A test of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon emission and potential of renewable energy to reduce green house gases (GHG) in Malaysia

This study investigates the presence of environmental kuznets curve (EKC) for green house gases (GHG) measured by CO₂ emission in Malaysia for the period 1970 to 2011. The study also examines the potential of the renewable source of energy to contain GHG. The long-run significant positive coefficient of GDP indicates that the GHG are increasing with economic growth while the insignificant coefficient on GDP square rejects the EKC transition. These results indicate a high GDP level for the EKC turning point for Malaysia. Therefore, it can be stated that only economic growth cannot reverse the environmental degradation in Malaysia. The government should have to come up with some policy measures to achieve CO₂ emission reduction targets that Malaysia has pledged to achieve in Paris Submit (2015). The renewable energy production is found to have significant negative effect on CO₂ emission. So government should focus on the renewable source of energy production and should frame a special policy for renewable energy production.     

我国经济增长与环境污染关系研究

环境库兹湮茨曲线假说提出经济增长与环境污染之间存在倒U型的关系。大量研究试图得到不同国家不同发展阶段的经济增长与环境污染之间的具体关系。找到环境破坏逆转的拐点；但该理论仅仅是从经验出发得到的．是否具有普遍性并未得到证实。我国近年来经济的高速增长带来了严重环境污染问题。采用全国的数据进行的实证研究表明：我国目前处于环境污染恶化阶段。没有证据点示我国已经存在环境库兹涅茨曲线现象，但也不排除目前我国处于环境库兹涅茨曲线的上升阶段的可能。只有通过积极的环境政策干预才可以使环境保护与社会经济的发展相协调。     

环境库兹涅茨曲线理论与国家环境法律间关系的研究

研究表明,经济发展与环境退化之间经常呈现倒U型曲线关系,许多学者将其定义为环境库兹涅茨曲线(EnvironmentalKuznets Curves,EKC),并将其运用到对发展中国家和发达国家的先污染,后治理的发展模式的解释之中。但是环境库兹涅茨曲线假说本身并不完善。在摒弃了传统计量模型指标后,以国家环境立法和国家环保投资作为目标研究EKC。结果表明,环境改善的重要条件是政府的支持,尤其是以环境法律的形式。     

Examining Environmental Kuznets Curve for river effluents in India

This study aims to determine the trade-off between river pollution and the growth of the economy in the context of India using the concept of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). According to EKC theory, environmental pressure tends to rise faster than income growth in the early stages of economic development and then declines in the later stages with further economic growth. The present study has used the cross-sectional time series data for river pollutants of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Dissolved Hydrogen Ions (PH) across various states of India for the period 1990–1991 to 2005–2006. This study shows why the conventional EKC model is not sufficient to ascertain the declining path of pollution as the economy grows in the second stage. The paper uses the modified EKC theory where the EKC curve is proposed to have 2 turning points. Our results indicated ‘tilted-S shaped’ relationship which contradicts EKC in the early stages. Most of the regions that were studied have crossed the first turning point but are still to cross the second turning point, which means that there will be an ascent in the pollution level in the future. This calls for more stringent environment policies complementing the desired growth path.     

城市未来发展持续性评价决策支持系统构建和设计

城市作为一定区域内的政治、经济和文化教育等中心，具有明显的集聚能力和辐射带动作用，其可持续发展是区域及整个国家可持续发展的前提。开发和构建城市未来发展持续性评价决策支持系统（UFDADSS），对加强城市发展可持续性动态监测和科学评价、提高城市可持续发展战略规划及决策水平具有重要意义。本文主要根据城市可持续发展的系统性、多样性、空间性、动态性等特征，从体系结构、功能模块、集成方式等几个方面，对UFDADSS的构建和设计进行了初步探讨。     

中国区域污染与经济增长实证:基于面板数据联立方程

考虑区域污染与区域经济增长的双向作用机制,构建联立方程模型,利用我国1998-2008年30个地区的面板数据,实证研究了6类区域污染物指标与区域经济增长的内在关系,对环境库兹涅茨曲线假说进行验证,探讨区域污染的主要影响因素。研究结果表明:①仅工业粉尘、工业SO2与GDP存在倒U型曲线关系,符合环境库兹涅茨曲线假说;工业废水、工业固废与GDP存在正的线性关系,工业废水中污染物化学需氧量、工业烟尘与GDP存在负的线性关系,不支持环境库兹涅茨曲线假说。指出并非经济发展到一定水平,区域污染问题就会得到全面解决。②人口规模对区域污染排放影响不显著;科技水平和能源利用率的提高能有效降低区域污染排放;政府环保管制未能有效控制区域污染排放;加大贸易开放程度对污染排放影响有正有负;产业结构不合理会加剧区域污染排放。③工业烟尘、工业SO2污染对区域经济增长有反作用。现阶段,我国区域污染对区域经济增长的反馈机制较弱,给我们敲醒了环保警钟。指出转变经济增长方式,走经济增长与环境保护协调发展的路子是我国今后的必然选择。     

Governance, institutions and the environment-income relationship: a cross-country study

This paper examines the environment-income relationship in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), and explores the possible role that factors like governance, political institutions, socioeconomic conditions, and education play in influencing this relationship. The results suggest that the EKC exists for carbon dioxide emissions for cross-country data over the period 1984–2002. However, there is nothing automatic about this relationship; policies designed to protect the environment may be responsible for this phenomenon. Two other significant findings are: one, countries with better quality of governance, stronger political institutions, better socioeconomic conditions and greater investment in education have lower emissions; and two, only around 15% of the countries in the dataset have reached income levels high enough to be associated with an unambiguous decline in emissions. The implications of these results are discussed within the context of the international environmental policy arena and the Kyoto Protocol. One of the main objectives of this paper is to bridge the gap between studies conducted on the EKC and developments in the international environmental policy arena. As a final note this paper emphasizes that one needs to connect the body of knowledge on the EKC hypothesis to the international environmental policy arena, despite the apparent difficulty of doing so. One hopes that future studies will further build on this line of thought.

Overcoming Contradictions Between Growth and Sustainability:Institutional Innovation in the BRICS

The recent accelerated growth rates or efforts to emulate countries that have achieved a rapid pace of economic growth are widely acclaimed as means to uplift millions from poverty. In so doing, however, this rapid economic growth is most likely to coincide with unsustainable levels of consumption, place excessive pressure on life support systems and terrestrial sinks and foreshorten options for the future. Rather than pursuing the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" (EKC) hypothesis that higher income will bring with it the means to reduce the impacts of greater consumption, ecological economists assert that buying our way out of future scarcity with fast growth is indeed contradictory with sustainability. To better understand these contradictions and explore potential institutional innovations that may enable developing nations to better confront them (in effect, "tunneling under" the EKC), this article refers to recent experience in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Beginning with a brief comparative summary of major development and environmental indicators, pressures on resources and society in each of the BRICS are discussed, followed by identification of institutional and policy frameworks each country has evolved to confront the challenges of growth and sustainability. The article closes with general conclusions for further research and information sharing among developing nations.     

Development and non-indigenous species at the global scale

This paper investigates the explanatory power of development, prosperity and regulatory capability as proximate causes of non-indigenous species (NIS) occurrence in different countries, doing this by statistically analysing a global cross-sectional data set. Since the quantification of development is subject to much discussion, two different indicators are tested: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the United Nations human development index (HDI). A corruption index is used as an indicator of regulatory capacity. In addition, variables capturing country openness, which facilitates NIS introduction, and habitat conditions, which determine NIS establishment, are included as explanatory variables. The GDP indicator together with the corruption index fits the NIS data best, where the number of NIS is higher in countries with larger incomes. However, countries with relatively high income but low institutional capacity show a larger number of NIS than countries with a similar level of income but with higher institutional capacity. The results also point to the significant contributions of openness and habitat fragmentation to NIS occurrences in the countries.     

环境库兹涅茨曲线理论及研究的批评综论

在综述国内外有关环境库兹涅茨曲线(EKC)研究文献的基础上,对有关EKC研究存在的问题及对该理论的质疑进行了梳理与总结.现有研究也存在诸多缺陷,主要表现在以下方面:一,模型设定中经济与环境单向性假定以及不同国家同质性假定不符实际;二,对存量外部性以及生态阈值的忽视;三、指标选取随意性以及计量方法存在问题.本文的结论是:第一,不存在适合所有地区、所有污染物的单一关系模式.这种"不同的数据、不同的模型会有不同的结果"现象暗示着环境和收入水平间EKC关系的脆弱性;第二,经济增长与环境之间的关系是复杂的,笼统地把经济发展水平与环境污染程度相关联,是一种从外部考察"经济-环境"系统的"黑箱"方法,这种方法短干深刻性,难以揭示环境污染发生的内在根源与机制;第三,当前学界过于注重讨论EKC形状的及拐点,一定程度上使研究走向了歧途,割开经济-环境"黑箱"去探寻EKC曲线背后的作用机制才是更重要、更有实际意义的工作,EKC研究还有许多不可回避的探索方向.     

经济发展与环境退化的动态演进——环境库兹涅茨曲线研究进展

环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）阐述了经济发展和环境退化之间的动态演进过程，即随着经济的发展环境先不断恶化，到达顶点后逐渐改善。从实证研究、计量模型和分解分析三条线索回顾总结了国内外研究成果。随着EKC研究的发展，环境指标从污染指标扩展到资源生态指标和环境效率指标，而实证研究表明并非所有的环境指标和经济变量之间都存在“倒U型”关系。目前计量模型以简化式为多，结构式较少。由于分解分析方法能够定量化各种影响因素对污染排放变化的贡献率，因而在EKC成因研究中日益受到重视。尽管研究取得了较大进展，但生态环境阈值、污染的时空转移、数据处理与模型方法、环境控制政策和管理等方面仍需进一步研究，关键要在数据处理和模型构建方面取得突破。     

山东省经济发展与环境保护关系的计量分析

经济增长与环境污染之间的关系常用环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）来描述。典型的EKC一般量倒U形。本文选取1988-2002年的山东省环境与经济数据．建立单位GDP污染排放量横型和人均GDP污染排放量模型,对山东省经济发展与环境保护之间的关系进行了计量与分析。通过单位GDP污染负荷模型分析发现。单位GDP的污染负荷量下降态势。这说明山东省产业结构调整已产生明显成效。通过人均GDP污染排放量模型发现．山东省的EKC不完全符合典型的库兹涅茨曲线特征。呈显着的三次曲线特点。其中,工业废水曲线为“U＋倒U”形．两个转折点的理论计算值分别为3416元和9975元。废气与固废曲线近似于倒U形EKC的左半部分．尚来到达转折点。由此可见．环境质量的改善并非随着收入水平的提高而自动发生。除了收入因素。影响山东省EKC的因素还有国家或地区的环境政策、工业化进程等。     

Towards institutional analysis of sustainability science: a quantitative examination of the patterns of research collaboration

This paper examines quantitatively the patterns of collaboration over geographical boundaries in the emerging field of sustainability science by empirically analyzing the bibliometric data of scientific articles. The results indicate that an increasing number of countries are engaged in research on sustainability, with the proportion of articles published through international collaboration rising as well. The number of countries engaged in international collaboration on sustainability research has been increasing, and the diversity of countries engaged in research collaboration beyond national borders is also increasing. The geographical patterns of collaboration on sustainability show that research collaboration tends to be conducted between countries which are geographically located closely, suggesting that communication and information exchange might be limited within the regional clusters. The focused fields of research activities on sustainability are significantly different between countries, as each country has its focused fields of research related to sustainability. The specialization of research activities is also observed in international collaboration. While these patterns of international collaboration within regional clusters focusing on specific fields could be effective in promoting the creation, transmission, and sharing of knowledge on sustainability utilizing the already existing regional networks, they could pose a serious obstacle to collecting, exchanging, and integrating diverse types of knowledge, especially when it is necessary to deal with problems involving large-scale complex interactions with long-term implications, such as climate change. It would be of critical importance to establish inter-regional linkages by devising appropriate institutional arrangements for global research collaboration on sustainability science.     

基于产业链的区域环境污染物排放的产业贡献

区域经济增长与环境质量之间的关系研究是目前学者们探讨的重要学术议题之一.其中较多的是对EKC曲线的验证,近几年部分学者从国民经济各部门中的产业自身特征、产业结构、技术进步、FDI效应等方面考察产业发展对污染物排放的影响.然而以上研究议题中学者均没有讨论污染物的发生主体-各产业部门与排污的直接关系.故本文将从宏观尺度下的综合水平测度区域经济发展与环境质量关系、中观尺度下的产业属性特征与排污关系的研究视角转移至分析具体产业部门的污染物排放效应,同时将产业置于产业链的结构形式中,研究产业链上产业发展与污染物排放的关系.发现:第一,通过借助复杂网络思想的社区划分方法,将山东省39个产业部门分为3个社团.其中社团I主要由制造业部门组成,共有18个产业部门,社团II包括了15个部门,主要是第三产业,杜团III由6个产业部门组成且内部异质性高.第二,选择其中以制造业为主的社团I,并在社团I内识别出一条彼此间联系最为紧密的产业链,包括农林牧渔业、食品制造及烟草加工业、化学工业、纺织工业、服装皮革羽绒及其制品业、通用/专用设备制造业和交通运输设备制造业.以一种定量的方法获取了通过价值流传递而串在一起的产业链条.该产业链的经济规模、污染物规模在山东省均有重要地位.第三,采用岭回归分析方法,构建了6个制造业与产业链工业废水、固体废弃物排放的关系模型,6个制造业中对工业废水、固体废弃物排放相对贡献度最大的部门分别为服装皮革羽绒及其制品业、食品制造及烟草加工业.这是由于上游产业排污的链式传递效应与产业自身污染物排放效应的共同叠加作用.     

物质流分析方法的理论及其应用研究

物质流分析既是发展循环经济重要的辅助手段，也是衡量循环经济发展水平的方法。目前，世界上的一些主要发达国家已经开展了物质流分析的研究与实践。我国物质流分析的研究尚处于起步阶段，特别是以城市为对象的区域物质流分析研究在我国尚处于起步和尝试阶段。为促进循环经济在我国的健康发展．应该结合我国实际，逐渐开展区（县）层面的物质流分析。本文在借鉴国外物质流分析的实践经验的基础上，以青岛市城阳区为例，运用物质流分析方法，首次对区（县）级行政区域进行了研究。此外，结合物质流分析结果，运用IPAT方程，建立了城阳区循环经济建设的指标体系，为其他地区实施区域层面物质流分析、建立循环经济建设指标体系提供了借鉴。研究表明．物质流分析对区域循环经济的规划建设具有重要意义。     

中国环境污染与经济增长的实证研究

本文基于我国1981-2007年环境污染与经济增长的相关数据,利用时间序列研究方法对我国EKC进行实证研究,说明建立EKC模型可能存在的问题。为弥补EKC模型中环境不影响经济的假设与变量难以量化的不足,运用VAR模型研究二者的动态关系。EKC研究结果表明:EKC是一种客观现象,而不是一般规律;与人们生产生活关系密切的污染物更有可能出现EKC特征。VAR脉冲响应和方差分解的动态分析结果与二者相互作用机理相符:一方面我国经济增长通过规模效应、结构效应、技术效应等因素影响环境;一方面随着人们环境质量需求弹性的增加,政府对环境质量的重视,环境对企业生产行为的约束机制正逐步形成,但可能由于人们通过自身消费影响产出的作用有限和环境政策实施存在滞后性等原因,这种机制的形成存在一定滞后。     

试从地理学视角探讨区域综合竞争力的指标体系

区域综合竞争力是当今各国政府与学术界普遍关注的发展问题之一，它源于20世纪70年代西方发达资本主义对国家竞争力的研究，并盛行于欧美发达国家。直至今天，发展中国家纷纷参与到全球竞争力的评价体系中来。大多数学者基于经济学和管理学角度对其作了深入的研究。受学科限制和全球经济一体化的影响，从经济学角度研究竞争力，一般较少考虑地区资源、环境等区域发展的承载基础，忽略了地理要素是构成区域综合竞争力的重要部分，并对竞争力发挥持续作用。从地理学视角，探讨地理环境要素对综合竞争力形成与发展的影响作用，在此基础上构建评价指标体系，认为区域综合竞争力是由区域资源禀赋、区域整体实力、区域发展潜力和区域创新环境4个部分支撑，48个具体指标构成。该指标体系的构建是为了能给地区经济社会的发展、国际竞争力的提高提供新的思路。     

中美两国经济发展与铜消费量对比研究

发达国家的发展过程表明,经济增长与铜消费量密切相关。本文由IPAT方程推导了铜消费指标与GDP间的关系式,得出GDP的年增长率（g）的单位GDP铜消费量的年下降率（t）是影响铜消费量变化的两个重要参数。给出了中、美两国铜消费指标与GDP间的关系曲线;中国1960-2004年间单位GDP的铜消费量并未形成明显的上升或下降趋势;美国1941-2004年间单位GDP铜消费量的变化总体上逐年降低,1941年为17.80kg/10^4USD,2003年为2.56kg/10^4USD,单位GDP的铜消费量降低近7倍。对应不同的单位GDP铜消费量年下降率的假设,估计了未来25年内中国经济增长与铜消费指标间的关系以及单位GDP铜消费量降低的倍数。     

武汉市工业“三废”污染状况计量模型研究

根据武汉市1987~2003年经济状况（以人均GDP表示）与工业“三废”污染物排放量的统计数据，借助SPSS和EXCEL软件系统，分析了人均GDP与工业“三废”污染物排放量之间的相关关系,并建立了两者之间的计量模型。通过研究发现：武汉市工业“三废”污染物（如工业废水、工业废水中的Cr+6、工业废气中SO2、工业粉尘和工业固废等排放量，工业固体废弃物产生量）除工业固体废弃物产生与排放量在EKC曲线的左边、还处于两难区间外，其余的曲线已过或正处于EKC转折点，说明武汉市工业“三废”污染状况开始向良性化方向发展。在武汉市环境没有遭到完全破坏、资源没有完全耗竭时，根据研究结果， 进行了“烫平”武汉市工业“三废” 排放量EKC曲线走势的可行性分析。     

The Impact on Environmental Kuznets Curve by Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in China

1 INTRODUCTIONAs the globalization of world economy speeds up,international trade and foreign investment mainly bytransnational corporations are continuously expanding.It is against this background that the relationship betweentrade, FDI, economic growth and environmental pollutionstarted to attract close attention from scholars both athome and abroad (Dean, 1992; 2001; Copeland andTaylor, 2003; OECD, 1997; Beladi, 1999; MA, 2003).Although the idea that "economy and environment win-w…