Green finance and corporate environmental investment: "Scale Up" or "Efficiency Up"?

The establishment of green finance reform and innovation (GFRI) pilot zone is an important measure of the Chinese government to urge enterprises to develop green transformation. This paper explores the impact of pilot policies in the GFRI pilot zone on corporate environmental investment. Based on 819 A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020, our staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) estimation documents revealed that enterprises in the GFRI pilot zone significantly increased the corporate environmental investment efficiency but reduced the scale of corporate environmental investment.This conclusion remained robust after Propensity Scores Matching difference-in-differences (PSM-DID), replacing dependent variables, and shortening the time window. We contend that the increased research and development (R&D) expenditure and technological innovation are the potential mechanisms at work. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the establishment of GFRI improved the environmental investment efficiency of polluting enterprises but had no effect on green enterprises.Meanwhile, the effect of GFRI exhibited heterogeneity in the type of enterprise ownership. This paper evaluates the implementation effect of GFRI from the perspective of corporate environmental investment, and provides theoretical support and an empirical basis for green finance policy to serve China's green economy.

Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future.

The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics.

How does transition finance influence green innovation of high-polluting and high-energy-consuming enterprises? Evidence from China.

Under the impact of "double-carbon" target, transition finance has an important impact on green innovation of Chinese double-high enterprises. Using a sample of 4270 high-polluting and high-energy-consumption listed enterprises (referred to as double-high enterprises) in China from 2012 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the impact of transition finance on the green innovation of China's double-high enterprises by using a fixed-effects model. The study finds that transition finance can have a facilitating effect on green innovation in double-high enterprises. The intermediary mechanism test shows that transition finance can promote green innovation of double-high enterprises through alleviating financing constraints, increasing the level of green management, and enhancing the policy orientation effect. The heterogeneity test finds that transition finance promotes green innovation more significantly for the double-high enterprises that are state-owned, large-scale, and located in regions with high levels of intellectual property protection. Further research finds that the role of transition finance in promoting green innovation in double-high enterprises helps to promote the achievement of green development of double-high enterprises.

Utilizing green financing in developing green HRM resources for carbon neutrality: presenting multidimensional perspectives of China.

This study examines how green finance may encourage the development of green human resource management (HRM) solutions to help China achieve carbon neutrality. For an empirical estimate, the Chinese data is subjected to DEA analysis, Tobit regression, and a sensitivity analysis model. The findings highlight the significance of green finance in the creation of green HRM solutions that aid firms in enhancing their environmental performance, boosting employee happiness, and getting them closer to their carbon neutrality goals. With the use of tools like green bonds and sustainable investment funds, businesses may raise capital for sustainability projects and encourage the adoption of environmentally responsible HRM practices. Moreover, the study results discussed the need to incorporate environmental sustainability considerations into HRM plans, enabling organizations to cultivate a sustainable culture and engage employees in supporting carbon neutrality through green practices in talent acquisition, training and development, performance management, and employee engagement. Incorporating environmental sustainability into HRM processes, boosting stakeholder involvement, and looking into new funding methods are all points emphasized in the study, which aims to enhance the uptake of green HRM initiatives.

All roads lead to Rome? The impact of heterogeneous green finance on carbon reduction of Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

Based on the system theory and Pareto efficiency theory, this paper, based on the data of listed companies in China's A-share manufacturing industry in 2011-2022, explores the impact of market-driven green finance and government-guided green finance on the carbon emission intensity of manufacturing enterprises, and analyzes the intermediary role of debt financing cost. A negative "U" relationship exists in market-driven green finance/government-guided green finance and the carbon emission intensity of manufacturing enterprises. Further research shows that under the higher debt financing cost, market-driven green finance played a weaker carbon reduction effect. The heterogeneity analysis found that market-driven green finance can have a significant non-linear impact of "promoting growth first and weakening later" on the carbon emissions of energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises, large enterprises, and enterprises with high human capital levels. Government-guided green finance has a significant non-linear impact on non-energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises and small enterprises. This paper provides the theoretical basis and practical inspiration for the government to formulate relevant low-carbon development policies and promote the innovation of green financial tools in the financial market.

Green finance and environmental, social, and governance: evidence from Chinese listed companies.

In recent years, academics have paid more attention to green finance, and public companies have reached a broad consensus on the concept of timely environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure. Due to the close relationship between green finance and ESG, this presents an opportunity to determine whether green finance compels companies to actively disclose ESG. The sample for this study consists of China's non-financial A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021, and the empirical findings demonstrate that green finance can positively influence the ESG performance of listed companies. Through an analysis of heterogeneity, this study reaches the following conclusions: state-owned enterprises, heavy pollution companies, and companies in low-carbon pilot cities perform better in terms of green finance's role in promoting ESG scoring. This study also introduces market concentration and social trust as the moderating variables, enriching the green finance research framework. Through the analysis of moderating variables, the 'black box' effect of green finance on ESG is disclosed, providing theoretical support for the government and companies to better comprehend the policy effect as well as a reference for reform and experimental promotion of green finance.

The impact of sustainable public procurement on corporate ESG performance-The Chinese evidence.

Public procurement is an important bridge between public demand and market supply and may affect corporate behavior. However, in the advocacy of sustainable development, the extant research has rarely combined sustainable public procurement (SPP) with corporate ESG performance, to explore whether governments have contributed to the development of sustainable corporate performance through their sustainable procurement activities. This paper fills in the gap by matching the actual implementation of SPP of 42,369 projects in China over 2015~2020 with 20,125 corporate ESG performance data, to analyze the relationship between SPP implementation and corporate ESG performance. The results show that the implementation of SPP has a significant positive impact on corporate ESG performance. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact is stronger in China's eastern and central regions than in other regions, and corporates at a mature stage are more likely to follow the government sustainable behavior. In addition, the implementation of SPP has a long-term effect on corporate ESG performance. The above findings have important policy implications: firstly, there is a better role for government to play as the "invisible hand", to participate in the market economy; Specifically, SPP policy should be added to government policy tool box to improve corporate ESG performance in addition to disclosure requirement, and the SPP policy employed should in particular attend to the "missing sectors" of sustainability in SPP for the good of corporate ESG; secondly, the government should implement differentiated policies tailored to the region's economic development conditions and corporate development characteristics; thirdly, a long-term evaluation mechanism should be established so that the government can play a more long-term demonstration and leading role.

Does circular economy affect environmental performance? The mediating role of sustainable supply chain management: the case study in China.

Governments and professionals have recently tried to improve public environmental knowledge and laws in order to meet growing environmental concerns. As a result, most nations see corporate environmental initiatives like the circular economy and the green supply chain as important (GSCM) as the best ways to address environmental problems. As a result, this study tries to show how important GSCM and the circular economy are regarding the economy of China's relationship to environmental sustainability. This study uses the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) on data to obtain trustworthy results from 387 Chinese manufacturing companies. A favorable and statistically significant correlation between GSCM, environmental performance, and the circular economy was revealed using PLS-SEM analysis. To raise environmental standards, eco-friendly methods like buying and designing green items are widely regarded today. Imagine if manufacturing companies adopt green supply chain management, which would improve their economic performance and increase operational effectiveness. The secret to a successful corporation is having successful operations.

Assessing the impact of trade policy uncertainty on pollution emissions: an analysis of Chinese firms' green transformation.

Oscillations in the global trade milieu have exacerbated the ambiguity experienced by Chinese enterprises, thereby influencing their ecological transition. The ongoing debate over whether trade uncertainty augments corporate emissions, exacerbating pollution, or attenuates emissions, encouraging sustainable production, has yet to reach a consensus. The current investigation employs a textual analysis methodology to explore the influence of trade policy uncertainty on pollution emissions, by sourcing indicators of trade policy uncertainty that echo firm-level uncertainty within the period 2008 to 2021. Utilizing the fixed effects model for our analysis, the findings substantiate that escalated uncertainty at the micro-level catalyzes an increase in pollution emissions originating from firms. Crucially, we find that risk diversification and innovation bolster firms' capacities to manage pollution under escalating uncertainty. Furthermore, our estimation reveals that enterprises with low market competitiveness, high financial constraints, and moderate overseas market share are most significantly impacted, whereas those with robust patent portfolios remain largely unaffected. This study carries considerable implications for firms striving to achieve an ecological transition and offers insights for fostering sustainable and high-quality global economic development.

Does the individual effect of resource rents imperative in the attainment of environmental sustainability? Evidence of Southeast Asian economies.

This study investigates the impact of natural resource exploitation on environmental sustainability in Southeast Asian economies, while testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) inverted U-shaped hypothesis, a model which suggests an initial increase in environmental degradation with economic growth followed by a decrease at a certain level of income. Utilizing World Development Indicators data from 1995 to 2018, the research dissects the long-term influence of various resource rents, namely coal, oil, and forest. The research highlights the indispensable role of renewable energy in maintaining ecological balance. Results indicate that while coal rent exacerbates environmental degradation, forest and oil rents prove eco-friendly, although this is only confirmed in fully modified OLS estimation. The study underscores the importance of forest rents in achieving environmental sustainability. Renewable energy emerges as vital for promoting sustainable low-carbon practices. In line with the EKC hypothesis, the study finds that economic growth initially increases carbon emissions, but eventually reduces them. It calls for appropriate measures to manage resource exploitation, ensure renewable energy availability, alleviate energy poverty, and curb deforestation, thereby mitigating ecological damage.

How does the digital economy affect the development of the green economy? Evidence from Chinese cities.

The digital economy may accelerate the upgrading of industrial structures and boost regional innovation output, effectively contributing to China's green economic transformation. The impact of the digital economy on developing the urban green economy is analyzed using data from 280 cities across China from 2010-2019. Using a fixed-effects model and the Spatial Durbin model, the digital economy is found to have a significant impact on urban green economy development. This result is shown to be robust to various factors. There is significant regional variability in the impact of the digital economy on green economic growth, with the strongest impact in the northeast, followed by the central and western regions. Meanwhile, non-resource-based cities and policy pilot cities have a more pronounced role in promoting the digital economy. The intermediate transmission chain of industrial structural upgrading and regional innovation output fosters the growth of the urban green economy via the digital economy. Regional innovation production is responsible for 30.848% of this growth, with the intermediate effect of industrial structural upgrading contributing to 38.155%.

Does the implementation of green finance regulation promote the high-quality development of enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China.

The improvement of enterprise total factor productivity and labor productivity is the micro-embodiment of high-quality economic development. Green finance relies on the dual functions of resource allocation and environmental regulation to guide enterprises to adjust their mode of operation through incentive and restraint mechanisms, attach importance to energy conservation and environmental protection, and guide enterprises to develop with high quality. Taking the construction of the green financial supervision system in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment, we constructed a difference-in-difference model to investigate the impact and mechanism of green finance on the high-quality development of enterprises, based on the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2020. The results show that the implementation of green finance effectively promotes the high-quality development of enterprises. This promotion effect is heterogeneous from perspectives of enterprise-specific characteristics, executive education background, and environmental regulation intensity. The influence mechanisms mainly rely on tightening financial constraints, upgrading the level of green technology innovation, and improving the quality of internal control. These findings provide an important decision-making reference for better implementing green finance policies and promoting high-quality economic development under the green and low-carbon concept and carbon peak carbon neutrality goals.

Diverse values of nature for sustainability.

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature's diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature's values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a 'values crisis' underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature's diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.

The impact of green financial development on stock price crash risk from the perspective of information asymmetry in Chinese listed companies.

Solving the crash risk problem of corporate stock price caused by information asymmetry can mitigate the negative externality of its carbon emission to become green, low-carbon, and high-quality development. Green finance generally profoundly impacts micro-corporate economics and macro-financial systems but remains a giant puzzle of whether they can effectively resolve the crash risk. This paper examined the impact of green financial development on the stock price crash risk using the sample data of non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A stock market in China from 2009 to 2020. We found that green financial development significantly inhibits the stock price crash risk; this is more obvious in listed companies with a high level of asymmetric information. And companies in high-level regions of green financial development attracted more attention from institutional investors and analysts. As a result, they disclosed more information about their operational status, thus reducing the crash risk of corporate stock price from the torrential public pressure of lousy environmental details. Therefore, this study will help continuously discuss the costs, benefits, and value promotion of green finance for synergy between corporate performance and environmental performance to improve ESG capabilities.

Assessing SDG-3 efficiency for SDG-1 by studying interplay of tourism development, poverty alleviation and sustainability.

The modern world is facing chaos of different connected issues. Achieving sustainability in the tourism industry for poverty reduction is one of them, having limited guidance for stakeholders. Thus, following SDG-3 guidelines for good well-being via tourism development could contribute to SDG-1 for no poverty. This roadmap needs scientific validation. Therefore, this research aims to determine how much of an overall impact tourism has on alleviating poverty and what factors account for the wide range of estimates of that impact. Using data from 2002 to 2020 and the ARDL model with eight variables, including (a) currency supply, (b) GDP per capita, and (c) tourism earnings higher GDP area, the current emphasis is on reducing the likelihood of any negative impacts this business may have on tourism. Lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) regions, higher profits per capita from tourism, and reduced poverty all have a role. With a 1% significance threshold, the observed data becomes more convincing. Last, the results show that the Laotian government intends for tourism to contribute to long-term environmentally responsible financial development. In addition, the study's empirical results corroborated the conclusion that policymakers should encourage the successful expansion of the tourist industry.