Impact of the “Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations” policy on carbon emissions

doi:10.12006/j.issn.1673-1719.2022.069

Abstract

Abstract:

The “Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations” policy is an important tool for local government achieving carbon dioxide peaking and carbon neutrality goal. However, less attention has been paid to the carbon emission reduction effect on the pilot zone policy. Therefore, with the panel data of provincial-level administrative regions from 2013 to 2020, the difference-in-difference model (DID) was first used to analyze the impact of the pilot zone policy on carbon emission intensity, and then, the impact mechanism was examined using the mediating model. Besides, the influence of financial development level on the carbon emission reduction effect of the policy was investigated using the moderating effect model. The results show that the implementation of the pilot zone policy reduces the carbon emission intensity of the pilot area significantly, and the financial development level has a positive moderating effect on the carbon reduction effect of the policy. From the perspective of mechanism, the policy mainly promotes carbon emission reduction by optimizing the industrial structure, while the mediating path of technological innovation has not been verified. Therefore, this study recommends deepening and expanding the pilot policy, optimizing industrial structure, strengthening the support for technological innovation, and formulating green finance policies according to the level of financial development of different areas in the near future.

Key words: Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations, Difference-in-difference model, Carbon emission-intensity, Climate change, Mediation effect, Moderating effect

TAN Xian-Chun, GAO Jin-Xin, ZENG An, XING Xiu-Cheng. Impact of the “Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations” policy on carbon emissions[J]. Climate Change Research, 2023, 19(2): 213-226.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1 Impact mechanisms of the pilot zone policy on carbon emissions

Fig. 2 Principle of difference-in-difference model

Table 1 Definition and description of primary variables

Table 2 Index construction of industrial structure optimization

Table 3 Descriptive summary

Fig. 3 Changes of carbon emission intensity in pilot and non-pilot areas

Table 4 Results of baseline regression, mechanism analysis and moderating effects

Fig. 4 Test of parallel trend assumption and annual treatment effect

Fig. 5 Robustness test result

Table 5 Robust regression results

Table 6 Sobel test results for mechanism analysis

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