The River Chief Policy (RCP), an institutional innovation in China by which top party and government officials assume responsibility for water management, shapes the incentive structure of local governments and may have a huge influence on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a staggered difference-in-difference approach and panel data from 91 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we estimate the impact of the RCP on an SDG index with eight local-specific indicators. The estimation results show that the RCP has improved the overall SDG index and significantly improved the levels of innovation, education, and consumption. Heterogeneity tests show that more affluent regions are more committed to investing in education, raising consumption, and increasing wages under the RCP. These results suggest that local governments in China have responded rationally and strategically to the RCP. In general, economic growth remains the central goal of local governments, while the strengthening of other responsibilities such as environmental protection will lead to more effort being made to achieve the SDGs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study seeks to address the question of whether China’s Western Development Strategy (WDS) has affected the carbon emission intensity of the regions it covers. There remains a distinct lack of analysis based on the normative causal inference method regarding the impact of this economic development policy on carbon emissions. Our research contributes to the large body of international literature studying the effects of place-based policy and has implications for place-based policies regarding the impact of carbon emissions. It constructs a duopoly model to illustrate the relationship between lower prices of capital (caused by policies such as tax reduction) and carbon emissions. Using county-level data on both sides of the provincial boundary of the WDS from 1998 to 2007, and applying the difference-in-differences method, our results indicate that the WDS has significantly increased carbon emission intensity of the western counties. Our findings also indicate that while the WDS has had no significant positive effect on counties’ economic growth, no policy trap effect was found. There is also no evidence suggesting that the economic activities attributable to the WDS have brought any negative externalities of carbon emissions to the counties east of the western provincial border.

China has promoted renewable energy development to adjust its energy structure and improve energy security. The decision-makers consider manure-to-energy a feasible possibility because manure contains a substantial amount of organic materials that are potentially useful for generating power, and its use would also alleviate environmental pressures. Southern China, including Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces, has launched policies to support manure facilities and energy sales. This study employs a lifecycle analysis and techno-economic assessment to evaluate whether manure application could be an economically feasible alternative. The results indicate that the thermophilic system has greater energy potential, and the mesophilic mode can yield greater agronomic benefits with digestate application. Hog manure can generate biopower ranging from 5599 to 5683 GWh, and it is 653 to 1887 GWh for cattle, 2481 to 2963 GWh for poultry manure, and 1109 to 1536 GWh for sheep manure. The aggregate emission offset could also be substantial. If all manures are properly utilized, the net emission offset could be up to 12.07 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, with an aggregate energy revenue of approximately USD 1086 million annually. In addition to the aggregate result, this study also indicates that manure application would yield a profit ranging from USD 8.36 to USD 34.3, and the benefit from biofertilizer would be roughly between USD 27.72 and USD 43.49. Nevertheless, regional characteristics, such as temperature, precipitation, and soil quality, generally influence agricultural systems, and the benefits associated with agrarian feedback would involve a higher uncertainty. On the contrary, energy sales could be considered a more reliable and stable source of income, even without government subsidies.