The combining and cooperative effects of carbon price and technological innovation on carbon emission reduction: Evidence from China's industrial enterprises

How government green fund reduce corporate carbon emissions

In the context of developing a diversified green finance system, it is crucial to enhance the innovation of equity-based green financial instruments and accelerate the transition towards sustainable development models. Using tax survey data from 2007 to 2016 and manually collected fund investment data, the study explores the impact of China's Government Green Fund on corporate carbon emissions. The findings show that: (1) Government Green Fund plays a pivotal role in reducing corporate carbon emissions, with a notable decline observed after companies receive investment. (2) The fund generates multiple effects: a resource effect through its synergy with private venture capital; an innovation effect as companies engage in green, low-carbon R&D, both independently and collaboratively; and a structural effect as high-carbon enterprises exit the market and green enterprises expand. Collectively, these mechanisms contribute to significant carbon emissions reduction. (3) The impact of the Government Green Fund on reducing carbon emissions is more pronounced in regions with weaker low-carbon environmental regulations, fewer financial resources, and higher public environmental awareness. This study addresses the limitations of prior research, which has predominantly focused on debt-based financing instruments and supportive industrial policies. Consequently, it provides crucial empirical evidence for accelerating China's development of a modern green finance system and promoting a low-carbon development model.

Cross-efficiency analysis of energy sector using stochastic DEA: Considering pollutant emissions

Undesirable outputs can be challenging to avoid in the production of goods and services, often overlooked. Pollution is generally regarded as a negative externality and is taken into account during the production process. The novelty of this study lies in introducing CO2 as an economic "bad" in the energy sector's efficiency measure through a stochastic data envelopment analysis (DEA) cross-efficiency model. Unlike pollution and economic goods, where increased production leads to more pollution, CO2 is weakly disposable, meaning that higher CO2 values lead to a decrease in the number of good outputs produced. The study proposes a new stochastic model based on an extension of the cross-efficiency model and applies it to measure the energy efficiency of 32 thermal power plants in Angola in the presence of undesirable outputs. This will help promote better environmental management. The study's findings offer vital policy insights for the energy sector. The introduction of new stochastic models enables more accurate efficiency measurement under uncertain conditions, aiding policymakers in resource allocation decisions. Additionally, the adoption of stochastic cross-efficiency methods enhances performance assessments, facilitating targeted interventions for underperforming units. These findings contribute to evidence-based policymaking, promoting sustainability and competitiveness within the energy sector.

Dual-circulation: influence mechanism of ETS's carbon reduction and its spatiotemporal characteristics based on intensity modified SDID model

Traditional DID models overlook variations in policy intensity, causing estimation deviations from the actual situation and a limited understanding of the influence mechanism. In response, the Intensity Modified SDID Model is built to examine the influence mechanism of ETS's carbon reductions. Moreover, through model extensions, the study explores the spatiotemporal characteristics and heterogeneities of ETS's effects. Results show that: (1) "Dual-circulation" influence mechanism is confirmed, where ETS directly contributes to carbon reductions (2.70% to 10.0% impact) through external pathways, and internal pathways continuously strengthen reduction effects, comprehensive mechanisms are thereby formed and enhanced based on interaction among internal and external pathways. (2) Reasonable ETS levels are estimated and proposed to achieve "Dual Carbon Target", constraining nationwide carbon quotas by 20 billion tons/year, increasing carbon trading volumes by 80 thousand tons/year, and elevating the carbon trading prices by 100 RMB (14 USD) per ton. (3) ETS's carbon reduction effects are identified with temporal and spatial characteristics, temporally, effects peak in the 4th period (Event+4) but diminish in the 5th period (Event+5), spatially, effects peak in areas distancing around 1000 km but disappear beyond 1500 km. (4) ETS also has synergistic effects with atmospheric pollution reduction, including industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide and smoke (dust), but are insignificant to industrial emissions of wastewater and solid waste.

How does the development of the digital economy influence carbon productivity? The moderating effect of environmental regulation

Improving carbon productivity is of great significance to China's "30 · 60" carbon target, while the development of the digital economy is a driving force for green transformation. However, few studies discuss the relationship between the digital economy and carbon productivity. We investigate the influence of digital economic development on carbon productivity using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. Spatial econometric and moderating effects are considered. The results show that (i) digital economy has a positive direct and negative spatial spillover effect on carbon productivity, and this conclusion is still valid after the robustness test and endogeneity test; (ii) digital infrastructure has a greater impact on carbon productivity than digital industrialization and industrial digitalization; (iii) the mechanism analysis shows that environmental regulation negatively moderates the relationship between the digital economy and carbon productivity; (iv) heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of the digital economy on carbon productivity is more obvious in the central region compared to the western region, while it is not significant in the eastern region. Overall, this paper not only provides a new analytical perspective for understanding the improvement of carbon productivity in the digital economy but also provides policy inspiration for promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Environmental corporate social responsibility practices and firm innovation: Complementarities and empirical evidence from Spanish firms

This study examines the complementarity effect of combining different types of environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) practices on firm innovation. We apply the complementarity approach to test whether the adoption of different ECSR practices (i.e. practices for fewer materials per unit produced [materials], less energy per unit produced [energy], or decreasing environmental impact [impact]) generates super-additive effects on firms' innovation, measured by innovations type: adoption, new-to-the-market, and new-to-the-firm innovation. We use data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey for the period 2009-2014. The results show that the best combination of ECSR practices depends on the innovation type. For innovation adoption, all possible combinations of the three practices produce super-additive effects; however, the complementarity patterns differ for new-to-the-market and new-to-the-firm innovations. For new-to-the-market innovation, energy practices appear to be a key factor in fostering innovation when combined with materials or impact practices. For new-to-the-firm innovation, the combination of these three ECSR practices shows complementarity effects. These findings provide useful insights for the design of corporate social responsibility strategies.

Carbon emissions trading scheme and regional total factor carbon productivity: based on temporal-spatial dual perspectives

The carbon emissions trading scheme (CETS) in China is an important market-based environmental policy mechanism for decreasing carbon emissions. This paper calculates the total factor carbon productivity (TFCP) based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2020 using the DEA method and investigates the impact of the CETS on regional TFCP using the differences-in-differences (DID) method, all against the backdrop of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. The research findings reveal that CETS has consistently improved TFCP in pilot cities, and this conclusion has held up following a number of robustness tests. Temporal heterogeneity experiments demonstrate that as implementation time increases, the enhancing effect takes on an inverted "U-shaped" structure with a 7-year effective lifetime. Spatial heterogeneity studies reveal that as one moves away from the pilot cities, the policy effect on surrounding cities' TFCP is inhibited, followed by facilitation. CETS policies can influence regional TFCP through the effects of green innovation and industry upgrading, according to mediation mechanism testing. We present policy recommendations based on the research findings for meeting the "dual" carbon goals and strengthening the carbon trading mechanism.