China has put forward the strategic goal of striving to achieve peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, and reducing carbon emission intensity is a top priority. This paper analyses the impact of local government fiscal science and technology expenditures on carbon emission intensity based on a fixed panel regression model using panel data of 21 cities in Guangdong Province from 2000 to 2019, and draws the following main conclusions: (1) Higher fiscal science and technology expenditures significantly promote the reduction of carbon emission intensity. Specifically, for every 1% increase in expenditures, the carbon emission intensity decreases by 0.221%; (2) The mechanism includes promoting the level of green innovation and promoting the level of new and high technology. Therefore, local governments should pay attention to the role of environment-friendly science and technology innovation on low-carbon development, help glow-carbon research and application transformation, strengthen the regulation of heavy polluting enterprises, and guide the capital to green industries, so as to embark a new road of high-quality economic development and carbon reduction.
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