China's cities go carbon neutral: How can new-type urbanization policies improve urban carbon performance?

Abstract

Although the growth of urbanization based on economic construction has produced an economic miracle, it has also brought up significant obstacles to the sustainable growth of the economy and society. China has established a new-type urbanization policy (NTUP) since 2014 to address the carbon emission issues brought on by traditional development. This paper presents the first theoretical analysis of the impact and mechanisms of the NTUP on carbon emission performance (CEP). This study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) approach to investigate the impact, spatial spillover effects, and mechanisms of the NTUP on CEP by adopting a panel dataset from 2003 to 2020 for China's 283 cities. The empirical findings indicate that (1) new-type urbanized cities' carbon emissions are lowered by 1.37 % compared with nonpilot cities, and their carbon emission efficiency is raised by 31.56 %. After several robustness and hypothesis tests, this finding is still true. (2) The NTUP has a spatial spillover effect on CEP, significantly improving CEP for cities in the [0,1000] km range. (3) The key mechanisms by which the NTUP influences CEP are green technology innovation, energy structure, industrial structure, and resource allocation. (4) The NTUP has a stronger effect on CEP in medium-sized cities, cities with medium economic development, and resource-based cities. Finally, a response is briefly proposed.