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Do carbon emission trading scheme policies induce green technology innovation? New evidence from provincial green patents in China

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Abstract

Carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) policy is a quota-based market-motivated environmental regulation policy that by transforming environmental responsibility of enterprises into self-consciousness behavior induces green innovation behavior in enterprises and influences the level of regional green innovation. Based on panel data on green patents in 30 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2019, the paper uses six Chinese pilot provinces for ETS as the treatment group to investigate the induced effects of Chinese ETS policy on the quantity and quality of green technology innovation using difference in difference model and analyzes the effects of Chinese ETS policy on green technology innovation in different pilot regions using a synthetic control method. The findings indicate that (1) compared with non-pilot areas, the carbon emission trading policies in pilot areas can induce green technology innovation activities. (2) In all pilot regions, ETS policies significantly promoted the quantity and quality of green technology innovation, but the quantity promotion effect was significantly better than the quality promotion effect, and the low-quality promotion effect was better than the high-quality promotion effect. (3) In terms of individual pilot region, ETS policies in Guangdong, Hubei and Tianjin significantly promoted the quantity of green technology innovation and low-quality green technology innovation, but significantly inhibited or suppressed high-quality green technology innovation in a short term. This paper not only enriches the research on environmental equity trading policies and green technology innovation theoretically, but also provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of carbon emission trading schemes pilots program in China.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. China successively launched 7 ETS pilots in 2013–2014 in 6 provinces (Shenzhen, Guangdong, Hubei, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing). These pilots are located in 6 provinces and cities (Shenzhen is under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province). Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing are municipalities directly under the Central Government in China, and their administrative level is equivalent to the provincial level. Therefore, the definition of these provinces and cities in the paper is collectively referred to as provinces, and the six pilot provinces and cities are referred to as Guangdong, Hubei, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing.

  2. Tibet is not included as data for Tibet is missing.

  3. The International Patent Classification Green List is an online tool launched by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to search for Environmentally Friendly Patents (EST), which classifies green patents according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: transportation, waste management, energy conservation, alternative energy production, administrative regulatory or design aspects, agriculture or forestry, and nuclear power generation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the editor and the anonymous referees for their valuable comments on this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Lina Fu

  2. School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yang Yi

  3. School of Marxism, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Ting Wu

  4. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Ruiwen Cheng

  5. Accounting College, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430200, China

    Zuoming Zhang

Authors
  1. Lina Fu
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  2. Yang Yi
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  3. Ting Wu
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  4. Ruiwen Cheng
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  5. Zuoming Zhang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript. The specific contributions are as follows. Conceptualization: LF. Methodology: YY. Formal analysis and investigation: LF, YY, and TW. Writing-original draft preparation: LF. Writing—review and editing: RC and ZZ. Resources: YY. Supervision: TW and ZZ.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yang Yi.

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Fu, L., Yi, Y., Wu, T. et al. Do carbon emission trading scheme policies induce green technology innovation? New evidence from provincial green patents in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 13342–13358 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22877-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22877-1

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