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Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2024) | Viewed by 8697

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Guest Editor
Marine Economics and Management, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China
Interests: marine economics; environmental economics; marine ranching
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, with the worsening of global environmental quality, environmental protection has gradually become the focus of the world. Many polluting industries in developed countries have also been transferred to developing countries, forming a global value chain (GVC) of pollution transfer (Li & Zhou, 2017). Although developing countries participate in the division of global value chains and gain considerable economic and employment gains (Kee & Tang, 2016), they also undertake a considerable part of the pollution industry transfer from developed countries. Li & Zhou (2017) have demonstrated that when developed countries outsource 10% of polluting industries to developing countries, it will reduce their domestic pollution emissions by 6-7%. Therefore, developed countries tend to import pollution-intensive products from developing countries (Chichilnisky, 1994; Copeland & Taylor, 1994). Environmental regulations have become the comparative advantage of enterprises’ offshore outsourcing strategies, and such a "race to the bottom line" often leads to the collapse of the country's environment. With the process of economic globalization, environmental pollution in many local areas has evolved into global environmental pollution through trade, FDI, technology transfer, and other media, and has become a fundamental threat to human survival and sustainable development. Increasingly smoggy weather is also becoming a major obstacle to the quality of life of residents.

According to the World Health Organization's assessment of the disease burden caused by air pollution, more than two million premature deaths a year may be caused by both outdoor and indoor air pollution in cities, and more than half the population of the developing world suffers from this environmental threat. At a time when global resources are running out and environmental quality is declining, it is not enough to consider only economic benefits. If the unrestrained consumption of resources and pollution of the environment exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment, it will cause irreversible damage to the environment. With the improvement of living standards, people pay more and more attention to comfort of life and the sustainable development of the environment.

We want to incorporate environmental factors into GVC measurements, and if the quality of an emerging markets environment is damaged by being embedded in GVCs, then the quality of people's lives will not improve as a result. Some scholars have also begun to study the environmental impact of global value chains. For example, Wang et al. (2022) studied the real benefit of enterprises after they join GVCs; Liu et al. (2020) studied the relationship between value chain embedding degree and trade embodied carbon between 14 industrial sectors in China and some major countries; Ye et al. (2019) verified the impact of value chain embedding degree on technological progress and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is timely to link environmental quality and natural resources with GVC.

We invite policy contributions exploring contemporary issues for this Special Issue. We also encourage submissions on technological progress, biodiversity resource change, and diffusion. This Topical Collection invites scholars and experts to a systematic and in-depth discussion on environmental quality, natural resources, and Global Value Chains. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: industrial intelligence and GVC in the digital era; trade barriers, industrial pollution emissions, and enterprises’ benefits; climate change, carbon emissions, and GVC; government efficiency, biodiversity loss, and joining GVC in emerging markets; sustainability and biology resource and planning; environmental quality and labour efficiency; environmental quality, carbon emissions, and transfer; environmental quality, economic growth, and natural resources governance; review of environmental quality, natural resources, and GVC; resource abundance; green economic growth in developing countries; factor market distortion, technological innovation, and environmental pollution; global value chain embeddedness in emissions embodied in trade; industrial agglomeration, technological progress, and embodied species loss in export trade.

Prof. Dr. Shuhong Wang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • natural quality
  • environmental resources
  • global value chain
  • biodiversity loss
  • green technology

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 1667 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Decoupling Relationship between Environmental Pollution and Economic Development in Island Areas: A Case Study of Zhoushan Islands, China
by Fan Li, Danxuan Qi and Yixiong He
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5567; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135567 - 28 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1246
Abstract
Due to the geographical location and resource characteristics of island region, it is important to make its strategic position in the country and even the world. In order to realize the sustainable development of island region, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research [...] Read more.
Due to the geographical location and resource characteristics of island region, it is important to make its strategic position in the country and even the world. In order to realize the sustainable development of island region, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on the interaction between the economy and the environment in island region. By combining the decoupling model and EKC theory, this paper adopted the data of economic growth and environmental pollution indexes from 2002 to 2022 to explore the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution in Zhoushan Island, China. According to research findings, the overall decoupling state between environmental pollution and economic growth in Zhoushan Islands was not very stable, and EKC analysis further revealed that the decoupling of industrial waste gas, industrial solid waste and industrial wastewater was basically consistent with the EKC analysis results. It was not completely consistent with the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC, but showed an incremental relationship, meaning that as the economy grows, so do its emissions. In order to realize the coordinated and sustainable development of the regional economy and society, Zhoushan Islands should further implement industrial optimization and upgrading, adjust the energy structure, improve the scientific and technological level of environmental management, and strengthen inter-departmental cooperation in law enforcement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain)
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21 pages, 4215 KiB  
Article
Exploring Differences and Evolution of Coordination Level of the Industrial Structure, Economy and Ecological Environment Complex System in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration
by Na Cao, Xinlei Cui and Shufeng Wen
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4828; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114828 - 5 Jun 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1320
Abstract
Industrial structure (IS), economy (EC), and ecological environment (EE) could influence each other and constitute a complex system (IS-EC-EE). This study is to explore the differences and evolution of the coordination level of the IS-EC-EE complex system of 13 cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei [...] Read more.
Industrial structure (IS), economy (EC), and ecological environment (EE) could influence each other and constitute a complex system (IS-EC-EE). This study is to explore the differences and evolution of the coordination level of the IS-EC-EE complex system of 13 cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration by coupling coordination degree model, Markov chain, GM (1,1) model, Dagum Gini coefficient, and Kernel density estimation method to provide a reference for regional sustainable development. The results show that the comprehensive evaluation index of IS, EC, and EE had significant differences among the 13 cities in the BTH region. The IS-EC-EE system of the whole BTH region was in a highly coupled and low-coordinated development state. And the coordination degrees of the 13 cities in the BTH region had spatial differences, which were mainly due to inter-regional differences, and the differences became larger. Furthermore, the coordinated development of the 13 cities had the probability of keeping high, moderate, and low coordination. It was predicted that the coordination degree of the IS-EC-EE system in the whole BTH region in 2020–2030 was roughly similar to the trend in 2009–2019. The coordination levels of Beijing and Tianjin were higher than in Hebei Province, so optimizations need to be considered for regional overall sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain)
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14 pages, 4476 KiB  
Article
Temporal and Spatial Trends in Livestock Manure Discharge and Water Pollution Risk in Chaohu Lake Basin
by Fanghui Pan, Fei Huang, Hongguang Zhu and Youbao Wang
Sustainability 2024, 16(6), 2396; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16062396 - 14 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1417
Abstract
Assessments of the spatiotemporal distribution of livestock manure and its risk to the watershed are important to prevent water pollution. In this work, the spatiotemporal livestock manure distribution and its risk for the Chaohu lake basin were evaluated based on the excretion coefficient [...] Read more.
Assessments of the spatiotemporal distribution of livestock manure and its risk to the watershed are important to prevent water pollution. In this work, the spatiotemporal livestock manure distribution and its risk for the Chaohu lake basin were evaluated based on the excretion coefficient method and ArcGIS technology. In detail, the amounts of livestock manure and its associated pollutants, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonia (NH4+-N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP), were calculated from 2009 to 2019. Then, the diffusion concentrations of COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, TN, and TP and the water pollution risk index from livestock manure were estimated and predicted for the Chaohu lake basin. The results indicated that the mean amount of livestock manure had reached 1.04 × 107 t in the Chaohu lake basin in the studied decade. The COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, TN, and TP from livestock manure in Feixi and Feidong contributed 54.26% and 54.40% of the total in the whole basin. These results demonstrate the potential pollution risk of livestock manure for the Chaohu lake basin. Moreover, the diffusion concentrations of COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, TN, and TP for the lake basin were from highest to lowest as follows: Feixi > Feidong > Chaohu > Lujiang > Wuwei > Shucheng > Hefei. The water pollution risk index was more than 20 in Feixi and Feidong, indicating that these areas were heavily affected by local livestock manure. The water pollution risk index will be approximately 18 for the Chaohu lake basin in 2030, implying that the Chaohu lake watershed will suffer moderate pollution from animal manure. These results provide scientific support for policymakers to enhance manure utilization efficiency and control livestock manure loss, causing water eutrophication in Chaohu lake basin or other similar watersheds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain)
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17 pages, 4394 KiB  
Article
Can Technological Innovation and Financial Agglomeration Promote the Growth of Real Economy? Evidence from China
by Tao Wang, Shuhong Wang, Wei Ding and Huiwen Guo
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 15995; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152215995 - 16 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1716
Abstract
In the backdrop of China’s evolving economic landscape, the real economy confronts a myriad of challenges, both domestically and on the global front. Technological innovation, characterized by its capital intensity and the unpredictable nature of its returns, stands as a pivotal force poised [...] Read more.
In the backdrop of China’s evolving economic landscape, the real economy confronts a myriad of challenges, both domestically and on the global front. Technological innovation, characterized by its capital intensity and the unpredictable nature of its returns, stands as a pivotal force poised to rejuvenate nascent sectors and overhaul the existing industrial framework. Parallel to this, financial agglomeration emerges with a bifurcated function: it not only directly propels the real economic trajectory but also exerts an indirect influence via the channels of technological advancement. Delving deep into this interplay, our study dissected data collated from 30 major provinces and cities across mainland China, spanning the years 2011 to 2018. We employed the nuanced techniques of fuzzy matter–element analysis combined with the location entropy method. By anchoring our findings on a spatial econometric model, we uncovered the intricate dynamics of how technological ingenuity and financial clustering drive real economic growth, shedding light on the spatial reverberations that ripple across regions. Building on the tangible empirical evidence reflecting the trajectory of technological innovation and financial agglomeration within China, this article distills and presents the salient conclusions drawn from the investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain)
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20 pages, 1779 KiB  
Article
How Does Urbanization Affect Carbon Emission Performance? Evidence from 282 Cities in China
by Zhibo Zhao, Jiamin Ren and Zheng Liu
Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15498; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115498 - 31 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1846
Abstract
Improving carbon emission performance (CEP) is the key to realizing the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” for China. Using a panel dataset of 282 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this study employs the Global [...] Read more.
Improving carbon emission performance (CEP) is the key to realizing the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” for China. Using a panel dataset of 282 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this study employs the Global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to measure CEP. Moreover, this study investigates the effect and transmission mechanisms of urbanization on CEP based on the extended STIRPAT model. The results show a significant positive “U-shaped” relationship between urbanization and CEP. When urbanization exceeds the inflection point, urbanization is conducive to improve CEP in Chinese cities. The mechanism analysis illustrates that human capital has a positive impact on CEP, while technological innovation inhibits it. The findings of this study can provide a scientific basis for local governments to formulate different strategies to improve China’s high-quality development through human capital accumulation and low cost and scale of low-carbon technologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Quality, Environmental Resources and Global Value Chain)
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