Economic growth is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 8. We combine 10 economic constraints and build a five-variable (structural vector autoregressive) SVAR model based on China’s time series data of 1978–2017. The empirical results show: (1) The Chinese government adopted different economic policies at different stages of reform and opening up; (2) From the impulse response results, China’s excessively high government debt ratio has begun to inhibit economic growth; (3) In terms of policy selection and coordination, the Chinese government mostly adopts a “discretion” adjustment strategy. In most cases, the fiscal and monetary policies were in the same direction, and the “double expansionary” and “double contractionary” policy coordination may become mainstream; (4) The results of variance decomposition showed that both fiscal and monetary policies can effectively regulate economic growth at the present stage, and the contribution rates of exogenous shocks to the prediction variance of economic growth rate were about 25%.

This review systematically introduces the current main research directions of environmental macroeconomics. Environmental macroeconomics research aims to study the relationship between economic development and the ecological environment and ultimately achieve green outcomes. At the same time, maintaining a moderate economic scale within the environmental setting is vital to get rid of excessive dependence on economic growth. This review draws on the traditional macroeconomics framework, focusing on economic growth, the economics of climate, economic policy, work, consumption, technological progress, industrial structure, and other topics. Although most studies have highlighted the importance of environmental issues, few empirical analyses combine environmental policy with economic policy, production, consumption, climate change, etc., and theories such as ecological, technological progress, business cycle, and environmental policy lack the necessary practical support. It is, therefore, difficult to put forward appropriate and measurable policy recommendations. Environmental macroeconomics is still a relatively new field of research, the theoretical system has flaws, and innovations in models still need to be improved. We suggest that environmental policy formulation be placed in a dynamic general equilibrium framework.