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Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Air, Climate Change and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 14448

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiaohang Ren

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Guest Editor
Business School, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: energy finance; green finance; financial econometrics; sustainable development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yukun Shi

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: corporate finance; energy economics; green finance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Kun Duan

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: environmental economics; climate change; sustainable development
Dr. Cheng Cheng

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
School of Management Science and Engineering, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China
Interests: environmental economics; energy economics; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, unprecedented climate change has been recognized as one of the most serious environmental issues worldwide threatening a sustainable future for our planet. In response to the reduction of adverse consequences of global warming, the United Nations (UN), among others, call for the active participation of businesses along with agents of public and civil society towards sustainable development. Since the introduction of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2015, corporations have started adopting SDGs as a framework for their sustainability activities to achieve these goals. Setting sustainability agendas targeting SDGs helps enhance the quality of corporate social reporting. However, corporations, especially in developing economies, encounter practical issues at the same time, such as the cost of transitioning to low carbon or carbon-free energy or the cost of technological innovation.

Thus, a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities as well as their relationship in the ongoing process of tackling climate change translates to a high level of sustainable development for corporations, while it has been long devoid of in-depth research. All these considerations motivate the proposal of this Special Issue, which aims to collect studies and research, as well as theoretical contributions, on sustainable development for corporations in the context of climate change.

Topics in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Corporate sustainability
  • Corporate social responsibility practices
  • Sustainable management in companies
  • Sustainable business models
  • Capabilities to foster sustainable management
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Environmental sustainability
  • Climate uncertainty
  • Green finance and green innovation

Prof. Dr. Xiaohang Ren
Guest Editor

Dr. Yukun Shi
Dr. Kun Duan
Dr. Cheng Cheng
Co-Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable development
  • corporations
  • climate change
  • carbon reduction

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1114 KiB  
Article
Have China’s Regional Carbon Emissions Trading Schemes Promoted Industrial Resource Allocation Efficiency? The Evidence from Heavily Polluted Industries at the Provincial Level
by Chunhua Lu and Hong Li
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2657; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032657 - 01 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1099
Abstract
Based on the data of A-share listed companies in China, this paper examines how China’s regional carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) affects the resource allocation efficiency of China’s provincial heavily polluted industries through the DID method. The empirical results show that China’s regional [...] Read more.
Based on the data of A-share listed companies in China, this paper examines how China’s regional carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) affects the resource allocation efficiency of China’s provincial heavily polluted industries through the DID method. The empirical results show that China’s regional carbon ETSs have reduced the TFP dispersion of enterprises in the industry, thus improving the industries’ resource allocation efficiency. The heterogeneity analysis shows that China’s regional carbon ETSs have more significantly promoted the resource allocation efficiency in industries with high competition and high external financing dependence, while the policy effects in industries with low competition and low external financing dependence are less significant. Further mechanism analysis shows that, on the one hand, China’s regional carbon ETSs have promoted the flow of capital resources from low-TFP enterprises to high-TFP enterprises. On the other hand, China’s regional carbon ETSs have promoted low-TFP enterprises to improve TFP to a higher degree than high-TFP enterprises, which reduces the TFP dispersion among different enterprises in the industry. In addition, China’s regional carbon ETSs have promoted the market share of high-TFP enterprises and restricted low-TFP enterprises entering the market, which raises the TFP threshold for new enterprises entering the market. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
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15 pages, 824 KiB  
Article
Can Green Credit Policy Promote Firms’ Green Innovation? Evidence from China
by Da Gao, Xinlin Mo, Kun Duan and Yi Li
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3911; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073911 - 25 Mar 2022
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3360
Abstract
To achieve the twin goals of “stable growth” and “environmental protection”, it is necessary to promote green innovation in firms and green transformation of the economy. This paper regards China’s Green Credit Guidelines policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the [...] Read more.
To achieve the twin goals of “stable growth” and “environmental protection”, it is necessary to promote green innovation in firms and green transformation of the economy. This paper regards China’s Green Credit Guidelines policy in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the impact of the policy on the green innovation of heavy-polluting firms. This analysis uses Chinese A-share listed industrial enterprises from 2008–2019 as the research sample and difference-in-difference (DID) as the empirical method. The results show that implementing the green credit policy has significantly contributed to firms’ green technology innovation enhancement. Moreover, the mechanism suggests that the green credit policy can promote firms’ green innovation through channels, such as inhibiting the compression of heavy-polluting firms’ financing space, increasing their debt financing costs, and promoting firm transformation and upgrading. Further study finds that the green credit policy promotes green innovation significantly for state-owned and large firms but not for non-state-owned and small-scale firms. Based on our empirical results, we can conclude that the green credit policy is an efficient way to realize the goal of “environmental excellence” and guide firms to effectively carry out green innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
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22 pages, 1352 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Rural Tourism Landscape Resources in Terms of Carbon Neutrality and Rural Revitalization
by Weiwen Li, Yijiang Zhou, Xingan Dai and Fang Hu
Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2863; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052863 - 01 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3577
Abstract
Rural tourism landscape resources are important ingredients of rural revitalization and modernization in developing countries and regions. Evaluation methods play a crucial role in the planning, design, transformation, development, and protection of these resources. However, there has been a lack of research on [...] Read more.
Rural tourism landscape resources are important ingredients of rural revitalization and modernization in developing countries and regions. Evaluation methods play a crucial role in the planning, design, transformation, development, and protection of these resources. However, there has been a lack of research on the evaluation of rural tourism landscape resources, especially from the perspective of rural revitalization and carbon neutrality. From the perspective of carbon neutrality and rural revitalization, this article establishes an indicator system to evaluate rural tourism landscape resources based on previous evaluation methods and expert consultations on landscape planning. An evaluation model based on the intuitionistic fuzzy VIKOR method structure matching is also suggested. Some practical suggestions are put forward to promote the values of rural tourism landscape resources through empirical analyses of three regions in Changsha, Hunan, China. Our study shows that the evaluation results could objectively reflect the values and existing problems of rural tourism landscape resources, which could provide practical tools for local government departments to make decisions, and landscape architects to plan and design. Based on this model, further suggestions are provided to improve rural tourism landscape resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
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17 pages, 1014 KiB  
Article
Government Performance Evaluation in the Context of Carbon Neutrality: Energy-Saving of New Residential Building Projects
by Jiayi Jia, Zhenyu Huang, Jianying Deng, Fang Hu and Lin Li
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1274; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031274 - 24 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1757
Abstract
The government’s supervision of new residential building projects’ (NRBPs) energy-saving can promote carbon neutrality policies within its jurisdiction. A scientific and systematic evaluation of NRBPs energy-saving reflects a government’s management performance. However, achieving accurate and reasonable results with unitary evaluation standards without considering [...] Read more.
The government’s supervision of new residential building projects’ (NRBPs) energy-saving can promote carbon neutrality policies within its jurisdiction. A scientific and systematic evaluation of NRBPs energy-saving reflects a government’s management performance. However, achieving accurate and reasonable results with unitary evaluation standards without considering regional characteristics is not easy. This study proposes an evaluation method of intelligently evaluating the effectiveness of government energy-saving supervision with regional characteristics weighted in. Consequently, these evaluation indicators can reveal the key issues in carrying out local energy-saving policies and provide concrete guidance for local governments to manage the energy-saving of NRBPs better. The method was tested with ten projects and found to be effective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
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14 pages, 243 KiB  
Article
How Does Corporate Party Committee Governance Affect Charitable Donations? Evidence from Heavy-Pollution Industries in China
by Huiming Zhang, Lirong Li, Cheng Fan, Zixuan Hang and Haroon ur Rashid Khan
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 12242; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112242 - 05 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1727
Abstract
Charitable donations are an effective way for heavy-pollution industries to reduce their environmental reputation risk. In China, the communist party committees within corporations play a key role in decisions regarding charitable donations. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between the governance [...] Read more.
Charitable donations are an effective way for heavy-pollution industries to reduce their environmental reputation risk. In China, the communist party committees within corporations play a key role in decisions regarding charitable donations. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between the governance of corporate party committees and charitable donations. Using data from Chinese listed firms in heavy-pollution industries from 2013 to 2018, we found that corporate party committee governance enhanced the willingness of firms to donate and to increase the amount of their donations significantly. The effect on intention of charitable donations was pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs), whereas the effect on the amount of donations was pronounced for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Party committee governance increased the amount of charitable donations in regions with a higher level of marketization, but it reduced the amount of charitable donations in firms/industries with a high degree of monopoly. Our findings provide insight for the decisive role of party committees in corporate charitable donations in heavy-pollution industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
16 pages, 303 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Impact of Institutional Quality on FDI: Are There Promotional Effects in Economic Integration Regions?
by Fuzhong Chen and Guohai Jiang
Sustainability 2021, 13(20), 11309; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011309 - 13 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1930
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of institutional quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) using panel data of 117 countries around the world from the period of 2001 to 2018. To enhance the accuracy of the estimation results, this [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of institutional quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) using panel data of 117 countries around the world from the period of 2001 to 2018. To enhance the accuracy of the estimation results, this study includes various statistical tests to select the estimation method that best fits the sampling data used in this study. Furthermore, while the robust standard error is applied to correct the problem of heteroscedasticity, this study addresses the potential endogeneity problem by system GMM estimation. The results indicate that the improvement in institutional quality significantly and positively contributes to FDI. More importantly, the results also reveal that economic integration has improved the role of institutional quality, indicating that the promotional effects of institutional quality on FDI are greater in economic integration areas. The results also suggest that the launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has greatly enhanced the promotional effects of institutional quality on FDI. The findings of this study offer policy implications for policymakers to take measures to improve institutional quality and thereby to enhance FDI and further accelerate the formation of economic integration in a more sustainable way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development for Corporations: Challenges and Opportunities in Climate Change Background)
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