Low-carbon governance, fiscal decentralization and sulfur dioxide emissions: Evidence from a quasi-experiment with Chinese heavy pollution enterprises

This paper investigates the effects of enterprise environmental governance under low-carbon pilot policies in China with a difference in differences (DID) design. In examining the development of these policies, we focus on exploring their effects on sulfur dioxide emissions of heavily polluting enterprises based on prefectural city- and firm-level data from 2003-2014. Overall, the policies significantly increased enterprise SO2 emissions, and the underlying reason being that investments in CO2 control crowded out investment in SO2 control in enterprises in low-carbon pilot regions. We also find that the implementation of low-carbon pilot policies resulted in greater SO2 emissions from state-owned enterprises and enterprises in western regions than from non-state-owned enterprises and those in eastern regions. It is further found that fiscal decentralization and the associated mediating effect of market segmentation promote enterprises' CO2 control and inhibit their SO2 control. This study helps us re-examine the overall environmental effects of low-carbon policies and has implications for the revision and improvement of environmental governance policies in developing countries.

Mobile on-Road Measurements of Aerosol Optical Properties during MOABAI Campaign in the North China Plain

We present the mapping at fine spatial scale of aerosol optical properties using a mobile laboratory equipped with LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), sun photometer and in situ instruments for performing on-road measurements. The mobile campaign was conducted from 9 May to 19 May 2017 and had the main objective of mapping the distribution of pollutants in the Beijing and North China Plain (NCP) region. The highest AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) at 440 nm of 1.34 and 1.9 were recorded during two heavy pollution episodes on 18 May and 19 May 2017, respectively. The lowest Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) heights (0.5–1.5 km) were recorded during the heavy pollution events, correlating with the highest AOD and southern winds. The transport of desert dust from the Gobi Desert was captured during the mobile measurements, impacting Beijing during 9–13 May 2017. Exploring the NCP outside Beijing provided datasets for regions with scarce ground measurements and allowed the mapping of high aerosol concentrations when passing polluted cities in the NCP (Baoding, Tianjin and Tangshan) and along the Binhai New Area. For the first time, we provide mass concentration profiles from the synergy of LIDAR, sun photometer and in situ measurements. The case study along the Binhai New Area revealed mean extinction coefficients of 0.14 ± 0.10 km−1 at 532 nm and a mass concentration of 80 ± 62 μg/m3 in the PBL (<2 km). The highest extinction (0.56 km−1) and mass concentrations (404 μg/m3) were found in the industrial Binhai New Area. The PM10 and PM2.5 fractions of the total mass concentration profiles were separated using the columnar size distribution, derived from the sun photometer measurements. This study offers unique mobile datasets of the aerosol optical properties in the NCP for future applications, such as satellite validation and air quality studies.

Green credit, environmental protection investment and debt financing for heavily polluting enterprises

The paper takes listed companies in the heavily polluting industry from 2009–2017 as a research sample to explore whether heavy pollution enterprises’ environmental protection investment helps their debt financing under the institutional background of China’s continuous implementation of green credit policy. It is found that, in general, the environmental protection investment of heavy pollution enterprises helps them to obtain more and relatively long-term new loans; in terms of time, this effect is more evident after the release of China’s Green Credit Guidelines in 2012; in addition, the level of regional environmental pollution, the level of financial development and the green fiscal policy also have a moderating effect on this. This paper enriches the study of the economic consequences of corporate environmental protection investment from the perspective of debt financing. It examines the effects of the implementation of China’s green credit policy and other institutional factors to provide a reference for the heavy pollution enterprises’ environmental protection investment and the implementation of green credit policy by local governments in China.

Government Environmental Pressure and Market Response to Carbon Disclosure: A Study of the Early Chinese ETS Implementation

We studied how companies’ carbon disclosures affect the cost of capital under the Chinese government’s introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) regulation. We also tested how much the effect varied between state-owned and private enterprises, and between polluting and non-polluting industries. Since, at its early stage, the market may perceive signals and implementations of environmental regulation as a cost burden, the effect of environmental disclosure, which is traditionally known to reduce the cost of capital, may be different. Using a comprehensive index through content analysis and targeting companies in China’s pilot ETS regions between 2011 and 2016, our study showed the following test results. First, for the companies in regions where the ETS regulation was introduced, while carbon disclosure was below a certain level, disclosure raised the cost of capital, and after carbon disclosure was sufficiently high, disclosure decreased the cost of capital. Second, this inverted-U-shaped relationship appeared in non-state-owned enterprises only, and state-owned enterprises showed a traditional linear relationship that disclosure lowers the cost of capital. Third, this non-linear relationship was statistically significant only in the non-heavy pollution industries. This study contributes to the literature in that there are limited studies on the market effects of China’s early introduction of the ETS regulation.

The Impact of Climate Change On Financing Cost of Heavy-Pollution Firms in China

We examines the effects of climate change on the financing cost of heavy-pollution firms using firm-level panel data analysis. The empirical results demonstrate that the annual temperature and precipitation changes can significantly promote the financing costs of heavy-pollution firms, the positive impacts of annual temperature and precipitation changes on the financing costs of large, medium and small heavy-pollution firms has shown a gradual weakening trend with an increase of firm size, and the positive effects of annual temperature and precipitation changes on the financing costs of younger and older heavy-pollution firms has shown a decline trend with an increase of firm age. The evidences confirms that the impact of climate change on the financing costs of heavy-pollution firms exhibit a significant firm size and age discrimination of financing behaviors. Government decision-makers have to identify and optimize the transmission effect of climate change response on financing behavior decisions of heavy-pollution industries, financial institutions alleviate financial conflicts and credit discrimination behaviors and optimize the efficiency of financial resource allocation. Firms’ executives correct climate change strategy, optimize the climate- relevant operation, investment and financing activities, and alleviate unfavorable influences of climate changes for heavy-pollution firms.

Green Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Protection Investments - Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies in Heavy Pollution Industries

Corporate environmental investment decision-making behavior is influenced by both the external factor of government green policy and the internal factor of corporate social responsibility. This paper empirically examines the effects of green policies and corporate social responsibility on corporate environmental investment using a fixed-effects panel data model with a sample of Chinese listed companies in the heavy pollution industry from 2013-2019 and further analyzes the possible moderating role played by market competition. The results show that: (1) Green policy and corporate environmental investment have an inverted “U-shaped” relationship, which indicates that there is a ”degree” limit to the impact of green policy on corporate environmental investment. (2) There is a U-shaped relationship between green investment and environmental governance green policy tools and corporate environmental investment, while infrastructure green tool and corporate environmental investment in an inverted U-shaped relationship (3) Corporate social responsibility and the scale of its environmental investment has a positive relationship, green policy and corporate social responsibility have a joint effect corporate environmental investment. (4) The higher the degree of market competition, the more significant the effect of green policy on corporate environmental investment.

Does More Voluntary “Green” Information Disclosure Cut Down the Cost of Equity: Heavy Pollution Industries in China

Focusing on the unique background of the coexistence of mandatory and voluntary disclosure of environmental information by domestic companies in heavy pollution industries for which is lost sight of in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify, under the premise of compulsory disclosure of environmental information in the financial report and separate environmental report, whether the further voluntary environmental information disclosure in the corporate social responsibility (CSR_E) captures the discount from investors during equity financing. Employing the sample of 4390 China’s A-share listed companies in the heavy pollution industries between 2010 and 2018, we adopt Python to conduct texture analysis and image recognition, applying the fixed effect regression model to text hypothesizes, within the robust analysis, our empirical results show that the CSR disclosure, higher quality of CSR reports, greater extent of CSR_E disclosure including accurate environmental investment information as well as the amount of graphs and texts all have the positive impact on the cost reduction of equity financing. Moreover, the degree of CSR_E disclosure in reducing cost of equity is 30 times that of CSR disclosure, which indicates that voluntary disclosure of environmental information is better to get extra discount of equity financing by satisfying favor of investors instead of keep silent on the basis of compulsory disclosure of environmental information. In addition, the charts have specific positive effects that’s not available for the text, the accurate quantitative environmental information creates more values for those enterprises disclosed. This study offers guidelines for regulatory authorities to explore the coordination effect of mandatory and voluntary disclosure policies, and achieve environmental governance and sustainable development of enterprises by improving their corporate governance.

Bioaccumulation of auto-mechanic wastes in the tissues of Pellonula Afzeliusi (Johnels, 1954) collected from Agba stream Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Hydrocarbons and heavy metals (HM) present in automobile wastes get into water bodies close to automobile mechanic villages. They deteriorate the physico-chemical qualities of such water bodies and exert toxic effects on fish and other aquatic fauna. They also pose risks to humans that consume fish from streams near such automechanic villages. There is paucity of information on the HM contents of Agba stream, Ilorin and no information on the bioaccumulation of HM in the tissues of Pellonula afzeliusi is currently available. The purpose of this study was to assess the physico-chemical qualities of water and bioaccumulation of HM in the tissues of Pellonula afzeliusi fish collected from Agba stream, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. Water and samples of Pellonula afzeliusi were collected from the upstream (station A), midstream (station B) of Agba stream located close to an auto-mechanic village and Oyun dam (control site, station C) located within the University of Ilorin. Standard methods were used to analyse oil and grease (OG), total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and HM in water samples. The concentrations of TPH and HM were analysed in the skin, bone, muscle, gills, gastrointestinal tract, liver and kidney of the fish. The order of water HM concentrations indicated Zn > Cd > Ba> Fe > Pb at station A; Cd > Zn > Fe > Ba > Pb at station B, and Zn > Ba > Pb > Fe >Cd at station C. TPH and HM bioaccumulated in the tissues of fish while lead was not detected in all tissues from station C. Bioaccumulation factor varied with the highest values t station C. The result of this study indicated heavy pollution burden in station B with lower pollution burden in station C (the control site). These call for attention of government in ensuring ecological restoration and prevention of further discharge of automobile wastes into the stream. Keywords: Automobile wastes, Heavy metals, Hydrocarbons, Bioaccumulation, Pellonula afzeliusi