The impact of China's western development strategy on energy conservation and emission reduction

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Promoting energy conservation and emission reduction is crucial for achieving green and sustainable economic development worldwide. China's Western Development Strategy (WDS), an important policy for regional development, to achieve its targets of energy saving and emission reduction is crucial to its success under current demands for green and sustainable economic development. This study considers the implementation of the WDS as a quasi-natural experiment. Then, the difference-in-difference (DID) model is used to test the impact of the WDS on energy conservation and emission reduction. Moreover, the impact mechanism of WDS to energy conservation and emission reduction is investigated. Finally, this study analyzes what kinds of regions are more conducive to achieving energy conservation and emission reduction from the perspective of financial development, infrastructure supply and marketization level. The results indicate, the WDS significantly promotes energy conservation and emission reduction, this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism tests show that the WDS generates technological innovation leading and human capital pulling effects by accelerating the cross-regional flow of innovation factors. Additionally, it causes an industrial structure optimization and foreign investment introduction effects by alleviating capital mismatch, which in turn promoting energy conservation and emission reduction. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of the WDS on energy conservation and emission reduction is more significant in regions characterized by advanced financial development and infrastructure. With the deepening of marketization, the WDS significantly promotes emission reduction, while its impact on energy conservation is not significant. These results have substantial implications for the sustained implementation of the WDS, improvement of the ecological environment, and promotion of China's sustainable development.