Agri-environmental policies from 1960 to 2022.

For both research and practice, it is paramount to understand what, where and when agri-environmental policies have been put in place. Here we present a database of 6,124 agri-environmental policies implemented between 1960 and 2022 in about 200 countries. The database comprises a wide range of policy types (including regulations and payment schemes) and goals (such as biodiversity conservation, safer pesticide use and reducing nutrient pollution). We illustrate the application of the database by exploring the association between economic development and agri-environmental policies and between the soil-related, agri-environmental policies of countries and their border discontinuities in cropland erosion. A strong, positive link between economic development and implemented agri-environmental policies is revealed, and it is found that 43% of all global border discontinuities in soil erosion between countries can be explained by differences in their policies.

Ending extreme poverty has a negligible impact on global greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing consumption is both necessary to end extreme poverty1and one of the main drivers of greenhouse gas emissions2, creating a potential tension between alleviating poverty and limiting global warming. Most poverty reduction has historically occurred because of economic growth3-6, which means that reducing poverty entails increasing not only the consumption of people living in poverty but also the consumption of people with a higher income. Here we estimate the emissions associated with the economic growth needed to alleviate extreme poverty using the international poverty line of US $2.15 per day (ref. 7). Even with historical energy- and carbon-intensity patterns, the global emissions increase associated with alleviating extreme poverty is modest, at 2.37 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year or 4.9% of 2019 global emissions. Lower inequality, higher energy efficiency and decarbonization of energy can ease this tension further: assuming the best historical performance, the emissions for poverty alleviation in 2050 will be reduced by 90%. More ambitious poverty lines require more economic growth in more countries, which leads to notably higher emissions. The challenge to align the development and climate objectives of the world is not in reconciling extreme poverty alleviation with climate objectives but in providing sustainable middle-income standards of living.

Digital finance and regional green innovation: the perspective of environmental regulation.

The relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation has been partially confirmed, yet the role of environmental regulation in it remains unexplored. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of digital finance on regional green innovation and tests the moderating role of environmental regulation using Chinese city-level data from 2011 to 2019 as a research sample. The results show that digital finance can significantly promote regional green innovation by alleviating regional financing constraints and increasing regional R&D investment. Besides, digital finance has apparent regional difference effects (the contribution of digital finance to regional green innovation is greater in eastern China than in western China, and the development of digital finance in neighbouring regions has a negative transmission effect on local green innovation). Finally, environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation. This paper explores the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation from the perspective of environmental regulation, providing empirical evidence to promote regional green innovation.

Understanding the nexus between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and financial performance: evidence from Chinese-listed companies.

Before discussing how to balance and decide on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and traditional revenue enhancement projects, it is crucial to clarify the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and ESG. However, little attention has been paid to the nexus of ESG and CFP. This paper attempts firstly to investigate the bidirectional causality of ESG and CFP, followed by the micro-foundations, and finally, the moderating effect of intrinsic factors. A GMM-PVAR method was used to examine the research hypotheses, which can effectively deal with endogenous problems that have been ignored by traditional literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that CFP promoted ESG growth, but ESG did not boost CFP. This asymmetric causality was because CFP had a supportive effect on the environment and society pillars, while the social pillar cannot promote CFP, and the environment pillar negatively affects CFP. The relationship between ESG and CFP was moderated by total quality management, environmental sensitivity, and the pay gap. Furtherly, a panel threshold model was constructed to access the threshold effects of ESG on CFP, showing an inverted U-shape. Based on these findings, the theoretical implications, managerial prescriptions, and limitations are also discussed.

Hope-hype of green innovation, corporate governance index, and impact on firm financial performance: a comparative study of Southeast Asian countries.

The current production and conception have impacted the environmental hazards. Green innovation (GI) is the ideal solution for sustainable production, consumption, and ecological conservation. The objective of the study is to compare comprehensive green innovation (green product, process, service, and organization) impact on firm financial performance in Malaysia and Indonesia, along with the first study to measure the moderation role of the corporate governance index. This study has addressed the gap by developing the green innovation and corporate governance index. Collected panel data from the top 188 publicly listed firms for 3 years and analyzed it using the general least square method. The empirical evidence demonstrates that the green innovation practice is better in Malaysia, and the outcome also shows that the significance level is higher in Indonesia. This study also provides empirical evidence that board composition has a positive moderation relationship betwixt GI and business performance in Malaysia but is insignificant in Indonesia. This comparative study provides new insights to the policymakers and practitioners of both countries to monitor and manage green innovation practices.

West Oakland's Experience in Building Community Power to Confront Environmental Injustice Through California's Assembly Bill 617.

We explored how air quality management processes associated with Assembly Bill 617 (AB 617) in West Oakland, California, represent a shift in power relationships between government agencies and communities toward the goal of addressing legacies of environmental injustice. We drew from a statewide assessment of community engagement in AB 617's first year, and an analysis of the West Oakland AB 617 process. The first comprised 2 statewide surveys (n = 102 and n = 106), 70 key informant interviews, observation of all AB 617 first-year sites, and analysis of related planning documents. The second comprised 2 rounds of interviews (n = 22 and n = 23, with a total of 19 individuals) and extensive participant observation. Several factors are necessary for pursuing environmental justice: (1) invest in community partnerships and collaborations, (2) honor community knowledge and data, (3) ensure that community constituents share power in environmental governance, and (4) adopt explicit racial justice frameworks. Although still a work in progress, AB 617 offers important lessons for community and policy organizations nationwide engaged in environmental justice. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(2):262-270. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306592).

Federal Statutes and Environmental Justice in the Navajo Nation: The Case of Fracking in the Greater Chaco Region.

Arguing for the importance of robust public participation and meaningful Tribal consultation to address the cumulative impacts of federal projects, we bridge interdisciplinary perspectives across law, public health, and Indigenous studies. We focus on openings in existing federal law to involve Tribes and publics more meaningfully in resource management planning, while recognizing the limits of this involvement when only the federal government dictates the terms of participation and analysis. We first discuss challenges and opportunities for addressing cumulative impacts and environmental justice through 2 US federal statutes: the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. Focusing on a major federal planning process involving fracking in the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico, we examine how the Department of the Interior attempted Tribal consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also highlight local efforts to monitor Diné health and well-being. For Diné people, human health is inseparable from the health of the land. But in applying the primary legal tools for analyzing the effects of extraction across the Greater Chaco region, federal agencies fragment categories of impact that Diné people view holistically. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):116-123. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306562).

Green credit, environmental protection investment and debt financing for heavily polluting enterprises.

The paper takes listed companies in the heavily polluting industry from 2009-2017 as a research sample to explore whether heavy pollution enterprises' environmental protection investment helps their debt financing under the institutional background of China's continuous implementation of green credit policy. It is found that, in general, the environmental protection investment of heavy pollution enterprises helps them to obtain more and relatively long-term new loans; in terms of time, this effect is more evident after the release of China's Green Credit Guidelines in 2012; in addition, the level of regional environmental pollution, the level of financial development and the green fiscal policy also have a moderating effect on this. This paper enriches the study of the economic consequences of corporate environmental protection investment from the perspective of debt financing. It examines the effects of the implementation of China's green credit policy and other institutional factors to provide a reference for the heavy pollution enterprises' environmental protection investment and the implementation of green credit policy by local governments in China.