmental conditions is not preferred. China has encountered many problems in its 40 years, but these problems should also be solved in the process of continuous development. Using resource protection and environmental improvement as motivations will result in reduced developmental needs, or even stop them, preventing it from solving problems from their root. This study has shown that the resource and environmental forcing mechanisms did not promote green development, while the high-quality development guidance is the main route. Therefore, the view of sacrificing economic development to protect the environment and resources isn’t the best choice. The key to green development is to improve the development quality and economic interests by taking the transfer manner as the core. TFP is an important index to measure the quality of economic growth. By maintaining sound economic growth and improving the quality of development, the TFP of economic growth will be improved, and this is the path of China's green development.
2）Making different energy-saving emission policies. “The thirteenth five-year plan on energy saving work” listed the double-control consumption goal of total and intensity into each province (district and city). Energy-saving is considered to be a key point for upgrading China’s economic structure, promoting green development, and establishment of an eco-culture. Combining with the actual situation of each region, formulating differentiated energy-saving policies is conducive to improving the effect of policy implementation and avoiding the shortcomings of "one size fits all". Based on the research, the east, especially the provinces of Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Shandong have entered a high-synergy level stage of green development, which is the key to extending the scope. In contrast, the northeast, central, and west have not yet reached the balanced point yet, and are still in the improvement stage, where the key is to change the developmental mode. Therefore, the goal of the east’s energy-saving should be the reduction of the intensity of emissions, accompanied by a reduction in the total emissions, which will lead the east to lower its unit pollution emissions. The central, west, and northeast should save energy with the goal of reducing the total emission, accompanied by a reduction in the emission intensity. This will push these areas to upgrade their industrial structures, to hasten upgrades, and change their developmental modes.
Point 5.5: define the limitations of your research,
Response 5.5: In accordance with the comments of the reviewer, the limitations has been supplemented revised as follows:
we study the impact of high-quality development guiding and resource & environment forcing on China’s green development and there are correlative conclusions. It is meaningful for adopting policies of green development. Since all the research samples come from China, the reference and contribution for world community are limited. There is no understanding of the relative criteria of the green development in China.
Point 5.6: propose possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem.
Response 5.6: In further research, the samples will be the samples will be expanded to OECD, which include 36 countries. The comparable analytical information for other developed countries will be shown.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The article constitutes an interesting and clear contribution to the literature and practice on green development. I encourage the authors to continue in this direction.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
We appreciate very much the constructive comments raised by the reviewers. We believe that these comments helped to significantly improve our next research.
Yours sincerely,
Point 1: The article constitutes an interesting and clear contribution to the literature and practice on green development. I encourage the authors to continue in this direction.
Response 1: In further research, the samples will be expanded to OECD, which including 36 countries. The comparable analytical information for other developed countries will be shown.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
