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The construction of green finance index is a three-tiered process that involves macroeconomic, ecological, and monetary indicators. Therefore, this research is one of the first thorough assessments of the impacts of green financing regulations in China, examining 30 provinces during the period of 2010 to 2017. Data envelopment analysis models for 30 provinces in China have been tested by using non-radial models and longitudinal datasets. The findings demonstrate that between 2010 and 2017, the efficiency of China's provinces such as Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Zhejiang and provinces of central regions as well as western provinces of country green economies has increased with distinct geographical disparities becoming more apparent. The geographical distribution of economic efficacy in the green economy is greatest in the eastern parts and poorest in the Chongqing, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Yunnan. The study revealed that sustainable financial growth may be accomplished via the creation of green financing, which can be achieved by employing different solutions across the macroeconomic, institutional, and ecological considerations. The western and central areas, however, have a significant negative association. There are substantial variations in factors at the state and federal level from the viewpoint of dependent variables. Eventually, the research offers some suggestions for future ecological impact of China, along with the creation of new environmental legislation.

With prominent environmental pollution and depleted resources, how to coordinate economic growth and eco-environmental protection to guide green development represented by green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an urgent issue. This study aims to empirically evaluate the direct effect, indirect effect, spatial spillover effect and non-linear effect of the digital economy on green development using the data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China. The empirical results indicate that: (1) the digital economy significantly improves GTFP, which is still valid after testing for robustness, including introducing instrumental variables, taking the “broadband China” pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, changing core explanatory variables and dependent variables, and changing the sample size; (2) the influence of the digital economy on GTFP is characterized by significant heterogeneity among resource dependence, geographical location, financial development level and openness level; (3) the mechanism analysis shows that the digital economy promotes GTFP by green technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading and energy conservation; (4) the spatial econometric models indicate that the digital economy significantly enhances GTFP of neighboring cities; (5) there is a non-linear relationship between the digital economy and GTFP using the threshold model. The findings could provide references for policymakers to promote urban green development.

The contradiction between urban open development and the environmental pollution of cities becomes increasingly serious. People begin to pay attention to the green development effect of Free Trade Zones. Based on 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019, we use the time-varying DID method with the implementation of PFTZ establishment policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore whether the green development of Chinese cities needs high-level opening up. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (i) Compared with cities without PFTZs, the environmental pollution composite index (EPI) of cities with PFTZs decreases significantly by 5.278% on average; that is, the establishment of PFTZs significantly improves the green development level of those cities. (ii) After the establishment of PFTZs, the green development level of Chinese coastal cities will be enhanced to a greater extent than that of inland cities. In addition, the higher Chinese cities are in the urban hierarchy, the more they can grasp the development opportunities from the establishment of PFTZs. (iii) The establishment of PFTZs effectively reduces the EPI and significantly improves the green development level of cities through three paths: the scale effect, the structure effect and the technology effect. This paper provides micro-empirical evidence for literature related to the environmental benefits and green development of PFTZ construction and provides a reference for most developing countries to learn from China’s experience.

The primary objective of this study is to explore the links between fossil fuel energy consumption, industrial value-added, and carbon emissions in G20 countries over the period 1990-2020. Panel unit root test, co-integration test, and CS-ARDL estimator were used to determine the relationship among variables. The empirical results suggest that the driving force of carbon emissions in G20 countries varies significantly in advanced versus emerging economies. Evidence in a whole sample of G20 countries and advanced economies supports environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, while no evidence emerging economies supports EKC hypothesis. Apart from this, the empirical results show trade opens, FDI, government expenditures on health and education, research and development, and information and communication technology are other determinators of carbon emissions in G20 countries. Our results suggest that countries upgrade industrial structures by shifting their energy structures away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy sources in order to achieve sustainable environmental goals.

Abstract This study determines the role of natural resources’ utilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), and fossil fuel consumption in economic growth by utilizing panel data of 25 developing Asian countries from the period 1996 to 2016. Pool Mean Group (PMG) regression is used for this purpose, and the results show that the rent received from forests has a sizeable share in the economic growth of developing Asian Countries. The study shows that an increase in FDI is stimulating economic growth in developing countries. However, although the utilization of natural resources has a positive impact on economic growth, the results show a statistically insignificant role of natural resources in improving economic growth. Finally, the results show that the rent obtained from forest resources, mineral resources, and oil extraction makes a significant contribution to economic growth. The findings highlight that FDI and the rent received from the pool of natural resources are significant contributors to economic growth, as they are both helping to develop industrialization in the nations concerned and improve the level of per capita income. However, the findings also suggest that there is a need to consider the limited availability of natural resources and to deal with this situation by (a) developing policies that can ensure the efficient use of such rent received from the natural resources by importing advanced technologies from developed nations and (b) using the rents from natural resources to promote the business environment and attract FDI in developing countries.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold around the world, the per unit area yield of the world's three major crops (i.e. maize, rice and wheat) decreased simultaneously for the first time in 20 years, and nearly 2.37 billion people faced food insecurity in 2020. Around 119-124 million people were pushed back into extreme poverty. Drought is one of the natural hazards that mostly affect agricultural production, and 2020 is one of the three warmest years on record. When the pandemic, economic recession and extreme climate change occur simultaneously, food crisis will often be exacerbated. Due to the limited research on the geographic modelling of crops and food security at the country level, we investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID-19 incidence and mortality rate), economic (GDP and per capita GDP), climate (temperature change and drought), and their compound effects on three crop yields and food security in the world. On the basis of verifying the spatial autocorrelation, we used the global ordinary least squares model to select the explanatory variables. Then, geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multi-scale GWR (MGWR), were utilised to explore spatial non-stationary relationships. Results indicated that the MGWR was more efficient than the traditional GWR. On the whole, per capita GDP was the most important explanatory variable for most countries. However, the direct threats of COVID-19, temperature change and drought on crops and food security were small and localised. This study is the first to utilise advanced spatial methods to analyse the impacts of natural and human disasters on agriculture and food security in various countries, which can serve as a geographical guide for the World Food Organization, other relief agencies and policymakers to conduct food aid, health and medical assistance, financial support, climate change policy formulation, and anti-epidemic policy formulation.

The advancement of technological innovations may facilitate the coordinated development of the economy and ecological environment (EGE); however, few studies have noted the role of innovation efficiency (INEF) as a bridge between economic development and EGE. To fill in this gap, this paper adopts DMSP/OLS nighttime light data to measure the level of economic development and the improved data envelopment analysis model to measure INEF, establishing an index system to quantify EGE. Then we propose the panel threshold-mediating (PTM) model that combines the panel threshold model and the mediating effect model. On these bases, considering INEF as a mediator, we use this novel PTM model to empirically test the nonlinear relationship between economic development and EGE in 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) while economic development can improve EGE, its positive impact on EGE differs with different INEF thresholds. A higher INEF threshold indicates a stronger positive effect of economic development on EGE. (2) For the entire sample, the mediating effect of INEF between economic development and EGE is not significant. However, after applying the PTM model, we found that the mediating effect of INEF was concealed by the sample population. (3) When INEF is lower than 0.2381, its complete mediating effect is verified. When INEF is higher than 0.2381, its mediating effect is not significant. On the contrary, economic development directly improves EGE. (4) Industrial agglomeration, the scale of government expenditure, residents' education level, degree of opening up, and transport infrastructure are all conducive to EGE. These findings can help cities at different INEF levels to achieve coordinated development of economy and EGE.

This study examines the relationship between equity of public green space and urban expansion/sprawl under high-speed urbanization. Equity of urban public green space indicates the degree to which urban public green spaces are distributed spatially in an equal way, with regard to the spatial variation of residents’ “need” for green space. In emerging economies such as China, especially in developing or underdeveloped cities such as Wuhan, central China, rapid urban growth challenges the capacity of the state to provide infrastructure and services for its urbanites equally. In order to research the relationship between industrial development and green space equity under the background of rapid urbanization, the use of quantitative methods to more accurately measure the degree of spatial inequality is essential. In this study, the accessibility of urban public green space in Wuhan is examined based on the two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA) method at multilevel radius; the urban public green space accessibility of Wuhan in 2013 and 2016 are acquired, and the link between changes in accessibility of urban public green spaces and urban expansion in Wuhan is discussed. It is found that industrial development takes precedence over green space. With its vigorous development, industrial land attracts increasing population, resulting in the drastic decline of the service capacity of green spaces, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the city.