Impact of policy combinations on carbon emission performance: evidence from China

• Published in: Clean technologies and environmental policy Vol. 26; no. 9; pp. 3069 - 3088
• Main Authors: Zhou, Anhua, Li, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon; Cities; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Earth and Environmental Science; Emission analysis; Emission measurements; Emissions; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Impact analysis; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Matching; Original Paper; Sustainable Development; Technological change; China; Policy combinations; Propensity score matching difference-in-differences; Super efficiency epsilon-based measure model; Carbon emission performance; China
• ISSN: 1618-954X; 1618-9558
• DOI: 10.1007/s10098-024-02773-7

Enhancing carbon emission performance was crucial to achieving carbon neutrality goals. However, few studies have explored the driving mechanisms of carbon emission performance from the perspective of policy combinations. This study combined new energy demonstration cities and low-carbon cities as the subjects of policy combinations and analysed the impact of these two policy combinations on carbon emission performance. This study integrated the superefficiency epsilon-based measure model and the propensity score matching difference-in-differences method. We utilized panel data from 2007 to 2020 covering 271 Chinese cities to investigate the effects of these two policy combinations on carbon emission performance. First, this study employed the superefficiency epsilon-based measure model to measure carbon emission performance. Subsequently, the propensity score matching difference-in-differences approach was used to assess policy effects. The results indicated that the combination of these two policies significantly enhanced carbon emission performance, with a combined effect surpassing that of independent policy impacts by 48.47%. Furthermore, this study revealed that these two policy combinations enhanced carbon emission performance through green technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading. This study offers new insights for improving carbon emission performance, provides fresh perspectives for selecting pilot cities, and provides empirical evidence from China for the international community to adopt policy combination strategies for climate change mitigation. Graphical abstract