Innovating from the ground up: the impact of key technological advancements on collaborative carbon and haze governance.

Strengthening the synergistic management of carbon and haze is an important means to realize China's "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals" and green development. In this paper, the entropy method is used to measure the key core technology innovation level of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, and the fixed-effect model is used to empirically test the impact of key core technology innovation on carbon haze synergistic governance and the internal mechanism. The study found that (1) key core technological innovation helps to promote carbon haze synergistic governance. (2) The mechanism test shows that key core technology innovation promotes the synergistic management of carbon haze by improving the clean energy structure. (3) The moderating effect shows that both market incentives and government environmental regulations will strengthen the positive relationship between key core technology innovation and carbon haze synergistic governance. The main contribution of this paper is to reveal the influence mechanism of key core technology innovation on carbon haze synergistic governance, and also to provide theoretical basis for the mechanism and law of carbon haze synergistic governance.

Unveiling the impact of digital industrialization on synergistic governance of pollution and carbon reduction in China: a geospatial perspective.

The impact of digital industrialization on regional pollution control and carbon reduction in China is an area that remains largely unexplored despite being a new driving force in promoting high-quality economic development. This study constructs a combined system synergy model to measure the synergistic governance effect of regional pollution and carbon reduction in China from 2011 to 2020 and then estimates the direct impact and spatial spillover effect using a spatial dual-weight model. Our findings indicate that digital industrialization has a greater impact on regional pollution reduction and carbon reduction as geographical distance decreases, with the spillover effect with close geographical relationships being higher than that of adjacent. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the added value of digital technology and services has a significantly positive effect, while the spatial spillover effect of the added value of digital infrastructure is significantly negative. Finally, our mechanism judgements prove digital industrialization can impact the level of regional co-governance of pollution and carbon reduction through source prevention, process control, and end-treatment. Our study provides a factual basis for further promoting China's environmental pollution control and carbon reduction behavior and offers a method to use different spatial weights in depth.

The role of Chinese-style fiscal decentralization in promoting synergistic carbon and haze governance: insights from technological innovation.

The reduction of haze and carbon emissions is extremely important for promoting sustainable development, improving air quality, enhancing health, and mitigating climate change. However, there is not enough research available on the impact of fiscal decentralization in China on the management of carbon and haze reduction. In order to thoroughly examine the effects of Chinese-style fiscal decentralization on the synergy between haze reduction and carbon reduction in different provinces, this study utilizes a dynamic spatial panel Durbin model using Han-Phillips Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation and a multi-scale geographically and temporally weighted regression model. Our findings indicate that the eastern region consistently takes the lead in reducing haze and achieving carbon synergy. Fiscal technology decentralization has a direct positive impact and spatial spillover effect on carbon haze synergy with significant inverted U-shaped characteristics. These effects primarily arise from the promotion of technological innovation through fiscal technology decentralization. Furthermore, the influence of decentralizing fiscal technology expenditures on the degree of synergy between haze mitigation and carbon reduction varies significantly across China's provinces, both spatially and temporally. This entails promoting coordination between fiscal decentralization and policies related to haze and carbon emission reduction and encouraging information sharing, technology exchange, and collaborative projects between different regions to create a synergistic linkage effect. This will help achieve joint development and environmental protection goals in all regions. The discoveries carry significant consequences for directing the synchronized administration of haze and carbon and can serve as a solid basis for governmental decision-making aimed at enhancing air quality and attaining carbon neutrality through collaborative actions and policies.

Exploring the nexus of green finance and renewable energy consumption: unraveling synergistic effects and spatial spillovers.

As China transitions towards a green and low-carbon energy system, it is crucial to have the support of green finance. In this study, we explore the effects of synergy and spatial spillovers in the development of green finance and the consumption of renewable energy. By taking a synergistic perspective, we aim to provide new insights for energy structure reform. We use a spatial simultaneous equations model in combination with a three-stage generalized spatial least squares approach, our findings are the following: firstly, there is a positive synergy between the development of green finance and the consumption of renewable energy. Secondly, there are positive spatial spillovers in the development of green finance and the consumption of renewable energy, but the regional interaction effects of green finance development on renewable energy consumption are negative. Furthermore, we observe that the impact of renewable energy consumption on green finance development has been increasing since 2013. However, the reverse relationship is not true, indicating that the renewable energy industry has stabilized and is gaining appeal in financial markets. Our study highlights that the development of green finance can promote an increase in renewable energy consumption through the facilitation of economic growth, green technology innovation, and the upgrading of the industrial structure. We emphasize the importance of regional and industrial coordination to create synergy between green finance development and renewable energy consumption.

The impact of carbon-biased technological progress on carbon haze coordinated governance: insights from China.

Superficial or cosmetic measures are unlikely to solve the complex challenges of carbon haze governance. Carbon-biased technological progress plays a significant role in low-carbon technology and economic sustainable development. This study introduces carbon resources as a production factor in the transcendental logarithmic function to calculate the biased technological progress index of 30 provinces in China between 2010 and 2020. Subsequently, this study constructs the spatial Durbin model to empirically investigate the spatial spillover effect of carbon-biased technology progress on carbon haze coordinated governance. The findings reveal that China's technological progress is primarily characterized by carbon bias, particularly in terms of labor-using carbon-saving technological progress and capital-using carbon-saving technological progress. Additionally, both levels of carbon haze coordinated governance and carbon-biased technological progress have significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. Moreover, the carbon-biased technological progress can facilitate synergy degree of carbon haze governance through energy-saving effects but can also hinder the carbon haze coordinated governance through rebound effects. Therefore, it is imperative to improve labor productivity, augment green capital investment, and stimulate the induction of technological progress towards carbon saving to achieve sustainable and high-quality economic development. The primary contribution is identifying the uncertainty surrounding the impact of carbon-biased technological progress on coordinated governance of carbon haze, while also providing theoretical explanations for the influence channels of carbon-biased technological progress.

Greening China's Growth: Assessing the Synergistic Impact of Financial Development and Technological Innovation on Environmental Pollution Reduction-A Spatial STIRPAT Analysis.

To achieve sustainable economic development in China, it is crucial to balance economic growth and environmental protection. Financial capital and technology can contribute positively to environmental pollution control. This study employs the Cournot model to examine the impact of financial development and technological innovation on environmental pollution at the micro level. It utilizes the spatial STIRPAT model to analyze inter-provincial panel data from China between 2005 and 2020. The results show that China's ecological environment pollution exhibits significant spatial dependence, and heavily polluted areas tend to agglomerate. While improving financial development can increase regional environmental pressure, positive spatial spillover improves environmental quality in neighboring areas. Conversely, technological innovation reduces local ecological pressure, with negative spatial spillover effectively curbing environmental pollution in surrounding regions. The results support the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, which posits an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental pressure, while population growth increases environmental pressure. The findings are robust and have important policy implications.

Heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation on air pollution: evidence from China's prefecture-level cities.

Using environmental regulation to control air pollution is one of the essential means to resolve economic growth bottlenecks and ecological environment constraints. We construct a theoretical framework to analyse the impact of environmental regulation on air pollution by using balanced panel data from 2003 to 2016 of 248 Chinese cities. The results show that both formal and informal environmental regulations can significantly reduce air pollution in prefecture-level cities. Formal environmental regulation indirectly improves air pollution level by promoting technological innovation and formal environmental regulation indirectly reduces local air pollution by promoting the pollution industry transfer. In addition, informal environmental regulation indirectly reduces air pollution by improving formal environmental regulation. Moreover, formal and informal environmental regulations have inhibitory effects on air pollution in high administrative-level cities and low administrative-level cities, with both the regulations having significantly stronger inhibitory effects on air pollution in low administrative-level cities than in high administrative-level cities. Furthermore, the environmental Kuznets curve is established at the level of prefecture cities in China, and the upgrading of the industrial structure will reduce air pollution, while foreign direct investment and fiscal decentralisation will worsen air pollution.

"Political blue sky" in fog and haze governance: evidence from the local major international events in China.

The trade-off between economic development and environmental protection has always been a significant and tough issue for local governments. Studies found that some local governments took temporary measures to control air pollution and created "political blue sky" in certain periods. We collected daily air quality index (AQI) data and individual pollutant concentration data of four cities in China which have hosted major international events in 2019. The air quality of the cities taken temporary measures to control air pollution had an obvious improvement during the events. Furthermore, the improvement mainly occurred in pollution indicators, such as PM2.5 and PM10, which are more valued and sensitive to the public. The sustainability analysis demonstrates that the air quality deteriorated again after the event, indicating that "political blue sky" comes at the cost of retaliatory pollution.

Is the allocation of medical and health resources effective? Characteristic facts from regional heterogeneity in China.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, the expenditure on public medical and health has increased greatly in China, however, problems as low efficiency and unfairness still exist. How to accurately describe the effectiveness of existing medical and health resources in combination with regional heterogeneity is of great significance to China's medical and health reform. METHODS: Based on provincial panel data for the period of 2005 to 2017, combining expected output and unexpected output, this paper constructs a super-efficiency three-stage SBM-DEA model, to measure and analyze the spatial-temporal heterogeneity characteristics and influencing factors of public medical and health efficiency (PMHE). RESULTS: (1) After the impacts of random error and external environmental factors are removed, the mean value of overall PMHE is 0.9274, failing to reach DEA efficiency, and PMHE shows a fluctuated downward trend. (2) The adjusted PMHE level shows a prominent spatial imbalance at the stage 3. The average efficiency level is ranked by the East > the West > the Central > the Northeast. (3) The increases of GDP per capita and population density are beneficial to the improvement of PMHE, while income level and education level are disadvantageous to PMHE, and last, the urbanization level, an uncertain effect. (4) There is no σ convergence of the PMHE in the East, the Central and the West, that is, the internal differences may gradually expand in the future, while the Northeast shows a significant σ convergence trending of PMHE. (5) The state's allocation of medical and health resources has undergone major changes during "The Twelfth Five-Year Plan". CONCLUSION: This study innovatively incorporates undesired outputs of health care into the efficiency evaluation framework by constructing the main efficiency evaluation indicators. The results of the robust evaluation conclude that China's existing investment in medical and health resources is generally not effective. Therefore, although China's health care reform has made certain achievement, it is still necessary to expand the investment in health care resources.

Total factor productivity of cultivated land use in China under environmental constraints: temporal and spatial variations and their influencing factors.

The continuous decline in the resource and environment-carrying capacity of cultivated land resources has seriously threatened the sustainable supply of cultivated land resources in China. Using the Hicks-Moorsteen total factor productivity index method, we examine the total factor productivity of cultivated land use (CL-TFP) in China from 2003 to 2017 under environmental constraints. We further use a panel Tobit model to estimate the effect of its influencing factors. The results show that the CL-TFP presents a fluctuating upward trend and reaches data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency during the sample period. The regional results reveal a significant spatial difference, especially in the mid-west region, which fails to reach DEA efficiency. China's main cultivated land did not realize economies of scale. The phenomenon of spatial polarization in what we refer to as very low-value areas and very high-value areas is clear, and the changes are gradual. Regarding the determinative influencing factors, results from the panel Tobit model show that cultivated land usage tax and environmental pollution control investment have no significant effect on CL-TFP, while income level and agricultural intermediate consumption do have a positive effect on CL-TFP. The empirical evidence can help policymakers craft and frame effective policies that improve the utilization efficiency of China's cultivated land resources.

Sensor Distribution Optimization for Structural Impact Monitoring Based on NSGA-II and Wavelet Decomposition.

Optimal sensor placement is a significant task for structural health monitoring (SHM). In this paper, an SHM system is designed which can recognize the different impact location and impact degree in the composite plate. Firstly, the finite element method is used to simulate the impact, extracting numerical signals of the structure, and the wavelet decomposition is used to extract the band energy. Meanwhile, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimensions of the vibration signal. Following this, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to optimize the placement of sensors. Finally, the experimental system is established, and the Product-based Neural Network is used to recognize different impact categories. Three sets of experiments are carried out to verify the optimal results. When three sensors are applied, the average accuracy of the impact recognition is 59.14%; when the number of sensors is four, the average accuracy of impact recognition is 76.95%.