Environmental Impact Assessment Review最新文献

{"title":"How does digitalization drive carbon emissions? The inverted U-shaped effect in China","authors":"Ruijing Zheng ,&nbsp;Ge Wu ,&nbsp;Yu Cheng ,&nbsp;Haimeng Liu ,&nbsp;Yaping Wang ,&nbsp;Xinyang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107203","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107203","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Digitalization has become an engine driving industrial transformation and social change; however, the impact on carbon emissions<span> during digital transformation remains poorly understood. We used the Tencent Digitalization Index based on big data to explore the effects of digital development on carbon emissions in China's 281 cities. The results show that the impact of digitization on carbon emissions follows an inverted U-curve in China, supported by a series of robustness tests. Considering city geographical location and resource endowment, this non-linear effect of digitalization on carbon emissions is more significant in eastern and non-resource-based cities. The inverted U-shaped impact of digitalization in central and western cities is not significant and resource-based cities have not yet reached the carbon reduction </span></span>inflection point. Spatial spillover analysis indicates that digitalization will reduce carbon emissions of neighboring cities in the mature digital period. Digitalization also affects carbon emissions by promoting industrial structure upgrading and economic development. Understanding the relationship between digitalization and carbon emissions is a key ingredient for urban sustainable transformation, representing crucial knowledge for building climate-resilient cities and for policy-making.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107203"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41513873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing provincial coal reliance for just low-carbon transition in China","authors":"Tianhe Jiang ,&nbsp;Ruilian Zhang ,&nbsp;Fan Zhang ,&nbsp;Guoqing Shi ,&nbsp;Chen Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107198","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107198","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines the coal reliance of all 31 provinces in China and assesses the potential for a just energy transition towards cleaner energy sources. The authors calculate a coal reliance index (CRI) for each province based on China statistical data. The CRI takes into account factors such as coal production, consumption, and import/export, as well as GDP, population, and gender differences<span> in mining employment. The authors highlight the importance of considering the varying degrees of coal reliance among provinces in developing effective policies for a just energy transition. The findings suggest the provincial CRI has generally been decreasing across most provinces over the past 16 years. When looking at regional CRI rankings, the northwest region has the highest average CRI compared to other regions, while the northeast region has the lowest CRI, followed by the north, east, south central, and southwest regions. The gender CRI indicates that women in China are not benefiting as much as men from economic growth and development. The paper provides insights for policymakers seeking to achieve a more sustainable and just energy system in China.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107198"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42273779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can we estimate the impact of small targeted dietary changes on human health and environmental sustainability?","authors":"Flaminia Ortenzi ,&nbsp;Graham A. McAuliffe ,&nbsp;Frédéric Leroy ,&nbsp;Stella Nordhagen ,&nbsp;Stephan van Vliet ,&nbsp;Agustin del Prado ,&nbsp;Ty Beal","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107222","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A recent analysis by Stylianou et al. (2021) estimated the impact of small dietary changes in the consumption of individual foods on human health and the environment, expressed as minutes of healthy life lost or gained daily combined with dietary carbon footprints. While an appealing concept given its simplistic interpretation, we aim to draw the attention of nLCA practitioners and developers to the significant limitations and uncertainties of this analysis, based on existing evidence. Stylianou's approach produces results that fail to recognize the importance of essential nutrient density and the risks associated with ultra-processed foods, added sugar, and refined starches. The novel impact assessment undoubtedly brings a new perspective to the growing field of nutritional Life Cycle Assessment. However, the authors neglect numerous methodological limitations, fail to direct the readers' attention to (mis)interpretation risks, and draw highly definitive recommendations aiming to directly influence consumer choices and policymaking. Due to extensive data limitations and associated uncertainties in extant databases (both environmental and nutritional), we recommend caution in the use of this (or any other) food classification system to inform consumer behavior, front-of-package labelling, policies, and programs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107222"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925523001889/pdfft?md5=a83943f9b9a10189687f869b04afe697&pid=1-s2.0-S0195925523001889-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44772897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact on climate change perception and adaptation of smallholder concepts: Evidence from a sugarcane community, China","authors":"Yu Chen ,&nbsp;Jiyuan Yang ,&nbsp;Ying Wang ,&nbsp;Jing Qi ,&nbsp;Qingzu Luan","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Asia<span><span> and Africa have large groups of smallholder farmers. They are the main body of the adaptation to climate change in regional agriculture. Because of small management scale and weak accumulating capacity, smallholder farmers generally lack the ability to resist natural disasters and adapt to climate change. Understanding what factors impact on smallholders' perception of and adaptation to climate change are critical to appropriate adaptation strategies to reduce damage. This study analyzed how individual, environmental factors and barriers affected the perception of and adaptation to climate change on Chinese sugarcane smallholders in the higher level of productivity and the traditional smallholder environment. We systematically collected data on smallholders' characteristics and climate change adaptation through questionnaires and household surveys from 750 sugarcane smallholders in five national key support counties in Guangxi, China. The results showed that the level of Chinese sugarcane smallholders' perception and adaptation was relatively poor. Only 69.9% of the sugarcane smallholders perceived climate change, and 42.0% of them had consciously adopted adaptation measures. The developments of productivity and agricultural technology in China could not improve the smallholders' climate change perception and adaptation. The Heckman two-stage model results showed that the groups of sugarcane smallholders with poor terrain, non-Yao households, younger ages, smaller household sizes, higher household </span>education levels and no migrant workers were better able to perceive climate change. Young-aged sugarcane smallholders with rich planting experiences were more likely to adopt adaptive measures. Inter-villager communication was the main channel for sugarcane smallholders to perceive and adapt to climate change, and the positive </span></span>correlation coefficients reached 0.247 and 0.225, respectively. Trapped in Chinese traditional smallholder concept, sugarcane smallholders in Guangxi lacked the willingness to actively adapt to climate change. Even if productivity and agricultural technologies were developed, information, technical and financial barriers of smallholder adaptation to climate change had remained. Therefore, it is believed that the local government and well-adapted sugarcane smallholders should play the main role and improve participation degree, to stimulate the enthusiasm of sugarcane smallholders in China to adapt to climate change. The results of this study have references for other regions where smallholders are widely distributed in Asia and Africa.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107213"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49146315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of a changing climate and anthropogenic impacts on net primary production in Yinshanbeilu, Inner Mongolia, China","authors":"Sinan Wang ,&nbsp;Wenjun Wang,&nbsp;Yingjie Wu,&nbsp;Wei Li,&nbsp;Shuixia Zhao ,&nbsp;Zexun Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span><span>Inappropriate long-term reclamation has reduced ecological services, including carbon sequestration, in Inner Mongolia's interlocking agricultural and pastoral lands near the northern foot of Yinshanbeilu, making this one of China's most environmentally fragile areas. Regional ecosystem changes and sustainable development depend on the understanding of how climate change and </span>anthropogenic activities affect the net primary production (NPP) of vegetation. (1) Fluctuations in vegetation NPP tended to increase at a ratio of 2.974 g·m</span>⁻²·a⁻¹<span>. The vegetation NPP increased in 99.49% of the research area; 77.97% of this production was significant. (2) Precipitation and temperature restricted vegetation growth, and the impact of atmospheric precipitation<span> on vegetation NPP exceeded that of both the spatial and temporal dimensions. Precipitation affected grassland NPP more than arable NPP. However, the direct and indirect effects of temperature were greater on arable NPP than on grassland NPP. (3) Changes in climate and anthropogenic activities changed the vegetation NPP by 46.23% and 53.77%, respectively, with the values showing significant spatial variability. Climate change dominated vegetation changes in sparsely populated and underdeveloped areas, whereas human activity was dominant in populated and economically developed areas. (4) Vegetation NPP loss in Yinsanbeilu occurred mostly when the land was changed from grassland to other land use types, whereas growth occurred mostly when the land was changed from arable land to grassland. These results improve the understanding of how climate change and anthropogenic activities affect vegetation dynamics and provide a foundation for vegetation restoration and quality enhancement.</span></span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107185"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46383975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling transport and fate of metals for risk assessment in the Parauapebas river","authors":"Danieli Mara Ferreira,&nbsp;Paulo Rógenes Monteiro Pontes,&nbsp;Roberto Dall'Agnol,&nbsp;Tasso Guimarães,&nbsp;Gabriel Salomão,&nbsp;Marcio Sousa Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107209","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107209","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span><span><span>Excessive concentrations of metals in surface waters may impose risks to both human health and biota. Several processes, such as advection, dispersion, and </span>sorption, determine the transport and fate of these elements in rivers. This study models the transport and fate of 19 metals across 107 km of the Parauapebas river, in the state of Pará, </span>Brazil<span>. The main goal is to evaluate the risk associated with threshold exceedances in the river until the city of Parauapebas, where the river is a source of </span></span>drinking water<span><span>. The Hec-Ras software is used to simulate river flow during dry and rainy seasons, and the results are integrated into the SihQual model. This tool incorporates a module for metal changes, considering the dissolved/particulate dynamics, and other relevant processes. The model's accuracy is evaluated using simulated and observed data at 10 monitoring points. The modeled results fall within a 20% range of the observed data variation, particularly for concentration intervals that pose concern for human health and ecological safety. The results indicate iron, manganese, and aluminum as the main substances of concern for surface water quality. Although the risks for the adult health indicated by sampling measurements from 2017 are low, simulated scenarios of increased metal levels indicate higher risks of threshold exceedances. The study implies that reducing metal contents in water for human consumption near Parauapebas city is necessary. Point sources have a larger impact on water quality during the dry season, while diffuse contributions have a larger impact on metal concentrations during the rainy season, especially in deforested areas. The modeling framework can guide </span>pollution control and remediation efforts for stakeholders in the public or industrial sectors.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107209"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46509757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing China's synergistic governance of emission reduction between pollutants and CO2","authors":"Ming Yi ,&nbsp;Yanyu Guan ,&nbsp;Ting Wu ,&nbsp;Le Wen ,&nbsp;Mingyue Selena Sheng","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107196","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107196","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Synergistic governance of emission reduction between pollutants and CO2 (hereinafter referred to as synergistic governance) reflects China's proactive response to climate change and will become a central task in China's environmental governance over the next decade and beyond. Given this, this paper aims to systematically understand why synergistic governance is possible and what China has achieved in synergistic governance. In order to achieve these aims, this paper constructs a scientific indicator system based on synergistic governance theory and applies the composite system synergy model to assess the level of synergistic governance in China. The results show that China has made great progress in synergistic governance in the past decade, achieving a leaping development from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. The achievement mainly comes from the efforts of nearly 1/3 of Chinese provinces in advancing synergistic governance, and the improvement direction of synergistic governance in these provinces is consistent with the national level, jumping from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. However, the level of synergistic governance in some provinces has decreased rather than increased. It is worth noting that the widening gap in the level of synergistic governance within China's regions may become a vital factor that hinders the sustainable promotion of synergistic governance. This paper clarifies the operational logic of synergistic governance and provides a comprehensive evaluation method, which is beneficial to provide some references for other countries that intend to work on synergistic governance.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107196"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54247581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Revisiting rebound effects of energy use and pollutant emissions: The role of technological change","authors":"Xiaodong Chen ,&nbsp;Min Yang ,&nbsp;Zeng Li ,&nbsp;Tomas Baležentis ,&nbsp;Fang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107202","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107202","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Measuring the rebound effect (<em>RE</em><span>) of energy use and pollutant emissions is fundamental to characterizing the effects of technological progress on energy conservation and emissions reduction. This paper presents a total-factor </span><em>RE</em><span> model that combines the Fixed effects (FE) model, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and Luenberger Productivity Indicator (LPI). The proposed model takes into account two types of disposability for variable-specific decomposition for LPI. The model includes two general indices, static inefficiency performance and dynamic inefficiency performance, which can be used to assess performance in the industrial sector and measure technological change and </span><em>RE</em>. The results show that switching from natural to managerial disposability improves energy <em>RE</em> by 12% but reduce <em>RE</em> of NOx and SO2 emissions by 22% and 24%, respectively. These findings suggest that cleaner energy expansion can promote energy <em>RE</em>, while reducing environmental <em>RE</em>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107202"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45080744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring banks' sustainability performances: The BESGI score","authors":"Federica Ielasi ,&nbsp;Marco Bellucci ,&nbsp;Mario Biggeri ,&nbsp;Lucia Ferrone","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107216","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107216","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Internal and external pressures push the financial system towards an increasingly socially and environmentally responsible orientation. How to measure the overall ESG performance of a bank, considering both direct and indirect impacts? This study proposes a new indicator, the BESGI score (Banks' Environmental, Social, Governance and Indirect Impacts). Compared to other more traditional ESG scores, the model a) is bank-specific, b) is based on public data and then highly replicable, c) it can assess the level of a bank's sustainability both in its internal processes and procedures and in its choices about financing and investing activities, and d) is based on an innovative aggregation methodology, the Multidimensional Synthesis of Indicators, to consider the synergies among dimensions and penalize heterogeneity in the multidimensional bank results. We offer both a theoretical and an empirical contribution. First, the novel scoring model is presented, with indicators validated by practitioners and a theoretical framework rooted in organisational facades and legitimacy, signalling, and institutional theories. Secondly, we apply the BESGI scoring model to significant European banks and analyse its main determinants. Our results show relevant opportunities for banks to improve towards an overall and multi-comprehensive sustainability, especially concerning social measures and a higher focus on indirect impacts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107216"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925523001828/pdfft?md5=1dcee79e449162ad3b90a35feffe7e60&pid=1-s2.0-S0195925523001828-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46369978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Voluntary environmental regulations, greenwashing and green innovation: Empirical study of China's ISO14001 certification","authors":"Shuo Hu ,&nbsp;Min Wang ,&nbsp;Mingxuan Wu ,&nbsp;Ailun Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107224","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107224","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Voluntary environmental regulations play a crucial role in promoting green innovation. However, the existing literature on the subject has yielded inconsistent conclusions. To address this issue, this study utilizes data from China's list companies between 2008 and 2020, employing both the difference-in-differences (DID) and </span>instrumental variable<span><span> methods to accurately estimate the impact of ISO14001 certification on green innovation. Our findings indicate that ISO14001 certification enhances both the quantity and quality of green innovations. Furthermore, our results remain robust even after implementing the propensity score matching (PSM) method and conducting placebo tests. This paper also excludes heterogeneous treatment effect bias in staggered DID. In addition, the impact of ISO14001 on green innovation is focused on green innovation related to source control. The study also considers the impact of greenwashing and ownership on the relationship between ISO14001 certification and green innovation. Greenwashing is found to have a negative impact on green innovation, especially in terms of quality, and enterprises with more greenwashing tend to have a weaker response to ISO14001 certification. Finally, our mechanism test indicates that ISO14001-induced green </span>technology innovation serves as a leverage effect on existing innovation activities, rather than a crowding-out effect on other technological innovations or a speculative activity aimed at defrauding government subsidies.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":309,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Impact Assessment Review","volume":"102 ","pages":"Article 107224"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47426361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}