Search Results (22)

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), its deep integration into corporate operations has become the key driver for firms to reconfigure factor resources, boost green total factor productivity, and achieve green transformation. This analysis empirically investigates the influence of AI on corporate green transformation using panel data of China’s listed companies from 2015 to 2022. This research employs a multidimensional fixed effects linear model to analyze the relationship, finding that AI significantly enhances corporate green transformation. Mechanism analysis reveals that AI promotes green transformation by enhancing firm research and development (R&D) and firm green innovation capabilities. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive impact of AI on corporate green transformation is more significant in the eastern region, post-COVID−19, and in low-pollution industries. The impact is also significantly and positively moderated by the development of the non-state-owned economy and the development degree of product markets. These findings suggest that AI is a critical tool for promoting sustainable economic growth and green transformation in businesses. Full article

This study examines the impact of free trade zone (FTZ) establishment on regional economic resilience (RER) in China, using provincial-level panel data spanning from 2010 to 2022 and a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The empirical results indicate that FTZ implementation significantly enhances regional economic resilience by 3.46%, with the development of green finance acting as a key moderating mechanism that amplifies this positive effect. Heterogeneity analysis uncovers notable disparities across policy cohorts and geographical regions: the first wave of FTZs demonstrates the most pronounced resilience-enhancing impact, whereas later cohorts exhibit weaker or even adverse effects. Coastal regions experience substantial benefits from FTZ policies, in contrast to statistically insignificant outcomes observed in inland areas. These findings suggest that strategically expanding the FTZ network, when paired with tailored implementation mechanisms and the integration of green finance, could serve as a powerful policy tool for post-COVID economic recovery. Importantly, by strengthening economic resilience through institutional openness and green investment, this study offers valuable insights into balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. It provides empirical evidence to support the optimization of FTZ spatial governance and institutional innovation pathways, thereby contributing to the pursuit of sustainable regional development. Full article

Green innovation plays a crucial role in sustainable development, yet its financial impact on high-pollution industries remains underexplored. This study analyzes the short- and long-term financial effects of green innovation using 30,108 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies in high-pollution industries (2009–2022). Employing fixed-effects regression models, green innovation is measured through environmental patents (EnvrPats) and environmentally innovative patents (EnvrInvPats), with Return on Assets (ROA) as the financial performance metric. To address endogeneity concerns, instrumental variable (IV) techniques are applied using digital transformation (DT) as an instrument, alongside a two-stage Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach for validation. This study explores the moderating roles of Sustainable Liquidity Reserves (cash flow) and the Sustainable Development Index (ESG performance), while a channel test examines the influence of R&D expenditures and financial constraints. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that firms in high-pollution industries experience greater short-term financial benefits from green innovation, driven by regulatory pressures and public scrutiny. A pre- and post-COVID-19 analysis highlights the increased importance of green innovation in firm resilience during economic disruptions. Robustness checks, including alternative financial performance measures and nonlinear modeling, confirm the reliability of the findings. While green innovation imposes initial financial costs, firms with stronger cash reserves and ESG performance can better absorb these costs and achieve long-term financial gains, emphasizing the need for targeted policy support to facilitate sustainable growth. Full article

Cities were at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the concentration of affected populations and economic activities that needed to be revived to support global recovery. While cities offer strong economic and social benefits due to density, proximity, and global connectivity, the pandemic had a tremendous impact on their vital functions. It resulted in lost lives and livelihoods and deepened economic and social divides. Furthermore, the pandemic exacerbated many existing environmental challenges in cities. This presented an opportunity to tackle these interlinked challenges in an integrated manner. Evidence suggests that many city leaders integrated environmental sustainability as an important element to complement their emergency responses. Drawing from experiences in cities around the world, particularly those participating in the Sustainable Cities Program supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), this paper describes how integrated solutions were applied to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with a Healthy Planet Healthy People concept, a framework is proposed for sustainable urban transformation and to build cities that are resilient to shocks and stresses. With global environmental benefits at the core, the framework highlights the importance of integration, inclusion, and innovation as key approaches in steering the future green growth and prosperity of cities. Full article

A green economy is not a common economic practice. This leads the governments in many countries to focus on institutional arrangement and policy development. The institutional arrangement is one of the main significant factors, while green economy policies have to be well developed to support stakeholders and put less pressure on local communities. Hence, this research aims to understand green economic development in Cambodia by focusing on institutional arrangements and green economic development policies. Thus, this research’s priority was to evaluate their background and progress, and a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis was conducted based on their progress/transition. This research conducted background, progress, and SWOT analyses based on (i) the government’s documents, including the code, laws, royal decrees, sub-decrees, prakas, policies, strategic plans, roadmaps, and reports; (ii) development partners’ reports from reliable sources, such as UN agencies, UN Programs, ASEAN, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank; and (iii) existing literature. This research presented the results and discussed the findings encompassed by political and economic conditions, institutional arrangement and capacities, policy development and coordination, and participation of the public and stakeholders, as well as global green cooperation and funding, which were conditioned by the experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainties resulting from global geopolitical conflicts, such as the Russian–Ukrainian conflicts. Moreover, this research discussed weaknesses against strengths and threats against opportunities to suggest solutions or implications. Full article

As population growth and urbanization continue to accelerate, city dwellers are increasingly conscious of the demand for urban green space (UGS) and the ecosystem services (ESs) it provides. Great efforts are made for the supply of certain ESs in UGS. However, less is known about the residents’ preferences and the supply–demand matching of UGS types, as well as the various ESs it provides at different spatial scales. Given this, our research establishes a research framework to reveal the heterogeneity of USG types and the supply–demand matching degree (SDM) of ESs from municipal, provincial, and national spatial scales, and examines the correlation between the influencing factors and demands of residents for UGS. This study mainly used the Gini coefficient, the Lorenz curve, Z-scores, the Jenks natural breaks classification method, Pearson correlation analysis, and spatial analysis. The main findings are that (1) the Gini coefficients are 0.433 and 0.137 at the municipal and provincial scales, respectively, indicating that the supply of UGS is more unequal at the municipal scale than provincial scale; (2) the multi-scale demand for ESs between residents has no significant difference. At the provincial scale, the area with low demand is larger than that of high demand, while at the municipal scale, the contrary is the case; (3) the SDM was in a deficit at both the provincial and municipal scales. And as the scaling-up occurred, the spatial heterogeneity of the SDM decreased; (4) the number of influencing factors that significantly affected the UGS type and ESs grew as the scale increased. Among them, the impact of age and COVID-19 on three scales deserves attention. These results identify regions with deficits and surpluses in ESs provided by UGS in China at different scales. This research also advises that attention should be paid to the distribution of UGS between cities within provinces, and future UGS planning should focus on building regional green spaces to promote the well-being of an aging society. The findings in this study would offer insights for managers to improve UGS construction and urban forestry planning in the future. Full article

The impacts of climate change have become a series of important issues in global public health and environmental governance. As a major developing country with carbon emissions, China has actively participated in global climate and public health governance. The international academic research by Chinese scholars on carbon neutrality has gradually shifted from focusing on technological development to focusing on sustainability, green development, a decarbonization plan, public health and environmental governance. This study uses bibliometrics, scientometrics, and policy documents quantification to carry out a comparative study, comparing the keywords of China’s national “carbon neutrality” policies from 2006 to 2021 with the keywords of international research by Chinese scholars, and analyzes the evolution of the academic and political concerns and development measures of China’s carbon neutrality. It is found that in the stages of preliminary development and steady growth, China’s carbon neutrality research and policy portfolio grew in an orderly manner, and the influence of policy and the promotion of academic research gradually strengthened. After 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19, national policies and carbon neutrality research began to focus on green development and public health issues, and the intersections of policy keywords and academic keywords increased. Overall, the focus of Chinese scholars on carbon neutrality research and policy is gradually approaching and integrating, and the degree of interaction and integration between academia and politics is increasing. Under the complex situation of China’s decarbonization plans, climate changes, COVID-19, and international political and economic changes, China’s policy design and development model are conducive to public health, green development, and innovation transformation, and building a community with a shared future for mankind. Full article

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have sparked global debate over how green economic recovery may and should be, and if the pandemic has accelerated the present energy transition while assuring a just transition for vulnerable populations such as unskilled workers and women. This study investigates the socioeconomic impact of South Africa’s planned green energy transition, with a focus on the Mpumalanga province—the country’s largest coal mining region with many coal-fired power plants. Using a regional-dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, the study analyses the economy-wide effects of different policy scenarios related to a changing electricity generation mix, investment financing costs, and international action against non-compliant industries, amongst others, with a specific focus on the vulnerable industries and population groups in Mpumalanga. Key results from the study highlights that (1) the structure of the Mpumalanga economy will be affected in the medium to long run regardless of the domestic transition path, (2) the Mpumalanga economy is indeed in danger of shrinking relative to the baseline, unless the Just Energy Transition (JET) is quickly and carefully managed, and (3) at a national level, at least, there is the strong possibility of a double dividend when greening the South African economy with overall economic growth and environmental outcomes expected to improve in the long run. Full article

Concurrent and overlapping crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in energy and food costs, are particularly affecting developing and poor countries, in addition to the continuous and growing negative impacts from climate change. In this paper, we develop a policy proposal and show through a model how an implicit debt servicing standstill for a country with large external debt can be combined with a policy for promoting power generation from renewable energy sources, with positive effects for economic growth and for ensuring debt sustainability. Through a typical decentralized competitive general equilibrium endogenous growth model, we show the long term effects of partially redirecting debt payments to green energy infrastructure to facilitate economic growth and achieve a sustained debt-to-output level. The results indicate that a higher percentage of external public debt increases public capital accumulation, resulting in a higher long-run growth rate, albeit with a slower transition to a steady state. Equivalent results are found regarding the level of financial aid provided for public productive capital. Full article

To achieve sustainable economic growth, a significant amount of private capital must be invested in green industries. However, risk management in the green industry stock market has drawn much attention recently due to the uncertainty and high risk present in this market. By applying the spillover index model of Diebold and Yilmaz, the frequency-domain spillover approach developed by Baruník and Křehlík, and the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model, this paper focuses mainly on the heterogeneity of the volatility spillovers among six green industry equities and other financial assets in China, under various market economy situations. Based on the empirical results obtained in this paper, we find that the green industry stock markets have the least impact on the gold and energy futures markets. Additionally, based on asymmetric analyses, it can be concluded that the green bond market has experienced the smallest shocks from the six green industry stock markets. By utilizing frequency-domain analyses, the energy futures market experiences the least amount of volatility from green stocks. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic affects the interconnectedness of markets. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, energy futures were the most suitable portfolio instrument for green industry stocks. When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, however, gold proved to be the most advantageous portfolio asset. The research findings of this paper demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 on the selection of the best investment instruments for green industry stocks, which is beneficial for reducing the investment risk of green financial market participants and increasing the demand for green stock markets, while also providing practical advice for environmentally conscious investors and policymakers. Full article

In recent years, due to the rise in energy prices and the impact of COVID-19, energy shortages have led to unsafe power supply environments. High emissions industries which account for more than 58% of the carbon emissions of Guangdong Province have played an important role in achieving the carbon peak goal, alleviating social energy shortage and promoting economic growth. Controlling high emissions industries will help to adjust the industrial structure and increase renewable energy investment. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the policies of energy security and the investments of high emission industries. This paper builds the ICEEH-GD (comprehensive assessment model of climate, economy, environment and health of Guangdong Province) model, designs the Energy Security scenario (ES), the Restrict High Carbon Emission Sector scenario (RHS) and the Comprehensive Policy scenario (CP), and studies the impact of limiting high emissions industries and renewable energy policies on the transformation of investment structure, macro-economy and society. The results show that under the Energy Security scenario (ES), carbon emissions will peak in 2029, with a peak of 681 million tons. Under the condition of ensuring energy security, the installed capacity of coal-fired power generation will remain unchanged from 2025 to 2035. Under the Restrict High Carbon Emission Sector scenario (RHS), the GDP will increase by 8 billion yuan compared with the ES scenario by 2035. At the same time, it can promote the whole society to increase 10,500 employment opportunities, and more investment will flow to the low emissions industries. In the Comprehensive Policy scenario (CP), although the GDP loss will reach 33 billion yuan by 2035 compared with the Energy Security scenario (ES), the transportation and service industries will participate in carbon trading by optimizing the distribution of carbon restrictions in the whole society, which will reduce the carbon cost of the whole society by more than 48%, and promote the employment growth of 104,000 people through industrial structure optimization. Therefore, the power sector should increase investment in renewable energy to ensure energy security, limit the new production capacity of high emissions industries such as cement, steel and ceramics, and increase the green transition and efficiency improvement of existing high emissions industries. Full article

Discussions on the impact of climate change and ways of protecting climate change impact driven by environmentally unfriendly activities have taken the center stage of global development agendas. The importance of environmental sustainability is also reflected in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Green taxes have become pivotal to protecting the environment, revenue generation and achievement of the SDGs. Through a critical literature review, this paper explores the opportunities and challenges associated with green taxes with respect to revenue mobilization, protection of the environment and delivery of the SDGs. The paper gives an insight to green taxes, exploring the motives of green taxes and the possible implications for environmental sustainability, sustainable development, and attainment of the SDGs in the African context. Fossil fuels such as coal, crude oil and natural gases are fundamental sources of energy for African countries. Therefore, the continent faces a dilemma of how to ensure green economic growth, reduce environmental and climate change problems, and at the same time foster effective revenue mobilization. The review established that while green taxes can provide an opportunity for green transformation policy reforms and boost revenue mobilization to stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth and economic recovery from the COVID-19-induced economic recession, the taxes can increase inequality, heighten the cost of energy, and increase energy poverty for those dependent on fossil fuel for energy. The lack of affordability and access would compromise SDGs such as 7 and 1 (access to clean energy and poverty reduction, respectively). The taxes could lead to a disjointed value chain with consumers disadvantaged and an increase in black market activities as people seek cheaper but unsafe alternatives, indirectly increasing the social costs such as health risks and challenges, poverty, and unemployment. Full article

In 2019, Europe adopted the New Green Deal as a strategic plan to become a competitive, resource-efficient, and driven economy by reducing its gas emissions and carbon footprint. Due the COVID-19 pandemic, this strategic plan was recently updated to expedite the green transition of European industries. Therefore, the present paper deals with the problem of deciding an appropriate size for a biomass plant that directly produces electric energy by means of two different conversion processes: combustion and gasification. After an initial estimation of the energy potential in western Sicily, GIS data of biomass growth were used to identify the appropriate size for the power plants under investigation. The economic feasibility of biomass utilization was evaluated over a capacity range of 10 to 30 MW, considering total capital investments, revenues from energy sales, and total operating costs. Moreover, the effect of variations on incentive prices was analyzed by means of a sensitivity analysis. Comparing the different plant solutions considered, the environmental sustainability was also analyzed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The results showed that the combustion solution had a higher profitability and a lower environmental impact for each plant size. The obtained results also demonstrated that providing power from residual biomass in small agricultural communities would significantly reduce their environmental impacts while improving the economic feasibility of their waste management practices. Full article

Green energy is a crucial component in addressing expanding energy demands and combating climate change, but the possible negative repercussions of these technologies are frequently disregarded. Green energy’s deployment is tied to environmentally sustainable development goals (SDGs). It can only be achieved by scaling up the finance of investment that provides environmental benefits through new financial instruments and new policies, such as green banks, green bonds, community-based green funds, green central banking, etc. In an effort to address the issues with IPAT and ImPACT, this study employed the STIRPAT model approach, which is a proven framework for energy economics analysis. The author gathers yearly data spanning 2002–2018 for six ASEAN member countries with the aim of investigating the relationship between CO₂ emissions, green finance, energy efficiency, and the green energy index (GEX). After preliminary tests, the study employed the Westerlund test and Johansen Fisher test for long-term equilibrium and estimated the Granger causal links between variables using the generalized method of moments (GMM). The results indicate that green bonds are an effective technique for promoting green energy projects and considerably reducing CO₂ emissions. Therefore, governments should establish supporting policies with a long-term perspective to increase the investment of green energy projects related investment from private participants to ensure sustainable growth and address environmental challenges. This strategy may be appropriate during and after the COVID-19 period. Full article

Post-pandemic, the use of medical supplies, such as masks, for epidemic prevention remains high. The explosive growth of medical waste during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant environmental problems. To alleviate this, environment-friendly epidemic prevention measures should be developed, used, and promoted. However, contradictions exist between governments, production enterprises, and medical institutions regarding the green transformation of anti-epidemic supplies. Consequently, this study aimed to investigate how to effectively guide the green transformation. Concerning masks, a tripartite evolutionary game model, consisting of governments, mask enterprises, and medical institutions, was established for the supervision of mask production and use, boundary conditions of evolutionary stabilization strategies and government regulations were analyzed, and a dynamic system model was used for the simulation analysis. This analysis revealed that the only tripartite evolutionary stability strategy is for governments to deregulate mask production, enterprises to increase eco-friendly mask production, and medical institutions to use these masks. From the comprehensive analysis, a few important findings are obtained. First, government regulation can promote the green transformation process of anti-epidemic supplies. Government should realize the green transformation of anti-epidemic supplies immediately in order to avoid severe reputation damage. Second, external parameter changes can significantly impact the strategy selection process of all players. Interestingly, it is further found that the cost benefit for using environmentally friendly masks has a great influence on whether green transformation can be achieved. Consequently, the government should establish a favorable marketplace for, and promote the development of, inexpensive, high-quality, and effective environmentally friendly masks in order to achieve the ultimate goal of green transformation of anti-epidemic supplies in the post-pandemic era. Full article