Does China's carbon emission trading policy improve regional energy efficiency?-an analysis based on quasi-experimental and policy spillover effects

Evaluating China's pilot carbon Emission Trading Scheme: collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants

Collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants can more efficiently achieve green technological change, industrial low-carbon transition, and high-quality economic and social development. As a typical environmental policy in China, the pilot carbon Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has obvious advantages in achieving the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants. Therefore, an evaluation of China's pilot carbon ETS from the perspective of collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants is performed in this paper. Compared with previous studies, first, this study innovatively uses the coupled coordination degree (CCD) model to measure the collaborative reduction level of carbon and air pollutants under different scenarios based on the panel data of China's 30 provincial-level regions during 2004-2018. Second, this study uses the DID method to evaluate the impact of China's pilot carbon ETS on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants and conducts some robustness checks and regional heterogeneity regressions. Third, this study uses the synthetic control method (SCM) further to examine the policy outcomes of the pilot carbon ETS. Scenario analysis shows that attaching importance to reducing air pollution will improve the collaborative reduction effect of carbon and air pollutants. Furthermore, the implementation of China's pilot carbon ETS exerts an effect of roughly 24.7% on reducing carbon, roughly 10.1% on reducing air pollutants, and roughly 22.0% on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants, ceteris paribus. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that the impacts of the pilot carbon ETS are significant in all regions, except that the impact on reducing air pollutants in the central region is not significant. In addition, results from SCM indicate that the impacts of the pilot carbon ETS on the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants are significantly efficient in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hubei, and Chongqing, while not much efficient in Guangdong and Fujian. The main policy implications include strengthening the top-level design of the ETS in the collaborative reduction of carbon and air pollutants, attaching importance to the governance of air pollution, making the regional governance more targeted, and improving energy efficiency.

The impact of carbon emissions trading policy on carbon emission of China's power industry: mechanism and spatial spillover effect

Carbon emission trading policy (CETP) is an important tool for energy savings and emission reduction. However, the effect of CETP on carbon emission reduction in power industry is still unknown. This paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the intermediary effect model to test the impact and mechanism of CETP on power industry carbon emissions. In addition, a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model is established to analyze the spatial spillover effect. The results show that CETP has a significant inhibitory effect on power industry carbon emissions and the results are still valid after endogenous and robust tests. The improvement of technology level and power conversion efficiency plays an intermediary role for CETP to reduce power industry carbon emissions. The optimization of power generation structure is likely to become another important way for CETP to play its role in the future. The spatial spillover effect test shows that CETP not only has a significant inhibitory effect on power industry carbon emissions in the pilot areas but also has a negative spatial spillover effect on power industry carbon emissions in the surrounding non-pilot areas. The heterogeneity tests show that CETP has the most significant reduction effect in the central region of China and the strongest spatial spillover inhibiting effect in the eastern region. The purpose of this study is to provide decision-making references for government to achieve China's dual-carbon goal.

How does technological innovation affect carbon emission efficiency in the Yellow River Economic Belt: the moderating role of government support and marketization

The Yellow River Economic Belt (YREB) is a fundamental ecological protection barrier for China. Its carbon pollution issues are currently severe owing to the extensive energy consumption and unsatisfactory industrial constructions. In this context, this paper estimates carbon emission efficiency (CEE) based on the panel data from 56 cities in the YREB during the period 2006-2019 and analyzes its spatial distribution characteristics. Additionally, the spatial Durbin model (SDM) is utilized to examine the effect of technological innovation (TI) on CEE as a result of the moderating effects of government support (GS) and marketization (MA), respectively. The results indicated that (i) in the YREB, CEE exhibited significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics; (ii) TI negatively affected local CEE; (iii) the moderating effect of local GS on the relationship between TI and CEE in the local area was negative, but its spatial spillover effect was still not significant; (iv) the moderating effect of local MA on the relationship between TI and CEE in the local area was also negative, but positive in the surrounding areas. Based on the empirical analysis, a series of policy suggestions are proposed to improve the YREB's CEE.

Environmental effects of the establishment of pilot free trade zones: evidence from Chinese resource-based enterprises

The establishment of pilot free trade zones (FTZs) is a key strategic measure taken by China to promote high-quality economic development, but there are still gaps in the research on how the establishment of FTZs affects the environmental performance of enterprises from a micro perspective. Using data from China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share resource-based listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020, this paper uses the difference-in-difference model to examine the impact of the establishment of FTZs on the environmental performance of enterprises. The study finds that after the city that the enterprise located is set up as a free trade zone (FTZ), enterprises' environmental performance has been significantly improved, and this effect has a continuous positive impact. As far as the influence mechanism is concerned, the main driving forces for the establishment of FTZs are technology effect, competition effect, and resource allocation effect, which are embodied in the significant improvement of enterprises' green technology innovation, total factor productivity, and environmental protection investment. The environmental performance of non-state-owned and large-scale resource-based enterprises is more prominently affected by the establishment of FTZs. In capital-intensive industries and the eastern region, the environmental performance improvement effect of the establishment of FTZs is more obvious. This study provides targeted suggestions for resource-based enterprises to effectively implement the environmental green development strategy.

Heterogeneity and spillover effects of carbon emission trading on green innovation

The massive emission of greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the ecological environment. In this context, the relevant effects of the carbon emission trading (CET) market, which promotes greenhouse gas emission reduction by market means, have been widely investigated. Taking the China's CET pilot as a research target, the heterogeneity and spillover effects of CET on green innovation are explored by using the sample data of 279 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2019. The results are as follows. First, on the whole, CET significantly promotes strategic green innovation, but it has no significant effect on substantive green innovation. Second, the green innovation effect of CET varies with the level of green innovation, and the heterogeneous effects of green innovation are also reflected in different degrees of marketization, fiscal decentralization and government environmental concern. Third, CET has a positive spillover effect on green innovation, and the spillover effect is more significant than the direct effect, accounting for 74.8% of the total effect. Finally, some corresponding policy suggestions are put forward according to the above research conclusions.

Urban land use carbon emission intensity in China under the "double carbon" targets: spatiotemporal patterns and evolution trend

In-depth research on the spatiotemporal patterns and evolution trend of urban land use carbon emission intensity (ULUCEI) can reveal the internal relationship between urban land use and carbon emissions, which is crucial for achieving carbon emission reduction and "double carbon" targets. This paper proposed a conceptual framework of ULUCEI; the methods of kernel density estimation (KDE), exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), and spatial Markov chains were adopted for exploring the spatiotemporal patterns and evolution trend of China's ULUCEI from 2000 to 2017. The following conclusions are drawn through research. (1) There was an increasing trend in ULUCEI in China from 0.102 in 2000 to 0.283 in 2017. From the regional perspective, the ULUCEI in the eastern region is markedly higher than that in the central and western regions. Moreover, the results of nuclear density estimation indicate that China's ULUCEI shows an obvious upward and polarized trend. (2) China's ULUCEI shows a positive spatial autocorrelation. The types of spatial agglomeration include "high-high" agglomeration, "high-low" polarization, "low-high" collapse, and "low-low" homogeneity, and there are obvious disparities in the distribution rules of cities with different spatial agglomeration forms. (3) China's ULUCEI presents strong stability and "club convergence" trend. Moreover, spatial factors significantly affect the dynamic transition of China's ULUCEI, and its effect on the shifting upwards gradually enhances with increasing lag type. This paper therefore suggests that policymakers should formulate differentiated urban land low-carbon use models and carbon emission reduction policies to reduce ULUCEI.

How to Achieve Carbon Neutrality: From the Perspective of Innovative City Pilot Policy in China

The innovative city pilot policy is a new engine to accelerate the social development of China, which is an important support feature for realizing sustainable economic development. Using the city pilot policy issued by the Chinese government in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment and the method of multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model, we explore the effect of the policy on regional carbon emission efficiency. The research shows that the innovative city pilot policy could lead a significant promotion of the carbon emission efficiency of cities, which shows the characteristics of dynamic sustainability, that is, the policy effect continues to increase over time. Mechanism analysis reveals that the innovative city pilot policy mainly drives the improvement of urban carbon emission efficiency through improving the green technology innovation level of pilot cities, promoting the upgrading of regional industrial structure and increasing government investment in science and technology. In addition, the innovative city pilot policy has a spatial spillover effect on urban carbon emission efficiency, that is, the innovative city pilot policy not only promotes the local carbon emission efficiency, but also improves the carbon efficiency of neighboring areas.

Can the carbon emission trading scheme promote corporate environmental protection investment in China?

Since 2013, a pilot market of carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) has operated in China, with results showing a reduction in the carbon intensity of the economy. How does ETS affect enterprises' environmental protection behaviors? We conducted a quasinatural experiment by using A-share-listed companies from 2010 to 2019 as research samples and matching them using the propensity score matching method. The difference in differences model was then used to empirically assess the effect and influencing mechanism of the ETS on corporate environmental investment. Finally, the robustness and heterogeneity of the empirical results were checked. ETS seems to have significantly increased the levels of capitalized and expense-based environmental protection investment. Among them, low-carbon technological innovation plays an intermediary role in the impact of ETS on capitalized environmental protection investment. State-owned enterprises preferred capitalized environmental protection investment, whereas private enterprises preferred expense-based environmental protection investment. Moreover, having a political connection could compromise the role of ETS in promoting environmental protection investment. Our study provides some suggestions, such as accelerating the rollout of low-carbon technologies, increasing financial support for private enterprises, establishing an official reputation mechanism, and strengthening the transparency of carbon emission information disclosure.

Exploring Tourism Efficiency and Its Drivers to Understand the Backwardness of the Tourism Industry in Gansu, China

Gansu Province is rich in tourism resources, and it is the hometown of the "copper galloping horse", which is the logo of China's tourism. However, the scale and revenues of tourism in Gansu province are still at a low level. This paper first evaluated the tourism efficiency of 14 cities and prefectures of Gansu Province in China from 2011 to 2019 using the super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) and then investigated the internal driving mechanism of the efficiency change through the Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index and its decomposition, and finally analyzed the external influencing elements of tourist efficiency by the Tobit model. The results revealed that the tourism efficiency of Gansu Province had increased rapidly during the study period, especially after 2016, the rising range increased. From 2011 to 2019, the cumulative changes in GML index, technological change (TC), and efficiency change (EC) of tourism efficiency in Gansu Province were 5.053, 4.145 and 1.160, respectively, indicating that the improvement of tourism efficiency in Gansu province is mainly due to technological progress. The regression results of the Tobit model show that the status of the tourism industry, trade openness, information level, and technological innovation level can significantly promote tourism efficiency in the province. At the same time, upgrading the industrial structure and the improvement of greening coverage inhibit tourism efficiency. However, the impact of the economic development level on the tourism efficiency of Gansu Province is not apparent. According to the research results, this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions to promote the development of tourism in Gansu Province. This study is crucial for hospitality, tourism, and policy sectors to understand the underlying factors and promote the healthy development of the tourism industry in Gansu Province.