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The aim of this article is to research on forestry green total factor productivity and explore the impact of financial support on forestry green total factor productivity.

The methods used in this study are super efficiency SBM model of undesired output and empirical model. SBM model is a kind of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The SBM model with non-expected outputs (slacks-based measure) can be used to deal with the problem of efficiency measurement with multiple input and output variables and can be used to analyze the efficiency of green development of forestry economy.

First, the overall green total factor productivity of the authors’ country's forestry has shown a trend of first decline and then an increase from 2008 to 2018, and there are significant spatiotemporal differences; second, financial support has a significant positive impact on forestry green total factor productivity; third, environmental regulation has a significant threshold effect in the process of financial support on forestry green total factor productivity, and the role of financial support shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing.

Secondly, taking the data of 30 provinces and cities in the authors’ country from 2008 to 2018 as the research object, using the super-efficiency SBM-Malmquist index to measure the country's forestry green total factor productivity and analyze its temporal and spatial changes; finally, a dynamic panel model was established to explore the impact of financial support on forestry green total factors quantitative impact on productivity, and adding environmental regulation as a threshold variable to establish a dynamic threshold regression, and found that financial support has a nonlinear impact on forestry green total factor productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between formal environmental regulation (FER) and informal environmental regulation (IER), technological innovation and employment.

This paper uses data from the 30 provinces of China during 2003–2015. The impacts of formal and IER and technological innovation on employment are estimated by generalized least squares, and the eastern region of China is analyzed separately.

First, both formal and IERs have different degrees of significant impact on employment, and the relationship is not a simple linear. FER has an inverted U-shaped relationship with employment, but IER has a U-shaped relationship. However, in the test including technological innovation, the results of the national sample and the eastern sample are different. In the eastern sample, the relationship between informal regulation and employment has an inverted U-shaped curve. Second, the results of model 3 and model 6 show that technological innovation has a significant negative effect on employment both in the national and the eastern region sample.

This paper puts forward corresponding policy implications: first, in designing environmental regulations, it is necessary to consider not only the stringency but also the type of regulation. Second, environmental regulations need to be differentiated by region. Finally, when designing environmental regulations, it is necessary to consider more flexible employment policies that are contingent on the stringency of regulations, in order to prevent employment decline due to technological innovations.

The conclusions about the influence of environmental regulation on employment reached are not consistent in China. Most existing research studies seldom consider environmental regulations into categories and focus only on the whole environmental regulation. This paper pays attention to the influences of different types of environmental regulations on employment. It analyzes the eastern region separately to explore whether there is a difference in the effects of environmental regulations. Furthermore, this considers the effect of technological innovation as a mediator.

Trade and environment are essential issues closely related to the development of the national economy and the improvement of people’s livelihood in the new era. The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) listed the construction of a strong trading power as an important part of building a modern economic system and pollution prevention and treatment as one of the three key battles to win the decisive victory of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. However, the relationship between trade and environmental pollution is still very controversial in the existing literature, and there is a paucity of literature on the relationship between trade and environmental pollution based on micro data.

This paper merged China’s Firm-Level Pollution Database with China’s Industrial Enterprise Database and China’s industry tariff rates. Additionally, by virtue of the quasi-natural experiment of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a difference in difference (DID) model was constructed to alleviate the endogeneity issue.

According to the results, the trade barrier decrease (trade liberalization) significantly reduces the intensity of SO₂ emissions, a major pollutant of enterprises, as the intensity of SO₂ emissions decreased 2.16% for each unit decrease of the trade barrier. The analysis of the mechanisms shows that the SO₂ emission intensity of enterprises is mainly due to the decrease of enterprises’ pollution emission rather than the decrease of output, and the decrease of enterprises’ pollution emission is mainly caused by the enterprises’ cleaner production process rather than the end treatment of pollution emission. The decrease of coal use intensity is an important mechanism of the decrease of SO₂ emission intensity caused by the decrease of trade barriers. Among the technical effects of the change of the trade barrier affecting enterprises’ pollution emission, biased technical change rather than neutral technical change dominates.

The findings of this paper imply that expanding openness can enhance China’s social welfare not only through the economic growth mechanisms identified in the classical literature, but also through environmental improvements. This provides useful policy insights for promoting the construction of a strong trading power and winning the battle against pollution in the new era.

The study seeks to evaluate the extent and quality of environmental reporting following a longitudinal analysis and covering a wide spectrum of industries in a single frame. The study also attempts to identify the set of most favored environmental reporting items by firms and items which are least disclosed. Furthermore, the study attempts to test whether certain corporate attributes such as firm size, age of the firm, leverage ratio, profitability, presence of independent directors in the board and gender diversity have any influencing power over environmental disclosure practices. The whole study has been carried out from legitimacy theory setting.

The study follows longitudinal analysis to identify the extent and quality of environmental disclosures. A self-constructed checklist of 12 environmental reporting items has been developed analyzing the annual report and content analysis method is followed to measure the extent and quality of environmental disclosures and identify environmental reporting items which are mostly disclosed and which are least disclosed. The study further uses panel data regression analysis to investigate whether certain corporate attributes have any impact on environmental disclosures using multiple linear regression. Total of 345 annual reports of listed financial and nonfinancial institutions have been observed in this study ranging from 2015 to 2019.

The key finding suggests that strict enforcement of Green Banking Rules 2011 fosters country’s commercial banks to invest more to protect the environment and commercial banks encourage nonfinancial institutions for environmental performance and related disclosures through finance. Therefore, almost 50% of sample firms disclose their environmental performance through reporting in either narrative, quantitative or monetary format which was only 2.23% in the last decade. Findings also reveal that tree plantation is the most reported environment disclosure followed by investment in renewable energy and green infrastructural projects and the least reported items are fund allocation for climatic changes and carbon management policy. Further analysis shows that firm size and leverage ratio both have positive impact on environmental reporting.

An in-depth analysis may be conducted to identify why certain environmental items are least disclosed such as fund allotment for climatic changes, carbon management policy, etc. and how corporations may earn social appreciation and motivation by investing in those least preferred items in legitimacy theory setting. Future research may also take into consideration other corporate attributes which are not considered in the study.

The study conducted an in-depth analysis to understand the most favored form of environmental disclosures (narrative/quantitative/monetary) and their extent after incorporation of regulatory guidelines, which is the first of its kind in the research of environmental disclosures. The study indeed contributes to the documentation of environmental reporting in the context of a developing country where there is a lack of longitudinal analysis from the lens of legitimacy theory. Moreover, a wide spectrum of industries has been taken into consideration which facilitates the generalized findings on the environmental disclosure practices of corporations in Bangladesh.

本研究擬評估公司報告環境方面的程度和質量, 以及對就環境報告披露而言、最受青睞和最不受歡迎的項目加以處理。研究亦擬測試企業屬性對實踐環境信息披露的影響。

研究使用內容分析法、去測量環境信息披露的程度和質量。研究使用多元回歸分析、去探討企業屬性對環境信息披露的影響。研究涵蓋孟加拉國上市公司共345個年度報告, 涵蓋的年期為2015年至 2019年。

研究結果似乎顯示綠色金融規則 - 2011 、成功鼓勵機構為保護環境而投放更多資源; 機構最樂於匯報的項目為植樹, 而披露最少的則為氣候變化和碳管理政策。進一步的研究分析顯示, 公司的規模和杠杆比率均會對環境匯報帶來正面的影響。

本研究豐富了關於發展中國家環境匯報的官方文件記錄, 而在這類國家, 透過合法化理論而進行的縱貫性分析研究頗為缺乏。本研究以深度分析法、去瞭解環境信息披露方面最受青睞的信息披露方式 (故事形式的敘述/定量形式/金融形式), 也去瞭解納入強制的規管指引後環境信息披露的程度; 就此而言, 本研究為這類環境信息披露研究的首個研究。

The study aims to explore institutional adaptation for sustainable water resources management at the local level in the context of increasing climate-related challenges in Zimbabwe using the case of a semi-arid area in the mid-Zambezi Valley, north of the country.

Inspired by the critical institutionalism approach, the study uses qualitative methods (i.e. key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, community workshops and documentary review) to understand the role of different formal and informal water-related institutions vis-à-vis responding to climate-related challenges in the case study area, and how the identified institutions can improve their efforts in the context of national water and environmental policy and regulation frameworks. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.

The study found that climatic challenges in the case study area, as in most of rural Africa, have raised the stakes in local water management with respect to regulating access to and balancing competing interests in, and demands for, water. It ultimately argues for the embracing of complexity thinking and flexibility in local water management as well as clear coordination of institutions across scales in the face of increasing climate-related challenges.

The study adds to case studies and evidence-based analyses focused on institutional alternatives for climate adaptation vis-à-vis water resources management in water-stressed rural African communities.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the compliance of environmental risk management systems implemented by Moroccan banks with ISO 14001 certification or environmental charters.

Data were collected through the distribution of an environmental risk management questionnaire to all Moroccan banks’ branches, business centers and various central entities. The study uses regression analysis to model the relationship between environmental management system (EMS) compliance and environmental management explanatory variables to identify the most relevant indicators that can explain the effectiveness and reliability of an EMS.

Empirical evidence reveals that the evaluation of EMS compliance in Moroccan banks should consider two categories of variables: the first category is related to the culture of environmental risk management, and the second one is related to environmental management practices.

The results show that the “information” variables play a key role in the overall design of an EMS and represent essential variables in the general definition of the environmental policy and in raising awareness and providing information on the bank’s commitment to a pro-environmental approach. The “application” variables confirm that environmental management practices need to be put in place to manage the different environmental risks. The study raises some managerial implications and further research directions.

In confronting the challenge of climate change and progressing towards dual carbon goals, China is actively implementing low-carbon city pilot policy. This paper aims to focus on the potential impact of this policy on enterprise green governance, aiming to promote the reduction and balance of carbon emissions.

Based on the panel data of China's large-scale industrial enterprises from 2007 to 2013, this paper uses the Difference-in-differences (DID) method to study the impact and path mechanism of the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. Heterogeneity analysis is used to compare the effects of low-carbon city pilot policy in different regions, different enterprises and different industries.

The low-carbon pilot can indeed effectively enhance corporate green governance, a conclusion that still holds after a series of robustness tests. The low-carbon city pilot policy mainly enhances enterprise green governance through two paths: an industrial structure upgrade and enterprise energy consumption, and it improves green governance by reducing enterprise energy consumption through industrial structure upgrade. The impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance shows significant differences across different regions, different enterprises and different industries.

This paper examines the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. However, due to availability of data, there are still some limitations to be further tackled. The parallel trend test in this paper shows that the pilot policy has a significant positive effect on the green governance of enterprises. However, due to serious lack of data in some years, the authors only selected the enterprise data of a shorter period as our experimental data, which leads the results to still have certain deficiencies. For the verification of the impact mechanism, the conclusions obtained in this paper are relatively limited. Although all the mechanism tests are passed, the reliability of the results still needs to be further tested through future data samples. In addition, as the pilot policy of low-carbon cities is still in progress, the policy can be tracked and analysed in the future as more data are disclosed, and further research can be carried out through dimensional expansion.

Low-carbon city pilot policy plays an important role in inducing the green governance of enterprises. Therefore, policy makers can continue to strengthen the construction of low-carbon city pilots by refining pilot experience, building typical cases, actively promoting pilot policy experience, expanding pilot scope and enhancing the implementation efficiency of pilot policy nationwide, which will contribute to the optimization and upgrading of the regional industrial structure at the urban level and will provide experience and reference for the synergistic implementation plan of pollution reduction and carbon reduction.

The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance not only exists in two separate paths of urban industrial upgrading and enterprise energy consumption but also exists in a chain transmission path from macro to micro. The authors find that the effect value of each influence path is different, and there is an obvious leading influence path for the role of enterprise green governance. Therefore, in the process of implementing a low-carbon city pilot policy, policies should be designed specifically for different mechanisms. Moreover, complementing and coordinating several paths should be advocated to give full play to the green governance effect of enterprises brought by different paths and to further expand the scope of industries and enterprises where policies play a role.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, this paper connects macro mechanisms with micro mechanisms, discovering a macro-to-micro transmission mechanism in the process of low-carbon city pilot policy affecting enterprise green governance. That is, the low-carbon city pilot policy can facilitate industrial structure upgrading, resulting in reduced enterprise energy consumption, ultimately enhancing enterprise green governance.

China has proposed two-stage goals of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutralization by 2060. The carbon emission reduction effect of the power industry, especially the thermal power industry, will directly affect the progress of the goal. This paper aims to reveal the spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of carbon emission efficiency of the thermal power industry and proposes policy suggestions for realizing China’s carbon peak and carbon neutralization goals.

This paper evaluates and compares the carbon emission efficiency of the thermal power industry in 29 provinces and regions in China from 2014 to 2019 based on the three-stage slacks-based measure (SBM) of efficiency in data envelopment analysis (DEA) model of undesired output, excluding the influence of environmental factors and random errors.

Empirical results show that during the sample period, the carbon emission efficiency of China’s thermal power industry shows a fluctuating upward trend, and the carbon emission efficiency varies greatly among the provincial regions. The carbon emission efficiency of the interregional thermal power industry presents a pattern of “eastern > central > western,” which is consistent with the level of regional economic development. Environmental factors such as economic level and environmental regulation level are conducive to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency of the thermal power industry, but the proportion of thermal power generation and industrial structure is the opposite.

This paper adopts the three-stage SBM–DEA model of undesired output and takes CO₂ as the undesired output to reveal the spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of carbon emission efficiency in China’s thermal power industry. The results provide a more comprehensive perspective for regional comparative evaluation and influencing factors of carbon emission efficiency in China’s thermal power industry.

This paper aims to examine the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and firm value (FV), as well as, pinpoints the role of the audit quality (AQ) as a moderating variable on such impact; where the authors hypothesize that AQ modulates the relationship between ESG disclosure and the FV.

Data of a sample of firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange Market (EGX) were collected over the period of 2017–2021 and analyzed using the regression and 2SLS models.

The results suggested that: (1) the ESG has a significant positive impact on the FV in the EGX, and (2) AQ has a significant impact, as a moderating variable, on the relationship between ESG disclosure and FV.

The findings would help the Egyptian market authorities in realizing the importance of integrating ESG information within the financial reports of the listed firms. The findings could also help in developing effective disclosure procedures to provide shareholders with useful information.

This paper contributes to the literature regarding the ESG disclosure components and the FV value by considering AQ in testing such relationship.

Carbon trading mechanism has been adopted to foster the green transformation of the economy on a global scale, but its effectiveness for the power industry remains controversial. Given that energy-related greenhouse gas emissions account for most of all anthropogenic emissions, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this trading mechanism at the plant level to support relevant decision-making and mechanism design.

This paper constructs a novel spatiotemporal data set by matching satellite-based high-resolution (1 × 1 km) CO₂ and PM_2.5 emission data with accurate geolocation of power plants. It then applies a difference-in-differences model to analyse the impact of carbon trading mechanism on emission reduction for the power industry in China from 2007 to 2016.

Results suggest that the carbon trading mechanism induces 2.7% of CO₂ emission reduction and 6.7% of PM_2.5 emission reduction in power plants in pilot areas on average. However, the reduction effect is significant only in coal-fired power plants but not in gas-fired power plants. Besides, the reduction effect is significant for power plants operated with different technologies and is more pronounced for those with outdated production technology, indicating the strong potential for green development of backward power plants. The reduction effect is also more intense for power plants without affiliation relationships than those affiliated with particular manufacturers.

This paper identifies the causal relationship between the carbon trading mechanism and emission reduction in the power industry by providing an innovative methodology for identifying plant-level emissions based on high-resolution satellite data, which has been practically absent in previous studies. It serves as a reference for stakeholders involved in detailed policy formulation and execution, including policymakers, power plant managers and green investors.