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Sun X, Zhu B, Zhang S, Zeng H, Li K, Wang B, Dong Z, Zhou C. New indices system for quantifying the nexus between economic-social development, natural resources consumption, and environmental pollution in China during 1978-2018. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 804:150180. [PMID: 34517319 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
It is meaningful to study how China can maintain the sustainable utilization of natural resources and the continuous improvement of environmental conditions while ensuring the stable development of the economy and society. In this study, a new indices system was proposed for the analysis of nexus among social-economic-natural resource-environment complex systems following the DPSIR (Driving Force - Pressure - State - Impact - Respond) framework, CCD (Coupling Coordination Degree) analysis and VAR (Vector Auto-Regressive) model were applied for quantifying the synergy and trade-off of China in the nexus framework. Results showed that: (1) Although China's rapid development has caused big consumption of natural resources and increasing pollutants discharges during 1978-2018, China has not got into trouble of extreme resource depletion and ecosystem collapse. On the contrary, China guaranteed food supply, stopped forest degradation, and avoided pollution-induced healthy crises & life-shortening. (2) Adjustment of water pollution industries and the increase of wastewater treatment investment contributed 39% and 37% to the reduction of water pollutant discharge, respectively. The contribution of energy structure adjustment to acid rain control was 26%. The pollutants discharged in no less than 70% of the provinces are strictly controlled below the environmental capacity. The increase of fertilizer application and effective irrigated area contributed 32% to China's grain increase, and China's grain self-sufficiency rate has been maintained above 110%. The improvement of the water-saving irrigation rate contributed 28% to the reduction of water consumption. The reduction of comprehensive efficiency contributed 23.8% to the decrease in energy consumptions per GDP. The CCD assessment showed that China has entered a phase of pre-eminently coordinated development since 2013.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Sun
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China.
| | - BoKuan Zhu
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Shuai Zhang
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Heng Zeng
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Kuai Li
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Bin Wang
- College of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Guangxi, Nanning 530004, China
| | - ZhanFeng Dong
- Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China.
| | - ChangChang Zhou
- Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
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Tian X, Li W, Liu L, Kou G. Development of TODIM with different types of fuzzy sets: A state-of the-art survey. Appl Soft Comput 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.asoc.2021.107661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
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Pan A, Feng S, Hu X, Li Y. How environmental regulation affects China's rare earth export? PLoS One 2021; 16:e0250407. [PMID: 33886661 PMCID: PMC8062019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
China's rare earth export trade has developed so rapidly since 1990s that China has gradually occupied a leading position in the international market. However, this fast development was proceeding at the cost of the rare earth energy consumption and environmental devastation. Now China begins to attach great importance to environmental protection, which attracts many researchers. This study aims to analyze the influence of environmental regulation on China's rare earth export trade. And the original study is amongst the few to examine the relationship between environmental regulation and China's rare earth export with the product-level data. Different from previous studies, this paper selects China's rare earth export data from 1995 to 2015 and introduces product heterogeneity based on the rare earth production process. Moreover, this study uses the entropy weight method to measure the intensity of environmental regulation. The core conclusions are as follows: (1) Environmental regulation significantly promotes rather than restrains China's rare earth export. (2) According to the rare earth production process, this paper divides rare earth products into 3 kinds, that is, rare earth raw materials, rare earth useful components and rare earth end-use applications. Then, it is found that rare earth useful component export in processing and smelting is positively affected by environmental regulation. Rare earth raw materials and end-use applications in China's export are hardly affected. (3) Technological innovation has a mediating effect on the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on China's rare earth export, which means that environmental regulation significantly promotes technological innovation of enterprises, and thereby the rare earth export is increased. The findings are helpful for policymakers to resolve the issue of environmental devastation.
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Affiliation(s)
- An Pan
- School of Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Shuangshuang Feng
- School of Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Xinyuan Hu
- School of Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Yaya Li
- School of Finance & Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China
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