What is Right and What is Wrong in the Environmental Governance Model? Environmental Regulations for Improving Environmental Sustainability Ratings

The improper allocation of economic and environmental resources damages the United Nations sustainable development Agenda, which remains a challenge for policymakers to stop the rot through efficient governance mechanisms. The study designed an efficient environmental governance framework by extending the different governance factors linked to the environmental sustainability ratings in the cross-section of 67 countries. The results of the two-regime based estimator show that environmental corruption (regime-1), environmental politics (regime-2), and environmental laws (regime-2) negatively correlated with the environmental sustainability rating, whereas environmental democracy (regime-1 & 2) positively correlated with the environmental sustainability agenda across countries. The government effectiveness and the country’s per capita income both escalates environmental sustainability ratings. The results align with the Demopolis theory, the effective regulatory theory, and the theory of law and politics. The causality estimates show that environmental corruption and government effectiveness causes environmental politics and economic growth. In contrast, environmental democracy and environmental regulations cause a country’s per capita income. The bidirectional causality is found between environmental regulations and environmental corruption on the one hand, while environmental regulations and environmental politics Granger cause each other on the other hand. The results show the importance of environmental regulations in managing ecological corruption and politics across countries. The variance decomposition analysis suggested that environmental politics likely influenced the environmental sustainability agenda, followed by government effectiveness and environmental democracy for the next ten years. The study emphasized the need to design an efficient environmental governance framework that minimizes environmental corruption and enables them to move towards environmental democracy, stringent environmental laws, and regulations. Government effectiveness would mainly be linked to reducing corruption and political instability to achieve clean, green and sustainable development.

New Efficient Configurations for Sour Wastewater Treatment-

Background: Due to the technological development, the environmental legislations on pollutant concentrations in aqueous effluents tend to tighten and increase. As a result, sour water must be handled and processed properly to provide a high quality of stripped water with insignificant traces of NH3 and H2S in it. This must be achieved within the minimum operating costs. This research investigates the stripping configurations of sour water effluents from various industries. The research also offers an insight on different scenarios and configurations to accomplish set targets satisfying the environmental law criteria. Methods: This research introduces a range of heat integration schemes for better energy savings, further vapor recompression VRC technique is opted for its ability to maximize energy savings. This research analyses the effect of operating and design variables on the stripped water quality such as feed temperature, feed location, reflux split, and steam flow rate. The option of adding new equipment is also addressed to maximize heat integration and enhance the efficiency of the process. Thus, several schemes and process configurations are explored to treat industrial sour water waste streams seeking better efficiency. These configurations differ from one another in heat integration layout and whether VRC is utilized or not. Energy efficiency and economics of the proposed configurations are considered as decisive factors in this research study. The case study adopted are based on published data taken from some iron and steel factories in South Korea named POSCO (Pohang Iron and Steel Corporation). Results: Results of the treated wastewater streams guarantee that the effluent sour water obeys standard environmental regulations, i.e., NH3 contents range from 30 to 80 ppm and H2S concentration falls below 0.1 ppm. The obtained results of the seven different scenarios are compared to the original case study. It is found that scenario 7 is the most economical solution saving 51.54 % in total annual cost when compared to the original case study, while satisfying the treated water environmental regulations with a concentration of 3.19 ppm NH3 and 0.05 ppm H2S. Scenario 7 creates its own steam unlike the original case study where steam utility is needed extensively. However, scenario 7 consumes 15 % more electricity than the original case study but still shows 56.34 % less utility cost in overall. Conclusion: The optimum process configuration can be employed for other sour water purification systems such as those from petroleum refiners. An ongoing research work is focusing on the use of internal heat integration for more energy savings and economics improvement.

The Influence of Carbon Emission Disclosure On Enterprise Value Under Ownership Heterogeneity: Evidence From The Heavy Polluting Corporations

China has put forward the goals of “Emission Peak” and “Carbon Neutrality”. Therefore, whether the restriction of carbon information disclosure could promote the transformation and upgrading of heavily polluting corporations to raise their value and realize the “double carbon” goal is a problem worthy of in-depth study. This article analyzed the impact of carbon information disclosure on the enterprise value of heavily polluting corporations based on the perspective of ownership structure heterogeneity. The paper discussed the moderating effect of carbon information disclosure on enterprise value taking into account government environmental regulations, media evaluation, and corporate image management based on the Gatekeeper Theory. This article found that carbon information disclosure and enterprise value have a “U-shaped” relationship in the short term and a positive correlation in the long term. The government environmental regulation, media evaluation, and corporate image management produced different moderating effects under the difference in ownership structure. Government environmental regulations, media evaluation, and corporate image management made significant moderating effects on state-owned corporations in the short term, while they have no significant moderating effect in the long term. The results also showed that there were no significant effects on private corporations. In order to push heavily polluting corporations to implement environmental protection measures, government and corporations are necessary to promote the long-term mechanism of sustainable cleaner production.

Are Environmental Regulations to Promote Eco-Innovation in the Wine Sector Effective? A Study of Spanish Wineries

In a changing socio-economic and ecological context, the agri-food industry, where the use of natural resources is very important, must pay more and more attention to green and eco-innovation. Public decision-makers have started to implement measures to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices by companies, which are also pressured by supply and demand factors. This article aims to determine the factors that drive eco-innovation in the wine sector in Spain, a mature and traditional sector characterized by its high fragmentation. In particular, we sought to determine the role environmental regulations play in promoting eco-innovation in the sector. To this end, an empirical study was developed using a structural equation model established using a partial least squares technique for a sample of 251 wineries from all over the country. The study shows that the current regulatory framework inhibits eco-innovation in Spanish wineries, who are more encouraged by positioning and external motivation factors.

Environmental Regulations and CO2 Mitigation for Sustainability: Panel Data Analysis (PMG, CCEMG) for BRICS Nations

The relationship between income and pollution is contested, yet wealth alone is insufficient to regulate emissions, which necessitates environmental regulations. Even if inadequate environmental laws may overcome market failures produced by pollution’s negative externality, a thorough examination of their function in pollution management is critical. This research takes a step forward in offering a fresh viewpoint on the function of environmental laws in pollution reduction for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations to better understand the role of environmental regulations in CO2 emission mitigation. The research presented here uses panel data econometric methodologies to achieve this goal, using data from 1995 to 2018. In addition, to provide country-specific findings, the research employs a completely modified ordinary least squares estimator. Environmental laws provide a beneficial influence in reducing carbon emissions. According to the empirical findings, the present environmental regulation positively meets pollution reduction objectives in chosen nations. The environment Kuznets curve (EKC) between pollution and income is controlled by environmental restrictions. Climate change mitigation in BRICS nations is driven by strong environmental policies and economic growth.

Ecodesign Strategy for Demand-Oriented Electrical and Electronic Products

Governments of various countries have formulated relevant EPR environmental regulations for environmental pollution caused by electrical and electronic products, and enterprises mainly respond to this regulation through product ecodesign strategies. In view of this, this paper takes a three-stage supply chain system composed of a manufacturer, a retailer and a third-party recycler as the research object, and develops a demand-oriented product ecodesign strategy for five scenarios under different environmental regulations, including eco-input subsidy, sales subsidy, consumption subsidy and recycling subsidy. This study finds that the manufacturer does not actively engage in product ecodesign if the government does not implement subsidy policies; when the government implements subsidy policies such as eco-input subsidy, sales subsidy, or consumption subsidy, the manufacturer will design a high-level ecological product. However, under the recycling subsidy policy, the manufacturer will design a low-level ecological product. These results suggest that different subsidy policies may lead to different eco-product strategies of the manufacturer. In particular, the recycling subsidy policy can encourage a recycler to recycle actively, thus reducing the environmental pollution cost of a manufacturer, but the manufacturer is reluctant to improve the ecological level of the finished product.