中国低碳城市试点的政策设计逻辑

政策试点是中国国家治理策略体系的重要组成部分,是中国政府遵循“由点到面”逻辑以试验手段制定政策的一种常规性工作方法。低碳城市试点是中国应对气候变化战略的重要组成部分,通过选择不同类型、不同发展阶段、不同资源禀赋的地区开展试点,探索经济增长与碳排放脱钩的模式。现有文献侧重低碳城市建设的内涵、建设模式与路径、温室气体的核算方法、政策手段、峰值研究与达峰路径、效果评估等,有力地支持了低碳城市建设决策,但对于低碳城市试点的政策设计鲜有涉及。本文从政策过程理论、央地关系两个视角,结合府际学习与竞争关系,建构了中国低碳城市政策“试点–扩散”机制与政府行为的分析框架。中国的低碳城市试点具有探索型开拓性、综合型专业性、授权型自主性的特点,结合三批低碳城市试点的文件要求和实践进展,从政策试点的选点、设计、执行、监督和评估五个方面对于中国低碳城市试点进行了系统的梳理分析。相较于经济领域的其他政策试点,低碳城市政策试点具有弱激励弱约束的政策环境。地方政府基于自身的学习能力和领导力,在政策创新方面表现出争先、自主、效仿和守成四种行为特征,并以杭州、深圳、镇江、成都四个表率城市做了实证。政策“试点-扩散”的过程从本质上讲是中国政策创新与扩散的过程,可能在现实中需要往复多次进行,中国已陆续开展的三批低碳城市试点工作就遵循这样的政策逻辑。试点的意义是试出问题、解决问题、积累经验。从前三批试点城市评估结果来看,试点城市在低碳发展目标设定、转型路径探索和低碳发展动力转换等方面与社会的预期仍有差距,为此本文提出了推进低碳城市建设的四点建议:一是激发城市低碳发展的内生动力;二是完善低碳城市试点的科学论证机制;三是建立激励与约束并举的长效机制;四是强化市场公平竞争的政策导向。     

基于央地分权视角的环境规制策略演化博弈分析

当前,我国环境的根本问题是由粗放式的经济发展模式所引起的,而这一发展模式的根源在于"中国式央地分权"下的政府行为。这种具有中国特色的分权模式的独特之处在于中央政府对地方经济放权的同时,仍然保持政治上的集权控制,上级政府根据绩效考核提拔地方官员,即"经济分权、政治集权"特性。中国式分权下,我国的环境治理体制依据行政区域的划分来设置管理权限,按照政府层级的构成进行垂直式领导,即中央政府统一制定环境政策,地方政府负责各辖区内环境政策的执行。在全国范围内,央地两级政府的关系表现为动态的重复博弈。针对我国现行环境规制执行策略,借助演化经济学研究工具,基于央地分权的视角,将地方政府与中央政府两大主体同时纳入分析框架。根据复制动态方程探讨参与主体的行为演化特征和行为演化稳定策略,在模型求解的基础上,利用MATLAB仿真工具,分析不同情形下参与主体演化稳定策略的走向及其收敛趋势。研究发现,央地两级政府在环境规制策略执行过程中的动态演化,很大程度上取决于地方政府环境规制执行力度、成本、收益和损失以及中央政府监管力度、成本和处罚力度等因素的大小。因此,针对地方政府环境策略激励设计,应重点改革政绩考核机制,引入市场机制,并通过环保补贴、财政转移支付等手段降低地方政府环境规制执行成本;中央政府应通过调节政绩考核体系中的经济发展指标和环境指标的权重系数来加强对地方政府环境规制执行情况的监管力度,建立第三方监管机制以降低中央政府监管成本,制定合理的奖惩机制以提高监管效率;以期推动我国环境规制策略的高效执行,促进环境绩效向经济绩效的良性转换,实现双重帕累托改进。     

基于SDGs的中国可持续发展评价指标体系设计

可持续发展目标(SDGs)是继千年发展目标(MDGs)之后联合国期望彻底解决社会、经济和环境3个维度发展问题而制定的具有一定约束性的目标指标体系。科学地监测和评估可持续发展目标的进展是确保实现SDGs的关键,也是各国均面临的困难和挑战之一。受制于发展的不充分性与不平衡性,不同国家及地区在实施SDGs上面临的主要问题和关注的重点也不同。文章以可持续发展目标演变为基础,梳理了MDGs到SDGs的变化过程,结合可持续发展目标指标机构间专家组(IAEG-SDGs)提出的全球指标框架及动态发展分析了全球层面落实SDGs的进展情况,指出了当前中国实施SDGs的机遇与挑战。以全球指标框架为基础,统筹国家相关规划和政策行动确定的关键指标,考虑中国当前统计数据的可获得性、相关指标的权威性及频度,对接SDGs语境下17项目标、169项子目标、231个指标的考核基础条件,对SDGs相对应的国内考核指标进行筛选,提出了构建SDGs中国本土化评价指标体系的设计原则与思路,建立了由142项指标组成的SDGs中国本土化指标框架体系。对接当前城市尺度可持续发展相关评价与考核基础,衔接国家可持续发展议程创新示范区建立的目标指标,对中国本土化评价指标体系进行城市层面的二次本地化,建立了由71项指标组成的中国城市可持续发展指标体系;考虑城市可持续发展能力和水平评估的现实需求,确定了23项关键指标,建立了由人类健康福祉指数、资源环境可持续利用指数及社会经济发展动力可持续性指数组成的城市可持续发展水平评估技术体系,以推动SDGs在中国从理念到实践、从目标到结果的实现。     

世界各国是如何执行全球可持续发展目标(SDGs)的?

全球可持续发展目标(SDGs)明确指出了2015—2030年全球发展的目标和方向。然而,该项议程的执行和落实却面临着重重挑战,执行进展也饱受质疑。基于此,本文从公共政策执行的视角出发,对2016年和2017年已经参与联合国可持续发展高级别政治论坛(HLPF)的64个国家进行了梳理和总结,依据在SDGs执行中发挥主导作用的行为主体区分了四种执行模式:政府主导、社会主导、共同治理与执行阻滞模式。文章以中国、瑞典、日本和博茨瓦纳为例,重点比较和分析了这四种执行模式的实现形式和治理特点。研究显示:(1)不同国家SDGs执行模式的选择与其资源条件高度相关,包括经济发展水平、政治支持环境与社会组织发育程度;(2)国家层面的SDGs执行模式仍处于动态演化过程中,政府主导模式与社会主导模式都出现一些向共同治理模式演化的趋势;(3)参与意愿和能力不足的发展中国家更可能陷入SDGs执行阻滞。观察和比较不同SDGs执行模式有助于我们拓展对于公共管理视角下全球治理的理解,促进国际社会更有针对性地解决SDGs执行中所面临的问题。同时,也为中国推动进一步落实SDGs提供实践参考与借鉴。     

SDGs框架下中国可持续发展评价指标研究

联合国可持续发展目标(SDGs)是2030年可持续发展议程的核心内容,全球可持续发展指标框架以此为基础,用多领域指标监测可持续发展进展。SDGs通过后,各国都将其作为自身经济社会协调发展的重要指导,中国政府也将其上升到战略层面,并与国家"十三五"规划等实践路径有机结合。然而,SDGs的评价主体是全球和区域进展,对于可持续发展程度各异的国家进行统一评价并不适用,亟待研究一套适合于中国情况的评估体系,一方面形成国内可持续发展各领域的综合现状评价,摸清基本情况,另一方面形成对SDGs评估的对标,以促成SDGs各项目标的落地。基于此背景,本文重点分析了全球可持续发展指标框架的出台过程、概念框架、以及评估应用中的具体问题,以中国落实2030年可持续发展议程为基础,以可持续发展强调的经济、社会、资源环境的协调发展为理论支撑,对标SDGs的各项目标和具体目标,构建了一套适用于中国国家层面可持续发展进展评估的指标体系,旨在形成对中国落实联合国2030年议程的评价指标建议。选择2012—2016年为研究期,综合运用层次分析法、专家咨询法构建了针对民生改善、经济发展、资源利用、环境质量综合评价的指标体系,同时与SDGs评价目标相对应。评价结果表明:可持续发展的总得分在研究期内均保持增长的趋势,可持续发展的总体态势始终改善。总分增长较快的年份,资源环境质量改善的得分也较高,其中贡献率较大的主要是与能耗和污染物排放下降相关的指标,通过现状评价明确了发展的薄弱环节,形成了SDGs框架下适用于中国评估的指标建议。     

从世界看中国：落实联合国可持续发展目标的成效、差距和展望

推进联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs）是世界共识,也是中国需要。在通往可持续发展的未来进程中,如何评估一个国家的可持续发展,进而了解中国在世界可持续发展中所处的位置,分析中国可持续发展的有利条件和面临的挑战,对于世界了解中国以及中国优化可持续发展具有重要意义。基于此,该研究以2015—2022年联合国可持续发展解决方案网络发布的可持续发展报告为主要载体,探究全球SDGs评估和进展情况,并以从世界看中国的视角分析中国落实SDGs的成效以及中国和世界其他国家的差距,以期为提升中国可持续发展水平提供可能性路径,并为推动世界可持续发展提供动力。研究发现,在全球范围内,可持续发展具有明显的区域和经济集聚性特征,SDGs实现进展在一定程度上具有同质性。从世界看中国,目前中国的可持续发展进展较稳定地处于世界中上游水平,2022年中国SDGs得分为72.4,在163个国家中排第56位。具体而言,中国在“无贫穷”“优质教育”及“负责任消费和生产”方面取得明显进展并为世界可持续发展提供经验;海洋生态系统和陆地生态系统的可持续发展是现阶段中国可持续发展面临的突出短板,与世界其他国家相比存在一定差距。研究认为,...     

低碳城市试点政策对地方政府重污染行业土地出让的影响

土地作为经济发展中的重要生产要素,是地方政府促进经济增长的重要工具。“双碳”目标的提出,将推动地方政府改变过去依靠低价出让工业用地吸引高耗能高污染企业的粗放发展模式。低碳城市试点政策是中国为实现经济绿色低碳转型和可持续发展的重要举措,此政策的提出必然会对地方政府偏向重污染行业的土地出让行为产生影响。文章以低碳城市试点政策为准自然实验,利用286个地级市2007—2019年面板数据,运用多期双重差分模型对该试点政策与地方政府土地出让行为之间的关系进行实证研究。结果发现：(1)低碳城市试点政策的实施显著地减少了地方政府重污染行业土地的出让面积和宗数,该结论在经过一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。(2)低碳城市试点政策对重污染行业土地出让的影响还会受到地方政府环境规制强度和官员任期的影响。环境规制强度越大的试点城市会进一步减少对重污染行业的土地出让面积和宗数。当低碳试点城市的市委书记任期小于等于3年时,该试点城市的重污染行业土地出让面积和宗数会显著减少,而市委书记的年龄对地方政府重污染行业的土地出让并没有显著的影响。(3)异质性分析发现,非资源型城市、经济发展水平较高的城市和大型城市,其重污染行业...     

面向横向比较的可持续发展综合评估方法改进

2030年可持续发展议程以“不让任何人掉队”的发展理念,提出了17个可持续发展目标（SDGs）和169个指标,几乎涵盖了人类发展的方方面面。围绕SDGs的评估工作是一项世界性难题,既有理论上的不足使得定性目标难以全部有效转为定量指标,也有方法学上的缺陷导致多指标合成存在困难,不能进行有效和客观的横向比较。该研究主要围绕SDGs综合评估方法优化开展讨论。研究认为,由于SDGs的经济、社会、环境三个维度指标存在着一定的相关性,传统算术平均赋值权重的方法学可能引起历时性和共时性问题,从而拉大可持续发展目标完成情况评估结果的区域差距。该研究提出了指标权重客观赋值的方法学,采用多因子分析方法对指标的两两关系进行拟合,同时结合层次分析法构建SDGs的判断矩阵,实现指标权重的客观量化和赋值。以此为基础,开展中国31个省份在落实2030年可持续发展议程方面的进展评估,结果显示：各省份SDGs的评估得分总体上呈现出从东部逐渐向中西部递减的趋势,其中浙、沪、京等排名领先;通过将新方法的结果与传统的算术平均评估方法进行对比,发现新方法显著降低了经济发达地区和落后地区在落实SDGs方面的得分差异。这种情况也反...     

可持续发展新里程:问题与探索——参加“里约+20”联合国可持续发展大会之思考

"里约+20"峰会成果文件《我们憧憬的未来》重申了"共同但有区别的责任"原则;决定启动可持续发展目标讨论进程;肯定绿色经济是实现可持续发展的重要手段之一;决定建立更加有效的可持续发展机制框架;敦促发达国家履行官方发展援助承诺。这是"里约+20"峰会取得的重要成果,这项成果开启了可持续发展的新里程,其理论探索和实践总结将是学术界不懈努力的方向。在《我们憧憬的未来》的框架下,整合现有可持续发展的相关政策,综合考虑各国独特的社会、经济发展和环境保护问题的特殊性,认为可持续发展研究需要在以下6个方面做出努力:①绿色经济的概念、发展模式与政策创新研究,主要包含了绿色经济的内涵;绿色经济与可持续发展之间的关系;绿色经济与就业、脱贫等之间的关系;衡量绿色经济的具体指标体系;对不同区域和不同行业经济发展绿化程度的测度;绿色壁垒的形式以及对我国国际贸易的影响;发展绿色经济对国际政治经济格局的影响;绿色经济的发展模式与政策创新研究等。②自然资本核算、生态补偿机制与政策研究,主要包含了自然资本的内涵;自然资本与可持续发展之间的关系;各种生态服务之间的耦合关系;如何建立基于自然资本核算方法体系的多层次多元化的生态补偿投融资及其运行机制和生态补偿方式;如何从法律、体制、机制、政策等多层面构建一套完整、具有可操作性的生态补偿政策和制度保障体系等。③可持续发展的全球治理机制研究,主要包含了可持续发展领域的国际合作与冲突机制及有效的全球环境治理机制和可持续发展的国际管理体制的研究;中国、巴西、印度等新兴经济体应该如何应对在未来全球可持续发展中面临的压力和责任及经济全球化对于可持续发展的负面影响等。④科技创新与可持续发展研究,主要包含了科技创新对可持续发展的贡献度;各类型产业可持续发展技术(或者是低碳技术、绿色技术等)的识别、评价和预测;可持续发展技术的创新机制研究;如何通过加强可持续技术的研发和应用,促进绿色产业发展和民生改善等。⑤可持续发展的投融资机制研究,主要包含了提高可持续发展中转移支付、生态环境保护专项资金(基金)、生态税、税收差异化等财政手段效率的体制和机制创新问题;如何推进投融资渠道和方式多元化,实现资金供给与资本结构优化的协调互动和资金配置与运作效率的高效互动等。⑥可持续发展利益相关方的有效参与机制研究,主要包含了系统研究可持续发展利益相关者参与机制创新的可行路径,建立中国可持续发展利益相关者参与的分析框架;研究与设计能够在宏观(或共性)层面和微观(或个性)层面有效运行的参与机制;研究可持续发展利益相关者参与机制创新的制度相容性和实践可行性。     

基于SDGs的乡村可持续发展评价指标体系

在城镇化和工业化不断深入推进的背景下,乡村正面临严峻的人口流失、城乡收入差距扩大、农业资源价值实现不充分、城乡二元结构突出等不可持续问题,已经成为中国全面落实联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs）的短板。对接国家乡村振兴战略、可持续发展战略的实施需求,在乡村可持续发展的概念演变与发展形势分析基础上,该研究瞄准实现可持续发展目标的3个基本维度（发展动力、发展质量、发展公平）,从乡村生产要素、自然要素、社会要素与乡村治理四个方面讨论了乡村可持续发展的内涵及核心目标,即：激活乡村产业发展动力,保障乡村发展质量,建设公平和谐乡村社会,形成健全乡村治理机制,尝试阐释“什么样的乡村才是可持续发展的乡村？”这一核心命题。借鉴当前国家和城市层面SDGs进展情况的评价经验和评估范式,讨论了乡村可持续发展评价指标体系设计的基本原则、构建思路和评估方法。聚焦乡村可持续发展目标与方向,在SDGs本土化探索经验分析基础上,统筹国家相关战略、规划和政策行动确定的关键指标,识别筛选了乡村可持续发展密切相关的SDGs考核指标,构建了由136项指标组成的乡村可持续发展基础指标库。考虑乡村可持续发展能力和水平评估的现实需求,进...     

Global sustainable development report: background,progress, and recommendations

Formulating the GSDR Formulating the GSDR (global sustainable development report) is one of the important achievements initiated by the “Rio +20” summit, and it has received worldwide attention. Nowadays, the international community has made a preliminary consensus on the orientation, key focuses, frameworks, and time schedule of GSDR. But, there are still great divergences in the relationship between GSDR and SDGs/post-MDGs (sustainable development goals/post-2015 development agenda), the GSDR organizational model, and whether countries writing their own national sustainable development report or not. After reviewing the whole process of formulating GSDR, some recommendations for writing GSDR from the Chinese perspective are proposed. The GSDR report should be a science-based and policy-making-oriented assessment report. The GSDR should focus on the priority areas that SDGs/post-MDGs have already identified as core fields. “Limited in number, easy to quantify, and universally applicable” comprehensive assessment indices of sustainable development should be proposed. A GSDR international working group of experts should be established. Countries should be encouraged to formulate the “National Sustainable Development Report” according to their own domestic practices. GSDR should be integrated with the high-level political forum (HLPF). Meanwhile, some suggestions on China’s participation in the GSDR process are also proposed. China’s 2030 mid-term and long-term national sustainable development goals (CSDGs) based on both the SDGs/post-MDGs and domestic practice are proposed. According to the implementation of national sustainable development goals, China should start the appropriate assessment of the progress and regularly report on the national sustainable development. Chinese scientists should be encouraged to actively participate in the process of GSDR.     

Evaluation on the development degree of China’s seven pilot carbon markets

China is preparing to establish a nationwide carbon market in 2017, and in order to facilitate this goal, seven pilot carbon markets have been under study for the past few years. This paper summarizes the operation experience and challenges of the seven pilot carbon markets in China. It has been widely accepted that the essence of a carbon market is to solve environmental problems through market mechanisms, with environmental benefit being the fundamental purpose, market mechanism being the key measure, and policies and regulations being an important guarantee for an orderly carbon market. Therefore, this paper constructs an evaluation index system composed of 34 detailed sub-indexes in three dimensions, such as environmental constraint force, market resource allocation ability, and supporting policies and facility completeness. Through analyzing the operation data from 2013 to 2016, the weights of the sub-indexes are obtained. In addition, the study obtains experts’ opinions from over 10 carbon permits exchanges, consultancy firms and research institutions in China, and conducts a comprehensive evaluation on the development degree of the seven pilot carbon markets. Results show that the pilot carbon markets that include private SMEs as the covered entities for emissions control present relatively higher environmental constraint force. But too many covered entities could increase the difficulty of market performance management, while the pilots that include high energy-consuming state-owned enterprises as the entities for emissions control demonstrate a phenomenon of “high market compliance rate with low trading volume”. The resource allocation capability of China’s carbon market has not been effectively brought into play, and low degree of market participation has become an important constraint factor for market development. Due to the lack of laws and regulations at the national macro-level, the legally binding force of the pilot markets construction is obviously insufficient, and the supporting policies are lacking foresights. Generally, the development of China’s pilot carbon markets is still in such a fragmented state as in the aspects of environment, market and policy development, and the market operation has not yet achieved the purpose of solving environmental problems through market mechanisms. Accordingly, policy recommendations pointed out by this study are that tightening the allowance of free quota and progressively increasing the auction proportion, improving legal construction, increasing the services and products of carbon finance and standardizing the order of market transactions, enhancing capacity building of local governments and promoting the participation willingness and capability of emissions control entities, will be necessary.     

美国跨界大气环境监管经验对中国的借鉴

大气污染因其污染因子易受气候变化等影响,可进行长距离跨界传输,是典型的跨行政边界问题。我国地域辽阔,行政区域众多且与多个国家接壤或比邻,跨界污染问题研究十分必要。近年来,我国区域性大气污染问题明显,管理手段落后,缺乏相应管理体制和机制。美国在跨界大气环境管理方面取得了显著的成果,积累了丰富的经验,这对我国大气环境管理,尤其是跨界大气环境管理工作具有重要的借鉴意义。本文首先以美国大气跨界污染治理为例,结合具体实例,主要从机构设置、职能职责、运作方式三个方面详细分析了州内、州与州与之间以及跨国界三个层次跨界大气环境监管体系;其次,从上述几方面对我国与美国跨区域大气环境监管机制进行逐项比较分析;再次,对我国跨区域大气环境监管体系障碍分析认为,统分结合的环境管理体制和尚未建立区域联防联控机制是借鉴发达国家跨界大气环境监管经验的主要障碍;在此基础上,针对我国的跨区域大气环境管理工作提出5个方面的建议,即成立跨区域的权力机构;加强政府区域间协调合作;强化依法治理;多种管理手段综合应用;加强信息公开和公众参与。     

Can post-2015 sustainable development goals survive neoliberalism? A critical examination of the sustainable development–neoliberalism nexus in developing countries

The Rio+20 summit of the United Nations in Brazil in 2012 committed governments to formulate a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) that would be integrated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following its expiration in 2015. This decision has pushed sustainable development agenda into the limelight of development once again. Meanwhile, we note that the development agenda of many developing countries has been dominated by neoliberal orientation driven by market reforms, social inequality, and a move towards enhancing the economic competitiveness of the supply side of the economy. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between neoliberal economic agenda and sustainable development. We do so by examining how neoliberal policies of privatisation, trade liberalisation and reduction in governments spending stand to affect the attainment of sustainable development ideals and their implications on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The paper then suggests that relying solely on the mechanisms of the market in governing and allocating environmental resources is necessarily insufficient and problematic and therefore calls for a new approach—one which goes beyond just recognising the interdependency among social, environmental and economic goals and places issues of equity and addressing unfavourable power relations at the centre of interventions aimed at achieving the ideals of sustainable development.     

The impact of economic,social, and political globalization and democracy on life expectancy in low-income countries: are sustainable development goals contradictory?

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations are important guides for the development processes of developing countries. However, achieving all of these goals is only possible if the goals are consistent with each other. It has been observed in the literature that possible contradictions between these goals are ignored. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate whether two sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the UN are contradictory or supporting each other in low-income countries. These SDGs are “Good Health and Well-Being” (SDG3) and “Partnerships for the Goals” (SDG17). For this purpose, the role of globalization and democracy in life expectancy is empirically investigated in 16 low-income countries over the period 1970–2017. While globalization has been used as an indicator of the partnership between countries, democracy has been used as an indicator of accountability and cooperation between governments and societies. According to estimations of the continuous-updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and bias-adjusted ordinary least squares (BA-OLS), globalization and its subcomponents such as economic, social, and political globalization affect life expectancy positively. Democracy also increases life expectancy in those countries. The GDP per capita is also used as a control variable. Our results show that a higher level of per capita income is positively associated with higher levels of life expectancy. In conclusion, no contradiction was found between SDG3 and SDG17 in those countries. Achieving a healthier society requires economic, social, and political integration between governments and societies.

     

Transforming systems of consumption and production for achieving the sustainable development goals: moving beyond efficiency

The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Despite long-standing political recognition of this objective, and ample scientific evidence both on its importance and on the efficacy of various ways of promoting it, the SDGs do not provide clear goals or effective guidance on how to accomplish this urgently needed transformation. Drawing from the growing body of research on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), the paper identifies two dominant vantage points—one focused on promoting more efficient production methods and products (mainly through technological improvement and informed consumer choice) and the other stressing the need to consider also overall volumes of consumption, distributional issues, and related social and institutional changes. We label these two approaches efficiency and systemic. Research shows that while the efficiency approach contains essential elements of a transition to sustainability, it is by itself highly unlikely to bring about sustainable outcomes. Concomitantly, research also finds that volumes of consumption and production are closely associated with environmental impacts, indicating a need to curtail these volumes in ways that safeguard social sustainability, which is unlikely to be possible without a restructuring of existing socioeconomic arrangements. Analysing how these two perspectives are reflected in the SDGs framework, we find that in its current conception, it mainly relies on the efficiency approach. On the basis of this assessment, we conclude that the SDGs represent a partial and inadequate conceptualisation of SCP which will hamper implementation. Based on this determination, this paper provides some suggestions on how governments and other actors involved in SDGs operationalisation could more effectively pursue SCP from a systemic standpoint and use the transformation of systems of consumption and production as a lever for achieving multiple sustainability objectives.     

The role of capital deepening in China’s energy transition

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a theoretical model to explain the causality between China’s energy transition and capital deepening found by the empirical study. We prove that in the equilibrium, China’s energy transition is endogenously determined by capital deepening due to the homogeneity of electricity and the monopolistic competition features of China’s electricity market. Price effect, which is the effect of change in relative factor price, will affect energy transition only if the policy intervenes electricity price in terms of the primary sources from which it is generated. We propose that investment can promote energy transition by stimulating capital deepening which is biased to clean energy development. In this regard, our paper provides a new way of thinking for other developing countries to design an effective energy transition policy.     

Initial progress in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): a review of evidence from countries

The global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commenced in 2016 and provide an evidence-based framework for sustainable development planning and programming until 2030. There is emerging international practice and a growing catalogue of related reviews, assessments, guidelines and publications. While the expert community is clearly emphasising the need to adopt evidence- and science-based approaches to SDG implementation, policymakers now face the challenge of implementing the SDGs simultaneously in a coherent and integrated manner. Regular systematic reviews of national progress and approaches to implementing the SDGs are advisable to ensure that emerging science and knowledge is effectively informing national practice. This paper reviews the recent academic and expert literature as well as national experience in implementing the SDGs in 26 countries. It uses a systematic approach to analyse the degree to which key implementation stages and approaches recommended in the expert literature are being adopted and applied to support national SDG implementation on-the-ground. The review highlights that while progress has been made in some initial planning stages, key gaps remain in terms of the assessment of interlinkages, trade-offs and synergies between targets. Gaps are also clearly evident in the adoption of systems thinking and integrated analytical approaches and models. This is problematic as it may undermine effective implementation and the transformative potential of the SDGs. As more countries turn their attention to the SDGs, the review underscores the considerable risk that they will pursue the same ‘siloed’ or ‘linear’ approaches to sustainable development that have met with limited success in the past.     

An in-depth view of climate change:addressing climate change while making a transition on the development mode

While fossil fuels greatly contribute to human society,they pose great challenges to natural resources,the environment,and climate change.Developed countries,like the United States,formulated strategic measures to ensure their sustainable development and leading positions in the world.These measures include new green policies,development of shale gas,revitalization of nuclear power,energy independence,reindustrialization,and new low-carbon development based on a combination of Internet technology and renewable energy.Developing countries are also trying to introduce balanced strategies of poverty alleviation and sustainable development.Globally,industrial civilization is being transformed to ecological civilization and green,low-carbon development is a global trend.Addressing climate change provides new strategic factors to further this development.China should take substantial actions to realize sustainable development in a new road:China is in the critical stage of changing its development mode,so it is vital to choose an appropriate development path.This extensive development comes at the high price of consuming too much resources and scarring the environment.Mitigation and adaptation strategies for addressing climate change can help the transition of development.Based on the analysis of the development data of developed countries,the author introduces the concept of"two-type developed countries"with an understanding that not all developed countries must take the same development mode.He also holds the view that China should achieve modernization in a more energy-saving and more carbon-efficient manner compared with that of two-type developed countries.An analysis of"two competitions"that China is facing shows that changing the developing mode is urgent and China should grasp this opportunity in the next five to ten years,which is a key period for this transition.This paper discusses the low-carbon development goals and the three-step process.Low-carbon development does not necessarily restrict economic development.It,however,can expedite the transition of the development mode and this is a low-carbon and green development path.Transition of the development mode includes implementation of China’s green and low-carbon energy strategies,low-carbon society construction,development of agriculture and forestry,garbage sorting and utilization,innovation of urbanization,etc.Improvement of national infrastructure construction includes water safety,environment and climate monitoring system,intelligent energy web,basic database,etc.Addressing climate change can significantly improve the nation’s basic research level.In summary,it mitigates backward production capability,extensive development,and environmental damage while promoting technological advancement,scientific development,and ecological civilization.