Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Study on the impact of intelligent city pilot on green and low-carbon development

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The intelligent city pilot policy is a major measure in China to promote urban development from factor driven and investment driven to innovation driven. Intelligent city construction can effectively coordinate specialized production factors and information sharing mechanism, promote digital information technology innovation, promote smart industry cluster, and expand ecological scenarios of clean industry application, so as to reduce carbon emissions. This paper reveals the internal mechanism of intelligent city construction to promote carbon emission reduction. Based on the quasi-natural experiments carried out in three batches of pilot construction of intelligent cities since 2012, the difference-in-difference model (DID) is used to identify its impact on urban carbon emissions. The research results show that the pilot construction of intelligent cities is conducive to reducing carbon emissions, which is still robust under multiple scenarios such as placebo test and endogenous test. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the pilot policies have a more significant carbon emission reduction effect on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, non-resource-based cities, and non-old industrial bases. After further quantitative analysis of 917 pilot policy texts based on Simhash algorithm, Jieba word segmentation, and word frequency statistics, it is found that intelligent industry policies reduce carbon emissions by driving data elements agglomeration and optimizing industrial structure, while intelligent government and intelligent people’s livelihood policies improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions through green technological innovation. Counterfactual tests using machine learning algorithms show that the later the pilot batch, the better the sustainable carbon emission reduction effect of intelligent city pilot policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available on request.

Notes

  1. Including per capita GDP, per capita area of paved roads, total investment in fixed assets, actual foreign investment, total population at the end of the year, number of public trams per 10,000 people, green coverage in built-up areas, number of people employed in scientific research, technology and service industries, the proportion of tertiary industry output in GDP, etc.

References

  • Bagayev I, Lochard J (2017) EU air pollution regulation: a breath of fresh air for Eastern European polluting industries? J Environ Econ Manag 83:145–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chao XJ, Xue ZX, Sun YM (2020) The impact of new digital infrastructure on the upgrading of foreign trade: empirical evidence from Chinese cities at prefecture level and above. Econ Sci 3:46–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen ZJ, Fan QW (2020) ‘Sacrificed Parts’: the logic and consequences of pollution transfer. Yunnan Soc Sci 4:144–151+179

    Google Scholar 

  • Condliffe S, Ashton MO (2009) The effects of air quality regulations on the location decisions of pollution-intensive manufacturing plants. J Regul Econ 36(1):83–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Copeland BR, Taylor MS (2004) Trade, growth, and the environment. J Econ Lit 42(1):7–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cui LZ, Chen QY (2019) Research on the environmental effect of intelligent city incremental expansion policy. Shanghai Econ Res 4:62–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong L, Liu LJ (2015) Clustering trend of producer services in the process of intelligent city. Sci Technol Manag Res 35(12):123–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Doytch N, Uctum M (2016) Globalization and the environmental im-pact of sectoral FDI. Econ Syst 40(4):582–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du JG, Wang Y, Zhao AW (2020) Research on the influence and mechanism of intelligent city construction on urban green development. Soft Sci 34(9):59–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrara R (2015) The intelligent city and the green economy in Europe: a critical approach. Energies 8(6):4724–4734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser EL, Lu M (2018) Human-capital externalities in China. NBER Working Paper 24925

  • Han F, Xie R (2017) Does agglomeration of producer services reduce carbon emissions: spatial econometric analysis of panel data of prefecture-level and above cities in China. J Quant Tech Econ 34(3):40–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong YX (2017) Analysis of the stage of technological innovation and its innovation value chain. De Economist 4:5–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikefuji M, Itaya JI, Okamura M (2016) Optimal emission tax with endogenous location choice of duopolistic firms. Environ Resource Econ 65(2):463–485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang MH, Wu YJ (2015) Spatial agglomeration, spatial correlation and intelligent city growth: a spatial metrology study based on Chinese intelligent city pilot. Sci Technol Manag Res 35(18):172–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Jin XY (2018) Environmental regulation and domestic pollution transfer: based on the ‘11th Five-Year Plan’ COD discharge control plan investigation. Ind Econ Res 6:115–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Jin H, Li RJ, Li YY (2017) Investment in science and technology finance, development of high-tech industry and optimization of industrial structure: an empirical study based on provincial panel data PVAR model. Indus Technol Econ 36(7):42–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Li PX, Cao YH (2013) The spatial-temporal pattern evolution of regional industrial carbon emissions in the context of industrial transfer: a case study of Pan-Yangtze River Delta. Adv Earth Sci 28(8):939–947

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li ZG, Wang J (2021a) The spatial emission reduction effect of carbon emission trading in China: a quasi-natural experiment and policy spillover. China Popul Resour Environ 31(1):26–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Li ZG, Wang J (2021b) The development of digital economy, data element allocation and manufacturing productivity improvement. De Economist 10:41–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin MS (2016) Carbon emission reduction during urbanization in China: economic costs and mitigation strategies. Quant Tech Econ Res 33(3):59–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z (2014) Human capital externalities in cities: evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms. J Econ Geogr 14(3):621–649

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu B, Dong ZQ (2020) Does the energy bias of technological progress induce ‘carbon lock-in effect’? J Obstet Econ 11(4):133–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Macke J, Casagrande RM, Sarate JAR (2018) Smart city and quality of life: citizens' perception in a Brazilian case study. J Clean Produc 182: 717–726

  • Martin C, Evans J, Karvonen A et al (2019) Intelligent-sustainability: a new urban fix? Sustain Cities Soc 45:640–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolas C, Kim J, Chi S (2021) Natural language processing-based characterization of top-down communication in intelligent cities for enhancing citizen alignment. Sustain Cities Soc 66:102674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen KR, Jin G, Xian F (2017) Does environmental regulation cause pollution to be transferred nearby? J Econ Res 52(5):44–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi D, Li SL (2020) Emission trading system and energy use efficiency: an empirical study of cities at prefecture level and above. Chin Indus Econ 9:5–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi DQ, Ding H, Wei P et al (2018) Can intelligent city construction reduce environmental pollution? China Indus Econ 6:117–135

    Google Scholar 

  • Song DY, Li C. Li XY (2021) Whether new infrastructure construction promotes the “quantity and quality improvement” of green technology innovation: evidence from the national smart city pilot program. China Population, Resources and Environment 31(11):155–164

  • Wang K (2021) Digital economy, resource allocation and industrial structure optimization and upgrading. Financ Econ 4:57–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang C, Li J (2020) The evaluation and promotion path of green innovation performance in Chinese pollution-intensive industry. Sustainability 12(10):4198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang M, Li YF, Ma SC (2020a) Does the construction of intelligent city promote the upgrading of industrial structure. Sci Financ Econ 12:56–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang M, Li YF, Ma SC (2020b) Whether the construction of smart cities promotes the upgrading of industrial structure. J Financ Sci 12:56–71

  • Xie RH, Yuan YJ (2016) Research on the pollution reduction effect of the dynamic evolution of industrial agglomeration: an empirical test based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities in China. Econ Rev 2:18–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Xie Z, Wu R, Wang S (2021) How technological progress affects the carbon emission efficiency? evidence from national panel quantile regression. J Clean Prod 307:127133

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang YY, Gao Y (2019) Research on the impact of intelligent city construction on regional manufacturing upgrading. Soft Science 33(9):46–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang W, Zhu QG, Gao H (2016) Industrial structure upgrading, energy structure optimization and low-carbon development of industrial system. Econ Res J 51(12):62–75

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang BB, Zhou JT, Yan ZJ (2021) Low-carbon city pilot policies and total factor energy efficiency improvement: a quasi-natural experiment from the implementation of three pilot policies. Econ Rev 5:32–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao JJ, Jia XJ (2019) Whether intelligent city construction can promote the transformation and upgrading of urban industrial structure: a quasi-natural experiment based on 285 prefecture-level cities in China. Labour Econ Rev 10(5):46–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng YL, Lu M (2018) Are big cities Less environmentally friendly: an analysis based on scale effect and group effect. Fudan Journal (Social Sciences Edition) 60(1):133–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhong J, Wei YJ (2020) Driving force of pollution proximity transfer: environmental regulation or economic motivation? Journal of Central University of Finance & Economics 10:115–128

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

The work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 71673136)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211169, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-meng Liu & Ying-quan Zhang

  2. Business School, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210037, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-meng Liu

Authors
  1. Xiao-meng Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ying-quan Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Xiaomeng LIU: conceptualization, data curation, methodology, writing—original draft. Yinquan Zhang: writing— review and editing—and software.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-meng Liu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

N/A

Consent for publication

We do not have any individual person’s data in any form.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, Xm., Zhang, Yq. Study on the impact of intelligent city pilot on green and low-carbon development. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 57882–57897 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26579-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26579-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation