This article uses the “Green Credit Guidelines” promulgated in 2012 as an example to construct a quasi-natural experiment and uses the double difference method to test the impact of the implementation of the “Green Credit Guidelines” on the green innovation activities of heavy-polluting enterprises. The study found that, in comparison to non-heavy polluting enterprises, the implementation of green credit policies inhibited the green innovation of all heavy-polluting enterprises. In the analysis of heterogeneity, this restraint effect did not differ significantly due to the nature of property rights and the company’s size. The mechanism test showed that green credit policy limits the efficiency of business investment and increases the cost of financing business debt. Eliminating corporate credit financing, particularly long-term borrowing, negatively impacts the green innovation behavior of listed companies.

With the rise and popularization of the concept of green sustainable development, green income growth of agricultural insurance policies has attracted wide attention. Whether green income growth can be achieved has become an important criterion for measuring an agricultural insurance policy. In this context, this paper attempts to test whether the agricultural insurance policy achieves green income growth. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces (the research sample of this paper selects 31 provincial-level units (province for short) in China, including 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 4 municipalities directly under the central government. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province are not included in the research sample) from 2009 to 2020 in China, this paper empirically evaluates the triple-effect of total cost insurance pilot program (TCI) on farmers’ income, environment and public health by employing a difference-in-difference model (DID). The results show that TCI increases farmers’ income, but deteriorates the environment and residents’ health without achieving green income growth. In the analysis of heterogeneity, compared with central and western regions, farmers’ income is more likely to increase in the eastern regions. However, environmental pollution is more severe, and residents’ health deteriorates more, in eastern regions. In addition, the positive effect of TCI on farmers’ income and the deterioration of residents’ health is more obvious in areas with a higher degree of damage, while the negative effect of TCI on the environment is more obvious in areas with a lower degree of damage. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis shows that TCI not only promotes the increase in farmers’ income through insurance density, but also affects the environment and residents’ health through straw burning. Therefore, the government should raise the subsidy standard for farmers to use straw-processing equipment and also to implement differentiated subsidies in regions with different levels of economic development and areas with different degrees of damage.

Faced with an increasingly tight resource supply, serious environmental pollution and degrading ecosystems, human beings are eager to reduce environmental pollution and promote public health. In this context, this paper takes the ecological civilization demonstration area (ECDA) established in China as a quasi-natural experiment to test whether ecological civilization construction (ECC) is an effective solution for the reduction of environmental pollution and improvement of public health. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020, the study analyzes the impact of ECC on environmental quality and public health by employing a difference-in-difference model. The results show that ECDA has restrained environmental pollution and reduced the morbidity and mortality, which indicates that ECC effectively promotes environmental quality and public health. The effect of ECC is more pronounced in economically developed regions. In addition, ECC improves environmental quality through scale effects, structural effects, technology effects, and ecological conservation effects, while the positive effects of ECC on public health are driven by scale effects and ecological conservation effects only. Therefore, policymakers should support low-carbon production, promote the upgrade of industrial structures, and encourage enterprises to develop green technologies. Ecological protection projects such as afforestation and greening are necessary. Governments should initiate ecological civilization construction in economically developed regions and then gradually promote the policies in relatively poor areas.

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In the post-COVID-19 era, environmental pollution has been a serious threat to public health. Enterprises are in urgent need of enhancing green technology innovation as the main source of pollutant emissions, and it is necessary for governments to support green innovation of enterprises to reduce pollutant emissions and promote public health. In this context, this paper investigates whether the Ambient Air Quality Standard (AAQS) implemented in 2012 in China contributes to green innovation of enterprises, to provide implications for environmental protection and public health. By using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020, this study adopts the difference-in-difference model to analyze the policy impact of environmental regulation on green innovation of enterprises and its internal mechanism. The results show that AAQS has significantly improved the green innovation of enterprises. Furthermore, AAQS affects the green innovation of enterprises by virtue of two mechanism paths: compliance cost effect and innovation offset effect. On the one hand, AAQS leads to an increase in production costs of enterprises, thus inhibiting green innovation activities of enterprises. On the other hand, AAQS encourages enterprises to increase R&D investment in green technology, thus enhancing their green innovation. In addition, the impact of AAQS on firms' green innovation has heterogeneous characteristics. Our findings not only enrich the studies of environmental regulation and green innovation of enterprises but also provide policymakers in China and other developing countries with implications for environmental protection and public health improvement.