Assessment on the effectiveness of environmental regulation in China—evidence from a panel data analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the context of global warming and environmental deterioration, the environment impact assessment is a crucial institutional guaranty to assure less...     

Can corporate environmental responsibility improve environmental performance? An inter-temporal analysis of Chinese chemical companies

The empirical research on the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance remains in the one-way positive impact and lacks the research on nonlinear relationship between them. Based on the stakeholder theory, this paper selects A-share chemical–listed companies in China from 2006 to 2017 as the research samples and uses generalized method of moments (GMM) model to investigate the impact mechanism between corporate environmental responsibility and environmental performance. The results showed that corporate environmental responsibility positively impacted on environmental performance; however, the impact was not significant. The corporate environmental performance positively and significantly impacted on environmental responsibility. Moreover, results reported that industry competition played a positive regulatory role in corporate environmental responsibility affecting environmental performance and has played a positive role in corporate environmental impact on environmental responsibility. A nonlinear relationship (inverted “U” shape) between environmental responsibility and environmental performance was found. The study results stress to establish a fair and perfect market competition mechanism to improve the environmental performance of chemical industries in China.

     

The effect of fiscal decentralization,environmental regulation,and economic development on haze pollution: empirical evidence for 270 Chinese cities during 2007–2016

The current discourse addresses fiscal issues, financial decentralization, and environmental quality and significantly affects economic development and sustainability. This investigation aims to address the research gap in fiscal decentralization and haze pollution for innovation and sustainable growth. This study uses the annual data of 270 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2016 for comprehensive analysis and employs spatial regression methods. The key findings imply that haze pollution in neighbouring cities causes further ecological issues. While the environmental regulations of China tend to have negative impacts on pollution, fiscal decentralization was found to be a key contributor to environmental pollution in Chinese cities. Overall, the study supports the validity of the pollution refuge hypothesis in China. Lastly, the conclusions allow us to conclude that China might need micro-level reforms regarding fiscal decentralization, environmental tax laws, and encouragement of cleaner production technologies.

     

Bound residues: environmental solution or future problem?

The paper examines the issue of bound residues from the viewpoint of the risk assessment procedures employed for environmental protection. It considers, on one hand, the evidence that such residues are so tightly bound to soil organic matter as to be essentially unavailable; and on the other, the perspective that we should not be loading up the environment with compounds whose future behaviour and release we cannot predict. Existing knowledge of the mechanisms by which residues bind to soil organic matter suggests that release will be closely dependent on soil organic matter breakdown. Simple models of organic matter turnover suggest that the release following single applications of individual compounds will be very slow; but the significance of releases following repeated application over many years of a number of compounds needs to be investigated further. Applying environmental risk assessment techniques is complicated by the difficulty in identifying parent molecules and potential metabolites in the bound residue fraction. The paper concludes that for single additions of individual compounds, bound residues probably do represent an environmental solution. But the long-term significance of bound residues formed from multiple additions of a number of compounds is less clear. The paper recommends that future work should emphasise the biological significance of such residues and their release.     

What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

Online crowdfunding can help address the perennial financial shortfalls in environmental conservation and management. Although many online crowdfunding campaigns fail to collect any funds due to not achieving their targets, little is known about what drives success. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a mixed-methods approach to data from 473 successful and failed campaigns hosted on the online crowdfunding platform Readyfor. We found that fundraising performance varied by topic, with campaigns on pet animal management outperforming those focussed on landscape management and sustainable use. We also found that marketing strategies associated with online findability and increased reach through social networks, increased fundraising success. However, the existence of other environmental campaigns running simultaneously, reduced the chance of success, which implies that the selecting popular topics does not always increase the likelihood of success due to increased competition. Wider applications of marketing could enhance the ability of environmental crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01522-0.     

Can anti-corruption improve the quality of environmental information disclosure?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study takes the anti-corruption campaign of the 18th CPC National Congress in China as an exogenous impact build a double difference (DID) model,...     

Does agriculture-induced environmental Kuznets curve exist in developing countries?

Even though the economic growth and the increased agricultural production bring welfare increment, they could also load significant environmental costs to society. This study aims to investigate the existence of agriculture-induced EKC hypothesis in 47 developing countries during 1976–2017 by using dynamic panel data estimators. According to the long-run findings of the DOLS and the FMOLS estimators, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship that exists between income and the CO₂ emissions, while agricultural production has a negative impact on environmental quality. In addition, the PMG estimator is also employed for robustness check. Likewise the DOLS and the FMOLS findings, the long-run results of the PMG estimator also support the existence of agriculture-induced EKC for developing countries. The empirical findings of this study provide stimulus results of policy makers to re-consider their current production infrastructure of agricultural sector to achieve sustainable development.

     

Does insurance sector development improve environmental quality? Evidence from BRICS

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The effect of financial development measured by banks, bonds, and stocks on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2E) has been widely studied while not much is...     

People’s attitude towards willingness-to-pay for environmental protection in Pakistan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Recent environmental research has found that people with higher incomes and in more developed countries are more willing to pay (WTP) to protect their...     

Digitalization and environment: how does ICT affect enterprise environmental performance?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Despite the increasing use of digital technology in industrial production, how industrial digitalization affects the environmental performance of...     

Do renewable energies contribute to enhancing environmental quality in Eastern Africa?

East Africa has enormous renewable energy potential, but only a small portion of it has been exploited, and little is known on its role in improving environmental quality. Thus, this study empirically examines the impact of renewable energy on the environment using ecological footprint (EF; positive indicator) and CO₂ emissions (negative indicator) as proxy indicators for environmental quality in a panel of ten East African countries from 1990 to 2015. These indicators were chosen due to their potential impact in the environment. The work used the pooled mean group (PMG) as the main panel estimator to determine the impact while controlling non-renewable energy consumption, GDP per capita, and foreign direct investment (FDI). PMG has been used as it forces the long-run coefficients to be equal across all panel groups. The findings show that in the long run, there is a significant negative relationship between CO₂ emissions and renewable energy consumption, as well as a significant positive relationship (with a low impact) between EF and renewable energy consumption, suggesting that renewable energy use enhances the area’s environmental quality. Also, results indicate that non-renewable energy use degrades environmental quality in both metrics, whereas GDP degrades environmental quality through CO₂ emissions and improves environmental quality through EF. This requires East African countries to focus a higher emphasis on accessible renewable energy sources to achieve quick and sustainable economic growth and minimize environmental effects. To accomplish this, strategic policies and legislation, as well as the promotion of green technology, are required.

     

The military’s responsibility for environmental protection in war and peace

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Separation and remediation of environmental pollutants using metal–organic framework-based tailored materials

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a polymer hybrid family of compounds comprising metal ions that have been deliberately incorporated in...     

Immunotoxic effects of environmental toxicants in fish �� how to assess them?

Numerous environmental chemicals, both long-known toxicants such as persistent organic pollutants as well as emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, are known to modulate immune parameters of wildlife species, what can have adverse consequences for the fitness of individuals including their capability to resist pathogen infections. Despite frequent field observations of impaired immunocompetence and increased disease incidence in contaminant-exposed wildlife populations, the potential relevance of immunotoxic effects for the ecological impact of chemicals is rarely considered in ecotoxicological risk assessment. A limiting factor in the assessment of immunotoxic effects might be the complexity of the immune system what makes it difficult (1) to select appropriate exposure and effect parameters out of the many immune parameters which could be measured, and (2) to evaluate the significance of the selected parameters for the overall fitness and immunocompetence of the organism. Here, we present - on the example of teleost fishes - a brief discussion of how to assess chemical impact on the immune system using parameters at different levels of complexity and integration: immune mediators, humoral immune effectors, cellular immune defenses, macroscopical and microscopical responses of lymphoid tissues and organs, and host resistance to pathogens. Importantly, adverse effects of chemicals on immunocompetence may be detectable only after immune system activation, e.g., after pathogen challenge, but not in the resting immune system of non-infected fish. Current limitations to further development and implementation of immunotoxicity assays and parameters in ecotoxicological risk assessment are not primarily due to technological constraints, but are related from insufficient knowledge of (1) possible modes of action in the immune system, (2) the importance of intra- and inter-species immune system variability for the response against chemical stressors, and (3) deficits in conceptual and mechanistic assessment of combination effects of chemicals and pathogens.     

Behavioural ecotoxicology,an “early warning” signal to assess environmental quality

Background

In this review, the position of behavioural ecotoxicology within the available means to assess the status of marine environments is described as filling the gap for the needed “early warning” signals. A few examples of studies performed since the 1960s are discussed to highlight the sensitivity of these approaches in investigating the effects of chemicals, including priority pollutants and emerging contaminants, relative to conventional toxicity tests measuring survival.

Discussion

The advantage of the behavioural response is due to the integration of biochemical and physiological processes that reflect changes at higher levels of organisation with ecological relevance. Avoidance often represents a behavioural symptom easily detected in many animals exposed to contaminants and would be a useful test to explore more widely. This rapid response would reflect a defence mechanism protective against further exposure and the potential development of more pronounced deleterious effects, whilst in some cases, escape could lead to the relocation of a species with negative consequences. An investigation of the avoidance behaviour of mud shrimp, Corophium volutator, along with the chemical analyses of sediments and amphipods to assess the quality of harbour sediments is summarised. The body burden of the amphipods was 1,000 times lower than the one associated with narcosis, emphasizing the sensitivity of this endpoint. The application of this acute toxicity test is briefly compared to additional work that involved intertidal mussels collected in the field.

Conclusions

Recent research undertaken with mud snails, Ilyanassa obsoleta, and harbour sediments confirmed the usefulness of the escape behaviour as an assessment tool. However, the limits of the state of knowledge regarding the fate of contaminants in species with the ability to metabolise contaminants is further discussed along with directions to be pursued to address questions arising from the reviewed literature.

     

Particulate matter regulation for two-stroke two wheelers: Necessity or haphazard legislation?

Although interest in particulate emissions has increased considerably during recent years, the subject of particulate matter (PM) emissions from small two-stroke engines used in road vehicles is still largely unexplored. This paper presents the results of an investigation, which examined the typical emission level and the typical characteristics of two-stroke PM, as well as the possible impact on the (urban) environment, all in comparison to diesel engines. Attention was also paid to the possible problems concerning the measurement of two-stroke PM and the possibilities to add a PM requirement to the moped type approval procedure. It is demonstrated that despite the significant PM emission levels of current two wheelers, particle characteristics are different compared to diesel exhaust PM and hence following a diesel-like procedure to quantify particle emissions may not be the indicated approach. Hence, based on the experimental evidence and the foreseen technology developments, recommended steps forward are proposed, taking into account the need for efficient regulation of PM and the particularities of the specific vehicle technology.     

Pharmacological implications of ipriflavone against environmental metal–induced neurodegeneration and dementia in rats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Long-term exposure to environmental neurotoxic metals is implicated in the induction of dementia and cognitive decline. The present study aims to...