The green leadership (GL) concept has significantly gained popularity over the last decade. Consequently, more research has been conducted on this emerging leadership concept, emphasizing leadership styles that promote the green environment so that sustainable goals can be achieved. In the present research, leaders’ emotional intelligence (EI) is positioned as a mediating variable between GL and employees’ green organizational citizenship behavior (GOCB). The data of this research comprised managerial and non-managerial staff from the manufacturing and service industries. A PLS-SEM was used to evaluate the relationship between the various factors among 422 employees. The empirical findings indicated that GL and GOCB had a favorable and robust relationship. The results of the study also suggested that a leader’s EI mediates the influence of green leadership on their employees’ green organizational citizenship behavior. Green leadership is essential in creating sustainable environmental behaviors among employees. It can strengthen leaders’ EI, which successively helps them to garner positivity and foster an environment of mutual harmony and cooperation in the workplace to support pro-environmental policies. Overall, our study contributes to and advances previous studies and shows that green leadership plays a critical role in influencing a leader’s own EI which, in turn, predicts the green OCB of their employees in the workplace.

Due to the several undiscovered and valuable gene and mineral resources, marine biodiversity is considered a strategic asset for socio-economic development. However, marine biodiversity is facing grave threats, particularly in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), where sustainable management and effective implementation of governance is yet lacking. Here existing international legal regimes with the protection of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction are briefly summarized, focusing on potential factors influencing China’s policymaking on the construction of marine protected areas on the high seas. It is concluded that China should actively participate in international negotiations and seriously assess the impacts of establishing these protected areas before making its own decision in order to achieve the sustainable conservation and management of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. In addition, the policy’s future research directions will be the practical challenges for China to establish and manage the marine protected areas on the high seas, especially in the selection of locations and the model of management.