Abstract
Current emission reduction policies have struggled to adapt to the reality of industrial spatial agglomeration and increasing industrial linkages. In response, this paper incorporates new economic geography factors such as agglomeration production and industrial (trade) association into the analysis framework of carbon emission performance factors through China’s provincial panel data and conducts empirical research. It has been found that large-scale industrial production under economic agglomeration is conducive to improving carbon emission performance and that different forms of agglomeration at different degrees of agglomeration correspond to different carbon emission performances. As the degree of agglomeration increases, the effect of reducing emissions by specialized agglomeration decreases while the effect of reducing emissions by diversified agglomeration increases. Specialized agglomeration externalities and diversified agglomeration externalities can coexist at the same time, depending on the appropriate degree of agglomeration. There is a strong negative environmental efficiency effect in the provinces with close commodity trade links, which has triggered environmental dumping and pollution transfer between provinces. In the work of energy conservation and emission reduction, we must attach great importance to the hidden carbon in domestic merchandise trade and the resulting intergovernmental environmental game, and furthermore, give full play to the “self-purification” effect of aggregate production on energy conservation and emission reduction.
Highlights
After more than 30 years of “economic miracle”, China has already emerged as advanced in the environmental pollution problems that have occurred in stages in the industrialization process of western developed countries
Agglomeration externality is an important mechanism for improving carbon emission performance
Increasing spatial agglomeration can accelerate the diffusion of environmental technologies, thereby improving energy efficiency and improving environmental quality
Summary
After more than 30 years of “economic miracle”, China has already emerged as advanced in the environmental pollution problems that have occurred in stages in the industrialization process of western developed countries. The current target is broken down based on the GDP and population of each place Developed provinces, such as Guangdong and Jiangsu, and densely populated provinces, such as Sichuan and Henan, will be the focus of emission reduction. This distribution makes it difficult to achieve the desired effect. Whether the region is a net exporter of hidden carbon is closely related to the level of environmental production technology and the division of labor in the local industrial chain. If agglomerated production can better achieve the Pareto optimal environmental pollution level, China’s current decentralized production policy may be contrary to emission reduction goals. To achieve the emission reduction targets as scheduled, it is urgent to monitor the effects of current emission reduction policies and adjust them on time
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