Di Chen

Bio: Di Chen is an academic researcher from Renmin University of China. The author has contributed to research in topics: Emissions trading & Sorting. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 5 publications receiving 5 citations.

Does Environmental Policy Help Green Industry? Evidence from China's Promotion of Municipal Solid Waste Sorting.

Abstract: As municipal solid waste severely threatens human health and the ecological environment, since 2019, China has started to fully practice MSW sorting in all prefecture-level cities. In this paper, we apply the event study and difference-in-difference methods to investigate how China’s green policy of promoting MSW sorting influences listed waste sorting companies from the perspective of investors’ short-term and long-term reactions. This paper finds that investors are not sensitive to the introduction of MSW sorting in the short term, the new environmental policy does not relieve the financing constraints of related enterprises in the long run, and the financing constraints of private enterprises are stricter than those of state-owned enterprises. These findings indicate that China’s current encouragement of garbage sorting is not efficient enough as it has not brought benefits to the waste classification industry yet. More measures need to be taken to eliminate uncertainties in urban waste sorting. Our paper enriches the research on China’s waste sorting practices and provides new evidence of the effects of environmental policy on related firms from the perspective of green industry.

Does the “Blue Sky Defense War Policy” Paint the Sky Blue?—A Case Study of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, China

Abstract: Improving air quality is an urgent task for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region in China. In 2018, utilizing 365 days’ daily concentration data of six air pollutants (including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3) at 947 air quality grid monitoring points of 13 cities in the BTH region and controlling the meteorological factors, this paper takes the implementation of the Blue Sky Defense War (BSDW) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the emission reduction effect of the policy in the BTH region by applying the difference-in-difference method. Results show that the policy leads to the significant reduction of the daily average concentration of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, O3 by −1.951 μg/m3, −3.872 μg/m3, −1.902 μg/m3, −7.882 μg/m3 and CO by −0.014 mg/m3, respectively. The results of the robustness test support the aforementioned conclusions. However, this paper finds that the concentration of NO2 increases significantly (1.865 μg/m3). In winter heating seasons, the concentration of SO2, CO and O3 decrease but PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 increase significantly. Besides, resource intensive cities, non-key environmental protection cities and cities in the north of the region have great potential for air pollutant emission reduction. Finally, policy suggestions are recommended; these include setting specific goals at the city level, incorporating more cities into the list of key environmental protection cities, refining the concrete indicators of domestic solid fuel, and encouraging and enforcing clean heating diffusion.

Bacterial cellulose film/nano-iron composite material and preparation method and application thereof

Abstract: The invention discloses a bacterial cellulose film/nano-iron composite material and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method of the bacterial cellulose film/nano-iron composite material comprises the following steps of: (1) putting bacterial cellulose film in an alkaline solution for activation to obtain activated bacterial cellulose film; (2) performing extraction on the activated bacterial cellulose film by using a polar-alcohol aqueous solution so as to remove free water/bound water on the surface and interior of the film and therefore obtain semi-dehydrated activated bacterialcellulose film; and (3) putting the semi-dehydrated activated bacterial cellulose film in a ferrous ion solution, and performing in-situ reduction on ferrous ions under the action of sodium borohydride to obtain the bacterial cellulose film/nano-iron composite material. According to the bacterial cellulose film/nano-iron composite material and the preparation method thereof, an activation in-situchemical precipitation method is adopted to prepare the bacterial cellulose film loaded nano-iron composite material, so that nano-iron is distributed unformly in the interior and on the surface of the bacterial cellulose film, and thus the ability of removal of microorganisms/organic pollutants is improved.

Evolution and Benefit Evaluation of Sustainable Urban Energy Interconnection

Abstract: Urban energy interconnection is the most important part of energy interconnection, which push forward the transformation and upgrading of urban energy system, and promotes the coordinated development of urban economy, society and environment. This paper summarizes the stylized facts of urban energy interconnection evolution. Then a urban energy interconnection analysis framework is proposed to analyze the logical framework of the energy system from the physical, information, and value layers. Further, this paper proposes a comprehensive indicator system for quantitatively evaluating the degree of coordination between urban development and energy systems, and provides a method for assessing the comprehensive benefits of sustainable urban energy interconnection.

Initial allocation of SO2 emission rights based on the combination weighting method: evidence from China's thermal power plants.

Abstract: Emission trading system is an effective market-oriented means to control pollutant emission, and reasonable initial allocation of emission rights is the premise of its smooth implementation. However, at present, the initial allocation of emission rights depends largely on the amount of emissions, which leads to weak positive guidance effect for enterprises. To explore the optimal initial allocation method of SO2 emission rights, this paper takes 8 thermal power plants in Dalian, China, as the research objects to calculate the initial allocation of SO2 emission rights, because SO2 is the main cause of acid rain, which is one of the most serious air pollution in China, and thermal power plants are among the main SO2 emitters. Firstly, an indicator system is established considering enterprise size, pollutant discharge, and social contributions, as well as pollution control capacity. Then, the combination weighting method is developed through integrating the subjective methods G1 and G2 with the objective ones, entropy and maximum deviation. The empirical results show that the enterprises with more desulfurization equipment or large heating supply are supposed to get more emission rights; the actual emission value of SO2 in half of the enterprises exceeds the theoretical ones; SO2 removal rate, desulfurization equipment quantity, and heating supply exert the most positive effects on the initial allocation of emission rights. The constructed model can be used as a reference for future research of initial allocation of other pollutants’ emission rights. Also, the implications have been proposed for the government, industry, and enterprises.

Research on the Transmission Ability of China’s Thermal Coal Price Information Based on Directed Limited Penetrable Interdependent Network

Abstract: According to the criterion of the visibility graph and the irreversibility of the time series, this paper proposes a new perspective to construct the directed limited penetrable interdependent network (DLPIN) for thermal coal between the opening and closing price series after the Johansen cointegration test. The results of the statistical research and cointegration analysis show that there is a cointegration relationship between the opening and the closing price series, and the relationship between them does not follow a normal distribution. By analyzing the topological characteristic of the DLPIN, the results indicate that there is an obvious "community structure" and scale-free features, which show that there are groups and differences among the thermal coal price, and most of them have a weak transmission ability of the thermal coal price information; only a few of them have a strong transmission ability. The differences of the in-degree and out-degree show that some thermal coal prices have a weak influence on the other prices but are strongly affected by the other prices. In addition, most of the thermal coal prices are far away from the infectious source of the price information; only a few are close to the infectious source of the price information to a certain extent. Obviously, the influence of the thermal coal price has a certain range, which is closely related in a short distance. Furthermore, these results can reveal the internal laws of the main price fluctuation and information transmission for the thermal coal, and some references can be provided to reduce risk investment and improve capital return for the related investors.