Weixian Wei

Previous studies on the relationship between climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and green technology innovation (GTI) generally belong to one of two opposing schools of thought: real options theory and growth options theory. This study proposes that, according to prospect theory, a nonlinear relationship exists between these variables. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2010–2022, we empirically test this hypothesis. Results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between CPU and GTI, with moderate levels of CPU facilitating optimal GTI. As CPU intensity strengthens, there exists an appropriate threshold at which GTI reaches its peak. More importantly, moderation analysis reveals that firms’ internal capabilities—including risk-bearing capability, cash flow, operational capability, and marketing capability—significantly outperform external government support in moderating the CPU-GTI relationship. These findings provide valuable implications for firms’ climate risk management and climate policymakers’ policy formulation in advancing sustainable development goals.

Under the “dual carbon” targets, the influence of environmental regulation on carbon emissions is critical, and the moderating role of environmental decentralization should not be overlooked. Using provincial panel data from China, this study builds a Panel Smooth Transition Regression Model (PSTR) with environmental decentralization as the threshold variable to examine the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation and carbon emissions. The study finds that when environmental decentralization is below the threshold, raising the intensity of environmental regulation leads to a significant reduction in carbon emissions; however, once decentralization surpasses the threshold, strengthened environmental regulation may result in a rise in carbon emissions. Three subcategories of decentralization exhibit similar threshold effects, but their direct emission reduction effects are heterogeneous. This research offers empirical evidence supporting the optimization of the distribution of environmental responsibilities across central and local governments, as well as for formulating regionally differentiated emission reduction policies.

At present, the global carbon neutrality action is intended to change the energy structure and promote the development of regional energy trade, which is conducive to alleviating the contradiction between energy supply and demand. Based on this, the paper uses the RCA index to explain the complementary advantages of different types of energy trade among RCEP countries in depth. In addition, the trade gravity model is applied to compare and analyze the various influencing factors of energy trade to seek the best measures for energy trade cooperation. The results show that compared with renewable energy, traditional energy is more complementary. China and Australia have the strongest energy complementarity, followed by ASEAN countries. The GDP, energy trade complementarity, economic liberalization, the trade environment, and the technological level all affect fossil energy trade and renewable energy trade to varying degrees. When the detailed planning of the carbon neutrality target is completed, the effect of each significant factor on trade is stronger. In this regard, the smooth realization of energy trade cooperation between China and the RCEP requires a series of measures to support.

1.In the Introduction section, the improvements of this study need to be highlighted compared to existing studies. 2.Although the authors provide a review of the literature on low carbon policy and emission reduction performance, low carbon economy...

In China’s 2019 VAT reform, the VAT rate for manufacturing was adjusted from 16% to 13%. This inevitably promotes manufacturing production and triggers a substantial increase in carbon emissions. Would carbon tax be an effective policy tool to offset the negative externalities of the VAT reform on carbon emissions? We construct a multi-regional dynamic-recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate this possibility and to investigate the potential impacts on the economy, energy, and environment arising from this reform. The scenarios set includes the VAT reform policy, a carbon tax, and three combined policies. The results show that while China’s VAT reform is a positive fiscal policy that can boost long-lasting macroeconomic development, it has a negative impact on environmental protection. A carbon tax can significantly curb traditional energy consumption and emissions, but it would hinder economic development. Combined policies yield ‘double dividends’, that is, a long-run increase in macroeconomy and emissions reductions will be achieved, helping China to attain its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions goal. The combination of VAT reform and a stepped carbon tax maintains a more stable economic growth while sustaining carbon emission abatement.

The lockdown measures taken by the Chinese government have proven to be an effective approach to prevent COVID-19, but have a major negative impact on the economy. The Chinese government quickly implemented a large-scale tax and fee reduction policy to hedge against negative shocks. In light of these facts, this article constructs a multi-regional dynamic-recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the short-term and medium-term effects of COVID-19 on the macroeconomy, energy and environment. The results show that: (1) Without adopting tax incentives, GDP, residents’ consumption, exports, and secondary and tertiary industry output will grow weakly in 2020. Leapfrogging development will occur in 2021, whereas import volume and consumer price index will drop sharply. (2) If the tax reduction policy is introduced, GDP will increase by 2.83% and 7.4% in 2020 and 2021. Imports, exports, and output of the secondary and tertiary industries will grow substantially, along with a significant rise in fossil fuels consumption and carbon emission. (3) Hubei, the worst hit by COVID-19, will quickly resume normal development.

The relationship between markets has always been a topic of heated debate among scholars from various countries. One of the most important concerns is the need to model the relationships between the crude oil market and other markets. Based on daily return observations from 2018 to 2019, we apply a GARCH-vine-copula approach to probe the linkage between Shanghai crude oil futures, stock, foreign exchange, and gold markets. We find that obvious tail dependencies do exist between these markets. And the crude oil futures market occupies a dominant position. Moreover, when the Shanghai crude oil futures market is taken as the known condition, the links between different markets reduce to some extent. Finally, value at risk results denote that the risk of the Shanghai crude oil futures market is relatively high, but portfolio investment can effectively reduce the risk. Moreover, the model fitting results at different confidence levels have passed the Kupiec backtest, indicating that the model in this paper fits the relationship between these markets well.

It is a common belief that renewable energy is an effective alternative to traditional fossil energy, namely, oil; thus, an international oil price shock is a significant factor affecting renewable energy development. This paper builds a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model to explore the effects of rise and fall in international oil price on the investment and outputs of renewable energy industry, as well as the macroeconomy and environment in China. In addition, the role of renewable energy policy is verified through simulating the combination scenario of oil price fluctuation and renewable energy policy. The results reveal that an increasing international oil price can advance the outputs and investment of renewable energy, decrease China’s real GDP and exports, and improve the atmosphere environment, and the influence of a decreasing international oil price is the opposite. Furthermore, renewable energy policy can attenuate the negative effect of a decreasing oil price on renewable energy development and the environment, and strengthen its contribution to GDP.