Review Reports - Evaluation of Green and Low-Carbon Development Level of Chinese Provinces Based on Sustainable Development Goals

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The views of the four scholars cited in paragraph 1 of Introduction (references 4-7), are these four scholars representative scholars in this research direction? If not, don't use this sentence pattern.

2. It is suggested to include the research progress of regional green and low-carbon development level assessment in the Introduction, because this is the highlight of your study

3. In summary, “This study creates a methodology to...” Did you create this method? If not, change the word “create”.

3. What is the connection between “Green and Low-Carbon Development Level” and “coupling coordination degree of the two subsystems of green development and low-carbon development”? Please explain in the paper.

4. The positions of the four pictures in Figure 4 need to be fixed.

Author Response

Reviewer 1#

The views of the four scholars cited in paragraph 1 of Introduction (references 4-7), are these four scholars representative scholars in this research direction? If not, don't use this sentence pattern.

Response: Thanks for your careful analysis of the cited references, which largely reminds us to pay attention to the applicability of the cited literature. After discussion, we believed that these four citations had little to do with the research direction of this paper, so they were deleted.

It is suggested to include the research progress of regional green and low-carbon development level assessment in the Introduction, because this is the highlight of your study.

Response: Thanks for the suggestion on the content of manuscript, we have added the research on regional green and low-carbon development level assessment in the Introduction.

In summary, “This study creates a methodology to...” Did you create this method? If not, change the word “create”.

Response: Thanks for the comment on the incorrect questions in the Abstract. We don't have the method to create, so we change the statement to "... was established by referring to the evaluation methods of other literature. "

What is the connection between “Green and Low-Carbon Development Level” and “coupling coordination degree of the two subsystems of green development and low-carbon development”? Please explain in the paper.

Response: Thanks for the advice. By analyzing the degree of coupling and coordination of green development and low-carbon development in China, the relationship between various elements of the system and the development level and stage can be clarified, which is conducive to improving the overall development level of the composite system. We have supplemented the above disclosure in paragraph 1 of Section 2.3.

The positions of the four pictures in Figure 4 need to be fixed.

Response: Thanks for the advice. We have fixed the positions of the four pictures in Figure 4.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript is devoted to a relevant topic of ecological and low-emission development, which are important from the point of view of initiatives promoting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The study refers to the assessment of the level of regional ecological and low-emission development, and the methodology presented by the authors includes the assessment of the general level of ecological and low-emission development of facilities in China. The authors, based on the research conducted, presented the levels of ecological and low-emission development in selected provinces of China and a map of the distribution of the degree of coordination of combining ecological and low-emission development subsystems.

The subject discussed in the article is an interesting one, and timely in the era of dynamically occurring changes about development of social awareness and actions taken for Sustainable Development Goals. Although it is interesting, it cannot be considered as fully novelty (hence the review indicates both Novelty, Significance of Content and Scientific Soundness as average). Nevertheless, it is useful from the scientific point of view and interesting for the readers.

The statement is transparent, factually correct and well structured. The cited bibliography confirms the thesis put forward by the authors. However, data sources in figures and tables should be improved - Authors should clearly indicate where the data comes from or who is their author. Numerous tabular statements and charts are sufficiently commented. The presented final conclusions sufficiently relate to the thesis put forward by the authors. The English language and style are fine; the minor text editing faults do not significantly affect the quality of the presented issue.

The above proves that the manuscript can be recommended for publication.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The language of the statement is correct in terms of style and grammar.

Author Response

Reviewer 2#

The subject discussed in the article is an interesting one, and timely in the era of dynamically occurring changes in development of social awareness and actions taken for Sustainable Development Goals. Although it is interesting, it cannot be considered as fully novelty (hence the review indicates both Novelty, Significance of Content and Scientific Soundness as average). Nevertheless, it is useful from the scientific point of view and interesting for the readers.

The above proves that the manuscript can be recommended for publication.

Response: Thanks for your thorough understanding and positive comments on this article. We are encouraged by your comment, and will certainly seek to further optimize manuscript based on your and other reviewers' comments.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The content and title of the article correspond to each other. 2. The content of the research is clearly described. 3. The results were conducted in accordance with methodological proposals and with the use of responsible data and sources. 4. Conclusions are confirmed by the obtained results Tips and notes: 5. It would be good to present the next plan for the continuation of this kind of research in the next article

6. In Fig.4. it is not clear which provinces with a distribution of green and low carbon development levels are equall to Stage Type "Excellent"

Author Response

Reviewer 3#

The content and title of the article correspond to each other.
The content of the research is clearly described.
The results were conducted in accordance with methodological proposals and with the use of responsible data and sources.
Conclusions are confirmed by the obtained results Tips and notes.
It would be good to present the next plan for the continuation of this kind of research in the next article

Response: Thanks for your high regard for the content and significance of the article. We are delighted to be recognized in this way. We will consider your and other reviewers' comments to revise the manuscript.

In Fig.4. it is not clear which provinces with a distribution of green and low carbon development levels are equal to Stage Type "Excellent"

Response: Thanks for the question about the content of the manuscript. In Fig.4. There is no province’s green and low-carbon development level equal to Stage Type "Excellent". From 2012 to 2021, no province has entered the "Excellent" stage of green and low-carbon development. The number of provinces corresponding to each stage can be learned from Fig. 3.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Evaluation of Green and Low-Carbon Development Level of Chinese Provinces Based on SDGs

Topic

Comment 1: The authors should write SDGs in full.

Abstract:

Comment 2: The authors should add one or two lines about the practical implications of the research.

Introduction

Comment 3: The authors should enumerate and explain further the novelty and contributions of their research on how China can achieve the SDGs that this research focused on.

Comment 4: The structure of the study is missing. This can be placed in the last paragraph of the introduction section.

Method

Comment 5: In Table 1, the author provided weight about the “Measurement index system of green and low-carbon development” in China. My question is, how was this weight calculated? Did the authors calculate this weight? If so, then the formula for calculating it should be provided in the methodology section of the manuscript.

Comment 6: Please provide a line or two on the reason why the authors chose the target progressive standardization method in this study.

Comment 7: In section 2.2.5, the authors should mention the study period. In addition, the link for the “CHINA STATISTICAL YEARBOOK, CHINA CITY STATISTICAL YEARBOOK” can be provided in this section of the manuscript. This can guide scholars in their future analysis of this topic.

Comment 8: The authors can provide a table in the methodology section that provides a summary description of the indicators explored in the research.

Comment 9: The authors should mention the statistical software used in the analysis of the research data.

Comment 10: The research lacks practical recommendations. The authors should enumerate policy recommendations for improving this topic.

Comment 11. What are the limitations of the research? What are the future recommendations from this research?

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Reviewer 4#

Topic

Comment 1: The authors should write SDGs in full.

Response: Thanks to the reviewer's careful reminder, we have written SDGs in the title in full spelling.

Abstract:

Comment 2: The authors should add one or two lines about the practical implications of the research.

Response: Thanks for the practical suggestions. We have added the practical implications of this study at the end of the Abstract

Introduction

Comment 3: The authors should enumerate and explain further the novelty and contributions of their research on how China can achieve the SDGs that this research focused on.

Response: Thanks for your insightful suggestions on the content of the article. We have followed your suggestion, and in the Introduction, before "Before, it is necessary to develop ......", we have given an example of how our research will help China realize the SDGs, which indirectly proves the practical significance of our research.

Comment 4: The structure of the study is missing. This can be placed in the last paragraph of the introduction section.

Response: Thanks to the detailed suggestions on the content of the article, we have reorganized the last paragraph of the Introduction to make it easier for the reader to understand the structure of this study.

Method

Response: In this study, after determining the indicators, the data were first collected and organized, and then the entropy power method was applied after the data corresponding to each indicator had been obtained, and the weight of each indicator was calculated. The formula of the entropy weight method corresponds to equation (2~4) of manuscript. The weights of the indicators are calculated by authors themselves and realized based on the R language environment.

Comment 6: Please provide a line or two on the reason why the authors chose the target progressive standardization method in this study.

Response: Thanks for checking the methodological rigor of this paper. The use of the target asymptotic method eliminates the problem that indicators are not comparable due to different statistical units and too great a difference in orders of magnitude, and enables all indicators to be compared.

Response: Thanks for the specific suggestion. We have added links from these sources in the form of footnotes to the manuscript.

Comment 8: The authors can provide a table in the methodology section that provides a summary description of the indicators explored in the research.

Response: Thanks for the suggestion on content. We have prepared Table A1 in Appendix A. Table A1 provides a summary description of the indicators explored in the research

Comment 9: The authors should mention the statistical software used in the analysis of the research data.

Response: Thanks for the detailed suggestion on the description of the statistical software. This study is based on the R language environment to calculate the weights of the indicators; SPSS software was used to calculate the indicator scores and analyze the trend of the scores. Relevant additional clarification has been added to the end of section 2.2.5.

Comment 10: The research lacks practical recommendations. The authors should enumerate policy recommendations for improving this topic.

Response: Thanks for your valuable comment on the structure of the article. Practical recommendations are very important, so we changed the title of Chapter 4 to Conclusion and Implications, and the existing content is put into 4.1conclusion, and 4.2 Implications is added: promoting the research, development, and application of clean technologies; promoting the integration and upgrading of green industrial chains; and reducing the balance of China's green and low-carbon development.

Comment 11. What are the limitations of the research? What are the future recommendations from this research?

Response: Thanks for your attention to the limitation section of the manuscript. The measurement system constructed in this study cannot reveal the reasons for the current status of green and low-carbon development in China's provinces. The second point is that we choose the target progressive standardization method, and the selection of the optimal value and the worst value may add some uncertainty to the subsequent use of the entropy weighting method to determine the indicator weights. What's more, the evaluation object of this study is the provincial scale, and we have no way of knowing whether the green and low-carbon development of the cities within the province is balanced or not based on the current data. In the future, our research can further explore the level of green and low-carbon development at the city level and predict what the future trends will be. The future recommendations from this research have been added as an outlook at the end of section 4.1.

Comments on the Quality of English Language：Minor editing of English language required.

Response: Thanks to the reviewers for checking the quality of the English language, we have corrected the spelling and expressions in the manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The Limitations and uncertainties should be renamed "Limitations and future research". This section should be moved to the last section of the paper.

Author Response

The Limitations and uncertainties should be renamed "Limitations and future research". This section should be moved to the last section of the paper.

Response: Thanks for the suggestion on the structure of the manuscript. We have renamed section 3.4 to "Limitations and future research" and moved to the last section of the paper.