Can the New Energy Vehicle Pilot Policy Achieve Green Innovation and Emission Reduction?—A Difference-in-Differences Analysis on the Evaluation of China’s New Energy Fiscal Subsidy Policy

Gang Chen,Dawei Huang,Susheng Wang

doi:10.3390/su13158643

Abstract

Whether the new energy vehicle pilot policy (NEVPP) can achieve green innovation and emission reduction is an important exploration for China to achieve green and sustainable development. This research aims to empirically investigate the impact, impact mechanism, and heterogeneity characteristics of the NEVPP on urban green innovation and emission reduction based on panel data from 281 cities in China from 2004 to 2017, using difference-in-differences (DID) methods and fixed effect (FE) models. The results show that the NEVPP significantly reduces the carbon dioxide emissions of the pilot cities but significantly inhibits the green innovation, and the results are robust to the placebo test, propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) test, instrumental variable (IV) estimation, emissions trading system (ETS), and Carbon-ETS interference test, and change of the dependent variable. In addition, further studies have shown that the NEVPP’s emission reduction effects are mainly achieved by reducing energy consumption, promoting technological innovation, and adjusting industrial structure. Moreover, we found that the NEVPP performed better in the regions where the level of economic development is high, the local government has a good relationship with the market, and the level of non-state economic development is high. In general, our research results show that the NEVPP has achieved innovation and emission reduction policy effects in China, but it is also accompanied by an inhibitory effect on green technological innovation.

Highlights

IntroductionChina has explored the path of green development while balancing the relationship between environmental sustainability and high-speed economic growth for a long time [4,5], such as emissions trading system (ETS) [6] and carbon-ETS [7]
In the past four decades, China’s rapid economic growth has been accompanied by excessive energy consumption, pollutant emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3].China has explored the path of green development while balancing the relationship between environmental sustainability and high-speed economic growth for a long time [4,5], such as emissions trading system (ETS) [6] and carbon-ETS [7]
The results show that the application of new energy vehicles in the logistics industry has a certain carbon emission reduction effect

Summary

Introduction

China has explored the path of green development while balancing the relationship between environmental sustainability and high-speed economic growth for a long time [4,5], such as emissions trading system (ETS) [6] and carbon-ETS [7]. This type of policy is mainly aimed at the production activities of industrial enterprises, ignoring the environmental problems of the transportation system in urban development [8], for example, fuel vehicles have become an important part of urban greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants (such as nitrogen oxides (NOX ) and particulate matter (PM), etc.) emissions [9].

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Discussion

Conclusion