Abstract
Carbon emission trading has been actively applied in many countries, and its operational effect has received widespread attention. However, previous studies mostly focused on single environmental effect, and the investigation of the comprehensive environmental effect needs to be further supplemented. Based on this, this paper explores the comprehensive environmental effect of carbon emission trading with eco-efficiency as the starting point. First, this paper measures eco-efficiency using the super-efficient minimum distance to strong efficient frontier (MinDS) model with undesirable outputs. Second, this paper uses the propensity score matching difference in difference (PSM-DID) model to quantify the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. Finally, this paper examines the mediating mechanism of the effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency based on the mediating effect model. The results show that carbon emission trading can improve the level of urban eco-efficiency. Energy savings and increased efficiency effectively mediate the promoting effect of carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency. The mediating push effect of R&D innovation and industrial structure restructuring has not yet appeared. This paper can not only provide policy basis for the improvement of carbon emission trading market but also provide reference for the construction of carbon emission trading market in developing countries.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
The 27 experimental cities are Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shaoguan, Shenzhen, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Zhaoqing, Meizhou, Yangjiang, Qingyuan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Chaozhou, Wuhan, Huangshi, Yichang, Ezhou, Jingmen, Xiaogan, Huanggang, Xianning, and Suizhou. Due to space limitation, this article only lists the pilot cities, and nonpilot cities will not be listed one by one.
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This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (grant number 18AGJ003, 19ZDA120) and Special Project on Research Platform of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (grant number PT202101).
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Yishan Guo: data curation, writing—original draft, and methodology. Jingquan Chen: methodology, formal analysis, software, writing—review and editing. Feng Shi: methodology, writing—review and editing, software. Xuepeng Peng: software, conceptualization, writing—review and editing. Xiaojun Ma: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision. Dan Fang: writing—review and editing, project administration, validation, formal analysis, supervision.
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Guo, Y., Chen, J., Shi, F. et al. The effect of China’s carbon emission trading on eco-efficiency: an empirical study at the city level. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 84827–84843 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21617-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21617-9