Search Results (542)

This study examines the impact of green innovation investment on ESG rating divergence and the mediating role of product market competition, based on 11,768 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2011 to 2023. We measure green innovation by lagged green patent applications (distinguishing invention and utility model patents), ESG rating divergence by the standard deviation and range of scores from six mainstream international and domestic agencies, and product market competition using the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index. Using mediating effect models with multi-dimensional fixed effects and heterogeneity analysis, we find that green innovation significantly widens ESG rating divergence, with green invention innovation exerting a stronger impact. Product market competition plays a partial mediating role, as green innovation intensifies industry competition and further amplifies rating divergence. Heterogeneity analysis shows no significant effect for heavily polluting firms, while green invention innovation of high-attention firms is more likely to cause rating disputes. This study reveals the reverse spillover effect of green innovation on ESG evaluation, providing new perspectives for understanding rating divergence and references for corporate green strategies and rating system optimization. Full article

Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an important indicator for assessing urban green development under resource and environmental constraints. Using panel data from 110 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2007 to 2023, this study examines changes in urban green total factor productivity. A super-efficiency slack-based measure model that includes undesirable outputs is adopted to measure GTFP, while the Malmquist–Luenberger index is used to decompose its dynamic changes. Spatial variation is then analyzed through trend surface analysis, center-of-gravity migration analysis, spatial pattern analysis, and the geographical detector model. The results indicate that GTFP in the Yangtze River Economic Belt improved on the whole, but its growth did not follow a smooth upward path. Among the decomposed effects, technological progress (TC) was the main source of improvement. Clear spatial differences were also observed. Cities in the middle and lower reaches generally had higher GTFP levels than those in the upper reaches, although this gap became less marked over time. The center of gravity of GTFP stayed mainly in the middle reaches and shifted gradually toward the northeast. The driving factors behind spatial differentiation were not constant. In the early stage, energy intensity and economic development level had stronger effects, whereas technological innovation, human capital, and industrial structure upgrading became more influential in the later stage. These findings provide empirical support for differentiated green development policies and coordinated regional governance in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Full article

Background/Objectives: The pharmacological management of inflammation remains a clinical challenge, driving the demand for advanced topical formulations. This study utilizes a “smart-NADES” (natural deep eutectic solvent) paradigm to develop an innovative anti-inflammatory topical system. The aim was to evaluate the integrated antioxidant potential, alongside the in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory activities, of a novel smart-NADES licorice root extract and its hydrogel formulation. Methods: A NADES system composed of D-sorbitol and L-lactic acid (3:1) was employed for licorice root extraction. The antioxidant capacity was assessed using three independent assays and integrated via the Relative Antioxidant Capacity Index (RACI), while phytochemical interactions were quantified using the Chou–Talalai Combination Index (CI). In vitro anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated via protein stabilization capacity, and in vivo efficacy was validated using a formalin-induced paw edema model in mice. Results: The NADES extract contained glycyrrhizic acid levels of 6.3 ± 0.3 mg/g and showed strong antioxidant synergism in the DPPH assay (CI = 0.49 ± 0.07). The extract exhibited potent total antioxidant capacity (IC₅₀ = 11.9 ± 0.6 μg/mL) with a superior RACI score (1.23). In vitro protein stabilization (IC₅₀ = 63 ± 5 μg/mL) was comparable to diclofenac sodium. The 5% hydrogel numerically surpassed the commercial 2% diclofenac Emulgel (67.5% vs. 32.9% inhibition, respectively) at 24 h, although the direct pairwise comparison did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.186). Conclusions: The developed smart-NADES licorice hydrogel represents an effective, green formulation with pronounced topical anti-inflammatory properties, establishing a robust pharmacological rationale for advanced topical drug delivery. Full article

Achieving a balance between economic expansion and environmental preservation is a core challenge of sustainable development. Based on panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2006 to 2023, this study develops a digital economy index, measures GTFP using the SBM-GML framework, and examines the relationship between digital economy development and GTFP. The results show that digital economy development is positively associated with GTFP, and the findings remain robust after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Further moderating analysis indicates that industrial structure rationalization, industrial structure advancement, green innovation, and ecological compensation policy strengthen the relationship between digital economy development and GTFP. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this relationship is stronger in high-tier cities, highly urbanized cities, and Broadband China demonstration cities. Spatial analysis further suggests that digital economy development may generate spillover effects through intercity linkages within the Yangtze River Delta. By integrating digital transformation, ecological governance, regional interdependence, and green productivity improvement into a unified analytical framework, this study provides city-level evidence for promoting coordinated green transformation and sustainable regional development. Full article

This paper examines the concept of green growth within the G7 countries, particularly the connections between energy transition, green innovation, financial inclusion, and the circular economy. The analysis of the data using the CS-ARDL model reveals strong long-term and short-term relationships between these variables and green growth. It is demonstrated that energy transition, measured by the Energy Transition Index (ETI), positively affects green growth, as the coefficient of energy transition in the long run is positive, 0.45, which explains the need to adopt renewable energy sources. Green innovation (based on environmental patents) has a positive contribution as well (coefficient = 0.28), which highlights its contribution towards sustainable economic development. The significance of financial inclusion comes out, and its coefficient is positive and significant, 0.40, in the long run, indicating the importance of financial access in facilitating green investments. Conversely, the negative correlation that was found between carbon intensity and green growth indicates that going low on emissions per unit of GDP is an essential component of a sustainable process (coefficient = −0.20). Green growth is augmented by the interaction of the practice of the circular economy and financial inclusion (long-run 0.12). These results highlight the importance of combined policies that can facilitate energy transformation, innovation, financial inclusion, and the strategy of the circular economy to attain sustainable growth in G7 countries. Full article

Corporate carbon reporting differs not only in its overall extent but also in the informational content and verifiability of the disclosed items. This study examines the relationship between carbon information disclosure and green invention patenting using 44,327 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed firms between 2009 and 2024. Green invention patent applications are used to capture invention-oriented green innovation, while carbon disclosure is decomposed into soft and hard components according to the nature of the underlying disclosure items. The empirical analysis employs firm and year fixed-effects models, standardized coefficient comparisons, cluster bootstrap procedures, ownership interaction tests, and a series of alternative timing, sample, and measurement specifications. The results show that greater lagged carbon information disclosure is positively associated with subsequent green invention patenting. Both soft and hard disclosure are positively associated with green invention patenting, but formal coefficient comparisons indicate that the association is significantly stronger for hard disclosure. Further decomposition shows that governance-, risk-, and strategy-oriented soft disclosure remains positively associated with green invention patenting, whereas carbon-target disclosure alone is not statistically significant. Additional evidence indicates that the hard-disclosure share varies systematically across ownership types, pollution-intensive industries, and provinces. The SA-index results are consistent with a potential financing-constraint channel, although this evidence remains suggestive because the research design is observational and alternative financing-constraint measures do not produce fully consistent results. The positive association between carbon disclosure and green invention patenting is also more pronounced among state-owned enterprises and remains stable across multiple robustness specifications. These findings highlight the importance of disclosure composition and suggest that quantitative, measurable, and externally verifiable carbon information is more strongly associated with green invention patenting than commitment-oriented reporting. Full article

Digital transformation is a key initiative to promote corporate sustainability. However, in the absence of unified information disclosure standards and effective verification mechanisms, the digital transformation information disclosed by firms may not fully reflect their actual progress in transformation. This paper focuses on the relative discrepancy between the digital transformation information disclosed by firms and their actual level of digital transformation. It constructs a catering index for information disclosure using China’s A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2024 and empirically examines the impact of this disclosure and related catering behavior on corporate sustainability performance. The study finds that digital transformation information disclosure (DIG) significantly enhances corporate sustainability performance (CSP), with green collaborative innovation (GCO) partially mediating this effect. Catering behavior (Cater) negatively moderates the relationship between digital transformation information disclosure and corporate sustainability performance and weakens the mediating effect of green collaborative innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative moderating effect of catering behavior (Cater) is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, small-sized enterprises, industries with low environmental sensitivity, and low competitive industries. This study provides a basis for identifying the consistency between corporate digital transformation disclosure and actual transformation progress and offers valuable references for standardizing disclosure practices, promoting green collaborative development, and enhancing corporate sustainability performance. Full article

The accelerating energy transition and growing geopolitical uncertainty have strengthened the strategic importance of hydrogen within future low-carbon energy systems. Green hydrogen is increasingly recognized as a key energy carrier supporting industrial decarbonization, renewable energy integration, long-term energy storage and energy security. However, existing hydrogen market assessment approaches remain fragmented and frequently focus on isolated technological, regulatory, or investment-related dimensions without sufficiently integrating the systemic interactions that shape hydrogen market maturity. To address this research gap, this study proposes the Integrated Green Hydrogen Market Development Index (IGHMDI), a multidimensional composite indicator framework designed to evaluate hydrogen market development through the integration of regulatory, technological, infrastructural, financial and strategic dimensions. This methodological framework is based on established principles of composite indicator construction, including indicator selection, normalization, weighting, and aggregation procedures adapted to the characteristics of emerging hydrogen markets. The proposed framework incorporates six principal dimensions: regulatory and policy development, technological readiness, infrastructure and market integration, investment and financial readiness, market demand and industrial adoption, and international cooperation and strategic positioning. An illustrative pilot application comparing Croatia and Germany is used to demonstrate the operational logic of the framework and its ability to distinguish between hydrogen markets at different stages of development. The illustrative assessment produced composite IGHMDI scores of 65.0 for Croatia and 91.7 for Germany, demonstrating the framework’s capability to distinguish hydrogen markets at different stages of structural development while providing a transparent basis for comparative assessment. The results indicate that hydrogen market development increasingly depends on the interaction between regulatory stability, infrastructure readiness, technological innovation, investment support mechanisms, market demand, and international coordination. The study also acknowledges that broader empirical validation, sensitivity analysis, and longitudinal application across a larger set of countries are required in future research. Overall, the IGHMDI framework contributes to the development of multidimensional hydrogen market assessment methodologies and provides a transparent analytical tool for comparative benchmarking, policy evaluation, infrastructure prioritization, and future hydrogen transition governance. Full article

This study analyses the evolution of the financial literature on climate risk, examining the integration of artificial intelligence techniques into its measurement and management. To this end, a bibliometric approach is employed based on 221 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, using the Bibliometrix package. Moving beyond existing descriptive bibliometric reviews on ESG and green finance, the novelty of this paper lies in its analytical focus on how financial science operationalises quantitative AI mechanisms to price and integrate climate transition risk into asset and portfolio valuation. The structural analysis reveals that natural language processing (NLP) and digital transformation acting as driving motor themes, suggesting that the reviewed literature associates AI innovation policies with the mitigation of corporate greenwashing and enhance information transparency. Furthermore, while machine learning algorithms establish the cross-cutting predictive foundation for risk assessment, empirical evidence unveils a critical academic shift of traditional ‘financial performance’ towards a declining quadrant, indicating that empirical studies frequently find that that multi-phase investments in risk technologies do not yield immediate financial returns. Finally, the study maps a persistent geographical gap where emerging markets lack the data infrastructure of advanced economies, alongside isolated high-dimensional causal econometric niches like double machine learning. This analytical mapping provides key implications for global risk management and future quantitative research avenues. Full article

In light of growing concerns about sustainable development and green innovation, the green market has progressively taken center stage in the financial markets. From the nonlinear information transmission angle, we look into the interconnectedness between the global banking sectors and the green markets using transfer entropy causal networks, containing the Dow Jones Green Bond Index (SPGB), Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), The S&P Global Clean Energy Index (SPCL), and MSCI World ESG Leaders Index (ESGL). We observe significant bidirectional causal relationships between two markets. The banking industries of developed nations and emerging economies like South Korea, Indonesia, and India are the most important, while four green markets are vital. Furthermore, using the CEEMDAN-SE-KM approach, this study also investigates the two markets’ heterogeneous performance at various time scales. The causal relationships between two markets exhibit heterogeneity at time scales, and that is most noticeable at the short-term scale. Additionally, after the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, there is an increase in the causal relationships between the two markets and a higher efficiency of information transmission. These results help regulatory bodies and green market players have a more thorough understanding of and dynamic regulation of the green market. Full article

Sustainable finance serves as a critical institutional lever for steering the national economic system toward a green transition, while the sustained rise in ecologically integrated output efficiency provides an important breakthrough for resolving the long-standing apparent tension between growth performance and ecological quality. Drawing on panel data from 30 provincial-level administrative units in China over the period 2005–2022, and employing a non-radial efficiency measurement index, a difference-in-differences identification strategy, and a synthetic comparative analysis method, this paper systematically examines the policy intervention effects and transmission mechanisms of the ecological loan interest compensation system on regional ecologically integrated output efficiency. The empirical results indicate that, within the sample observation window, following the implementation of the ecological loan interest compensation system, the ecologically integrated output efficiency of all provinces generally exhibited an upward trend, and the system exerted a significant positive driving effect on efficiency improvement. Transmission mechanism tests reveal that increased R&D and innovation activity, expanded sustainable credit scale, and optimization of industrial hierarchical structures constitute important intermediate links in the chain of policy effect transmission. Conditional effect analysis further reveals that the intervention effects of this system display a pronounced uneven distribution pattern across geographical space. Full article

Reconciling pollution–carbon reduction with green growth is a central challenge for sustainable urban transition, yet the role of innovation-oriented financial policy in this process remains insufficiently understood. This study uses China’s sci-tech finance pilot policy (STFP) as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a multi-period difference-in-differences model to panel data for 284 prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2023. The baseline results show that STFP significantly reduces the pollution–carbon synergistic pressure index (PCSP) and improves the green growth efficiency index (GGEI). Specifically, the policy reduces PCSP by approximately 8.10% and increases GGEI by 0.0350 units. These conclusions hold after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that STFP works through three pathways: stimulating green industrial entrepreneurship, promoting green and digital technological innovation, and inducing the agglomeration of capital, talent, and technology factors. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effect is more pronounced in large cities, cities with stronger collaborative governance capacity, and cities with better innovation environments. Spatial analysis reveals that STFP significantly reduces PCSP in neighboring cities, but has no significant spatial spillover effect on GGEI. Further analysis shows that STFP strengthens the coordinated improvement of pollution–carbon reduction and green growth. Policy-interaction analysis indicates that the Zero-Waste City pilot enhances the effect of STFP, whereas green finance policy exhibits a marginal substitution effect. This study provides city-level evidence on how sci-tech finance can serve as an institutional instrument for coordinating environmental governance and green growth in sustainable urban transition. Full article

In the context of increasing beef import dependence, global feed-market volatility, climate risks, and sustainability-oriented livestock transformation, strengthening the resilience of China’s beef cattle industry is essential for food security, rural livelihoods, and green livestock development. Using panel data from 31 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2022, this study constructs a four-dimensional resilience evaluation system covering foundational, resistance, recovery, and sustainability capacities, and applies the entropy weight method, kernel density estimation, the Dagum Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and an obstacle degree model. The results show that the national resilience index of China’s beef cattle industry increased from 0.105 in 2012 to 0.167 in 2022, although the overall level remained relatively low. Sustainability capacity exhibited a shallow U-shaped trajectory, while foundational, resistance, and recovery capacities improved more steadily. The average Dagum Gini coefficient was 0.277, indicating persistent regional imbalance in beef cattle industry resilience. Provincial disparities widened, positive spatial agglomeration weakened, and local spatial heterogeneity became more pronounced. The key constraints included insufficient forage supply, a low level of production scale, weak breeding infrastructure, and lagging innovation capacity, with clear spatial heterogeneity. This study develops a resilience evaluation framework for long-cycle livestock industries and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for the sustainable development of the beef cattle industry in China and other developing livestock systems. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping production systems, innovation processes, and environmental governance, yet its green productivity effects remain ambiguous because AI may both improve efficiency and increase computing-related energy demand. Using panel data for 287 Chinese prefecture-level and above cities from 2005 to 2023, this study examines the relationship between AI technological development and urban green productivity, through which technological transmission channels this effect may operate, and under what boundary conditions it becomes stronger. Green productivity is measured by an undesirable output Super-SBM model, AI by city-level AI patent grants, and green computing capacity by a composite index covering computing infrastructure, green energy support, low-carbon operating efficiency, and computing–network coordination. The results show a robust positive association between AI technological development and urban green productivity, and this conclusion remains robust after alternative measurements, sample restrictions, winsorization, lagged regressors, and Bartik instrumental variable estimations. Green computing capacity is associated with a stronger AI–green productivity relationship. Mechanism-consistent evidence suggests three channels: green knowledge recombination, intelligent regulation of carbon energy flows, and green value-chain coordination. Heterogeneity analyses reveal stronger effects in cities with higher green computing capacity, stronger industrial foundations and weaker resource-environmental constraints. These findings provide city-level evidence for coordinating AI development with green computing infrastructure and low-carbon governance. Full article

The global necessity for sustainable development has prompted a significant re-evaluation of practices across diverse industries, notably influencing the cosmetic sector’s approach to ingredient management. To address this imperative, the L’Oréal Group launched its “Green Sciences” initiative, aiming to support the transition toward more sustainable cosmetic ingredients. This article introduces the Green Sciences Index (GSI), an assessment tool designed for a structured and standardized evaluation of cosmetic ingredient sustainability to assist innovators in selecting ingredients during the early stages of development. Adopting a life-cycle perspective, the proposed framework assesses feedstock origin, ingredient manufacturing processes, and the environmental impact of an ingredient’s end-of-life. The GSI was specifically designed with a focus on the global manufacturing pathway, from primary feedstocks to the final ingredients. It integrates an assessment framework inspired by the Principles of Green Chemistry for cosmetic ingredients, encouraging specific sustainable manufacturing practices, structured around “Biotechnology and Fermentation”, “Eco-extraction and Physical Processes”, and synthesis by “Green Chemistry”. The practical application of the GSI is demonstrated through a series of concrete case studies featuring diverse ingredients. The GSI is an eco-design lever serving as a pre-screening orientation tool at the ingredient level, complementing comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments to guide development and innovation toward more sustainable cosmetic products. Full article