Dameng Hu

This study evaluated the carbon emissions as one of the environmental impacts of fishing activities in China during the period of 2010–2022. The decoupling effect of fishery carbon emissions and fishery economic growth was analyzed using a decoupling model. The findings reveal that China’s fishery carbon emissions are substantial and exhibit multi-stage variations. Inland areas mainly emit carbon from aquatic feed decomposition and aquaculture equipment electricity consumption, with differing structures between high- and low-emission regions. Coastal areas primarily emit carbon from fishing, supplemented by aquatic feed. From 2010 to 2011, decoupling was poorly idealized as strong negative decoupling, but post-2011 featured mainly weak decoupling with strong decoupling as a complement. After excluding economic factors, carbon intensity and population size positively influenced decoupling, with intensity initially leading and scale later expanding. Structural factors mainly hindered decoupling.

The transformation of the marine economy is a central issue in China’s economic sustainability. On the conflicting goals between sustaining a strong marine economy and protecting the environment, this study explored the direct and spillover effects of two types of regional environmental regulation on the marine economic transformation of China’s coastal provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) under a decentralized system. By establishing a theoretical framework, using panel data of coastal provinces (cities) in China from 2010 to 2019, and using methods of spatial correlation test and spatial measurement model involved moderator, the results show: (1) The gaps in marine economic transformation were gradually narrowed among these regions, but a significantly negative spatial autocorrelation remained. (2) Incentive-type environmental regulation had a direct effect on marine economic transformation but had a negative effect on the adjacent areas, and the decentralization system could play a positive moderator effect. (3) The investment-type environmental regulation and local marine economic transformation showed a significant “U-shape” relationship, and such regulation had a positive effect on adjacent areas. Decentralization could aggravate the negative effect on the local level but had not yet significantly changed the spillover effect. (4) Presented suggestions for formulating policy, industrial transfer compensation, and regulation decentralization. Hopefully, the findings of this study can shed light on how to improve the efficiency of environmental regulation and realize the sustainable goals of the marine economy.

High-quality development (HQD) is a fundamental requirement for current and future macroeconomic regulation in China. This study measured the high-quality co-ordinated development (HQCD) index of 284 cities in China from 2010 to 2019 using the entropy weighted TOPSIS method and coupled co-ordination model, and examined the impact of regional HQCD on enterprises’ green technology choices by combining data from Chinese listed companies. The results show the following: (1) Regional HQCD significantly promotes enterprises’ green technology choices, but does not substantially change the direction of their green technology progress. Specifically, co-ordinated regional economic–ecological system development promotes the enterprises’ technological progress toward green practices. Moreover, co-ordinated urban development has a self-reinforcing effect on the preference for green technology choices. (2) Regional HQCD enhances the screening effect of enterprises on green technology by alleviating financial constraints and increasing the awareness of social responsibility. (3) Regional HQCD has a more pronounced promotional effect on green technologies in the categories of transportation; energy conservation; and administration, regulation, or design. Private enterprises and cities with a high-administrative rank responded to the green technology selection effect of regional HQCD. This study enriches the theory and literature on the influence of government policies on firm behavior, and also provides a reference for the international community.

Along with command-and-control and market-incentive environmental regulation policies, environmental information disclosure (EID) is an important measure used by the Chinese government to implement environmental governance. In the context of advocating for corporate sustainable development and green governance, this study uses data from China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies in heavily polluting industries spanning 2008–2019 to empirically explore the relationship between corporate EID and green innovation (GI). The results reveal the following: (1) high-quality EID significantly promotes the absolute GI level and the relative GI level of enterprises. (2) An intermediary model found that the internal mechanism of corporate EID used to promote GI mainly comes from the government’s energy-saving innovation subsidy effect and the social media attention effect. (3) Corporate EID has a more evident promotional effect on green patents for energy conservation and green patents for inventions. (4) The EID of state-owned enterprises is more conducive to GI than to the activities of private enterprises. (5) The EID of enterprises in high-level administrative cities has no significant impact on GI. However, it has a significant promoting effect in low-level administrative cities. The research not only provides an empirical basis for China to improve the environmental information disclosure system of listed companies but also to offer guidance for companies to pursue green and sustainable development.