Redai dili (Nov 2023)
Impact of Establishment of National New Area on Carbon Reduction
Abstract
In response to global climate change, China has incorporated carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into its overall economic and social development. National-level new areas are critical strategic carriers for high-quality regional economic development in China, playing an essential role in promoting carbon reduction. Objectively evaluating the carbon-emission-reduction effect of national-level new areas can help accumulate and promote China's low-carbon construction experience, and thus, comprehensively facilitate greening and ecological civilization construction. In this study, the impact of the establishment of national-level new areas on carbon emissions in their respective cities were investigated using the difference-in-difference method. The findings show that: 1) the establishment of a national-level new area can significantly minimize the carbon emissions in the city in which it is located, and after three years of establishment, it will have a significant long-term inhibitory effect on the carbon emissions of the city. This conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests, such as propensity score matching + difference-in-difference; 2) The national-level new area policy mainly reduces carbon emissions in a city through technological and energy-saving effects but cannot yet reduce them by adjusting the industrial structure. 3) The impact of the establishment of national-level new areas on the carbon emissions of surrounding cities shows an "∽" trend of increasing first, then decreasing, and subsequently increasing. It has a significant carbon-reduction effect on cities within the range of 200-250 km, indicating that national-level new areas can help promote carbon-emission reduction in surrounding cities. 4) The national-level new area policy has a higher carbon-emission-reduction effect on northern cities than on southern cities. The single-city layout model of the national-level new area has a significant carbon-emission-reduction effect on the host city, whereas the dual-city layout model does not significantly reduce the carbon emissions in the host city. This study investigated the carbon-emission-reduction effect of national-level new area policies and examined carbon-emission reduction in the national-level new areas of pilot cities through technological and energy-saving effects. This study helps to improve the theoretical understanding of national-level new area policies and carbon-emission impact mechanisms and provides a policy reference for China's promotion of the "dual-carbon" strategy.
Keywords
