Measuring China's regional inclusive green growth.

In response to the increasing pressure of global resource management and environmental issues and a slowdown in the related economic growth, China has proposed an inclusive green growth strategy based on coordination between society, the economy, and the environment. The alignment of resources with the socio-economic development goals is a key issue that must be addressed for inclusive green growth. A comprehensive directional distance function and slacks-based measure model are proposed to evaluate the inclusive green growth levels of 285 cities in China from 2003 to 2015. The Luenberger indicator is used to decompose the drivers of inclusive green growth. Our research shows that the main obstacle to China's inclusive green growth is the magnitude of technical change, which is not aligned with China's green development level. Hence, it is necessary to coordinate overall inclusive green growth levels using both technical and regional aspects. This research provides a reference not only for China's economic green development, but also for that of developing countries, enabling the coordination of economic development and environmental resource protection.

Evaluation of resources and environmental carrying capacity of 36 large cities in China based on a support-pressure coupling mechanism.

Resource and environmental carrying capacity (RECC) is an important foundation for the long-term development of cities. The accurate evaluation of the RECC of cities is of great significance to China, which is rapidly urbanizing. This paper constructs a support index and pressure index to calculate the level of support resources and the level of environmental pressure that human activities induce in 36 municipalities, provincial capitals and subprovincial cities in China from 2010 to 2016; in addition, this paper analyzes the factors affecting RECC. The results show that (1) the support index of most cities (32) is greater than the pressure index, demonstrating that the resource and environmental carrying capacity of most cities is stronger than the pressure of human social activities. (2) The RECC of first-line, super large cities is of concern; the RECCs of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have already been exceeded. (3) The resources, the environmental services and the pressure of human activities on those services in most cities are average, while the resource, the environmental services and the pressure of human activities on those services are greater in a few developed cities (such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc.). (4) The ability of resources and the environment to support human activities in China's large cities exhibited a downward trend. The pressure of human social activities on urban resources and the environment is increasing, but the growth rate of that pressure has slowed. (5) Area of land used for urban construction, the area of urban green space and length of city sewage pipes and other resource indicators are common obstacles to the improvement of most cities' pressure indexes. Water shortage is a common problem faced by first-tier cities in China. This study supports a comprehensive understanding of China's large-scale RECC status and provides a reference for the formulation of a scientific and pragmatic urban development strategy.

Interregional carbon compensation cost forecast and priority index calculation based on the theoretical carbon deficit: China as a case.

Interregional carbon compensation is an important part of ecological compensation. An accurate accounting of the interregional carbon compensation cost is the foundation for establishing a carbon compensation mechanism. Corresponding to the actual carbon deficit, this paper advances, for the first time, the concept of the theoretical carbon deficit and, improves the calculation method of the interregional carbon compensation cost based on the theoretical carbon deficit. Additionally, this paper, forecasts the carbon compensation cost among 30 provinces in China from 2017 to 2026 by using the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model and the gray prediction model GM (1, 1). Finally, this paper calculates the priority indexes of the carbon compensation among provinces. The results indicate that, first, from 2017 to 2026, the carbon emissions and carbon absorption in 30 provinces in China are generally on the rise, and the increase rate of carbon absorption is less than the increase rate of carbon emissions. Second, from 2017 to 2026, China's carbon compensation cost payment provinces and carbon compensation cost recipient provinces do not change position, and the flow of the carbon compensation cost is stable. The carbon compensation cost payment provinces are mainly located in the central and eastern regions, and the carbon compensation cost recipient provinces are mainly located in the northwestern region. Third, the priority indexes of carbon compensation in China's provinces are all small and declining, and the carbon compensation among regions has little impact on regional economic development. The research results in this paper can provide a reasonable reference for the cost calculation of interregional carbon compensation and the establishment and improvement of an interregional carbon compensation mechanism.