Synergic emissions reduction effect of China's "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan": Benefits and efficiency.

Large amounts of fossil fuels that are consumed in association with the urbanization process, lead to billions of tons of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Air pollution control policies have the synergic effects on carbon emissions reduction, but whether they can improve the synergic emission reduction efficiency (SERE) needs to be studied. 279 Chinese cities are selected as research samples. We evaluate the synergic effect of China's "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" (APPCAP) from the perspectives of benefits and efficiency with the Difference-in-differences (DID) model. We further decompose the SERE into synergic emission reduction technological efficiency change (SEREEC) and synergic emission reduction technological change (SERETC) to analyze the internal impact mechanisms. The result shows that: (1) SERE has increased by 8 % from 2010 to 2017, for the expansion of the possibility boundary. (2) The APPCAP has co-benefit of carbon emissions reduction by 1.5 %, but inhibits the SERE increase by 1.2 % because of the lack of resource allocation efficiency improvement. (3) The APPCAP has an inhibitory effect on SEREEC and a promoting effect on SERETC. Therefore, the government should emphasize the source control and treatment efficiency, and further strengthen the system innovation for achieving urban sustainable development effectively.

Study on the Co-Benefits of Air Pollution Control and Carbon Reduction in the Yellow River Basin: An Assessment Based on a Spatial Econometric Model.

To assess the green and low-carbon development of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in China, this study utilizes an evaluation index system based on the framework of driving force, pressure, state, impacts, response, and management, and it measured the comprehensive scores of the co-benefits of carbon reduction and air pollution control in the YRB. The global Moran index was used to analyze the spatial correlation characteristics of co-benefits, and a generalized spatial measurement model was constructed to demonstrate their spatial spillover effects. The results show that the co-benefits steadily increased every year. The co-benefits had a significant positive spatial correlation and showed a development trend of "up-down-up". According to the spillover effect test, the economic development level, education level, and intensity of environmental regulations had significant positive effects, while the level of urbanization and foreign investment had significant negative effects. Considering these results and the aim of promoting green and low-carbon development, clear detection of the spatial spillover characteristics of the co-benefits should be prioritized, followed by an understanding of the spatial transmission mechanism of carbon and air pollutant emission and transfer. Policy recommendations are also proposed including upgrading industrial structure, focusing on the development of modern services and high-tech industry, and strictly implementing the industrial environment access system.

Does the new-type urbanization construction improve the efficiency of agricultural green water utilization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt?

It is very important to control agricultural water pollution and promote agricultural water saving, for high-quality development of Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The efficiency of agricultural green water utilization (EAGWU) needs financial and technical support from the new-type urbanization, which also change agricultural production mode and resource utilization level. This paper introduces non-point source water pollution into the output, adopts the super efficiency-slack model (SE-SBM) to measure the EAGWU, and uses difference generalized method of moments (DIF-GMM) to examine how new-type urbanization affects EAGWU from its four core characteristics. The results of EAGWU show that the overall efficiency value has been increasing rapidly in the research period, while the eastern provinces performed better and the central provinces performed worse. On the other hand, the overall difference in EAGWU first diverged and then shrunk, while economically developed provinces has been converging all the time. The results of driving factor estimation show that population urbanization has a significantly positive effect on EAGWU, with the rural labor force transfer and agricultural land circulation. Economic urbanization and urban-rural integration have negative effects, with the widening gap of absolute income and the compressed space of agricultural development. The EAGWU lag phase has a positive effect, because of the ratchet or cumulative effect, while equilibrium-urbanization has an insignificant effect. The conclusions will provide preferable recommendations for decision-making of green and water-saving development in agriculture.

Study on the Spatial Differentiation of Public Health Service Capabilities of European Union under the Background of the COVID-19 Crisis.

Access to public health services is a cause that benefits the people and concerns the vital interests of the people. Everyone has access to basic health care services. The continuous improvement in people's health is an important indicator of the improvement in people's quality of life. This paper selects data from the European Union (EU) on aspects of public health expenditure, medical care resources, and government emergency coordination capacity from the period 2008 to 2017. Principal component analysis and factor analysis are used to measure their public health service capacity scores and conduct a comparative analysis. On this basis, the TOBIT model is adopted to explore the driving factors that lead to the spatial differentiation of public health service capabilities, and to combine it with the data of the COVID-19 epidemic as of 8 August 2020 from the official announcements of the World Health Organization and governments for further thinking. The results indicate that the public health service capacity of countries in the EU is showing a gradual increase. The capacity in Western Europe is, in turn, higher than that of Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. In addition, the overall capacity in Western Europe is relatively high, but it is not balanced and stable, while Northern Europe has remained stable and balanced at a high level. Population density, degree of opening up, education level, economic development level, technological innovation level, and degree of aging have a positive effect on public health service capabilities. The level of urbanization has a negative effect on it. However, in countries with strong public health service capabilities, the epidemic of COVID-19 is more severe. The emergence of this paradox may be related to the detection capabilities of countries, the high probability of spreading thCOVID-19 epidemic, the inefficient implementation of government policy, the integrated system of the EU and the adverse selection of youth. This paper aims to improve the ability of the EU to respond to public health emergencies, improve the utilization of medical and health resources, and better protect people's health from the perspective of public health service capacity.

A Study on The Driving Factors and Spatial Spillover of Carbon Emission Intensity in The Yangtze River Economic Belt under Double Control Action.

It is greatly important to promote low-carbon green transformations in China, for implementing the emission reduction commitments and global climate governance. However, understanding the spatial spillover effects of carbon emissions will help the government achieve this goal. This paper selects the carbon-emission intensity panel data of 11 provinces in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2004 to 2016. Then, this paper uses the Global Moran's I to explore the spatial distribution characteristics and spatial correlation of carbon emission intensity. Furthermore, this paper constructs a spatial econometric model to empirically test the driving path and spillover effects of relevant factors. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation with the provincial carbon intensity in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, but this trend is weakening. The provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai are High-High agglomerations, while the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou are Low-Low agglomerations. Economic development, technological innovation, and foreign direct investion (FDI) have positive effects on the reduction of carbon emissions, while industrialization has a negative effect on it. There is also a significant positive spatial spillover effect of the industrialization level and technological innovation level. The spatial spillover effects of FDI and economic development on carbon emission intensity fail to pass a significance test. Therefore, it is necessary to promote cross-regional low-carbon development, accelerate the R&D of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies, actively enhance the transformation and upgrade industrial structures, and optimize the opening up of the region and the patterns of industrial transfer.