The Path and Effect of Environmental Regulation on Carbon Emission

Abstract

Starting from the basic problem of the impact of environmental regulations(ER) on carbon emissions(CE), this paper uses the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2016 to analyze the path and effect of ER on CE. First, we divide ER into direct environmental regulation tools(DER) and economic environmental regulation tools(EER), and empirically test the impact of different types of ER tools on CE. Then, we empirically examine the industrial structure effect, economic development effect and technological innovation effect of different types of ER on CE. The results show that ER not only has a direct effect on CE, but also indirectly affects CE through three paths: industrial structure, economic development and technological innovation. There is a negative correlation between ER and CE, and the CE reduction effect of DER is higher than that of EER. The industrial structure effects of DER and EER are negatively correlated with CE, but the economic development effects and technological innovation effects of the two ER tools are positively correlated with CE.