Exploring industrial agglomeration and green finance impact on regional environmental pollution in China based on system-GMM model.

Abstract

The boom of building various industrial agglomerations in China has continued for many years. The relationship between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution is the core issue of this paper. At the same time, green finance is a new financial development model that takes environmental protection as the core, and effectively promotes the sustainable development of the environment, the economy, and society while maintaining its own sustainable development, so green finance is a major direction for future financial development. This paper selects the data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2020 as the research object and uses a system-GMM method to verify the relationship between industrial agglomerations, green finance on regional environmental pollution. It provides theoretical reference for improving global climate change and reduces environmental pollution (EP), concludes as follows. (1) Industrial agglomeration can exacerbate EP level in China, and also exacerbates EP in the western region, but the effect of industrial agglomeration on EP in the eastern and central regions has been insignificant. (2) Green finance can improve environmental pollution. The intensity of EP in economically less developed regions is more sensitive to green finance policies. (3) The correlation effect of industrial agglomeration and green finance can improve environmental pollution, i.e., green finance has an important role in improving EP. However, there are significant differences in different regions. The interaction term between industrial agglomeration and green finance with a non-significant positive coefficient in the eastern region, and it is non-significant negative coefficient in the central region, and a significant negative coefficient in the western region. The work has important theoretical value for achieving the goal of regional sustainable development and green transformation.