ABSTRACT
Governmental policies, regulations, and responses to the pandemic can benefit from a better understanding of people's resulting behaviours before, during, and after COVID-19. To avoid the inelasticity and subjectivity of survey datasets, several studies have already used some objective variables like air pollutants to estimate the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the urban transportation system. However, the usage of reactant gases and a narrow time scale might weaken the results somehow. Here, both the objective passenger volume of public transport and the concentration of private traffic emitted black carbon (BC) from 2018 to 2023 were collected/calculated to decipher the potential relationship between public and private traffic during the COVID-19 period. Our results indicated that the commuting patterns of citizens show significant (p < 0.01) different patterns before, during, and after the pandemic. To be specific, public transportation showed a significant (p < 0.01) positive correlation with private transportation before the pandemic. This public transportation was significantly (p < 0.01) affected by the outbreaks of COVID-19, showing a significant (p < 0.01) negative correlation with private transportation. Such impacts of the virus and governmental policy would affect the long-term behaviour of individuals and even affect public transportation usage after the pandemic. Our results also indicated that such behaviour was mainly linked to the governmental restriction policy and would soon be neglected after the cancellation of the restriction policy in China.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Quarantine , Transportation , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2 , Cities , Air Pollution/analysis , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollutants/analysis , China/epidemiology , Vehicle Emissions/analysis , Vehicle Emissions/prevention & control , Vehicle Emissions/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
Reliance upon fossil fuels and limited greenspace contribute to poor indoor and outdoor air quality and adverse health outcomes, particularly in communities of color. This article describes justice-informed public health and legal interventions to increase access to greenspace and accelerate the transitions to renewable energy and away from gas appliances.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Climate Change , Fossil Fuels , Public Health , Humans , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , United States , Renewable EnergyABSTRACT
Air pollution is arguably the most pressing human health concern today, accounting for approximately 7-9 million premature deaths worldwide. In the United States, more than 40% of early deaths caused by air pollution are assessed to be caused by emissions produced by neighboring states. This article examines one of the governance mechanisms used by the U.S. to address this issue: section 126 of the Clean Air Act. Critical factors including case length, evidence used, and case outcome are compiled for the population of section 126 petitions submitted from 2000-2022. This evidence is assessed using comparative case analysis. The findings reinforce two issues with the petition process already identified in the literature-the use of cost as a proxy for significance and the excessive and unclear burden of proof placed on downwind states-adding texture to the latter issue by examining the modeling techniques used by downwind states. This analysis identifies lengthy response timelines as an additional issue and calls to attention the infrequency with which the EPA has formally accepted petitions. Collectively, these issues increase the cost, complexity, and unpredictability of filing a section 126 petition.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , United States Environmental Protection Agency , United States , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Air Pollutants/analysisABSTRACT
As an emerging force enabling high-quality economic development, digital economy (DE) still requires further investigation regarding its impact on synergistic governance of pollutants and carbon emissions (SGPCE). This study examines the impact of DE on SGPCE using two-way fixed effects model, intermediary effect model, and spatial Durbin model using provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020. The research reveals that: (1) DE has a significant promoting effect on SGPCE. (2) Enhancing the degree of green technology innovation is a crucial means of transmission for DE to propel SGPCE. (3) DE additionally exerts a constructive influence on SGPCE in adjacent regions, manifesting a spatial spillover effect. (4) Furthermore, DE demonstrates a notably heightened impact on SGPCE in the western region with respect to regional heterogeneity. Additionally, in the realm of dimension heterogeneity, the industrial digitization yields more favorable dividends for SGPCE compared to digital industrialization. The above conclusions provide novel insights and empirical evidence to validate the connection between DE and SGPCE. It also gives new policy recommendations for China to combat pollution prevention and climate warming under the wave of global digitization.
Subject(s)
Economic Development , China , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/analysis , Air Pollutants/analysis , Carbon/analysis , Environmental Monitoring/methodsABSTRACT
The American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 contains climate-related provisions that may have noteworthy implications for cancer control and prevention. This commentary assesses the potential co-benefits of the IRA for cancer control efforts, specifically policies and programs to reduce carcinogen exposure via air quality monitoring and air pollution reduction. Allocations through the IRA for air quality improvement, paired with its environmental justice provisions, hold promise for advancing cancer prevention by targeting resources to communities most susceptible to environmental hazards. Moreover, climate resilience measures dictated by the IRA are crucial for oncology professionals grappling with the dual challenges of climate change and cancer care. Climate-driven extreme weather events can exacerbate carcinogen exposure and disrupt access to cancer care, underscoring the need for resilient health-care infrastructure. The IRA's provisions for clean energy incentives and infrastructure upgrades offer oncology care institutions opportunities to mitigate emissions and bolster resilience against climate-related disruptions, ultimately improving cancer outcomes. Climate-related initiatives funded by the IRA present a unique and timely avenue to advance equitable cancer control efforts. This commentary underscores the critical intersection between climate resilience policy and oncology care, highlighting the potential to promote a healthier and more resilient future for all.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Climate Change , Neoplasms , Humans , Neoplasms/prevention & control , United States , Air Pollution/adverse effects , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Environmental Exposure/adverse effects , Environmental Exposure/prevention & controlABSTRACT
China's carbon emission trading policy plays a crucial role in achieving both its "3060" dual carbon objectives and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) on climate action. The policy's effectiveness in reducing pollution and mitigating carbon emissions holds significant importance. This paper investigated whether China's carbon emission trading policy affects pollution reduction (PM2.5 and SO2) and carbon mitigation (CO2) in pilot regions, using panel data from 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2005 to 2019 and employing a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. Furthermore, it analyzed the heterogeneity of carbon market mechanisms and regional variations. Finally, it examined the governance pathways for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation from a holistic perspective. The results indicate that: (1) China's carbon emission trading policy has reduced CO2 emissions by 18% and SO2 emissions by 36% in pilot areas, with an immediate impact on the "carbon mitigation" effect, while the "pollution reduction" effect exhibits a time lag. (2) Higher carbon trading prices lead to stronger "carbon mitigation" effect, and larger carbon market scales are associated with greater "pollution reduction" effects on PM2.5. Governance effects on pollution reduction and carbon mitigation vary among pilot regions: Carbon markets of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin show significant governance effects in both "pollution reduction" and "carbon mitigation", whereas Guangdong's carbon market exhibits only a "pollution reduction" effect, and Hubei's carbon market demonstrates only a "carbon mitigation" effect. (3) Currently, China's carbon emission trading policy achieves pollution reduction and carbon mitigation through "process management" and "end-of-pipe treatment". This study could provide empirical insights and policy implications for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, as well as for the development of China's carbon emission trading market.
Subject(s)
Air Pollutants , Air Pollution , Environmental Policy , China , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/analysis , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollutants/analysis , Carbon/analysis , Carbon Dioxide/analysis , Particulate Matter/analysisABSTRACT
The Chinese government has implemented environmental regulations to address the deterioration of air quality associated with rapid industrialization. However, there is no consensus on whether environmental regulations are beneficial to environmental performance. The technical challenges related to endogeneity and spatial correlation may bias the estimation of the emission reduction effect of regulations. In this study, we comprehensively evaluate the environmental performance of sulfur dioxide regulations in Chinese cities using a novel stochastic frontier model that introduces the single control function to correct estimation errors caused by spatial spillovers and endogeneity. Our analysis emphasizes that insufficient resolution of endogeneity or spatial spillovers may lead to underestimation or neglect of the environmental performance improvements achieved by these regulations. On the contrary, our revised research results indicate that regulations aimed at reducing sulfur dioxide emissions not only successfully control sulfur dioxide emissions, but also have a positive impact on reducing carbon emissions. In addition, we conduct in-depth research on the mechanisms by which environmental regulations improve performance by stimulating green technology innovation and promoting industrial structure upgrading. Based on our research findings, we propose policy recommendations to establish a city cooperation mechanism of technology exchange to achieve synergistic emission reduction and strengthen regional factor circulation.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Cities , Environmental Policy , Sulfur Dioxide , China , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/analysis , Sulfur Dioxide/analysis , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollutants/analysis , Stochastic Processes , Models, Theoretical , Environmental Monitoring/methods , Environmental Monitoring/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
"National Civilized City" (NCC) is regarded as China's highest honorary title and most valuable city brand. To win and maintain the "golden city" title, municipal governments must pay close attention to various key appraisal indicators, mainly environmental ones. In this study we verify whether cities with the title are more likely to mitigate SO2 pollution. We adopt the spatial Durbin difference-in-differences (DID) model and use panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018 to analyze the local (direct) and spillover effects (indirect) of the NCC policy on SO2 pollution. We find that SO2 pollution in Chinese cities is not randomly distributed in geography, suggesting the existence of spatial spillovers and possible biased estimates. Our study treats the NCC policy as a quasi-experiment and incorporates spatial spillovers of NCC policy into a classical DID model to verify this assumption. Our findings show: (1) The spatial distribution of SO2 pollution represents strong spatial spillovers, with the most highly polluted regions mainly situated in the North China Plain. (2) The Moran's I test results confirms significant spatial autocorrelation. (3) Results of the spatial Durbin DID models reveal that the civilized cities have indeed significantly mitigated SO2 pollution, indicating that cities with the honorary title are acutely aware of the environment in their bid to maintain the golden city brand. As importantly, we notice that the spatial DID term is also significant and negative, implying that neighboring civilized cities have also mitigated their own SO2 pollution. Due to demonstration and competition effects, neighboring cities that won the title ostensibly motivates local officials to adopt stringent policies and measures for lowering SO2 pollution and protecting the environment in competition for the golden title. The spatial autoregressive coefficient was significant and positive, indicating that SO2 pollution of local cities has been deeply affected by neighbors. A series of robustness check tests also confirms our conclusions. Policy recommendations based on the findings for protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development are proposed.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Cities , Spatial Analysis , Sulfur Dioxide , China , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/analysis , Humans , Sulfur Dioxide/analysis , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollutants/analysisSubject(s)
Air Pollution , United States Environmental Protection Agency , Humans , Air Pollutants/analysis , Air Pollutants/toxicity , Air Pollution/adverse effects , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Chemical Industry/legislation & jurisprudence , United States , United States Environmental Protection Agency/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed growing public concern over air pollution in China, posing a challenge to the government's environmental management efforts. Empirical evidence indicates that the digital economy contributes to mitigating environmental pollution. Given that national audits are a crucial part of the national oversight system and considering the significant role of digital technology in audit governance, it is relevant to explore how the digital economy can support national audits in enhancing China's environmental quality. This study investigates the environmental impact of national audit governance, utilizing a dataset from 1540 counties in China spanning from 2005 to 2018. The findings reveal that effective national audits contribute to reducing haze pollution (HP) levels, with the digital economy playing a moderating role. The results also demonstrate heterogeneity; national audits are particularly effective in regions characterized by high urbanization rates, severe HP, and stringent environmental regulations. The mechanism analysis suggests that industrial transformation and enhanced government governance are the key mechanisms through which national audits reduce regional HP. Additionally, reforming the audit management system can amplify the effects of national audits on reducing HP.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , China , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Government , UrbanizationABSTRACT
Government governance reform is not only a vital motivation for high economic quality but also an important factor in stimulating the government's environmental governance responsibility. The article empirically examines the fiscal Province-Managing-County (PMC) pilot reform on the synergic governance of haze and carbon reduction and its mechanism. The results show that the policy helps to realize the synergic governance of haze and carbon reduction, and the reform of fiscal Province-Managing-County promotes regional haze and carbon reduction mainly through structural effect, innovation effect, and fiscal expenditure responsibility effect. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy has an asymmetric effect on haze and carbon reduction under different administrative structures, economic structures and levels of government intervention. Further analysis shows a policy linkage effect between this policy and the Green Fiscal Policy. The policy has the situation of blood-sucking in the provincial capital city and leads to an increase in financial funds. The above results prove that the policy can help to realize haze and carbon reduction and provide practical ideas for the further expansion of the policy. At the same time, it provides the direction for the local government to realize the double-carbon goal.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/economics , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Carbon , Environmental Policy/economics , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Politics , Local GovernmentABSTRACT
Exploring whether informal environmental regulations (INER) can achieve carbon reduction in the context of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, as well as how to achieve carbon reduction, can help solve the dual failures of the market and government in environmental protection. Based on the polycentric governance theory and considering the characteristics of social subject environmental participation, the Stackelberg game is used to demonstrate the impact mechanism of INER on CO2. In addition, using the panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2003 to 2018, this paper validates the effectiveness of INER by Pooled Ordinary Least Square (POLS) and threshold panel model. Then, the mediating effect model is used to test the mechanism of INER's effect on carbon reduction. The results show that corruption is not conducive to CO2 reduction. The reduction effect of INER on CO2 exhibits heterogeneity with changes in other non-greenhouse gas pollutants. While INER effectively reduces local corruption, its more substantial indirect impact on CO2 reduction is prominent when levels of other pollutants are lower. Comparative analysis reveals that there are still biased governance behaviors to cope with INER's pressure in some regions nowadays. The findings show that for countries facing the dual task of pollution control and carbon reduction, the key to leveraging the supervisory role of INER should be focused on mitigating information asymmetry caused by the characteristics of CO2. Therefore, in the process of environmental protection, the public environmental participation system should be improved, and the process of disclosing polluters' carbon information should be accelerated.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Carbon Dioxide , Environmental Policy , China , Carbon Dioxide/analysis , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/analysis , Environmental Pollution/prevention & control , Environmental Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Environmental Pollution/analysis , Air Pollutants/analysisABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess levels of pollutants at the sites of new schools and whether pupils are likely to be protected from associated risks. SETTING: Air pollution causes damage to children's health by increasing respiratory tract infection rates, asthma exacerbations, allergies and childhood cancers. Further effects include poorer neurocognitive outcomes and multisystemic illness in adulthood. DESIGN: We obtained a list of all 187 proposed new schools in England from 2017 to 2025 and found locations for 147 of them. We assessed air quality against WHO air quality targets and the air quality percentile of the location relative to pollution levels across the UK. We review relevant legislation and guidance. RESULTS: Our analysis found 86% of new schools (126/147) exceeded all three WHO targets, and every location exceeded at least one. Nationally, 76% (112/147) of sites were in the 60th or greater pollution percentile. Within London, the median pollution percentile was the 90th, with a minimum of 76th and maximum of 99th (IQR=83 rd to 94th). CONCLUSION: The guidance for school proposals does not include any requirement to assess air quality at the identified site. Building regulations also fail to consider how widespread poor air quality is, and significantly underestimates the levels of major air pollutants surrounding schools. Therefore it is unlikely that adequate action to reduce pupil and staff exposure is undertaken.We argue that air quality assessment should be mandatory at the proposal and planning stage of any new school building and that national guidance and legislation urgently needs to be updated.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Schools , Humans , England/epidemiology , Child , Air Pollution/adverse effects , Air Pollution/analysis , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollutants/analysis , Air Pollutants/adverse effects , Environmental Exposure/adverse effects , Environmental Exposure/prevention & control , Environmental Monitoring/methods , Play and PlaythingsABSTRACT
The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, of which vessel-source black carbon aerosols serving as a prominent catalyst for these changes. This situation is poised to worsen as sea ice melts and shipping lanes change. Rapid action aimed at mitigating short-term climate forcing factors can yield almost immediate climate benefits in the Arctic. This article provides an overview of the legal framework governing black carbon in the Arctic, considering three distinct perspectives: the global, regional, and national dimensions. These perspectives encompass global forums represented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with a focus on recent developments concerning black carbon governance, notably the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI and Annex I. Regionally, forums represented by the Arctic Council and the European Union are examined. Black carbon emissions exhibit migratory characteristics, yet the primary legal responsibilities for emission reduction are concentrated within Arctic states. Therefore, this article also delves into the laws and practices of Arctic coastal states in their efforts to combat black carbon emissions, using Canada and Norway as examples. The analysis of institutional effectiveness in this article indicates that, at present, specialized legislation on black carbon is either vague or non-existent. The current Arctic ship-source black carbon governance system faces issues related to leadership ambiguity in its institutional structure, a limited scope of responsible entities, and a lack of diverse implementation measures. Simultaneously, the governance system is questioned for having weak or non-legally binding regulations at the level of legal enforcement. The article anticipates the introduction of more mandatory regulations while also encouraging the selection of non-coercive policy tools. Accordingly, this article argues that a coordinated governance system centered on IMO and the Arctic Council needs to be established. Such a framework should adopt a more inclusive approach to stimulate positive interactions between regulations, aiming to create a broader winning alliance based on the existing foundations.
Subject(s)
Climate Change , Arctic Regions , Carbon , Ships , Soot , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air PollutantsABSTRACT
Steady improvements in ambient air quality in the USA over the past several decades, in part a result of public policy1,2, have led to public health benefits1-4. However, recent trends in ambient concentrations of particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), a pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act1, have stagnated or begun to reverse throughout much of the USA5. Here we use a combination of ground- and satellite-based air pollution data from 2000 to 2022 to quantify the contribution of wildfire smoke to these PM2.5 trends. We find that since at least 2016, wildfire smoke has influenced trends in average annual PM2.5 concentrations in nearly three-quarters of states in the contiguous USA, eroding about 25% of previous multi-decadal progress in reducing PM2.5 concentrations on average in those states, equivalent to 4 years of air quality progress, and more than 50% in many western states. Smoke influence on trends in the number of days with extreme PM2.5 concentrations is detectable by 2011, but the influence can be detected primarily in western and mid-western states. Wildfire-driven increases in ambient PM2.5 concentrations are unregulated under current air pollution law6 and, in the absence of further interventions, we show that the contribution of wildfire to regional and national air quality trends is likely to grow as the climate continues to warm.
Subject(s)
Air Pollutants , Air Pollution , Particulate Matter , Wildfires , Humans , Air Pollutants/analysis , Air Pollutants/chemistry , Air Pollution/analysis , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/statistics & numerical data , Global Warming/statistics & numerical data , Particulate Matter/analysis , Particulate Matter/chemistry , Smoke/analysis , United States , Wildfires/statistics & numerical data , Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Environmental Policy/trendsABSTRACT
Over the past decade, the Chinese government has implemented the "Clean Air Action" measures to enhance the atmospheric environmental quality, primarily focusing on curbing PM2.5 and O3 concentrations. The efficacy of these strategies and the underlying causes (human factors or natural variability) of any observed increases or decreases in PM2.5 and O3 concentrations are of great importance. Examining the hourly PM2.5 and O3 concentration time series from six representative regions in China between 2015 and 2021 revealed an overall downward trend in PM2.5 concentrations. However, the O3 concentration time series indicated upward trends in some regions, except for the Northeast area (NE) and Sichuan Basin (SCB). In the context of conventional significance tests, the assumption is typically that the time series' samples are independent and therefore memoryless. However, in situations where the time series exhibits strong autocorrelation and limited sample size, this assumption can lead to an overestimation of the statistical significance of the linear trend. To account for this, we utilized a long-term memory model that can reproduce the long-term persistence of pollutant records to improve the accuracy of significance tests. By comparing the P-values of real and surrogate data generated by the long-term memory model, we found that only PM2.5 concentrations in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) were slightly insignificant. For the remaining five regions, the P-values of PM2.5 concentrations were smaller than the significant level of 0.05, suggesting that the observed downward trends in PM2.5 concentrations are not due to natural variability, thereby confirming the effectiveness of the government's policies aimed at curbing atmospheric particulate matter in recent years. Our results show that O3 pollution is significantly increasing only in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, beyond natural variability. In contrast, the trends of O3 pollution in many regions of China are markedly impacted by natural and climate variability.
Subject(s)
Air Pollutants , Air Pollution , Geographic Mapping , Models, Statistical , Ozone , Particulate Matter , Spatio-Temporal Analysis , China , Ozone/analysis , Particulate Matter/analysis , Air Pollutants/analysis , Human Activities , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & control , HumansABSTRACT
Introduction: The natural disasters and climate anomalies caused by increasing global carbon emissions have seriously threatened public health. To solve increasingly serious environmental pollution problems, the Chinese government has committed itself to achieving the goals of peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. The low-carbon patent application is an important means to achieve these goals and promote public health. Methods: This study analyzes the basic situation, spatial network, and influencing factors of low-carbon patent applications in China since 2001 at the provincial and urban agglomeration levels using social network analysis based on data from the Incopat global patent database. Results: The following findings are established. (1) From the number of low-carbon patent applications, the total number of low-carbon patent applications in China increased year by year, while the number of applications in the eastern region was larger than those in the central and western regions, but such regional differences had been decreasing. (2) At the interprovincial level, low-carbon patent applications showed a complex and multithreaded network structure. In particular, the eastern coastal provinces occupied the core position in the network. The weighted degree distribution of China's interprovincial low-carbon patent cooperation network is affected by various factors, including economic development, financial support, local scientific research level, and low-carbon awareness. (3) At the urban agglomeration level, the eastern coastal urban agglomerations showed a radial structure with the central city as the core. Urban innovation capability, economic development, low-carbon development awareness, level of technology import from overseas, and informatization level are highly correlated with the weighted degree of low-carbon cooperation networks of urban agglomerations. Discussion: This study provides ideas for the construction and governance of low-carbon technology innovation system and perspectives for theoretical research on public health and high-quality development in China.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Public Health , Carbon , China , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & controlABSTRACT
As one of a number of crucial policies for achieving the goal of "double carbon", it is crucial to investigate the "carbon neutral" effect of the carbon trading market (CTM) in the pilot phase, which is an essential reference for the development of a future CTM. Based on panel data of 283 cities in China in the period from 2006 to 2017, this paper examines the impact of the Carbon Trading Pilot Policy (CTPP) on the achievement of the "carbon neutrality" target. The study shows that the CTPP market can promote an increase in regional net carbon sinks and further accelerate the achievement of the "carbon neutrality" goal. The findings of the study remain valid after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism analysis finds that the CTPP can help achieve the carbon neutrality target through three mechanisms: the effect on concern for the environment, the effect on urban governance, and the effect on energy production and consumption. Further analysis reveals that enterprises' willingness and productive behavior, as well as the internal elements of the market, have a positive moderating effect on the achievement of the carbon neutrality target. In addition, there is heterogeneity among regions with different technological endowments, CTPP regions, and regions with different shares of state-owned assets in the CTM. This paper provides important practical references and empirical evidence that can help China to better achieve the "carbon neutrality" target.
Subject(s)
Air Pollution , Carbon , China , Cities , Policy , Air Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence , Air Pollution/prevention & controlABSTRACT
The effects of the Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform on economic growth and entry of businesses have drawn much attention. However, few scholars pay attention to the impacts of this policy on SO2 emissions. Keeping in view the existing research gap, a spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) model is employed to assess the effects of the Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform on SO2 emissions in 297 Chinese cities during the period 1995-2020 from the perspective of spatial spillover effects. The results show that the establishment of Administrative Examination and Approval Center (AEAC) has significantly positive effects on the local SO2 emissions. The significant indirect (spatial spillover) effects are confirmed. That is, the establishment of AEAC of a given city has a significant positive impact on the SO2 emissions of neighboring cities. The findings are confirmed by several robustness tests. Our study findings have significant implications for the cross-border coordination of environmental policies that aim to improve the quality of the environment across borders.