Uncovering the differentiated impacts of carbon neutrality and clean air policies in multi-provinces of China.

Ambitious action plans have been launched to address climate change and air pollution. Through coupling the IMED|CGE, GAINS, and IMED|HEL models, this study investigate the impacts of implementing carbon neutrality and clean air policies on the energy-environment-health-economy chain in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Henan-Shandong-Shanxi region of China. Results show that Shandong holds the largest reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions toward the 1.5°C target. Shandong, Henan, and Hebei are of particularly prominent pollutant reduction potential. Synergistic effects of carbon reduction on decreasing PM2.5 concentration will increase in the future, specifically in energy-intensive regions. Co-deployment of carbon reduction and end-of-pipe technologies are beneficial to decrease PM2.5-related mortalities and economic loss by 4.7-12.9% in 2050. Provincial carbon reduction cost will be higher than monetary health benefits after 2030, indicating that more zero-carbon technologies should be developed. Our findings provide scientific enlightenment on policymaking toward achieving carbon reduction and pollution mitigation from multiple perspectives.

Spatial spillover effects of a carbon trading policy on green technology innovation in China.

A carbon market is a widely used policy tool worldwide. This study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) model to estimate the impact of a carbon trading policy on green technology innovation and applies a spatial DID (SDID) model to investigate its spatial spillover effects. The findings suggest that China's carbon market effectively promotes green technology innovation, as green invention patent applications for listed enterprises increase by 28.8% when implementing the carbon trading policy. Moreover, implementing a carbon trading policy promotes local green technology innovation and has spatial spillover effects on neighboring cities. Furthermore, heterogeneity test results show that the spatial spillover effects differ by geographical region, economic development levels, ownership type (state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises), and degree of government intervention. Therefore, we suggest enhancing enterprises' technological innovation by providing policy support and prioritizing the development of carbon markets in regions with high economic development levels.

Improved air quality from China's clean air actions alleviates health expenditure inequality.

Clean air actions aimed at improving air quality in China have brought about significant health benefits, thereby generating substantial savings in air-pollution-related healthcare spending. Yet, uneven regional air quality improvements and economic developments may alter existing inequality in health expenditures in the context of scarce healthcare resources. Here, we developed an econometric model that resolves individual characteristics at the city level to examine the disparity of public health expenditures in air quality improvements across regions differing in economic development and healthcare coverages and projected a range of future health expenditure savings under different air quality targets. We find that of the estimation on four air-pollution-related diseases (COPD, LRI, IHD, and stroke) in 98 cities over the year 2015-2017, a decline of 8.26 % in average hospitalization days and 10.21 % in hospitalization expenses was achieved, leading to a reduction of 8.09 % in total health expenditures as the implementation of clean air actions. Improved air quality has declined health expenditure inequality in low-middle cities and cities with imbalanced healthcare coverage. For example, the total expenses for the four diseases declined significantly in the low (-11.31 %) and medium (-7.34 %) per capita GDP groups, as well as a remarkable decline in the fewer medical resources. Health savings in some future scenarios are significant, showing substantial health expenditure savings under different air quality targets, but the savings will be greatly offset by an aging society. For example, In the Low-Level Improvement Pathway of air quality targets with aging (LLIPA scenario), health expenditure savings will be about 3537, 464, and 311 million CNY in the eastern, central, and western regions in 2035, respectively. Our findings thus highlight the importance of strengthening air pollution control policies and considering the equality of alleviating regional public health costs.

Reduction Effect of Carbon Emission Trading Policy in Decreasing PM2.5 Concentrations in China.

Carbon emissions trading is a market-based tool for solving environmental issues. This study used a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to estimate China's carbon trading pilots to reduce PM2.5 concentrations. The results of this quasi-natural experiment show that the carbon trading policy effectively reduces PM2.5 by 2.7 µg/m3. We used a propensity score matching (PSM-DID) method to minimize selection bias to construct a treatment and a control group. The results show the policy effect is robust, with a PM2.5 concentration reduction of 2.6 µg/m3. Furthermore, we employed a series of robustness checks to support our findings, which notably indicate that the effect of carbon trading on reducing PM2.5 differs across regions over the years. The western region of China tends to be the most easily affected region, and the early years of carbon trading show slightly greater reduction effects. Our findings provide valuable policy implications for establishing and promoting carbon trading in China and other countries.

Stakeholder Analysis of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Internet Recycling Industry.

With the acceleration of the digitization process and the popularization of the internet, the recycling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has become a potential and emerging recycling method. Stakeholders in the WEEE internet recycling industry have different roles which need to be clarified. The stakeholder structure and relationships, and stakeholder characteristics, lie at the core of recycling system governance. Therefore, it is necessary to identify stakeholders in the existing WEEE Internet recycling industry. This study selected 10 important stakeholders and classified them into key, potential, and marginal stakeholders using the Mitchell scale while analyzing their characteristics and interactions. The results showed that internet recycling companies, government, residents, and traditional recyclers are key stakeholders that are important for promoting the development of the industry. Based on the above analysis, policy advice is proposed to provide directions for the improvement of the WEEE industry.

Factors Influencing Residents' Behavior in Internet Recycling: From the Perspective of the Adoption of New Technology.

Achieving carbon neutrality has become a major national strategy for sustainability, and the recycling of recyclable resources is an important direction toward doing so. Due to the huge amounts of recyclable resources generated every year and the low recycling rate, a new Internet recycling model with great potential to increase the recycling rate has developed rapidly in China. However, low participation from residents hinders the sustainable development of Internet recycling. Through this study, we aim to uncover potential avenues for improving Internet recycling behavior. The factors influencing Internet recycling from the perspective of new technologies have scarcely been investigated. Therefore, this study used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology theoretical framework to explore the factors influencing residents' intentions and behavior toward Internet recycling. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 500 residents of Beijing, China, and empirical analysis was conducted using the structural equation model. The results indicated that social influence and performance expectancy significantly influence residents' intentions to participate in Internet recycling, whereas effort expectancy and perceived risk do not. Facilitating conditions and behavioral intentions were identified as influential factors for use behavior. Relevant recommendations for promoting residents' Internet recycling behavior were proposed.

Effect of cleaner residential heating policy on air pollution: A case study in Shandong Province, China.

Coal-fired heating in winter is a primary source of air pollution in many countries. In northern China, the use of scattered coal for winter heating has led to severe environmental issues. In this study, we use a quasi-natural experiment in Shandong Province, China, to investigate the effectiveness of a cleaner heating transition policy. Specifically, we use a difference-in-differences approach to identify the effects of the cleaner heating transition policy on air pollution using high-resolution hourly data. Our findings indicate that implementation of the policy could effectively reduce air pollution by decreasing a PM2.5 by 7.32%, PM10 by 2.62%, SO2 by 3.98%, and NO2 by 4.67%. In addition, we used event study and a series of robustness checks to further support our findings. Notably, our findings indicate that implementation of the policy includes a spatial spillover effect, which differs according to the level of compulsory implementation and the distance to a city centre. Overall, our findings can help promote the application of a cleaner transitioning policy for the entire country and offer guidance for further policy development regarding the effective reduction of winter air pollution in the developing world.