Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What inhibits regional inclusive green growth? Empirical evidence from China

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The diversity of locations, environment, and resource elements among different regions leads to the regional imbalance of inclusive green growth (IGG), especially in those developing countries like China. A core issue for achieving the coordination of regional IGG is to identify what influence factors with what extent to inhibit IGG levels of different regions. In this paper, a comprehensive IGG indicator system is designed based on the IGG connotation from four dimensions of economic development, social opportunity equity, green production and consumption, and ecological environment protection. An improved TODIM method is proposed to measure the regional IGG level and further reveal the inhibition effects of various influence factors on regional IGG. The results exemplified by China’s 30 provinces during 2008–2018 show that China’s eastern provinces possess more superior IGG levels, while the catch-up effect of IGG in central and western provinces is significant. The lower economic output, larger income gap, and weaker green production and consumption restrict the IGG of most western provinces. The higher economic and population agglomerations in eastern and central provinces challenge the ecological resource endowment and environment governance, which inhibits their IGG development. The inhibition effects of social opportunity equity involving employment, education, medical treatment, social security, and infrastructure on IGG levels do not reflect obvious regional agglomeration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable.

References

  • Albagoury S (2016) Inclusive green growth in Africa: Ethiopia case study. University Library of Munich, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • Block J, Hu B, Leopold A (2015) Inclusive green growth and sustainable finance through ecotax-a system dynamics model. The 2015 International Conference of the System Dynamics Society

  • Bouma J, Berkhout E (2015) Inclusive green growth. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. PBL Publication 1708:1–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai M, Yue X (2020) The redistributive role of government social security transfers on inequality in China. China Econ Rev 101512

  • Chapman A, Shigetomi Y (2018) Developing national frameworks for inclusive sustainable development incorporating lifestyle factor importance. J Clean Prod 200:39–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen HL, Qin WF (2014) Inclusive growth in China: a perspective from the change of inclusive total factor productivity. China Industrial Economics 1:18–30 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper A, Mukonza C, Fisher E et al (2020) Mapping academic literature on governing inclusive green growth in Africa: geographical biases and topical gaps. Sustainability 12(5):1956

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dhingra R (2015) Inclusive green growth: a key to unlock multi-dimensional problems. New Delhi: Vivekananda Law School

  • Fang C, Cui X, Li G et al (2019) Modeling regional sustainable development scenarios using the urbanization and eco-environment coupler: case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, China. Sci Total Environ 689:820–830

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • GGGI (2019) Green growth index concept, methods and applications, Global Green Growth Institute Technical Report No. 5. http://greengrowthindex.gggi.org/#cover. Accessed July 2020

  • Gomes L, Lima M (1992) TODIM: Basics and application to multicriteria ranking of projects with environmental impacts. Found Comput Decis Sci 16(4):113–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Grewal B, Ahmed A (2011) Is China’s Western Region Development Strategy on track? An assessment. J Contemp China 20(69):161–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta J, Pouw N, Ros-Tonen M (2015) Towards an elaborated theory of inclusive development. Eur J Dev Res 27(4):541–559

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta J, Vegelin C (2016) Sustainable development goals and inclusive development. Inte Environ Agreements: Politics, Law Econ 16(3):433–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guterres A (2017) The sustainable development goals report. Available at. https://www.un.org. Accessed July 2020

  • Hospes O, Dewulf A, Faling M (2016) Inclusiveness in public-private partnerships: NGO views and strategies. Wageningen University

  • İmrohoroğlu A, Zhao K (2018) Intergenerational transfers and China’s social security reform. J Econ Ageing 11:62–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jha S, Sandhu S, Wachirapunyanont R (2018) Inclusive green growth index: a new benchmark for quality of growth. Asian Development Bank

  • Jin JJ, He R, Kuang F et al (2019) Different sources of rural household energy consumption and influencing factors in Dazu. China Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(21):21312–21320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin X, Li X, Feng Z et al (2020) Linking ecological efficiency and the economic agglomeration of China based on the ecological footprint and nighttime light data. Ecological Indicators 111:106035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman D, Tversky A (1979) Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica 47(2):263–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kourula A, Pisani N, Kolk A (2017) Corporate sustainability and inclusive development: highlights from international business and management research. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 24:14–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar P (2017) Innovative tools and new metrics for inclusive green economy. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 24:47–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S (2015) Engendering liveable low-carbon smart cities in ASEAN as an inclusive green growth model and opportunities for regional cooperation. ERIA Discussion Paper Series, ERIADP-2015–57. Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta, Indonesia

  • Li H, Jiang L (2017) Catastrophic medical insurance in China. Lancet (london, England) 390(10104):1724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li R, Ramanathan R (2018) Exploring the relationships between different types of environmental regulations and environmental performance: evidence from China. J Clean Prod 196:1329–1340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li W, Wang X, Hilmola O (2020a) Do High-Speed Railway Influence Convergence of Urban-Rural Income Gap in China? Sustainability 12(10):4236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Y, Wei Y, Zhang X et al (2020b) Regional and provincial CO2 emission reduction task decomposition of China’s 2030 carbon emission peak based on the efficiency, equity and synthesizing principles. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 53:237–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu G, Wang B, Cheng Z et al (2020) The drivers of China’s regional green productivity, 1999–2013. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 153:104561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu T, Sun L (2016) Pension reform in China. J Aging Soc Policy 28(1):15–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mao W, Wang W, Sun H (2019) Driving patterns of industrial green transformation: A multiple regions case learning from China. Sci Total Environ 697:134134

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mao W, Wang W, Sun H (2020) Optimization path for overcoming barriers in China’s environmental protection institutional system. J Clean Prod 251:119712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ng B, Kanagasundram T, Wong C et al (2016) Innovation for inclusive development in Southeast Asia: the roles of regional coordination mechanisms. Pac Rev 29(4):573–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pouw N, Gupta J (2017) Inclusive development: a multi-disciplinary approach. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 24:104–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qi Z, Song J, Yang W et al (2020) Revealing contributions to sulfur dioxide emissions in China: from the dimensions of final demand, driving effect and supply chain. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 160:104864

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ran M, Chen L, Li W (2020) Financial deepening, spatial spillover, and urban–rural income disparity: evidence from China. Sustainability 12(4):1450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs J, Schmidt-Traub G, Kroll C et al. (2019) Sustainable development report 2019. Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN): New York 2

  • Siddiqi A, Collins R (2017) Sociotechnical systems and sustainability: current and future perspectives for inclusive development. Curr Opin Environ Sustains 24:7–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spratt S (2013) Mobilising investment for inclusive green growth in low-income countries. German International Cooperation Organization Press, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun H, Dang Y, Mao W (2018) A decision-making method with grey multi-source heterogeneous data and its application in green supplier selection. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15(3):446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, Y., Ding, W., Yang, Z., et al. (2020) Measuring China’s regional inclusive green growth. Sci Total Environ 136367

  • Sun Z, Hou Y, Zhang Y et al (2019a) Multi-perspective observation and policy response to regional unbalanced development in China. Manage World 35(8):1–8 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun H, Dang Y, Mao W (2019b) Identifying key factors of regional agricultural drought vulnerability using a panel data grey combined method. Nat Hazards 98(2):621–642

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tversky A, Kahneman D (1992) Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty. J Risk Uncertain 5(4):297–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang R, Feng Y (2020) Research on China’s ecological welfare performance evaluation and improvement path from the perspective of high-quality development. Math Probl Eng 5476089

  • World Bank (2012) Inclusive green growth: the pathway to sustainable development. The World Bank, Washington, DC

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wu W, Zhou X (2018) Evaluation of inclusive green growth in China and measurement of its influencing factors. Soc Sci Res 1:27–37 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, A., Li, H., Dong, M.(2020). A novel two-stage method for matching the technology suppliers and demanders based on prospect theory and evidence theory under intuitionistic fuzzy environment. Appl Soft Comput 106553.

  • Xu Q, Tao K (2017) Inclusive growth measurement and analysis of influencing factors in China based on generalized Bonferroni curve. J Quant Tech Econ 34(12):93–109 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang L, Wang K (2013) Regional differences of environmental efficiency of China’s energy utilization and environmental regulation cost based on provincial panel data and DEA method. Math Comput Model 58(5–6):1074–1083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yip W, Hsiao W, Chen W et al (2012) Early appraisal of China’s huge and complex health-care reforms. The Lancet 379(9818):833–842

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng B, Zhang X (2019) Social security development in China and its support to economic transition. China Economist 14(4):96–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou G, Gong K, Luo S et al (2018) Inclusive finance, human capital and regional economic growth in China. Sustainability 10(4):1194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu S, Ye A (2018) Does foreign direct investment improve inclusive green growth? Empirical Evidence from China Economies 6(3):44

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71771119; 51979106), Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX19_0127), and China Scholarship Council.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (71771119; 51979106), the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX19_0127), and China Scholarship Council.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Huifang Sun

  2. Business School, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Wenxin Mao

  3. College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Yaoguo Dang & Dang Luo

Authors
  1. Huifang Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wenxin Mao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yaoguo Dang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dang Luo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Huifang Sun focuses on the conceptualization, methodology, and writing-original draft. Wenxin Mao focuses investigation, methodology, and software. Yaoguo Dang focuses on conceptualization, supervision, and funding acquisition. Dang Luo focuses on conceptualization and investigation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenxin Mao.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

The manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publish

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Eyup Dogan

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Appendix A is shown in the online file uploaded in supplementary files.

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 22 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sun, H., Mao, W., Dang, Y. et al. What inhibits regional inclusive green growth? Empirical evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 39790–39806 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17250-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17250-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation