The quality of the business environment influences the speed and quality of economic development, and optimizing the business environment helps improve enterprises’ innovation ability. This article selects urban business environment and micro-enterprise data of Chinese listed companies from 2013 to 2019. It constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for the urban business environment in China through the entropy method, exploring the specific path of promoting enterprise innovation ability through the business environment. The empirical results indicate that optimizing the business environment can encourage improving innovation efficiency in enterprises. A good business environment can increase government subsidies and enterprises’ Assumption of risk ability to promote technological innovation. Financing constraints and supply chain concentration can negatively enhance the driving effect of the business environment on enterprise innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the business environment is more conducive to stimulating the drive for technological innovation among state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, and manufacturing enterprises. This article provides new insights into the relationship between the business environment and the innovation efficiency of enterprises.

In the context of global countries’ pursuit of sustainable development and “dual carbon” goals of China, this paper combines the Tapio decoupling model, Kaya’s equation and LMDI decomposition method to analyze the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth and the driving factors of carbon emissions in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) of China from 2001 to 2019. It is found that the decoupling state of CO₂ and economic growth in the Yellow River Basin shows a trend of expansion negative decoupling - expansion connection - weak decoupling - strong decoupling, but different regions shows some heterogeneity. The economic intensity effect and population size effect generally play a positive role in driving carbon emissions, while carbon emission intensity, industrial structure and energy structure effect play a negative role in driving carbon emissions in most years. From the regional perspective, the energy consumption structure in the middle reaches is the most important factor to promote carbon emissions. In terms of time period, the industrial structure effect is the driving factor of carbon emissions in the decoupling state overall as expansionary linkage, while it is the inhibitor of carbon emissions in the decoupling state overall as weak decoupling. This study also puts forward countermeasures such as optimize the energy structure and upgrade the industrial structure to achieve green and high-quality economic development in the YRB.

The process of pursuing high-quality economic development involves many moving parts, and economic agglomeration (EA) is an essential element that can significantly affect green total factor productivity (GTFP). This study uses SBM and GML models to calculate GTFP of 99 cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2004 to 2017. Then, based on the panel data of these cities, the SYS-GMM and the mediating effect model are used to empirically test the influence and action path of EA on GTFP. The conclusions are as follows: There is an evident inverted U-shaped link between EA and GTFP in the YRB. The development level of the upper and middle reaches of the YRB is lower than the “ agglomeration inflection point ” (CNY 1.231 billion/KM2), while the downstream region has crossed this inflection point and has a crowding effect. In addition, EA affects GTFP through labor pool, intermediate input sharing and knowledge technology spillover. This study concludes that, in order to boost GTFP in the YRB, diversified strategies based on regional development are required to avoid the crowding impact.

This paper has explored the relationship between CO₂ emissions, eco-efficiency, and economic growth, which has important theoretical and practical significance for realizing high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Based on the data of 99 prefecture-level cities in the YRB from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyses the temporal and spatial variation and agglomeration characteristics of CO₂ emissions and eco-efficiency in the YRB. The spatial Durbin model (SDM) with fixed effects is used to test the relationship between CO₂ emissions, eco-efficiency, and economic growth in the YRB by using new structural economics theory and the EKC hypothesis. The results show that (1) the YRB is in a stage of extensive economic development with the coexistence of high CO₂ emissions and low eco-efficiency and shows a trend of transformation and upgrading to a stage of high-quality economic development; (2) CO₂ emissions and eco-efficiency are spatially heterogeneous; CO₂ emissions and eco-efficiency in the upper reaches are low, and the middle maintains relatively high eco-efficiency and high CO₂ emissions while the lower reaches have both high CO₂ emissions and low eco-efficiency; (3) the relationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth is N-shaped, and there is an inflection point of accelerated increase (per capita GDP is 45,558 yuan). The YRB has crossed this inflection point, and CO₂ emissions are accelerating with economic development at this stage. The relationship between eco-efficiency and economic growth is U-shaped, with the inflection point of per capita GDP at 46,483 yuan. The YRB has just crossed the point, and eco-efficiency will subsequently steadily rise with economic development.

This paper introduces an innovative cooperative model for energy efficiency retrofitting that incorporates carbon emission rights, addressing critical financial constraints in Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). By employing the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) to evaluate risk assessment indicators and stakeholder contributions and utilizing the enhanced Shapley method for equitable benefit distribution, the model demonstrates significant improvements in financing and efficiency for energy conservation projects. The findings are as follows: (1) the energy efficiency retrofit model, which integrates carbon emission rights, effectively alleviates the financial constraints and fosters energy conservation and emission reduction in guaranteed-savings EPC projects; (2) the enhanced Shapley method is deemed appropriate for the equitable distribution of energy-saving benefits among stakeholders; (3) when compared with the traditional model and the benefit allocation-absent carbon rights, the energy-saving benefits of the energy efficiency retrofit model incorporating carbon emission rights are higher in individual and overall terms. The findings of this study offer a viable solution to financing challenges faced by stakeholders in such projects and delineate a pragmatic approach for enterprises to enhance energy efficiency and reduce emissions.