Green Finance Promotes High-Quality Development of Regional Economy

With the rapid development of the social economy,the role of green finance in promoting the high-quality development of regional economies is increasing day by day.The advancement of green finance not only aids in fostering the green transformation and upgrading of regional economies but also helps mitigate the risks of environmental damage stemming from traditional economic activities.In this new era,it is imperative to embrace the concept of green finance development and innovate green finance practices to further drive high-quality regional economic development.This paper will analyze the significance of green finance in regional economic development,assess the current state of green finance development,and propose optimization strategies for green finance to facilitate high-quality economic development.

Regional green finance development and local green innovation:Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of green bond issuance in China

Based on provincial panel data in China from 2008 to 2019, this research takes the issuance of China's green bond as a quasi-natural experiment to explore whether China's regional green finance development promotes local green innovation by using the multi-period DID model. The results show that the regional green financial development can promote local green innovation, and the rapid growth of the green bond market driven by policy does improve environmental sound technology innovation. The promotion of regional green finance development to local green innovation is related to the funds allocation of green credit,but not to the issuance scale of green bonds, according to further analysis, because China's development pattern can lead to a lack of endogenous market power and low credit resource allocation efficiency. In addition, the issuance of green bonds can effectively promote the allocation of green credit funds, thus enhancing the local green innovation level, but it can't reduce local carbon emissions through promoting green innovation. Therefore, the government should strengthen the green finance implementation assessment mechanism, taking into account the heterogeneity of regions and enterprises, complete the green finance monitoring and disclosure system, and increase the rate of green technology conversion.

Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Green Finance and Technological Progress on Total Factor Productivity in China’s Industrial Sector

The enhancement of industrial green total factor productivity is pivotal for achieving high-quality and sustainable economic development.This study assesses China’s performance using the SBM-GML model,employing province-level panel data spanning from 2004 to 2020.Furthermore,we examine the influence of green finance and technological progress on industrial green total factor productivity using a spatial econometric model.The findings uncover that the relationship between the level of green financial development and industrial green total factor productivity follows a U-shaped curve.Initially,low levels of green financial development exert a suppressive effect on industrial green total factor productivity,proving ineffective in the short term.However,with the progression of green finance development,a positive and significant long-term impact on industrial green total factor productivity emerges.Moreover,technological progress demonstrates a noteworthy promotional effect on industrial green total factor productivity.The analysis delves deeper into revealing that industrial structure and environmental regulation intensity exhibit a significant negative relationship with industrial green total factor productivity.In contrast,both energy structure and education level showcase a substantial positive relationship with industrial green total factor productivity.

The Impact of Green Finance on the Ecologicalization of Urban Industrial Structure-Based on GMM of Dynamic Panel System

Although a number of studies have been published in the general area on various factors affecting the ecologicalization of urban industrial structure,little work has been carried out for empirical studies quantitatively analyzing the relevance between green finance development and the ecologicalization of urban industrial structure.Therefore,based on a comprehensive index of green finance development,this research employs panel data of target cities1 for the period 2012–2020 to explore the influence of green finance on the ecologicalization of urban industrial structure.The empirical results show that green finance development significantly improves the ecologicalization level of urban industrial structure.In addition,it is found that green finance plays a stronger role in promoting the ecologicalization of industrial structure in economically developed regions than in economically underdeveloped regions2.The research results can provide a valuable policy reference for urban green financial market planning and green product innovation.

Impact of Financial Technology on Regional Green Finance

Finance is the core of modern economy,and a strong country cannot do without the support of financial system.With the rapid development of economy and society,the traditional financial services can not support the increasingly large and complex economic system.As a brand-new format,financial technology can help the financial industry to restructure and upgrade.At the same time,as an international consensus,green development is the only way for China to achieve sustainable development.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to study the impact of finance on the regional development of green finance.Based on the essence of green finance development,fuzzy principal component analysis is used to build the green finance evaluation index system in this paper.Taking the data of three provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2015 to 2019 as an example,QAP analysis is used to study the impact of financial tech-nology on the regional development of green finance.Research shows that expla-natory variables are highly significant,that is,financial technology has a significant role in promoting green finance.Finally,based on the research conclu-sions,this paper puts forward suggestions on how green technology can better promote the development of green finance from three aspects of top-level design,technical research and supervision.

Does enterprise digitization reduce carbon emissions? Evidence from China

The digital transformation and expansion of businesses will provide China’s low-carbon economic develop‐ment strategy with fresh impetus in the backdrop of the emerging digital economy and environmentally friendly growth.This article measures the level of enterprise digitization using two methods:the enterprise digitization index and text analysis word frequency statistics.Additionally,carbon emissions are obtained by measuring various types of emissions according to the carbon emission classification range standard.To ac‐count for endogeneity and unobservable variables,relative indicators,such as the rate of increase for company emissions of carbon,are utilized.Using microdata from Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2021,this study ex‐amines the implications of corporate digitization on enterprise carbon emissions.This study further analyzes the transmission mechanism and investigates the function of green finance in controlling corporate digitiza‐tion and reducing corporate carbon emissions by distinguishing between two types of green patents.Research shows that businesses’carbon emissions are greatly reduced as a consequence of getting digital.Even after performing several robustness and endogeneity tests,the conclusion still remains valid.According to mecha‐nism analysis,which demonstrates that the main strategy for reducing corporate emissions of carbon through the digitalization of enterprises is to promote innovation in green technology.The regulation of green finance in enterprise digitalization will further reduce corporate carbon emissions.According to the analysis of hetero‐geneity,state-owned businesses and those situated in areas with stringent environmental regulations are more significantly impacted by enterprise digitization on corporate carbon emissions.This article discusses the mechanism of promoting corporate carbon emissions through digitalization,expands on relevant research on corporate digitalization,and analyzes the achievable paths of corporate digitalization and low-carbon develop‐ment strategies.

Datamining and Its Applications

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are widely applied in all domain applications today,including noncontact vital sign monitoring,data mining and denoising,data analysis,and application as traffic simulation and green finance.We briefly introduce the noncontact vital sign monitoring using video data and the solutions to this problem supplied by Artificial intelligence and machine learning.Then,we present the five papers selected in the related areas for this journal issue.

Green Finance and Green Innovation of Enterprises

Against the backdrop of the carbon neutrality strategy,the key issue remains how green finance can boost enterprise green innovation and social transformation.The paper introduces the policy of Pilot Zones forGreen FinanceReform and Innovations("the PZGFRI Policy")announced in 2017 as a quasi-natural experiment and probes into whether green finance has a significant impact on enterprise green innovation as well as its mechanism based on the green patent data of China's A-share listed companies in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019.The paper reaches the conclusion that the PZGFRI Policy has significantly promoted the green innovation of enterprises.In terms of heterogeneity of enterprise characteristics,it generates greater impacts on non-polluting firms,large-scale enterprises,and state-owned companies.For the heterogeneity of the financial environment,the PZGFRI Policy provides more benefits for those in regions with less competitive banks.As for the mechanism,green finance advances enterprise green innovation by increasing the proportion of long-term loans of enterprises and improving their debt structure.However,evidence related to financing cost channels has not yet been found.Continued improvement of the green financial system is preferred.Further,green finance should be encouraged to play an important role in the green transformation of society,the realization of carbon neutrality goals,and long-term ecological conservation.

Green finance,fintech and environmental protection:Evidence from China

This paper is one of the first to offer a comprehensive analysis of the impact of green finance related policies in China,utilizing text analysis and panel data from 290 cities between 2011 and 2018.Employing the Semi-parametric Difference-in-Differences(SDID)we show that overall China's green finance related policies have led to a significant reduction in industrial gas emissions in the review period.Additionally,we found that Fintech development contributes to the depletion of sulphur dioxide emissions and has a positive impact on environmental protection investment initiatives.China is poised to be a global leader in green finance policy implementation and regulators need to accelerate the formulation of green finance products and enhance the capacity of financial institutions to offer green credit.While minimizing the systemic risk fintech poses,policy makers should encourage fintechs to actively participate in environmental protection initiatives that promote green consumption.

Analysis of Green Technology Upgrading Strategy Based on Collaborative Incentive of Environmental Policy and Green Finance

With the continuous development of economy, the bottleneck problem of environmental resources has become increasingly prominent. Enterprise environmental governance technology innovation incentive has become an important issue for the development of government, society and enterprises. Under the control of enterprise's expected economic target, this paper discusses the synergistic incentive effect of environmental policy and green finance on enterprise's environmental governance technology innovation decision by using nonlinear programming model. The results show that when the funds for environmental governance technological innovation are insufficient, there is an optimal decision space to use green financial loans to implement technological innovation and upgrade, and then achieve the expected economic goals;Under a given level of environmental governance technology, environmental policies affect whether enterprises can make decisions on technological innovation and upgrading of environmental governance;Green financial mechanism will not. However, when the enterprise makes the decision of environmental governance technology upgrading, it will affect the enterprise's decision on green financial loan amount. The results of the study have guiding significance for the formulation of environmental policy and green financial policy, as well as the decision-making of enterprise environmental governance technology innovation and upgrading.

China’s role in scaling up energy storage investments

Accelerating the planning and development of a new power system that is more renewable energy-based is a strategic priority of achieving“dual carbon”goals(peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and becoming carbon neutral before 2060)in China.The large-scale development of energy storage technologies will address China’s flexibility challenge in the power grid,enabling the high penetration of renewable sources.This article intends to fill the existing research gap in energy storage technologies through the lens of policy and finance.Results indicate that policy uncertainties in renewable energy might undermine domestic investor confidence in energy storage technologies,while insufficient economic incentives may crowd out private sector participation.Drawing on international best practices,blended concessional finance,supported by development partners,can play a significant role in closing energy storage financing gaps in China and in countries of the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI).To deliver on China’s domestic and international climate commitments,this article makes three policy recommendations:(1)moving forward with a carbon pricing agenda that incentivizes energy storage investments in China;(2)tapping the potential of the domestic capital market to close financing gaps for novel energy storage technologies;(3)scaling up energy storage supply chains in BRI countries through multilateral cooperation.

The impact of regulatory and financial discrimination on China's low-carbon development:Considering firm heterogeneity

Firms in China within the same industry but with different ownership and size have different production functions and face different emission regulations and financial conditions,thus can give very different responses to environmental policies.This fact has been largely ignored in most of the low-carbon development related literature.Using an augmented Chinese input–output table in which information about firm size(large-and small and medium-sized firms)and ownership(state-,foreign-,and private-owned firms)are explicitly reported,a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is developed in this study to analyze the impact of alternative low-carbon policy designs with different regulatory coverage and financial equalization on heterogeneous firms.Our simulation results show that,with the fully balanced regulation coverage and equalized financial system for heterogeneous firms,the total green investment accounts for 4%of GDP in 2030 for fulfilling China's commitment to reduce carbon emissions,which is the lowest among the various scenarios;about one-third of this investment is made by small and private firms;at the same time,green investment efficiency will be the highest,about 84%higher than that of the business-as-usual level.Therefore,a market-oriented and new technology-driven arrangement and mechanism for sharing emission reduction burden and allocating green investment across heterogeneous firms,especially to small and medium-sized firms,is crucial for China to achieve a more ambitious emission target in the long run.

Market-based solution in China to finance the clean from the dirty

Financial incentives play a key role in promoting renewable energy investments that can help China achieve the‘dual carbon’goal.The national emissions trading scheme(ETS)and the renewable energy portfolio standard(RPS)are two existing market-based policy instruments that can generate stable expected returns for low-carbon projects.This paper studies the interactive distribution effects of these two market-based instruments.We use the micro-level thermal power plant data to investigate the abatement effects of the national ETS,in which the details show that the existing rate-based ETS will result in higher negative impacts on power units,whose installed capacities are smaller than 400 MW.The interactive distribution effects between the two markets will occur when the permit allocation standards of the national ETS become stricter than the existing ones.Provinces in Eastern China and Northern China will face high pressure on costs in both ETS and RPS markets.When the levels of the permit allocation standards are set as 70%of the existing ones and the carbon price is assumed to be 200 yuan/ton in 2030,the annual market size of the national ETS will be nearly 100 billion yuan,and the annual market size is predicted to be 250 billion yuan.In the existing rate-based national ETS,the China Certified Emission Reduction(CCER)mechanism will have an offsetting effect,which should be taken into serious consideration during the policy-making processes in the future.