Financing Constraints, Carbon Emissions and High-Quality Urban Development-Empirical Evidence from 290 Cities in China.

Shaobo Wang,Xionghe Qin,Junfeng Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph19042386

Abstract

The tightening of the financing environment and global climate change have become urgent problems for high-quality economic development all over the world. Facing these challenges, the Chinese government is committed to alleviating regional financing constraints and setting carbon-emission reduction targets. However, are these measures effective for high-quality urban development? This paper attempts to use unbalanced panel data from 290 cities on the Chinese mainland from 2004–2017 to provide an answer to the problem using a scatter plot and the mediator effect model. Results show that: (1) financing constraints limit the funds required for urban development, which is not conducive to high-quality urban development, but high-quality urban development has the characteristics of “path dependence”; (2) In the context of environmental regulation, financing constraints are mainly enacted through reducing carbon emissions, which is inconducive to high-quality urban development. Carbon emissions are the transmission mechanism whereby financing constraints affect high-quality urban development; (3) Cities with large financing constraints have insufficient capital investment for high-quality urban development, and the aggravation of financing constraints has an increasingly obvious inhibitory effect on high-quality urban development. Moreover, due to the effect of the global economic crisis in 2008, the negative effect of financing constraints on high-quality urban development had the characteristics of U-shaped fluctuation. Thus, this paper believes that the implementation of China’s double carbon policy is at the expense of high-quality urban development, and there is a long way to go before high-quality urban development reaches later stages. Other countries should carefully weigh up the relationship between environmental pollution and economic development when facing financing constraints.

Highlights

IntroductionDespite increasing social material wealth, the industrial revolution has caused irreversible damage to Earth’s environment
Since the turn of the 21st century, China’s economic development and carbon emissions have shown an obvious upward trend [3,4], and the financing environment has gradually improved with the background of marketization
The analysis suggests that under the background of financing constraints, enterprises are gradually progressing to high-quality production methods, coupled with the closure of some high-energy, high-pollution, and high-emission enterprises, in which carbon emissions are showing a downward trend; (2) carbon dioxide emissions contribute to the high-quality development of cities

Summary

Introduction

Despite increasing social material wealth, the industrial revolution has caused irreversible damage to Earth’s environment. Global climate change caused by carbon emissions has become the focus of attention all over the world [1]. The academic community has increasingly deepened research on the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions [2]. With the background of global economic weakness, the social financing environment has become another leading factor affecting economic development. Since the turn of the 21st century, China’s economic development and carbon emissions have shown an obvious upward trend [3,4], and the financing environment has gradually improved with the background of marketization. China is the research object of this paper.

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion