Co-finance for energy project under the Belt and Road Initiative: an application of evidential reasoning-group decision-making method.

Cooperation among consortium countries for energy projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) faces various uncertainties, and urges institutional investors to choose the co-finance mode to diversify the investment risk of energy projects. Recently, responsible investing in energy finance has been raised as a path to make the BRI greener. However, few studies focused on the issue on how to make the optimal decision in the process of collaboration. Therefore, this study constructed the financial-environment, social, and governance (F-ESG) evaluation indicator system from the perspective of responsible investors and proposed an integrated evidential reasoning group decision-making (ER-GDM) model. Then, programmed algorithms were designed to analyze and visualize the selection of the desired alternative. Finally, we applied the evaluation framework to the co-finance for four energy projects under the BRI. The results showed that after multiple rounds of discussion and negotiation (DAN), the consensus level reached 95.1%. It depicts that the optimized collective opinion has been obtained despite heterogeneous preferences. The analysis framework and proposed model in this study not only help international investors to co-finance energy project efficiently but also provide a solution for policy-makers to realize sustainable and high-quality cooperation in investment and financing under the BRI.

Research on identification of key brittleness factors in emergency medical resources support system based on complex network.

To address the problem of difficulty in identifying the key brittleness factors in the emergency medical resources support system (EMRSS), the principle of Interpretive Structural Modeling is utilized to construct a hierarchical recursive structural model for probing the influencing factors of the brittleness risk formation in the system. Further, by incorporating with the complex network theory, the network of the emergency medical resources support system has been built. The integrated value reflecting the importance of the network nodes is calculated by integrating the local nodes and the whole network to identify the critical factors that lead to the collapse of the emergency medical system. The validity of the method was verified by Advanced Research Project Agency network. The results showed that the key brittleness factors in EMRSS mainly include the professional competence of staff, the amount of government funding and the passing rate of quality sampling medical supplies in storage. It is hoped that this study provides useful information for reducing the brittleness risk and ensuring the safe operation of the system.

Does the green credit policy affect the scale of corporate debt financing? Evidence from listed companies in heavy pollution industries in China.

The current study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on China's 2012 Green Credit Guidelines and develops a difference-in-difference model using the financial data of listed companies from 2006 to 2018 to conduct empirical testing. The results reveal that the green credit policy has significantly reduced the short-term and long-term debt financing of heavily polluting enterprises; however, the restrictions on short-term debt financing are insufficient. At the same time, the decline in operating performance brings financial penalty effects, among which state-owned, large-scale, and heavily polluting enterprises in high-emission areas have strong financial penalty effects. The green credit policy encourages heavy-polluting companies to increase R&D investment and increase fixed assets investments to obtain long-term credit support with short-term investment. Furthermore, it is found that the green credit policies have significantly restrained the scale of debt financing of heavily polluting companies. The Chinese government should formulate green financial policies based on local conditions and provide credit resources to favor environmentally friendly companies. Financial institutions should strictly implement green credit standards and modify financial products and services. Companies should take the initiative to eliminate outdated production capacity to obtain green credit support.

Can corporate environmental responsibility improve environmental performance? An inter-temporal analysis of Chinese chemical companies.

The empirical research on the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance remains in the one-way positive impact and lacks the research on nonlinear relationship between them. Based on the stakeholder theory, this paper selects A-share chemical-listed companies in China from 2006 to 2017 as the research samples and uses generalized method of moments (GMM) model to investigate the impact mechanism between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance. The results showed that corporate environmental responsibility positively impacted on environmental performance; however, the impact was not significant. The corporate environmental performance positively and significantly impacted on environmental responsibility. Moreover, results reported that industry competition played a positive regulatory role in corporate environmental responsibility affecting environmental performance and has played a positive role in corporate environmental impact on environmental responsibility. A nonlinear relationship (inverted "U" shape) between environmental responsibility and environmental performance was found. The study results stress to establish a fair and perfect market competition mechanism to improve the environmental performance of chemical industries in China.

Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Ecological Security Pattern: A Case Study of Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration.

Urbanization adversely affects the ecological environment and reduces the quality of life in China. In view of the current situation, this study aims to determine the dynamics of the ecological security pattern of urban agglomerations using the Yangtze River urban agglomeration (YRUA) as a case study. We used the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework to establish an ecological security assessment system, combined with the technique for order of preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method and gray correlation method, to estimate a comprehensive ecological security index, and we analyzed its evolution trends and driving mechanisms. The results indicated that the distribution of the regional ecological security level had a linked effect and that industrial pollutants posed the greatest threat to ecological security. Moreover, the main factors affecting the YRUA were urbanization, ecopathology, economic development, population pressure, land pressure, and water resource pressure. For the protection of ecological security, it is necessary to establish an ecological security governance mechanism. Moreover, the study stresses changing the traditional sewage discharge model and establishing an ecologically safe market system. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:573-583. © 2020 SETAC.

Initiator or Intermediary? A Case Study on Network Relation of Environmental Regulatory Capture in China.

Behind the environmental regulatory capture (ERC) lies a complex network of interactions and interests. Identifying the roles of stakeholders in the ERC network and their behavioral motives can illuminate the mechanism of ERC incidents, and provide policy recommendations for reducing other types of regulatory capture. Drawing on the regulatory capture and principal-agent theories, this study develops a triple-layer principal-agent model of environmental regulation practices in China. We further conduct a social network analysis (SNA) on the ERC case in the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Bobai County, Guangxi Province, China to illustrate the hidden interactions and interest transmission structure among stakeholders in ERC. The results show that the ERC presents obvious characteristics of concealment and complexity, and individual capture often evolves into collective capture. Different stakeholders are in different positions and play different roles in the network. The environmental regulatory authority, the commissioned regulatory agency, and the agency of enterprises form the core power circle of the ERC network, in which the first two play the role of intermediary and the latter acts as an initiator. They together occupy the structural hole position and dominate the evolution of the ERC network. Peripheral structure stakeholders play the role of "bridge" and profit from the expanding ERC network. It is recommended that the principle of decentralization and the balance of power must be taken into consideration. Quantitative analysis methods such as SNA should be applied to clarify accountability when punishing responsible persons. More subjects are also encouraged to participate in environmental regulations and report illegal acts actively. Finally, a blacklist system should be established in the field of environmental protection for regulating the professional and social morality of all parties.

Does environmental protection promote economic development? From the perspective of coupling coordination between environmental protection and economic development.

Environmental protection and economic development seem to be controversial, and there have been opposite views for a long time. Hence, in this article, representative indicators of economy and environment are selected to analyze the external correlation and the internal relationship between environment and economy from the perspective of coupling coordination. The results show that environmental protection may slow down economic growth in the short term. However, their correlation becomes increasingly stronger with higher degree of coupling, and as the result in the long run, environmental protection can gradually improve the infrastructure of economic development, and environmental and economic development will become more closely coordinated in promoting green economic development. It is demonstrated that an effective way to promoting economic development is to promote scientific and technological innovation and cultivate high-end talents and improve regional cooperation, which can reduce the negative effect of environmental protection on economic development. It is also necessary to enhance the positive impact of environmental protection on economic development by transforming the mode of economic development, developing the environmental protection industry, and raising people's awareness of environmental protection. Thus, the coupling coordination between environment and economy can sustain, with both continuously bolstered.

Regional environmental regulation efficiency: spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors.

Research regarding the regional environmental regulation efficiency (ERE) and influencing factors can provide theoretical guidance for regions to improve their ERE effectively. By employing a two-step approach, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) CCR-BCC model is built with the inclusion of scale changes, and a Tobit model is developed to explore the influencing factors for the regional ERE, followed by an application to analyze the spatiotemporal variations of ERE in Jiangsu province from 2005 to 2015. It is found that in time dimension, the ERE lies generally in a weak effective interval of [0.5, 1) and displays a shock upward trend. In the spatial dimension, the ERE presents an obvious "bilateral effect", namely, the efficiency is high for both the southern and northern of Jiangsu province but lower for the middle area. Besides, GDP per capital, industrial structure, trade openness, and population growth are among the main influencing factors of ERE. The findings revealed that temporary short-term policies have noticeable impact on the regional ERE, and "matching effect" between the ERE and regional economic development does not present.

Comprehensive Evaluation and Spatial Difference Analysis of Regional Ecological Carrying Capacity: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration.

Ecological carrying capacity is an important factor of sustainable development for cities, and a critical part of achieving the coordinated development of the social economic and ecological environment for urban agglomerations. In order to evaluate the regional ecological carrying capacity and provide a basis for decision-making for regional sustainable development, this paper constructs an ecological carrying capacity model for the urban agglomeration from two dimensions: ecological carrying elastic force and ecological carrying pressure. The analytic hierarchy process is utilized to determine the weights of nine indices in these two dimensions. For the Yangtze River urban agglomeration, the comprehensive index of its ecological carrying capacity is investigated quantitatively, and the spatial distribution map of its comprehensive index measuring ecological carrying capacity is computed. The results show that Nanjing, Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Changzhou are in the stage of high load carrying; Suzhou, Wuxi, Nantong, and Zhenjiang are in the stage of low load carrying. In addition, the environmental protection investment has the greatest impact on ecological carrying elastic force, followed by the proportion of the tertiary industry; wastewater discharge has the greatest impact on ecological carrying pressure. The level of ecological carrying capacity varies within the region. It is necessary to take measures to increase the ecological carrying elastic force and reduce the ecological carrying pressure according to the actual conditions in each region. Meanwhile, exchanges and cooperation between different regions should be strengthened to stimulate the coordinated and sustainable development.

Regional convergence of energy-environmental efficiency: from the perspective of environmental constraints.

This paper conducts a convergence analysis on the energy-environmental efficiency to explore the differences between regions that reflect the implementation effect of the policies on energy-saving and emission reduction. Particularly, for the Yangtze River urban agglomeration, additive model (AM model) is applied to calculate the energy-environmental efficiency, and the convergence model is employed to analyze the heterogeneity and spatial evolution of energy-environmental efficiency. From the results, the energy-environmental efficiency for Suzhou is at a good level; the figures for Wuxi, Yangzhou, and Nantong maintain at medium level; for Zhenjiang, qualified level; and for Nanjing, Changzhou, and Taizhou, poor level. The energy-environmental efficiency of the whole Yangtze River urban agglomeration displays a downward trend of fluctuations. While Nantong reveals a divergent energy-environmental efficiency, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou, and Nanjing Cities generally show a trend of convergence. It was also recognized that the energy-environmental efficiency is gradually decreasing from Southeast to North to Southwest regions. In the past decade, the north region of Yangtze River yielded a divergent development trend, while the southeast and southwest regions appear to have a convergent development trend. In the future, the urban agglomeration needs to promote the coordinated development of the economy and the energy environment, impel the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, narrow the regional gap, and adjust the energy consumption habits.

Behavioral game and simulation analysis of extended producer responsibility system's implementation under environmental regulations.

The implementation of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) for e-waste is an important measure to develop an ecological civilization. In order to advance manufacturing enterprises to effectively implement resource and environmental responsibility, this study investigates the main causes of environmental regulation failure from the perspective of government and enterprises. The game theory was used to establish an evolutionary game model between government regulatory departments and electronic and electrical products' manufacturing enterprises. A system dynamic model was utilized to construct the stock-flow graph of the game between government and enterprises, and to carry out simulation analysis under different strategies. The results found that the probability of an enterprise undertaking extended responsibility gradually increased and stabilized with the increase of government supervision and punishment intensity; the government's regulatory probability and punishment are important factors affecting the enterprises' compliance with regulations and responsibilities. The study suggests that government should focus on strengthening environmental regulations from the aspects of improving laws and regulations, establishing a regular monitoring system and innovating incentive and constraint mechanism.

Evaluation and Prediction of the Ecological Footprint and Ecological Carrying Capacity for Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration Based on the Grey Model.

The conflict between economic development and environmental protection has become increasingly prominent in the urbanization process of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration, the most economically developed region in Jiangsu Province in China. In order to investigate the sustainable development status, and thus provide decision support for the sustainable development of this region, the ecological footprint model was utilized to evaluate and analyze the ecological footprint per capita, the ecological carrying capacity per capita, and the ecological deficit per capita for the period from 2013 to 2017. Furthermore, the Grey model is employed to predict the development trend of the ecological footprint for 2018 to 2022. The evaluation results show that the ecological footprint per capita has been increasing year by year since 2013, reaching a peak of 2.3897 hm² in 2015 before declining again. In the same period, the available ecological carrying capacity per capita and the ecological footprint per capita basically developed in the same direction, resulting in an ecological deficit per capita and gradually increasing from 2013 to a peak of 2.0303 hm² in 2015 before declining. It is also found that the change of ecological carrying capacity is not substantial, and the change of the ecological deficit is mainly caused by a huge change of the ecological footprint. The forecast results show that the ecological deficit per capita will reach 1.1713 hm² in 2018, which will be another deficit peak after 2015. However, in the later period until 2022, the ecological deficit per capita will begin to decline year by year. These results can provide effective inspirations for reducing the ecological deficit of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration, thus promoting the coordinated development of the economy and environment in this area.

Temporal and Spatial Differentiations in Environmental Governance.

With the general degradation of environmental carrying capacity in recent years, many developing countries are facing with the dual task of economic development and environmental protection. To explore the issue of urban environmental governance, in this research, we establish a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to investigate the environmental governance regarding temporal and spatial efficiency. Further, we deconstruct environmental governance efficiency into comprehensive efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency and develop a Tobit model to analyze the influencing factors affecting urban environmental governance efficiency. In addition, the above DEA, Tobit model, and deconstruction of efficiency have been applied to study environmental governance efficiency for the Yangtze River urban agglomeration. Findings include: (1) The gap in environmental governance efficiency between cities is highly noticeable, as the highest efficiency index is 0.934, the lowest is only 0.246, and the comprehensive efficiency index has fallen sharply from 0.708 to 0.493 in the past 10 years; (2) Environmental governance efficiency is basically driven by technological progress, while the scale efficiency change index is the main driver of the technological progress change index; (3) For environmental governance efficiency, urbanization and capital openness are irrelevant factors, economic level and urban construction are unfavorable factors, and industrial structure and population density are favorable factors. These findings will help urban agglomerations to effectively avoid the adverse effects of environmental governance efficiency in economic development, and achieve a coordinated development of urban construction and environmental governance.

Extended Producer Responsibility and corporate performance: Effects of environmental regulation and environmental strategy.

While contemporary manufacturing technologies stimulate the industrial revolution and promote the rapidly changing global economy, it has caused enormous environmental negative externalities and managing the industrial waste remains a primary challenge, especially for fast developing countries such as China. Though existing studies explored the influence of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislations on environmental externalities, only fewer researches aimed at policy issues. Particularly, the relationship among environmental regulations, environmental strategies and corporate performance in the EPR system has not been deeply investigated. To fill this gap, this research will focus to assess the economic aspect and environmental performance associated with the environmental regulations and strategies. For this purpose, 208 cross-sectional questionnaires were administered with three major high-pollution industries, electrical and electronic, automobile and lead-acid storage battery industries. To accomplish this study objective, we employ a two-step approach: firstly, validity tests for environmental regulation and environmental strategy along with the corporate performance are performed by the factor analysis method, and secondly, the structural equation model is utilized to test the study hypotheses. Results reveal that command and control (CAC) and market-based incentive (MBI) environmental regulations are significantly impacting on the reactive environmental strategy (RES); however, the proactive environmental strategy (PES) only has a significant relationship with MBI regulation. On the other hand, RES only has a significant relationship with the enterprises economics performance, while PES has a statistically significant relationship with both economic and environmental performance of enterprises. Therefore, the central government and its local offices are strongly urged to coordinate the industries by making, implementing and monitoring necessary and feasible environmental laws and regulations.