Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment 20 (2022) 199‒208

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Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment

journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/cjpre

Quantitative evaluation of the green production and consumption policies

in China
Zhengxin Wanga, Yueqi Jva, Minghuan Shoua∗, Gang Pengb∗
a
School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou, 310018, China
b
School of Statistics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, 611130, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Dual control of energy consumption is an effective method proposed in China to launch and deepen the transi‐
Green production tion in energy use. It has obtained favorable results; however, the resource consumption and pollution emis‐
Green consumption sions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remain high. This article quantitatively studies the current
Policy quantitative evaluation
policies ’ effects to promote the advancement of dual control of energy consumption and develop future poli‐
PMC index model
cies. Green production and consumption policies promote the development of dual control of energy consump‐
Dual control of energy consumption
tion; therefore, this paper examines these policies through text mining and a quantitative evaluation system.
The results suggest strong state demand for developing green production and consumption and the necessity
for scientific evaluation; however, the state ’ s focus on the relevant policy tools is imbalanced. Constraint
policy tools have the highest proportion of restricting pollutant emissions but lack comprehensiveness. Incen‐
tive and guidance policy tools have the problems of poor targets and low volume. Additionally, by construct‐
ing policy modeling consistency (PMC) index models for evaluating green production and consumption poli‐
cies, six selected policies indicate solid performance, but some still have problems regarding policy timeframe,
policy function, and green process. Based on the conclusions, this paper provides some targeted recommenda‐
tions.

①
1. Introduction countries , indicating excessive resource consumption.
Two key aspects of green development, green production and
Although the industrial revolution contributed to the global green consumption, play an increasingly important role (Thongplew
economy ’ s rapid development, it has caused excessive resource con‐ et al., 2017). Green production, also known as clean production, is
sumption and serious ecological imbalances, which is not conducive the basis of a green economy and refers to production in a resource-
to sustainable economic development. Accordingly, various countries efficient and pollution-reducing method (Cheng and Jin, 2020). Green
worldwide are aware of the importance of green development for the consumption, referring to the choice and consumption of green prod‐
economy and have adopted measures to promote green development, ucts, contains the behavior of consuming healthy green products that
such as employing green growth strategies, increasing green invest‐ do not pollute the environment and includes the lifestyle choices of
ments, and implementing green action plans (Banerjee et al., 2020; reusable products (Rustam et al., 2020). Green production and con‐
Mhatre et al., 2021). China is one of the world ’ s largest energy con‐ sumption play vital roles in promoting sustainable global economic
sumers, and the country pays more attention to energy conservation. development and eliminating the conflict between economic develop‐
In 2017, China proposed a control mechanism for reducing total en‐ ment and environmental pollution. Green production and consump‐
ergy consumption and intensity. The policies brought an approximate tion are regarded as two essential methods in promoting the develop‐
15% decrease in energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2020 com‐ ment of dual control of energy consumption. Yan and Su (2020) and
pared to 2015; however, the resource consumption and pollution Li et al. (2018) indicated that the government could promote advanc‐
emissions per unit of GDP are still higher than those of developed ing the dual control of energy consumption through implementing

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Shou); [email protected](P. Gang)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjpre.2022.06.010
Received 21 November 2021; Accepted 16 February 2022
2325-4262/© 2021 Shandong Normal University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

①http://www.stats.gov.cn/
Z. Wang et al. Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment 20 (2022) 199–208

policies. mainly focused on the production sector. Brown and McGranahan

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party (2016) believed that forming a green transition relied on the expan‐
of China indicates, “we should speed up the establishment of a legal sion of markets, while Yang and Chen (2011) suggested that imple‐
system and policy guidance for green production and consumption, menting green strategies in the US could contribute to its economic re‐
and establish a sound economic system for green, low-carbon and cir‐ covery and competitiveness. Similarly, it is also essential for China to
cular development”. Since 2010, the Chinese government has pro‐ accelerate the green transition process. In the production process, the
posed serious green production and consumption policies, such as set‐ most efficient technology could produce a 10.7% improvement in en‐
ting pollutant emission standards, employing tax incentives, and pro‐ ergy conservation (Miao et al., 2022b). Hou et al. (2018) found that
viding subsidies to producers and consumers. Furthermore, the Na‐ from 2010 to 2015, China ’ s industrial sector has progressively per‐
tional Development and Reform Commission of the People ’ s Republic formed a green transition in pollution reduction. Based on micro-level
of China and the Ministry of Justice of the People ’ s Republic of China enterprise panel data from 2005 to 2014, Li et al. (2019) employed a
issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Legal and slack-based global data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and a
①
Policy System for Green Production and Consumption” in 2020. global Malmquist-Luenberger index model to calculate the efficiency.
This document indicated that China would propose policies related to The results indicated that a diversified target system is significant in
green production and consumption in a shorter time and promote the advancing the green transition, suggesting that China should think
formation of green production and consumption patterns. The com‐ about promoting a green transition in multiple dimensions. Miao and
plexity of current green production and consumption transition issues Chen (2022) also obtained this results. Thus, this paper examines
requires considering how the government can play an effective regula‐ three different kinds of policy tools to promote the process of the di‐
tory role through policy formulation and complete the expected tasks versified target system and measures green transformation needs to
on schedule by employing relevant policies. Quantitative policy evalu‐ consider multiple dimensions.
ation can measure both issues and provide some suggestions for poli‐ Xie and Hu, (2005) studied the policies related to the develop‐
cies in subsequent stages. ment of renewable energy innovation and provided relevant sugges‐
Qualitative analysis dominates previous studies on the effect of tions. Zhu (2017) and Wang (2016) constructed multi-dimensional in‐
green production and consumption policies, and only a small amount dicator systems to measure and analyze the green transformation in
of literature has conducted quantitative research (Hou et al., 2020; Jinan, Jiangsu, and the Jiaodong Peninsula. Lin and Zhu (2020) sug‐
Tong et al., 2015). Accordingly, this paper first summarizes the cur‐ gested that China ’ s Clean Air Action Plan could significantly and posi‐
rent policies and classifies them into constraint, incentive, and guid‐ tively affect green production efficiency, especially for cities with rich
ance policy tools, before analyzing them in-depth. Based on the re‐ resource endowments, indicating the importance of considering re‐
sults, this paper examines the effect of current policies and provides gional heterogeneity while implementing policies. This has also been
related policy recommendations advancing dual control of energy con‐ obtained by Miao et al. (2022a). Environmental policy tools are essen‐
sumption. The main contributions include the following three aspects. tial for improving environmental pollution and promoting regional
(1) This paper uses text mining techniques to evaluate the develop‐ green development. Thus, Shen et al. (2016) used data from 30 prov‐
ment of China ’ s green production and consumption policies over the inces in China from 1997 to 2014 to build regression and difference-
past decade. (2) A multi-dimensional quantitative evaluation frame‐ in-difference models to study the impact of environmental policy
work is constructed, which can enrich the research on exploring the tools on green innovation; the results showed that command-and-
effect of green production and consumption policies. (3) By evaluat‐ control tools had the most positive effect. Their findings supported ex‐
ing the strengths and weaknesses of six important green production amining the effect of environmental policy tools and provided some
and consumption policies, this paper provides evidence for adjusting evidence for comparing different policy tools.
green production and green consumption policies in China, promot‐ To investigate whether China ’ s carbon emissions trading
ing the development of dual control of energy consumption. schemes (ETSs) could improve green production performance (GPP),
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The follow‐ Yang et al. (2021) assessed the effect on 10 provinces in eastern
ing section summarizes the relevant work. Section 3 presents the data China, finding that ETSs significantly increased GPP by about 10%. Li
resources and text mining results, followed by the policy modeling and Peng (2013) used theoretical analysis to explore the mechanisms
consistency (PMC) index models ’ results. The conclusions and recom‐ associated with the existence of soft constraints in the carbon emis‐
mendations are drawn in section 5, while section 6 details some fu‐ sion reduction policy. They empirically tested its impact on the green
ture work. transformation of the Chinese industry using panel data from 1999 to
2010. Miao et al. (2019) also supported the positive impact of carbon
2. Literature review emission policies, while Wang et al. (2019) performed empirical stud‐
ies to support the positive effect of environmental taxation on the
2.1. Green production and green consumption green economy. The above studies indicate that policies like carbon
emission limits and pollutant tax rate increases can achieve emission
Production-based policies reduce the emissions through the pro‐ reduction and further promote the green transformation and develop‐
duction activities, such as technology mandates and environmental ment of industry, providing strong support for countries to formulate
standards, and consumption-based policies work through market- policies on green production and consumption system.
based regulations to reduce the consumption of emission-intensive
commodities, including taxes on emissions, cap-and-trade, and sub‐ 2.2. Evaluation methodologies of policy tools
sidy programs (Liu et al., 2018). There are two significant differences
between Chinese and foreign green production/consumption policies. A policy can be formed by designing, matching, integrating, and
Foreign countries use more market-building policy tools, while China employing a series of policy tools, which have become a vital means
has more policies that directly intervene in enterprise behavior. In ad‐ of governance, policy values, and political philosophy. Due to the dif‐
dition, the promulgation of China ’ s green consumption policy has en‐ ferent characteristics and purposes, scholars have divided policy tools
abled the domestic public to play a positive role in China ’ s green de‐ into several parts. For example, Rothwell and Zegveld (1985) classi‐
velopment. fied policy tools into supply, demand, and environment categories,
The existing literature has explored the green transition but has Woolthuis et al. (2005) classified policy tools into information, organi‐

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zation, and fiscal categories, while Hoppmann et al. (2013) proposed of strengths and weaknesses. Zhao and Tang (2018) quantitatively
a new method and classified policy tools into strategic, integrated, evaluated three major carbon reduction policies using the PMC index
and basic categories. Scholars have also focused on studying the ef‐ model to identify the shortcomings of the three policies and provide
fect of policy tools. For example, Huang et al. (2007) suggested that corresponding policy recommendations. Wu et al. (2020) quantified
policy tools guiding industrial innovation were based on the role of the manufacturing industry ’ s innovation policy evaluation system
research and development (R&D) activities and domestic and foreign and used it to judge the rationality and science of the policies. In con‐
markets. He (2019) supported that the policy tools could significantly trast, this paper analyzes policy rationality and feasibility on the
affect inflation volatility, while Xie and Tian (2015) used text analysis green production and consumption issues by employing text mining
to explore how innovation policy affected new energy vehicles. Al‐ and conducting a new evaluation system. This approach can help ef‐
though many studies examined policy tools, there is no research on fectively quantify and evaluate China ’ s green production and con‐
green production and consumption policies. This paper studies the re‐ sumption policies and provide policymakers with optimization and
lationship between various policy tools and green production or con‐ adjustment suggestions.
sumption and provides corresponding policy recommendations by ex‐
ploring the characteristics of green production and consumption poli‐ 3. Data sources and text mining
cies, employing text mining, and considering current Chinese develop‐
ment. This paper uses text mining to analyze China ’ s green production
Policy evaluation is the most crucial part of policy formulation and consumption policies based on the policy tools analysis. First, sev‐
and management; it is a complex project based on scientific criteria eral relevant policies are summarized for word separation and word
and methods to comprehensively measure policies (Mickwitz, 2013; frequency statistics; second, the number of effective word frequencies
Schoennefeld and Jordan, 2019). From the perspective of causality, is obtained by eliminating useless words; finally, the main policy
Wollmann (2007) and Miao et al. (2020) both proposed methods to tools and their modes of action are obtained.
measure the impact of policies on society. Zhang et al. (2019) ex‐
plored the influence factors of energy intensity change in Shanxi Prov‐ 3.1. Data sample selection
ince; the results indicated that sectorial energy intensity and industry
structure contributed to decreasing the energy intensity index in the This paper summarizes the state ’ s green production and con‐
long term. Xiao and Wang (2015) constructed a three-dimensional sumption policy documents since 2010 and key associated words be‐
policy evaluation model containing policy tools, audience, and effec‐ fore collecting 99 policies issued independently by a single depart‐
tiveness. Unlike previous work, Wei and Xue (2016) established a ment and those jointly issued by multiple departments. Figure 1 indi‐
multi-dimensional policy evaluation index system from the perspec‐ cates that the number of green production and consumption policies
tive of innovation policy ’ s “force” and “energy”. Zeng et al. (2020) varies considerably from 2010 onwards, showing a year-on-year in‐
examined the effect of three types of energy policies on green indus‐ crease from 2010 to 2016. Furthermore, the number of policy items
trial development using panel data and found that renewable energy peaked in 2016 before trending downward. Analyzing the policy pro‐
and energy conservation policies had substantial impacts. Sheng et al. visions from 2016 to 2021 shows that policies are more targeted and
(2016) employed panel data to examine the relationships between extensive. Figure 2 depicts the number of policies issued by various
corruption and performance in REDD programs. Xie et al. (2017) em‐ departments in China. The primary issuers are government depart‐
ployed information entropy-TOPSIS to evaluate the technological in‐ ments, such as the General Office of the State Council, the National
novation policies in Inner Mongolia concerning inputs, outputs, and Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry
the environment for innovation. Carreira and Teixeira (2011) consid‐ and Information Technology.
ered the differences in the objectives of policies and evaluated the
policies in terms of legal regulation, resolutions and stimulus pack‐
ages, techno-economic effects, and the volume of information. Nag et
al. (2007) classified policies into contingency, mandatory, and gen‐
eral policies from the perspective of policy objectives and characteris‐
tics and constructed a corresponding indicator system.
Most previous studies employed the scoring approach to evaluate
the policies. Many scholars have used econometric models to quantita‐
tively evaluate the policies more scientifically. Lin and Zhu (2020)
constructed a green productivity indicator based on panel data from
278 cities in China spanning 2011 to 2016, indicating the positive ef‐
fect of the Clean Air Action Plan on green development with a
difference-in-difference model. Unlike previous policy evaluation
methods with the drawbacks of being costly and having a single
evaluation dimension, modern econometric methods for policy evalua‐ Figure 1. Green production and green consumption policies promulgated by
tion are low-cost and focus on specific policies for research. Wang the state from 2010 to 2021
and Qi (2016) employed regression models based on the panel data of
Chinese industrial sectors, believing that command tools were more 3.2. Word separation and word frequency statistics
conducive to technological innovation while market-based tools in‐
creased technological spillovers. Furthermore, the predicted policy This paper uses Python text mining tools to pre-process 99 green
outcomes were difficult to obtain if the policy tools were not effec‐ production and consumption policies. This paper separated words and
tively transmitted. Command tools had a significant short-term effect conducted word frequency statistics to obtain valid keywords. Be‐
in industries with high nationalization, while market tools were more cause the topics relate to green production and consumption, words
conducive to achieving green and sustainable development. such as “green”, “production”, and “nation” appeared more fre‐
This paper argues that it is essential to analyze the policy ’ s rel‐ quently; however, these words were not significant for policy analy‐
evant structures and make further generalizations and evaluations. sis. Furthermore, some verbs and adverbs, such as “advance”, “fo‐
Kuang et al. (2020) used the PMC index model to establish an evalua‐ cus”, “accelerate”, and “promote” are also eliminated because they
tion system for arable land protection policies, improving evaluations are unhelpful for analyzing policy effects. As shown in Table 1 (top

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Figure 2. Numbers of policy projects issued by departments from 2010 to 2021

60), “development”, “technology”, “energy-saving”, “construction” policy tools; the frequency of guidance tools is the lowest. The high
and “enterprise” occur the most. Thus, the national policies of green frequency of “energy efficiency” and “emissions” indicates that the
production and consumption can be assumed to contribute to energy state consistently pays attention to energy efficiency and emission re‐
saving and emission reduction by promoting the green development duction. Additionally, the frequent use of “demonstration” and “pi‐
of enterprises and technological progress. The descending order lot” indicates that promoting green production and green consump‐
(“standards”, “support”, “encourage”, and “promote”) shows that tion policies in China is still in its infancy, with regional pilots and
China emphasizes constraint policy tools most, followed by incentive project demonstrations being the main features.

Table 1
Partial effective vocabulary word frequency statistics
Number Word Frequency Number Word Frequency Number Word Frequency
1 Development 2 194 21 Clean 611 41 Reduction 387
2 Technology 1 580 22 Pollution 602 42 Facility 385
3 Energy Saving 1 525 23 Encourage 600 43 Society 379
4 Construction 1 443 24 Manufacture 599 44 Control 379
5 Enterprise 1 389 25 Mechanism 584 45 Manufacturing 370
6 Standard 1 107 26 Innovation 563 46 Monitor 370
7 Ecology 995 27 Conversion 534 47 Efficient 367
8 Product 955 28 Circulation 528 48 General 360
9 Environment 860 29 Energy 502 49 Sewerage 352
10 Trade 802 30 Pollutant 501 50 Reformation 349
11 System 794 31 Policy 490 51 Recycling 348
12 Management 757 32 Service 485 52 Guidance 318
13 Emission 753 33 Item 480 53 Engineering 317
14 Agriculture 749 34 Demonstration 463 54 Quality 317
15 Environmental protection 739 35 Consumption 458 55 Farming 310
16 Architecture 721 36 Economy 454 56 Polit 308
17 Industry 681 37 Protection 447 57 R&D 295
18 Resource 681 38 City 447 58 Prevention 294
19 Institution 664 39 Governance 445 59 Rural 273
20 Support 641 40 Region 432 60 Responsibility 257

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3.3. Summary of policy tools Table 2

Summary of three policy tools
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the re‐ Types Detailed tools Percentage
sults of word frequency statistics, this paper classifies policies into Standards for Pollutant Emission
constraint, incentive, and guidance policy tools, summarizing each
Certification for Green Product
tool ’ s name regarding the characteristics of green production and
consumption policies (Table 2). The percentage of constraint policy Technical Standards for Production
Constraint policy tools 45.22%
tools is higher at 45.22%, followed by incentive policy tools with Environmental Inspectors
31.85%, and guidance policy tools with 22.93%. Constraint policy Producer Responsibility
tools primarily aim to reduce environmental pollution and promote Restriction on Purchase
green development by restricting the emission of pollution and the
Tax Incentives
type of products consumed by enterprises. Incentive policy tools focus
on reducing the costs of green production and consumption for enter‐ Trading of Emission Rights
Incentive policy tools 31.85%
prises and consumers (Chong et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021); while Subsidies for Producers
guidance policy tools chiefly aim to promote communication and co‐ Subsidies for Consumers
operation between governments and enterprises or consumers and
Dissemination of Environmental Knowledge
raise their awareness of about green development. The three policy
Energy-saving and Low-carbon Actions
tools promote sustainable development by restraining pollution, re‐
ducing costs, and guiding green behavior. Guidance policy tools Entrepreneurial Responsibility 22.93%
Green production and consumption are the two most important Consumer Awareness
parts of green development; Figure 3 presents their process frame‐ Consumption Patterns
work. As suppliers and consumers of green products, there is a close
exchange between producers and consumers who are conscious of en‐
ergy saving and emission reduction. The green concept contributes to pose. Furthermore, some subsidies do not reach the real needs of con‐
environmentally friendly raw materials, high-efficiency, low-emission sumers, making them less efficient. The low proportion of guidance
production processes, and consumers ’ tendency to choose green prod‐ policy tools requires strengthening guidance for producers in pre-
ucts. The method promotes green development with low pollution, production green planning and consumers in using products and ser‐
low cost, and high efficiency. The text mining results indicate that al‐ vices in low-carbon environmental protection behavior, conducive to
though constraint policy tools account for the highest proportion, green development.
most require standards for pollutant emission. The standards are
mostly limited to green buildings, agricultural planting, and indus‐ 4. Model construction and empirical analysis
trial manufacturing steel, indicating a necessity to enrich the tools. In‐
centive policy tools focus more on new products, and some enter‐ This paper quantitatively evaluates the green production and con‐
prises profit through fraudulent subsidies, defeating the tools ’ pur‐ sumption policies, in a multi-dimensional manner, by employing the

Figure 3. Process framework of green production and consumption policies

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PMC index model proposed by Ruiz Estrada et al. (2007). Unlike Table 5.
other evaluation models, this model uses a binary variable 0−1 to bal‐
X i = ∑  i = 1210
n
i
X ij
ance all variables and emphasizes not limiting the number of vari‐ (1)
ables and weights, thus allowing the strengths, weaknesses, and inter‐ j = 1 ni

nal consistency of policies to be measured. The PMC surface derived

from the PMC index model is one of the most popular policy evalua‐
tion methods, capable of visually portraying a policy ’ s various dimen‐
sions as a three-dimensional surface model and achieving both single-
indicator and multi-dimensional evaluation. Figure 4 presents the pro‐
cess for constructing the PMC index model.

4.1. Variable classification and parameter setting

Based on the PMC index model proposed by Ruiz Estrada et al.

(2007) and text mining results, this paper sets 10 primary variables
and 41 secondary variables to evaluate green production and con‐
sumption policies. Table 3 presents the results. According to the PMC
index model principle, this paper sets the same weight for all second‐
ary variables and sets the secondary variables as binary variables. If
the policy includes the secondary variable, the variable is assigned a
value of 1; otherwise, it is 0.

4.2. Index calculation and surface construction

To quantify individual variables (primary variables) and compre‐

hensively evaluate the policies, this paper constructs a multi-input-
output table suitable for evaluating green production and consump‐
tion, as shown in Table 4.
The PMC index is calculated in the following three steps. First,
the PMC index of each policy is ranked, then the secondary variables
of each policy are assigned values, and the primary variable values
are calculated based on Equation (1). Finally, the PMC index of each
policy is calculated based on Equation (2) and ranked according to Figure 4. The construction process for the PMC index model

Table 3
Variable settings of quantitative policy evaluation
Symbols and names of primary variables Symbols and names of secondary variables
X1-1 Prediction X1-2 Supervision
X1 Policy characteristic X1-3 Suggestion X1-4 Description
X1-5 Determination
X2-1 Long-term X2-2 Medium-to-long term
X2 Policy timeframe
X2-3 Medium-term X2-4 Short-term
X3-1 Government X3-2 Industry
X3 Policy target X3-3 Enterprise X3-4 Consumer
X3-5 Society
X4-1 State X4-2 Region
X4 Policy role dimension X4-3 Industry X4-4 Enterprise
X4-5 Natural environment X4-6 Social environment
X5-1 Economy X5-2 Society
X5 Policy areas X5-3 Politics X5-4 Ecology
X5-5 Technology X5-6 Others
X6-1 Agriculture X6-2 Construction
X6 Policy role industry
X6-3 Industry X6-4 Services
X7-1 Reference X7-2 Clear objectives
X7 Policy evaluation
X7-3 Detailed planning X7-4 Encouraging innovation
X8-1 Constraint X8-2 Incentive
X8 Policy function
X8-3 Guidance
X9-1 Source X9-2 Consumption
X9 Green process
X9-3 Terminal handling
X10 Document reference

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Table 4 ment, and P3 only relates to guidelines for enterprises and the public
Input-output table in green consumption. The policy function and green process values
Primary variables Secondary variables are significantly lower than the average, resulting in the low PMC in‐
X1 X1-1, X1-2, X1-3, X1-4, X1-5 dex for these two policies. Although P4 focuses on promoting green
lifestyles, it performs worse in terms of policy timeframe, target indus‐
X2 X2-1, X2-2, X2-3, X2-4
try, policy function, and green process, possibly because of the policy
X3 X3-1, X3-2, X3-3, X3-4, X3-5 characteristics and increased attention to the consumption process.
X4 X4-1, X4-2, X4-3, X4-4, X4-5, X4-6
X5 X5-1, X5-2, X5-3, X5-4, X5-5, X5-6 5. Conclusion and policy recommendations
X6 X6-1, X6-2, X6-3, X6-4
This paper promotes the development of dual control of energy
X7 X7-1, X7-2, X7-3, X7-4
consumption by examining green production and consumption poli‐
X8 X8-1, X8-2, X8-3 cies through text mining and a quantitative evaluation system. First,
X9 X9-1, X9-2, X9-3 the word frequency calculation results suggest the state ’ s strong de‐
X10 X10 mand for the development of green production and consumption and
the necessity for scientific evaluation. Second, semantic summariza‐
tion of policy texts reveals the imbalance of the state ’ s focus on the
Where, X i Î [ 01] is a primary variable, X ij Î [ 01] is a secondary vari‐ three policy tools. Among these tools, constraint policy tools focusing
able, and n i indicates that the i th primary variable has n secondary on restricting pollutant emissions have the highest proportion, indicat‐
variables. Thus, the calculation equation of the PMC index is as fol‐ ing the lack of comprehensiveness. Furthermore, incentive and guid‐
lows: ance policy tools have poor targets and low volume, resulting in the
inability to meet consumers ’ requirements. Eventually, by construct‐
PMC = ∑X i = ∑ + ∑ + ∑ + ∑ +
n
n X 1j n X 2j n X 3j n X 4j
1 2 3 4

ing the framework for evaluating green production and consumption

i=1 j = 1 n1 j = 1 n2 j = 1 n3 j = 1 n4 policies, six selected policies have good performance; however, some
(2)
still have policy timeframe, policy function, and green process prob‐
∑ + ∑ + ∑ + ∑ + ∑ + X 10
n5
X 5j n X 6j n X 7j n X 8j n X 9j
6 7 8 9

j = 1 n5 j = 1 n6 j = 1 n7 j = 1 n8 j = 1 n9
lems. In response to the above findings, this paper makes the follow‐
ing recommendations:
Based on the PMC index calculation results in Equation (2), this (1) Build a unified green policy system. Green production and
paper draws a PMC surface to portray the target policy ’ s evaluation policies can positively affect environmental protection and bring
scores, strengths, and weaknesses from a three-dimensional perspec‐ more long-term economic benefits by comprehensively managing the
tive. The primary variables are deleted, and a third-order PMC matrix ecological imbalances from incompatible natural and economic sys‐
is constructed to present results.

( )
tems. Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen green consumption ’ s
X1 X2 X3 positive role due to its considerable contribution to sustainable eco‐
PMC = X 4 X5 X6 (3) nomic development.
X7 X8 X9 (2) Employ the constraint policy tools in more fields. The govern‐
ment should limit pollutant emission standards, regulate the qualifica‐
4.3. Empirical results tions and behavior of green businesses, and comprehensively improve
the green labeling system and the green national economy indicator
Based on the above quantitative evaluation framework, this pa‐ system. Furthermore, sustainable development requires the organic
per selects six comprehensive and representative green production unification of economic, social, and ecological interests, the replace‐
and consumption policies, recorded as P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6. ment of plastic packages with recycled ones, and the use of materials
Table 6 shows the details for each policy. P1 proposes a series of re‐ with less resource consumption. In addition, policy constraints in vari‐
quirements to accelerate the promotion of cleaner production. It is ous sectors must be promoted accordingly. For example, the manufac‐
worth noting that policies P2 and P3 suggest many new discussions turing industry needs to employ clean production, the agriculture in‐
on green consumption, which embodies the shared green consump‐ dustry needs to perform scientific fertilization, and the service indus‐
tion concept. The purpose of consumption is not to possess goods but try needs to use recyclable packaging materials and environmental
to obtain the use-value of goods and encourage people to consciously services instead of excessive packaging. This approach can also signifi‐
participate in using green products. P4, P5, and P6 are China ’ s repre‐ cantly reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to dual control of energy
sentative policies in the past three years, specifically detailing the consumption.
policy support for green production and consumption. (3) Apply the incentive policy tools in the fields of production
This paper assigns values to the input-output table ’ s secondary and operation of enterprises. Targeted policy support, such as support
variables based on the text mining method and calculates the PMC in‐ for green emerging industries, should be given to enterprises with
dex of the six policies based on the input-output table; the results are green production and operation. Furthermore, enterprises with high
summarized in Table 7. The PMC surface is shown in Figure 5, and energy consumption and pollution should be eliminated, and the num‐
the radar plot of the PMC values of each policy is shown in Figure 6. ber of industries adopting green production and consumption should
According to the PMC index calculation, the values of the six rise. The government should provide subsidies and tax concessions to
green production and consumption policies selected in this paper are the new green industries and provide corresponding preferential treat‐
all higher than five, suggesting good performance. After comparing ment and priority opportunities for enterprises contributing to the
the PMC index values of these policies, we find that P5 and P6 have green economy. Additionally, the government should improve the
excellent performance, with PMC indexes of 0.822 and 0.763, respec‐ electricity, gas, and water pricing policies and properly adjust the
tively. The results indicate that these two policies have comprehen‐ sewage treatment fees for consumers. These actions can encourage
sively considered the 10 dimensions of the policy characteristic, policy consumers to use more green products and reduce polluting products,
timeframe, and policy target; however, P5 and P6 still have poor per‐ promoting the process of dual control of energy consumption.
formance in some dimensions, which requires more attention. The (4) Increase the focus of guidance policy tools to raise public
PMC indexes for policies P2 and P3 are 0.622 and 0.590, respectively. awareness of green consumption and create an environmentally
P2 only relates to standards constraining the consumption environ‐ friendly social atmosphere. The government should use various pub‐

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Figure 5. PMC surface diagram

Table 5 ing green production and marketing concepts, green product technolo‐
Policy classification gies, and green production and consumption behavior to social
PMC index [0,3) [3,5) [5,7) [7,9) [9,10) decision-makers can also be beneficial.
Classification Bad Acceptable Good Excellent Perfect
6. Future work

licity methods to promote green public opinion and disseminate, edu‐ This study quantitatively examines the effect of energy produc‐
cate, and train consumers on green knowledge. Furthermore, promot‐ tion and consumption policies on advancing dual control of energy

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Table 6
Summary of essential policies for green production and consumption
Number Policy Number of the Notice Time
Notice of the General Office of the State Council transmitting the opinions of the Development and General Office of the State Council
P1 2003.12.17
Reform Commission on accelerating the implementation of cleaner production No. 100 Document in 2003
Guiding Opinions of the State Council on actively playing the leading role of new consumption to ac‐ State Council No. 66 Document in
P2 2015.11.19
celerate the formation of new dynamics 2015
Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Propaganda, Ministry of Sci‐
National Development and Reform
ence and Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Housing
Commission, Resource Conservation
P3 and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervi‐ 2016.3.9
and Environmental Protection Divi‐
sion, Inspection and Tourism, State Administration of Tourism on the guidance on promoting green
sion No. 353 Document in 2016
consumption
National Development and Reform
Commission, Resource Conservation
P4 Notice on the issuance of the General Programme of the Green Living Creation Initiative 2019.11.29
and Environmental Protection Divi‐
sion No. 1696 Document in 2019
National Development and Reform
Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Justice on the opin‐
Commission, Resource Conservation
P5 ions on accelerating the establishment of a green production and consumption regulation and policy 2020.3.17
and Environmental Protection Divi‐
system
sion No. 379 Document in 2020
Guiding Opinions of the State Council on accelerating the establishment of a sound economic system State Council No. 4 Document in
P6 2021.2.22
of green, low-carbon, and circular development 2021

Table 7 consumption and examines the current difficulties. Although the work
Summary of PMC index of six policies provides guidance for designing future policies, some future research
Policy P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 Average is required. First, the current research focuses on a single policy ’ s im‐
X1 0.8 0.8 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.867 pact without comprehensively considering the effect of policy combi‐
nation; thus, future work can examine related research. Second, it
X2 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.292
would be important to analyze the impact of the policy environment.
X3 0.6 1 0.6 0.6 1 0.8 0.767
Third, many policies were implemented in 2021. Although there is no
X4 0.667 0.667 0.5 0.333 0.667 0.667 0.583 significant difference between the previous policies and the new ones,
X5 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.5 1 0.667 the policy intensity is different. Thus, considering the effect of these
X6 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.5 1 1 0.75 new policies is also very necessary. Fourth, with increasingly devel‐
oped Internet technology, “Internet plus” promotes green production
X7 0.75 1 0.75 1 1 1 0.917
and consumption, overlooking the intermediate link of marketing
X8 1 0.667 0.667 0.667 1 1 0.833 green products. In the future, it would be significant to pay attention
X9 0.667 0.333 0.333 0.333 1 0.667 0.556 to the policy documents and evaluate them accordingly.
X10 1 0 1 0 1 0 0.5
PMC index 0.698 0.622 0.59 0.543 0.822 0.763 Disclosure statement
Policy classification Good Good Good Good Excellent Excellent
The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.
Ranking 3 4 5 6 1 2
Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the editors and the anonymous re‐
viewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foun‐

dation of China [Grant No. 20ZDA087].

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