The optimal choice of environmental tax revenue usage: Incentives for cleaner production or end-of-pipe treatment?

The environmental tax system is effective in pollution abatement. However, levying an environmental tax may be detrimental to economic growth. Reasonable use of environmental tax revenue may achieve both environmental protection and economic growth. This study proposes to earmark environmental tax revenue for pollution treatment. Taking fiscal expenditure theory into consideration, environmental tax revenue usage is divided into transfer expenditure and purchase expenditure. An environmental computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is established to evaluate the effects of environmental tax revenue usage. The optimal choice is to increase the environmental tax rate and simultaneously use tax revenue for cleaner production subsidies and end-of-pipe treatment expenditures. Under the optimal scenario, pollutant retention decreases by 21.45%, and GDP increases by 0.006%. For most regions in China, it is better to raise the environmental tax rate to the middle level of a specified range. Moreover, the government should distribute environmental tax revenue evenly across the expenditure of different environmental protection projects.

Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: considering the impact of Sino-US trade on three main industries in China.

To achieve carbon neutrality and carbon reduction goals, China needs to consider industrial structure and trade. This study aims to test the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis at the industry level in China and study the different impact of Sino-US trade in intermediate goods and trade in final goods on China's environment. To do so, we used the annual data of China's 25 sectors in 1990-2015 and classified 25 sectors into three main industries. Based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology framework, we investigated the validity of EKC hypothesis and the driving factors of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results show that (1) EKC hypothesis is verified for the country and the tertiary industry. (2) Compared with the primary industry and the secondary industry, the economic growth of the tertiary industry brings less GHG emissions. (3) Intermediate goods exported to all sectors in the USA will increase GHG emissions in the country and the three main industries, but final goods exported to consumers in the USA will reduce GHG emissions except the tertiary industry. From our results, the EKC hypothesis is a suitable model for environmental policy in tertiary industry, but it does not apply to the primary industry and the secondary industry. Environmental policy in the primary industry and the secondary industry needs to focus on reducing energy intensity. In the case of exports to the USA, intermediate goods pollute the environment, while final improve the environment. Thus, China needs to increase controls on exports of intermediate goods with low added value and high pollution and gradually shift to the production of environmentally friendly final goods.

China's low-carbon economic transition: Provincial analysis from 2002 to 2012.

As the largest energy consumer and CO2-emitting country, China is committed to achieving a low-carbon economy (LCE). This study seeks to understand the spatial evolution of China's LCE provinces and determine which sectors could promote the formation of LCE provinces. Multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis is applied to filter the LCE provinces and the sectoral structure changes behind the LCE in China from 2002 to 2012. The result shows that approximately 30% of the provinces (i.e., Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Chongqing) become LCE provinces faster than other provinces from 2002 to 2012, and the location of the LCE provinces gradually shifts from coastal to inland regions after 2007. Some sectors (i.e., nonmetal mining, chemical industry and nonmetal manufacturing) gradually become LCE sectors from 2002 to 2012, and these sectors promote the formation and development of LCE provinces. On this basis, this study proposes policy implications regarding the benchmarking of sectors and a sectoral structure that can promote the formation of LCE provinces.

Did carbon dioxide emission regulations inhibit investments? A provincial panel analysis of China.

Investments, especially fixed asset investments, greatly affect carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. When investments are concentrated in regions with high CO2 emissions and high fossil energy consumption, the CO2 emission reduction targets in these areas are difficult to reach in the short term, and the cost of CO2 emission abatement is high. The current CO2 emission regulations focus on existing production activities and consumption behaviors. However, whether an investment, which may affect CO2 emissions in the long term, is effectively inhibited by CO2 emission regulations has not been investigated in previous studies. Using panel data from 30 provinces in China between 2003 and 2012, we tested whether the amount of provincial investment was constrained or promoted by the provincial CO2 emission regulations by creating a panel model with provincial samples. The results revealed that CO2 emission regulations did not inhibit the growth of an investment, but they stimulated investments to varying degrees in different provinces. A relatively positive result is that provinces with stronger CO2 emission regulations exhibited a relatively small contribution to investment promotion, while provinces with weaker CO2 reduction policies demonstrated a relatively large contribution to investment growth. We also found that investment was correlated with the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the northeastern and western provinces. Finally, we proposed policy implications based on the utilization of policy tools from the perspectives of investment, energy structure, and local protectionism.

The influence of land urbanization on landslides: An empirical estimation based on Chinese provincial panel data.

This study used panel data for 28 provinces and municipalities in China from 2003 to 2014 to investigate the relationship between land urbanization and landslides by building panel models for a national sample and subsamples from the three regions of China and studied the problems of landslide prevention measures based on the relationship. The results showed that 1) at the national level, the percentage of built-up area and road density are respectively negative and positive for landslides. 2) At the regional level, the improvement of landslide prevention measures with increasing economic development only appears in built-up areas. The percentage of built-up areas increases the number of landslides in the western region and decreases the number in the central and eastern regions; the degree of decrease in the eastern region is larger than in the central region. Road density increases the number of landslides in each region, and the degree increases gradually from the west to the east. 3) The effect of landslide prevention funding is not obvious. Although the amount of landslide prevention funds decreases the number of landslides at the national level, the degree of increase is too small. Except in the central region, the amount of landslide prevention funding did not decrease the number of landslides effectively in the western and eastern regions. We propose a series of policy implications based on these test results that may help to improve landslide prevention measures.

Spatial Dynamics of the Communities and the Role of Major Countries in the International Rare Earths Trade: A Complex Network Analysis.

Rare earths (RE) are critical materials in many high-technology products. Due to the uneven distribution and important functions for industrial development, most countries import RE from a handful of suppliers that are rich in RE, such as China. However, because of the rapid growth of RE exploitation and pollution of the mining and production process, some of the main suppliers have gradually tended to reduce the RE production and exports. Especially in the last decade, international RE trade has been changing in the trade community and trade volume. Based on complex network theory, we built an unweighted and weighted network to explore the evolution of the communities and identify the role of the major countries in the RE trade. The results show that an international RE trade network was dispersed and unstable because of the existence of five to nine trade communities in the unweighted network and four to eight trade communities in the weighted network in the past 13 years. Moreover, trade groups formed due to the great influence of geopolitical relations. China was often associated with the South America and African countries in the same trade group. In addition, Japan, China, the United States, and Germany had the largest impacts on international RE trade from 2002 to 2014. Last, some policy suggestions were highlighted according to the results.

Assessment of trading partners for China's rare earth exports using a decision analytic approach.

Chinese rare earth export policies currently result in accelerating its depletion. Thus adopting an optimal export trade selection strategy is crucial to determining and ultimately identifying the ideal trading partners. This paper introduces a multi-attribute decision-making methodology which is then used to select the optimal trading partner. In the method, an evaluation criteria system is established to assess the seven top trading partners based on three dimensions: political relationships, economic benefits and industrial security. Specifically, a simple additive weighing model derived from an additive utility function is utilized to calculate, rank and select alternatives. Results show that Japan would be the optimal trading partner for Chinese rare earths. The criteria evaluation method of trading partners for China's rare earth exports provides the Chinese government with a tool to enhance rare earth industrial policies.

Ecologically asynchronous agricultural practice erodes sustainability of the Loess Plateau of China.

Sustainability of agricultural landscapes depends largely on land-use practices. As one of the most productive and widespread agricultural soils, loess is often deep and easily eroded, posing grand challenges for environmental sustainability around the world. One prime example is the Loess Plateau of China, which has been cultivated for more than 7500 years. Based on long-term data sets, this study demonstrates that the dominant agricultural practice, winter wheat cropping, continues to be the primary driver for the massive soil erosion and landscape modifications on the Loess Plateau. This traditional farming system is asynchronous with the dynamic rhythm between natural vegetation and climate in the region. In particular, the long summer fallow period for winter wheat fields is concurrent with the heavy-rainstorm season, which greatly accelerates soil erosion. Our finding indicates that common land-use practices that have lasted for thousands of years in China are not environmentally sustainable. Agriculture in this region has relied primarily on the continuous "mining" of the soil for the past several thousand years but does not have a one-thousand-year future because of myriad environmental and socioeconomic factors associated with soil erosion. To contain soil erosion and promote sustainability on the Loess Plateau, therefore, a change in the agricultural regime is needed to make sure that current and future agricultural practices follow the vegetation-climate rhythm. In addition, to achieve environmental, economic, and social sustainability in this region, multifunctional land-use planning is required to increase landscape diversity and functions (e.g., proper arrangement of crop fields, orchards, and protected areas).

Ecosystem health assessment of the Jinghe River Watershed on the Huangtu Plateau.

An improved Costanza model was developed to assess the health of the Jinhe River Watershed ecosystem. The watershed is located at the center of the Huangtu Plateau in China and has suffered a severe disturbance in the last few decades. Three indicators including vigor, organization, and resilience were calculated respectively by merging ground-based observations with remotely sensed data on a watershed scale. Health indices of 12 topographic sub-watersheds were calculated using a modified Costanza formula. Health evaluated results indicated that sub-watersheds in the Huangtu mountain region were relatively healthy ecosystems with scores over 0.673. The sub-watersheds in the loess mountain and the loess gully regions, e.g., Jinghe, Heihe, and Honghe regions, scored moderately; their evaluated value ranged from 0.505 to 0.606. The two sub-watersheds in the loess gully region and all sub-watersheds in the loess hilly region scored the lowest, less than 0.50 and were considered unhealthy ecosystems. It can be argued that the loess hilly region and the loess gully regions should be in primary consideration for ecological protection and rehabilitation. This study provided a possible quantitative model for ecological planning and landscape management with respect to topographic conditions in this area.