Low-carbon Development In China Research Articles

Study on stochastic convergence of China’s carbon emission efficiency

ABSTRACT Carbon emission efficiency (CEE) and its stochastic convergence are important indicators for achieving the strategic goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Thus, this paper firstly estimates the CEE of 30 provinces in China from 1995 to 2019 with the super efficiency of the SBM model. Then the panel unit root test method is adopted to test its stochastic convergence. The results show that the overall CEE has not reached the effective level, and the CEE level varies greatly among regions. There is a stochastic divergence of CEE in most regions from 1995 to 2001. While the CEE of most regions changes to convergence after 2002. From 1995 to 2019, the CEE of the western, northeast, and southwest regions diverge. While the CEE of the national level, the eastern, central regions, and the other six regions in the eight major economic zones converged stochastically. Among the divergent areas, the CEE of Heilongjiang, Guangxi, and Sichuan provinces are the main contributors to the CEE divergence. Therefore, it is the key to narrowing the differences in regional low-carbon development in China by significantly improving the CEE of each province.

Can digital financial inclusion promote the coupling coordination between pollution reduction and low-carbon development? Evidence from China

Pollution reduction and low-carbon development are two specific but intertwined goals of addressing climate change and sustainable development of the United Nations in 2030, and the effective use of digital financial inclusion is imperative for driving technical innovation, upgrading industrial structure, and addressing climate change. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion on the coupling coordination between pollution reduction and low-carbon development using a panel dataset of 30 China's provinces from 2011 to 2020. The results show that the coupling coordination between pollution reduction and low-carbon development in China improves significantly during the sample period. The synergistic effect of different economic zones and provinces varies greatly in space and time. In addition, digital financial inclusion has a promoting effect on the coupling coordination of pollution and carbon emission reduction. A mechanism analysis also reveals that technological innovation, industrial structure and energy consumption are the core transmission channels through which digital financial inclusion influences the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon emission reduction. This suggests that the need of coordinated governance by policymakers is warranted, and digital financial inclusion is an important way to this coordinated governance.

Elasticity of substitution between clean energy and non-clean energy: Evidence from the Chinese electricity industry

At present, China is in a stage of high-quality economic development. Rising demand for electricity has created a lot of CO2 emissions, which has put great pressure on the low-carbon development of China's power industry. Therefore, China attaches great importance to the potential of various clean power generation to replace thermal power generation. Given this, the study examines the potential for substitution of non-clean energy generation (thermal power generation) and clean energy generation (hydropower, nuclear power generation, and other energy generation) from 1993 to 2022 by using the translog production function and provides a scenario analysis of energy substitution for power generation. Firstly, the k-fold cross-validation method is used for ridge regression estimation in this paper, which avoids the subjective bias caused by the ridge trace diagram method used in most of the previous literatures. Secondly, compared with the previous research on the substitution elasticity of the power sector, this paper subdivides the types of clean power energy when estimating the substitution elasticity, which can better analyze the substitution relationship between thermal power and various clean power. Finally, the estimated substitution elasticity of thermal power and various clean energy sources is greater than 1, which indicates that clean energy generation can effectively replace non-clean energy generation. This provides an effective substitution elasticity parameter for the power sector to study low-carbon development. The scenario analysis show China's power sector can increase the proportion of clean power generation to reduce the carbon emission intensity while ensure power supply, which can help the Chinese government adjust the implementation of policies to promote the early peak of carbon emissions and keep carbon emission at a low level in the power sector.

The impacts of green finance on regional carbon emission：Evidence from China

<p>Green finance has become an important tool for the low-carbon development in China. This research constructs a comprehensive indicator system, and carefully describes the spatial characteristics of green finance and carbon emissions in China from 2012 to 2021. Then, the dynamic SDM and the mediating effect model are used to explore the spatial spillover effect, the mechanism and the heterogeneity. The research finds that carbon emission levels are generally higher in the north of China, and the level of green finance shows a spatial distribution of high in the east and low in the west. Moreover, green finance can significantly reduce carbon emissions in the presence of spatial spillovers with heterogeneity. For 1% increase in green finance within the region, per capita carbon emissions are reduced by 0.68% in the short term and 0.60% in the long term, and by 0.75% in the short term and 0.33% in the long term in the surrounding areas. In addition, green technology innovation has become an important way for green finance to boost low-carbon development.</p>

Paths to low-carbon development in China: The role of government environmental target constraints

Research background: To achieve the targets for carbon peak and air quality improvement, local governments should propose environmental targets and develop realization paths that are tailored to their unique local conditions. They then promote low-carbon development through the implementation of multiple measures. Purpose of the article: As the government performance appraisal system im-proves, the question arises as to whether governments take the initiative to com-bine environmental policies with government target constraints to reduce carbon emissions. Methods: The announcement of environmental target constraints by local governments in government work reports is considered a quasi-natural experiment. This study examines the effect of government environmental target constraints (GETC) on carbon emissions (CEs) using differences-in-differences (DID), propensity score matching-DID (PSM-DID), and spatial-DID (SDID) with data from 241 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. Findings & value added: The results demonstrate that GETC can effectively reduce local CEs, with the inhibitory effect being most effective in the first two years after setting environmental targets, but diminishing in the third year. GETC can reduce local CEs through three paths: reducing energy consumption, promoting industrial structure optimization, and encouraging green technology innovation. Spatial spillover effects show that GETC reduces local CEs while exacerbating CEs in neighboring cities, indicating a beggar-thy-neighbor effect in conventional environmental regulation policy. This effect is observed mainly in the geographic matrix and the economic-geographic matrix, but not in the economic matrix. According to heterogeneity analysis, GETC in the eastern and central cities can significantly reduce CEs. The inhibitory effect of GETC on local CEs is stronger in cities where secretaries and mayors have longer tenures and higher levels of education. The paper's theoretical value lies in exploring the reduction of CEs through the combination of government self-restraint and environmental policies, providing a new solution for local governments to achieve CEs reduction. Furthermore, it offers practical insights into the improvement of the Chinese government assessment system.

The Problems and Countermeasures of the Development of China's Green Tourism Industry under the Dual Carbon Background

Under the goal of achieving "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality", green and low-carbon transformation is one of the important directions for the high-quality development of the tourism industry. A low-carbon economy can promote the green development of the tourism industry, stimulate national demand for green tourism, and force tourism enterprises to upgrade their products. The deep integration and development of low-carbon economy and tourism industry is an inevitable choice of the times. China should take green and low-carbon consumption as the breakthrough point, integrate the concept of low-carbon economic development, achieve green development of tourism industry, and innovate the path of green and low-carbon development of China's tourism industry.

Low-carbon development in China's transportation sector: Multidimensional characteristics and policy implications

Although low-carbon development of transportation sector is crucial for global deep decarbonization, the multidimensional characteristics (e.g., inequality, complex network and efficiency-related drivers) carbon intensity (CI) in the sector at sub-national level is still lacking in-depth evaluation for an emerging economy in particular. Here, using social network analysis, inequality decomposition and production-theoretical decomposition analysis with a focus on regional heterogeneity, the study comprehensively investigated the complex network, inequality and novel drivers related to efficiency and technological change of CI for transportation sectors across 30 provinces in China over 1997–2019. We found that first, the strict spatial correlation structure of CI in the transportation sector was gradually broken and the inter-provincial correlation were enhanced. Second, the inequality of CI declined where gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene and raw coal were the main contributors. Third, the potential carbon factor mainly promoted the reduction of CI while the impact of potential energy intensity exhibited an "inverted U″ trend over the period. Forth, the group technical change effects of energy usage and CO2 emission first promoted the decline of CI and then inhibited it. The study highlights the importance of the multidimensional characteristics in the transportation sector when formulating CI-related policies according to the local conditions.

An improved approach for measuring the coupling relationship between new type urbanization and low carbon development in China

New Type Urbanization (NTU) and Low Carbon Development (LCD) are the two major issues for Chinese cities to achieve their sustainable development goals. It is crucial to recognize the coupling relationship between NTU and LCD. Existing studies on this coupling mainly focus on measuring LCD performance through carbon emissions, while neglecting the coordination between different dimensions of NTU and LCD. To address these gaps, an enhanced method is proposed in this study to measure the dimensional coupling performance between NTU and LCD. A comprehensive indicator evaluation system is constructed to assess the performance of both NTU and LCD. The Entropy and TOPSIS methods are employed to obtain scores for NTU and LCD performance, while the grey correlation analysis method is applied to determine the degree of coupling coordination. To validate the proposed approach, a case study using data from 35 large cities spanning from 2008 to 2020 has been conducted. The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) The proposed method consists of three steps: calculating NTU and LCD performance scores, determining the degree of coupling, and estimating the level of coupling coordination. (2) Four major trends in the development of coupling degrees among these 35 large cities have been identified: increase, decrease, “V” type and inverted “V” type. (3) Empirical evidence demonstrates that our proposed model is valid. This study provides valuable insights for addressing imbalances between NTU and LCD issues faced by Chinese government.

The Effects of Chinese Green Economy Policies on Industrial Upgrading

This article focuses on the path to green and low-carbon development in China under the era of carbon neutrality. Starting with exploring the significance to reach carbon neutrality, the actions taken by different countries are demonstrated and the global milestones such as The Paris Agreement are illustrated. Based on Solow-Swan Growth Model, the method of calculating environment capital as a new parameter is discussed. In this case, China plays an important role in global carbon neutrality. To develop sustainably, it is crucial to figure out how China keep its way on Green Economy. Energy Industry, Manufacturing Industry, and Financial Service Sector will be analyzed separately to find out what is best strategy for those industries to evolution under the Green oriented policy and what are their responsibility respectively. We found the stronger governance, the better nature capital would be utilized. The chance and challenge are concluded in the end with the potential pathway to realize the carbon neutrality in China.

Green credit and low-carbon development in China: Fresh evidence on spatial spillover insights.

The promulgation and execution of green credit (GC) policies have had a significant influence on the development of the economy and society, and their impact on low-carbon development (LCD) needs to be taken seriously. On the basis of elaborating the mechanism of the role of GC on LCD, this study constructs a panel fixed effects (FE) model to test the direct impact of GC on LCD by using Chinese provincial-level data from 2007 to 2020. An intermediary effect model is constructed to investigate its indirect effects. A dynamic SDM is further constructed to examine the spatial effects of GC on LCD in neighbouring regions. The results show that GC is helping China to achieve LCD. GC can promote LCD through promoting green innovation, optimizing energy structure and upgrading industrial structure. It is crucial to acknowledge that all three pathways are essential channels of influence and should not be disregarded. GC not only fosters LCD in the local areas, but also has a positive spatial spillover effect in adjacent regions. Based on the above conclusions, this study proposes policy recommendations such as increasing support for GC, smoothing the transmission channel from GC to LCD, and establishing a synergistic linkage mechanism between interregional credit and environmental governance. This study provides valuable insights for China to realize LCD, as well as for other countries to actively engage in energy conservation and emission reduction efforts.

How technological innovation influences carbon neutrality? The perspective of spatial spillover effect and attenuation boundary

Technological innovation is considered an important technical means to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon removal. As two important aspects of carbon neutralization, there is little research on carbon neutralization in technological innovation. We utilized panel data to evaluate the spatial spillover effect of technological innovation on carbon neutrality via a dynamic spatial Durbin model and moderating effect model. We find that there are noticeable differences in the spillover effect of technological innovation on carbon neutrality from heterogeneous technological sources. The spatial impact of technological advancement on carbon neutrality is clearly defined by regional boundaries within 816 km. Foreign investments and introductions have a measurable moderating impact on the carbon deficit, whereas domestic-purchased technological innovation has a negligible impact. This study provides a basis for better utilizing technological innovation’s fundamental and crucial supporting role in the process of achieving carbon neutrality goals and low carbon development in China.

Heterogeneous effects of China's low-carbon city pilots policy

Global south countries, including China, have faced a challenging dilemma of reducing carbon emissions while maintaining rapid economic growth. The low-carbon city pilots (LCCPs) policy in China is a demonstration of how state power intervenes and commands national low-carbon development through voluntary policy tools. Our study, based on panel data of 331 cities from 2005 to 2019, evaluates the policy effect of all three batches of LCCPs and presents an analysis of time-varying effects through batch decomposition and synthetic difference-in-difference models. The study found that implementing low-carbon policies can significantly reduce total carbon emissions and carbon emissions per capita. However, the reduction in carbon emissions per unit of GDP is insignificant, and the policy effect varies according to the batches and their characteristics. The reduction effects in the first and second batches, as well as the insignificance or even increasing effects of the third batch, may be due to carbon leakage between different batches of LCCPs. Overall, this research provides novel and quantitative evidence on low-carbon development in China, making theoretical and empirical contributions to the field, and expanding econometric assessment methods to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental and climate change policies.

A System Analysis of the Emerging Concept of “Inter-regional Justice of Energy Transition” in China

During the low-carbon development of China, the different capacity and impact of energy transition among regions has raised an issue of inter-regional justice. However, there are few studies on it, and even basic concepts are lacking. This study proposed the definition of the concept “inter-regional justice of energy transition” (IRJET) based on a system approach. First, the connotations and cross-fields of three basic concepts of “justice transition”, “energy transition”, and “coordinated regional development” are analysed and compared based on China’s background. Second, we take Shanxi Province as a typical case to identify the barriers of IRJET. Third, action suggestions are proposed, combined the policy mechanism of China’s carbon peak policy and the EU’s just transition mechanism. The results indicated that “IRJET” means during the low-carbon energy transition, some regions with concentrated traditional and high-emission industries must be protected to avoid serious losses for current generation’s need satisfaction, while the whole country can be prosperous and carbon reduction targets can be realized. The main barriers include lacking of a clear positioning of each region for multi-regional cooperation in the low-carbon energy transition, lacking of a policy mechanism to balance benefits and costs among regions, lacking of a multi-regional energy and carbon market mechanism that can fully considers the needs of each region，inefficient talent and fund guarantee mechanism. To end this up, national governments should clarify the significance and requirements of IRJET. Cross regional enterprises should layout high-quality industries in disadvantage regions. Local governments should actively participate in energy transition and actively reduce the impact of transition.

Do Carbon Emission Trading Schemes Promote the Green Transition of Enterprises? Evidence from China

As one of the environmental governance tools used to achieve green and low-carbon development in China, the ability of carbon emission trading schemes (CETS) to promote the green transition of enterprises is key to assessing the effectiveness of their implementation. Therefore, this paper used the panel data of China A-share listed heavy-polluting enterprises from 2010 to 2019, adopted the super-SBM model and GML index to measure the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of enterprises as an indicator of green transition, and further employed a staggered difference-in-difference model (DID) based on propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate the impact and mechanism of CETS on the green transition of enterprises. The results revealed that CETS significantly improved the green development efficiency of heavy-polluting enterprises and promoted green transition. In addition, the promotion was more pronounced among enterprises with weak cost transfer abilities, low levels of financing constraints, and high-quality internal control systems as well as in areas with high environmental enforcement intensity. More importantly, the mechanism analysis showed that heavy-polluting enterprises mainly chose to increase green technological innovation, especially substantive green technological innovation, and accelerated productive capital renewal to achieve their green transition targets. This study provides empirical evidence for improving the construction of the national carbon emission trading market and promoting the green transition and low-carbon development of heavy-polluting enterprises.

Research on Green and Low-Carbon Development Path of China’s Automotive Industry

China’s automotive industry has been dedicated to a series of carbon-reduction efforts and has strived for comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation in order to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. On the basis of automobiles’ whole life-cycle (WLC) carbon emission accounting, this paper calculates life-cycle carbon emissions per vehicle, proposes green and low-carbon development path for China’s automotive industry, quantifies and analyzes implicated carbon-reduction potential, and puts forth suggestions for high-quality green and low-carbon development of China’s automotive industry. The first is to establish a sound standard and data management system; the second is to promote research, development and application of low-carbon materials and low-carbon technologies; the third is to accelerate the pace of fostering a new consumption model in the automotive industry. The research results can further support national policy-making regarding carbon emissions, promote corporations’ research, development and application of low-carbon technologies, encourage green and low-carbon consumption, and lead the automotive industry to achieve WLC neutrality.

Analysis of the Factors Affecting China’s Manufacturing Servitization from the Perspective of the Ecological Environment

Manufacturing servitization (MS) can effectively alleviate the contradiction between economic growth and ecological carrying capacity and can promote energy conservation and emission reduction in the manufacturing industry (MI). However, China’s MI is in the primary stage of servitization and lacks sufficient ability to provide services; thus, the environmental benefits of MS are not obvious. Therefore, in the context of current pressure to normalize environmental protection, how servitization can drive low-carbon development in MI while taking into account economic development has become an important topic at present. Thus, this study constructs an evaluation index system of factors based on a driver–pressure–state–impact–response (DPSIR) model, and uses the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) model to analyze the causal relationship and key elements among the influencing factors. The results show that from the perspective of the ecological environment, many factors affect MS, although to varying degrees. Among them, the proportion of R&D personnel, input intensity, and the proportion of clean energy are the main factors. Based on the transmission mechanism among these factors, we propose two paths to realizing the service-oriented, low-carbon development of China’s MI.

Dynamic evaluation of low-carbon development in China's power industry and the impact of carbon market policies

At the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, China clearly put forward the goals of "carbon peak" in 2030 and "carbon neutrality" in 2060. Achievement of carbon targets. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to analyze the low-carbon development level of China's power industry and study the impact of carbon market policies on the low-carbon development level of the power industry. Based on this, this paper first constructs the low-carbon development evaluation index system of the power industry around the connotation of low-carbon development in the power industry and uses the global principal component analysis model to measure the low-carbon development level of China's power industry. Then, the dynamic change trend and spatial distribution characteristics of the low-carbon development level of China's power industry are analyzed using kernel density estimation and the K-means clustering method. Finally, propensity score matching and difference-in-difference methods are used to analyze the impact of carbon market policies on the low-carbon development level of China's power industry. The results show that, first, the low-carbon development level of China's power industry generally shows an upward trend and a polarized development trend. Second, the low-carbon development level of China's power industry has regional effects and gradient effects. The low-carbon development level of the power industry from high to low is the eastern region, central region and western region. Third, carbon market policies can help improve the low-carbon development level of China's power industry. The research results provide some reference and guidance for the evaluation of the low-carbon development level of China's power industry and the improvement of carbon market policies.

How digital economy lead to low-carbon development in China? The case of e-commerce city pilot reform

E-commerce has emerged through digital platforms and Internet construction as an important way to achieve low-carbon development in China. To evaluate the mitigation effect of e-commerce, this paper conducts a quasi-natural experiment in terms of the pilot policy of national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) to explore the changes in CO2 emissions of 270 cities from 2004 to 2017 in China. We also check the asymmetry, mechanism effects and heterogeneity. The results show that the treated cities reduce CO2 emissions by 4.1% due to the NEDC pilot policy compared to the untreated cities. The estimated results pass the parallel trend test, robustness tests, and the Goodman-Bacon decomposition. Moreover, the NEDC pilot policy increases the CO2 emissions of treated cities by promoting economic growth (scale effect), and decreases the carbon emissions of treated cities by upgrading the industrial structure (structural effect) and increasing the technological innovation level (technical effect). Furthermore, the CO2 mitigation effects of the NEDC pilot policy are significantly concentrated in the higher quantiles. Finally, the NEDC pilot policy has significantly negative effects on CO2 emissions in “postage-free regions,” southern China, and cities with large e-commerce sales. The results of this paper provide theoretical and practical references for China to achieve low-carbon development.

Embodied Carbon Emissions in China’s Building Sector: Historical Track from 2005 to 2020

China’s large-scale construction has led to massive energy consumption and carbon emissions. The embodied carbon emissions (ECs) of China’s building sector play a key role in realizing national emission reduction targets. Currently, the understanding of the status quo of ECs is vague and inconsistent, and the existing accounting models still have several limitations. Therefore, this study develops two improved models (i.e., the process-based and the input-output-based life cycle assessment models) and dynamic accounting datasets to reveal historical trends and emission characteristics of ECs from 2005 to 2020. The results show that the total ECs in 2020 were as high as 2.28 billion tCO2, accounting for 25.2% of China’s total energy-related carbon emissions. The indirect ECs are the largest contributor, representing 95.9% of the total building ECs. The ECs increased quickly at first and entered a plateau, stable at about 2.2 billion tCO2 after 2015. From 2005 to 2020, the total building ECs contributed 38.7% to the national carbon emission growth, while the intensity of ECs showed a downward trend, indicating that the increase in China’s building ECs is scale-driven. This study provides sound methodological, and data support for emission tracing and the low-carbon development of China’s building sector.

Differential Spatiotemporal Patterns of CO2 Emissions in Eastern China’s Urban Agglomerations from NPP/VIIRS Nighttime Light Data Based on a Neural Network Algorithm

Urban agglomerations, such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, are the key regions for energy conservation, carbon emission reduction and low-carbon development in China. However, spatiotemporal patterns of CO2 emissions at fine scale in these major urban agglomerations are not well documented. In this study, a back propagation neural network based on genetic algorithm optimization (GABP) coupled with NPP/VIIRS nighttime light datasets was established to estimate the CO2 emissions of China’s three major urban agglomerations at 500 m resolution from 2014 to 2019. The results showed that spatial patterns of CO2 emissions presented three-core distribution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, multiple-core distribution in the Yangtze River Delta, and null-core distribution in the Pearl River Delta. Temporal patterns of CO2 emissions showed upward trends in 28.74–43.99% of the total areas while downward trends were shown in 13.47–15.43% of the total areas in three urban agglomerations. The total amount of CO2 emissions in urban areas was largest among urban circles, followed by first-level urban circles and second-level urban circles. The profiles of CO2 emissions along urbanization gradients featured high peaks and wide ranges in large cities, and low peaks and narrow ranges in small cities. Population density primarily impacted the spatial pattern of CO2 emissions among urban agglomerations, followed by terrain slope. These findings suggested that differences in urban agglomerations should be taken into consideration in formulating emission reduction policies.