Abstract
This study focuses on the impacts of low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) on pollution and carbon emissions and synergistic emission reduction efficiency, and then explores whether it can realize the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reduction. Based on the panel data of 282 cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper treats LCCP as a quasi-natural experiment and tests its effect using difference-in-differences model. The results show that LCCP reduces pollution and carbon emissions and improves synergistic emission reduction efficiency, realizing synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reduction. The policy effects are mainly realized through strengthening technological innovation, tertiary industry employment and human capital. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reduction of LCCP only exists in large cities and non-resource cities. Furthermore, LCCP promotes economic growth, so that it realizes the synergetic effect of pollution and carbon reduction without sacrificing GDP growth.
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Data for this work are available through the corresponding author.
Notes
China Green National Accounts Research Report 2004.
The Heihe-Tengchong Line is a comparison of population density in China proposed by Chinese geographer Hu Huanyong in 1935. In this paper, the cities in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia are classified as the area west of the Heihe-Tengchong Line, whereas the cities in the remaining provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) are classified as the area east of the Heihe-Tengchong Line.
See the announcement on the implementation of special emission limits for air pollutants issued by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment https://www.mee.gov.cn/gkml/hbb/bgg/201303/t20130305_248787.htm.
The National Development and Reform Commission of China issued the Notice on the Pilot Project of Carbon Emission Trading in October 2011, and Shenzhen City took the lead in carbon trading in China in June 2013. Subsequently, Shanghai City, Beijing City, Tianjin City, Chongqing City, Hubei Province, and Guangzhou Province established carbon trading markets in 2014. Fujian Province was selected as a pilot region in 2017.
The 2019 population of municipal districts is used as the basis for classifying city size. Large cities have a population of more than 5 million, and small cities have a population of less than 5 million.
The planning scope includes 262 resource cities, of which 126 are prefecture-level administrative regions (including prefecture-level cities, regions, autonomous prefectures, leagues, etc.), and the list of specific resource cities is available at https://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2013-12/03/content_2540070.htm.
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The authors are very grateful for the valuable comments of the anonymous reviewers, which played an important role in improving the quality of the paper. The authors are also grateful to the academic editors.
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This research was supported by the 2021 Anhui University Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project SK2021A0229, the Project of Anhui Ecological and Economic Development Research Center of China under grant AHST2019016, AHST2021010, AHST2019011 and AHST2021007, and the Social Science Planning in Anhui Province of China under grant AHSKZ2019D018.
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Fan, X., Zhou, Y. & Xie, Q. Assessment on the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reductions in low-carbon city pilot policy: based on effectiveness and efficiency perspectives. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-04421-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-04421-4