China’s government has enforced a series of renewable energy policies to promote renewable energy development and achieve the dual decarbonization goals. However, there exists great disparity in previous studies on the effectiveness and suitability of renewable energy policies in abating carbon emissions. This study employs a dynamic general equilibrium model and assesses the effectiveness and trade-offs of renewable energy policies in achieving the dual decarbonization goals by 2060 in China. These policies include carbon market (CRP), the reduction of feed-in tariffs (FIT), the reduction of fossil fuel subsidies (FSB), the reduction of renewable energy costs (REC), resource taxes (RTX), and renewable portfolio standards (REP) as well as the mix of these policies. We find that renewable energy policies together could abate China’s CO₂ emissions in 2060 by 2.57 billion tons, but their effectiveness is very different. The REC would have the greatest effectiveness in abating CO₂ emissions, followed by REP and CRP. Renewable energy policies would cause relatively slight damage to China’s GDP, with the exception of the REC (raising GDP by 1.1713%). Regarding trade-offs, most policies will sacrifice China’s internal and external demand but benefit employment. Renewable energy policies will effectively promote the low-carbon transformation of China’s energy structure.

The increasing amount of waste produced has been a challenge for human health and the environment, causing a call for effective waste management measures in which household waste separation is of great significance. Although an expanding body of literature has examined the impact of social capital on individual waste-separation behavior, few studies have explicitly discussed the endogeneity problem and the influence mechanisms. Accordingly, our study investigates the effect of social capital on waste-separation behavior and corresponding mechanisms using a national survey dataset of China. The study also reveals the heterogeneity of the influence of individual characteristics on waste-separation behavior. Our results demonstrate that social capital casts a significant positive impact on waste-separation behavior, providing opportunities for individuals’ social learning and strengthening the reputation effect. The heterogeneous effects of social capital reveal that women, higher-educated individuals, and political party members present better waste-separation behavior. Besides, the impact of social capital varies between urban and rural areas and among different age groups. Our study provides empirical evidence for policy making of household waste-separation management in developing countries from the perspective of informal institutions.

Based on unique firm-level microdata, this study adopts the conditional logit model to empirically evaluate the impact of the environmental tax on the siting of foreign-invested manufacturing enterprises. We also explore the trade-offs of the environmental tax by assessing its economic costs and benefits. This study finds that the environmental tax has a statistically significant and negative impact on the siting of foreign-invested enterprises, as verified by a series of robustness checks. This result implies a trade-off of the environmental tax, reducing pollutant emissions at the expense of damaging economic growth. Heterogeneous analysis finds that the siting is remarkably more sensitive for foreign-invested enterprises that are sole-venture, in high-polluting industries, small-scale, or hosted by developing countries. The other trade-off is outlined: although the environmental tax reduces the number of newly registered foreign-invested enterprises, it brings some economic benefits by making the structure of foreign investment cleaner and more advanced.

In many developing countries, including Pakistan, the enormous water losses due to outdated irrigation infrastructure threaten livelihoods and food security, while investment in the development of efficiency improvements can help the countries to cope with water scarcity and improve farmers’ wellbeing. This study evaluates how rural farmers’ decisions regarding improving irrigation watercourses and other irrigation conditions affect their wellbeing. We employ hypothesis testing and an ordered logit model on field survey data of 300 farming households from rural Pakistan. The mean test results suggest that farmers on lined watercourses are happier than those on unlined and partially lined watercourses. The regression results suggest that farmers on a fully lined watercourse have higher wellbeing than those on a partially lined watercourse. The time taken by canal water and groundwater to reach farmers’ land reduces their wellbeing. Irrigation quotas, the return of stolen water and the distance of groundwater sources from land have positive effects on farmers’ wellbeing. The study establishes a strong correlation between irrigation conditions, improved irrigation network and farmers’ wellbeing.

The effectiveness of water efficiency improvement is restricted by the water rebound effect by which anticipated water resource saving from improved water efficiency may be partly or wholly offset or even surpassed by an increase in water demand. The economy-wide rebound effect of water efficiency improvement in China is poorly understood. This study explored the economy-wide rebound effect of water efficiency improvement in China based on a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium model. The results suggested that water efficiency improvement could effectively reduce water consumption in producing sectors and benefit economic growth and employment. However, the decrease in water consumption was much lower than the volume of water efficiency improvement, which indicated that the rebound effect partly offset water savings caused by water efficiency improvement. We observed a larger reduction in water consumption in the long run, which indicated a smaller rebound effect and a more significant effect in saving water resources in the long term. Notably, the total rebound effect in the short-run closure was much larger than that in the long-run closure, and the effect from the production side was much smaller. Hence, the economic-wide rebound effect is primarily derived from the incremental water consumption by households, investors, and governments.