Effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: Evidence from China's three urban agglomerations

Analyzing the effect of local government decision‐making competition on regional carbon emissions is important for reducing carbon emissions in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking the energy rebound effect into account, this study analyzes the effect on carbon emissions of competition between local governments in decision making. Focusing on China's three urban agglomerations, this study further discusses how to avoid this influence. The results show that local government decision‐making competition is one of the main causes of the regional “green paradox”; the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions has significant regional heterogeneity and spatial dependence, and the short‐term energy rebound effect is greater than the long‐term energy rebound effect; and local government decision‐making competition has three effects on carbon emissions that also have interaction and substitution effects between them: factor market distortion, investment bias, and the “race to the bottom” of environmental policies. However, four measures can reduce the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: one, improving the performance evaluation system of local governments; two, promoting the marketization of factor prices; three, improving both the energy efficiency and upgrading of industrial structures; and four, introducing macro emission reduction policies that allow the central government to intervene directly.     

小城镇可持续化发展评价指标体系框架研究

小城镇发展是中国近年来城镇发展的一个非常重要的过程,也出现了不少问题。为了能实现可持续发展的目标,小城镇发展必须遵循科学发展的路径。文章提出一套实验性的小城镇可持续化发展指标体系框架,可用于检验小城镇发展过程中产生的问题并且提供针对性指导。     

基于层次分析法的广州市可持续发展能力的综合评价

文章通过建立广州市的可持续发展指标体系,运用层次分析法对广州市可持续发展能力进行了系统地综合评价,同时利用模糊隶属度函数,对广州市的资源环境、社会、经济系统之间协调性进行研究,从更深入的层次上对广州市可持续发展能力给与评价。     

地方政府竞争、科技创新与碳排放

在阐述地方政府竞争、科技创新影响碳排放内在机理的基础上,以2004—2019年省级面板数据为样本分析目前我国单位国内生产总值二氧化碳排放的空间特征,并采用固定效应模型及门槛模型实证分析地方政府竞争、科技创新及二者交互项对碳排放的影响。研究表明：我国单位国内生产总值二氧化碳排放量总体水平不断降低,碳排放量最大的地区集中在西北地区,最小的地区集中在北京以及东南部沿海地区;地方政府竞争、科技创新及二者交互项对碳排放均具有显著抑制作用,且科技创新对地方政府竞争驱动碳减排存在门槛效应;通过异质性分析发现,在不同的经济区和不同的产业发展水平下,地方政府竞争与科技创新对碳排放的作用效果存在差异性。因此,应当充分利用地方政府的“趋良竞争”,强化科技创新对碳减排的促进作用,推动产业升级,以实现可持续发展。     

兰州城市人居环境可持续发展综合评价

在提出兰州市城市人居环境可持续发展评价指标体系和评估方法的基础上,综合分析、评价了兰州城市人居环境可持续发展的整体水平、发展的持续性及其系统的协调状况,并据此对兰州城市人居环境向良性方向发展提出相应的对策建议.     

Interactive effects of brand reputation and ESG on green bond issues: A sustainable development perspective

This paper shows that brand reputation alone may not be sufficient to help firms successfully issue green bonds and that they may need superior corporate social responsibility performance in the form of high ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores to unlock the full potential of their brand reputation. Using a sample of 338 international green bond issues across 108 unique firms, we found significant positive effects of ESG disclosure score and its interaction brand reputation on the issuance of green bonds while controlling for other variables, such as fixed effects of industry, region, and time. We also show that it is the S (Social) component of ESG and the interactions of its E (Environmental) and G (Governance) components with brand reputation which drive successful green bond issuance. Besides extending the current research on the impact of brand reputation and ESG on green bonds, these results also have important managerial implications for analysts, fund managers, and firms planning to raise green capital.     

Assessment of the sustainable development of rural minority settlements based on multidimensional data and geographical detector method: A case study in Dehong,China

In a developing country, paying attention to the sustainable development of rural areas is conducive to the development of the entire country. Ethnic minority areas are an important part of China's economic and social development. Owing to a lack of relevant statistical data, most previous studies in this area have focused on the sustainable development of rural areas or the development of ethnic minorities, but have not studied the sustainable development of rural ethnic minorities. The development of rural ethnic minorities is worthy of attention. In this study, we took Dehong as the study area. First used toponyms to accurately identify the rural minority areas and then calculated a grid of settlement density. Second, we considered the digital number (DN) value of the visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) as a measure of the development of the region and digital elevation model (DEM), net primary productivity (NPP), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and gross domestic product (GDP) data as the indicators of terrain, climate, ecological, and economic factors, respectively. Finally, linear regression and the geographical detector method were used to determine the weight of the factors for constructing a sustainable development index (SDI) to quantitatively analyze the sustainable development and influencing factors of each minority nationality. The factors evaluated using linear regression and the geographical detector method were ranked as follows: NDVI > elevation > GDP > slope > NPP > settlement density. The results demonstrate that of the five main ethnic minorities in Dehong, Dai and Jingpo have higher SDI, followed by Achang, Lisu and De'ang. In addition, we provide some suggestions for ethnic minorities in Dehong.