Collaborative Governance and Environmental Regulation Measures for Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction in the Yangtze River Basin under the “Double Carbon” Goal

Abstract

The Yangtze River Basin occupies an important position in the overall layout of China’s economic development. However, due to the increasing water pollution, the environment of the Yangtze River Basin continues to deteriorate, which hinders the long-term development and sustainable development goals of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Therefore, this study started from the perspective of the reduction of coordinated pollution carbon. Then, through empirical analysis, the impact of environmental regulation measures in the Yangtze River Basin on industrial pollution control was studied. At the same time, the spatial eigenvector mapping (SEVM) method was used to explore the spatial impact of environmental regulation on carbon emissions. The results showed that the increase in the intensity of environmental regulation would lead to the expansion of the hidden economy, which would lead to the effect of environmental regulation weakening. There was an inverted “U” relationship between per capita real gross domestic product (GDP) and environmental pollution indicators. In addition, the expansion of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Economic Belt hada less inhibitory effect on ecological environmental protection than a promotional one. At the same time, command-type environmental regulation had a “green paradox” effect on carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Basin. The carbon emission reduction effect of implicit environmental regulation was different under different levels of incentive-type environmental regulation. The research showed that the multi-agent governance model could be further constructed from the interaction between the environmental regulation system and the administrative management system. It had a good effect on the coordinated treatment of pollution reduction and carbon reduction under the “double carbon” goal.