The impacts of China's provincial energy policies on major air pollutants: A spatial econometric analysis

The production and consumption of energy is the predominant source of air pollution worldwide. Thus, governmental energy control policies may lead to large reductions in air pollutant emissions. Energy policies can be broadly categorized into two types based on their policy goals. First are emission reduction policies, identified as throttling measures, which aim to reduce emissions from the source; second are renewable energy policies, which are dedicated to the development and promotion of renewable energy. This paper employs a spatial econometric method to empirically test the effects of these two types of energy policies on China's emissions of major air pollutants, namely PM10, PM2.5, and SO2, using panel data from 27 provinces and four direct-controlled municipalities over the period from 2003 to 2016. The results offer evidence that provincial emission reduction policies have positive impacts on reduction of PM10, whereas provincial renewable energy policies have positive impacts on the reduction of SO2 and PM2.5. The results also show that energy policies in one province can influence emissions of pollutants in neighbouring provinces due to policy spillover effects. Several policy implications are made based on the research findings.