IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i21p14467-d963617.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecological Effect Assessment of Low-Carbon City Construction in China

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Yin

    (College of Intelligent Science and Control Engineering, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211169, China)

  • Jin Guo

    (School of Business, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China)

Abstract

This paper takes the second batch of low-carbon pilot cities in China as the research object and selects the Urban Health Ecological Index to measure the green development level of cities, aiming to explore and evaluate the theoretical mechanism and policy effect of low-carbon pilot projects to promote the coordinated development of urban economy, society and the environment. The research conclusions show that: ① The low-carbon city pilot project is conducive to support the pilot cities to build a low-carbon industrial system, advocate a low-carbon lifestyle, establish a low-carbon evaluation system, and then play a positive role in promoting the green development level of the city; ② By applying the Propensity Score Matching–Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) model, the empirical analysis finds that after the implementation of the pilot policy, the green development level of low-carbon pilot cities has been significantly improved, and this conclusion is still stable in the parallel trend test, counterfactual test and sample expansion test; ③ In terms of regional heterogeneity, the low-carbon pilot projects have a more significant policy effect on promoting the green development of provincial capitals and eastern cities. Strict administrative supervision in provincial capitals and good economic foundations in eastern cities have had a positive moderating effect on the policy effect of low-carbon pilot projects. Finally, this paper discusses how to realize the ecological effects of low-carbon city pilot projects and put forward some relevant policy suggestions.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Yin & Jin Guo, 2022. "Ecological Effect Assessment of Low-Carbon City Construction in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14467-:d:963617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14467/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14467/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanna, Rema & Oliva, Paulina, 2015. "The effect of pollution on labor supply: Evidence from a natural experiment in Mexico City," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 68-79.
    2. Ying QU & Yue LIU, 2017. "Evaluating the low-carbon development of urban China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 939-953, June.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    4. Muhammad Shahbaz & Smile Dube & Ilhan Ozturk & Abdul Jalil, 2015. "Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in Portugal," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 475-481.
    5. Huo, Weidong & Qi, Jie & Yang, Tong & Liu, Jialu & Liu, Miaomiao & Zhou, Ziqi, 2022. "Effects of China's pilot low-carbon city policy on carbon emission reduction: A quasi-natural experiment based on satellite data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Karine Nyborg, 2020. "No Man is an Island: Social Coordination and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(1), pages 177-193, May.
    7. Chen, Lifeng & Wang, Kaifeng, 2022. "The spatial spillover effect of low-carbon city pilot scheme on green efficiency in China's cities: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    8. Joao J. M. Ferreira & Cristina Fernandes & Vanessa Ratten, 2019. "The effects of technology transfers and institutional factors on economic growth: evidence from Europe and Oceania," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1505-1528, October.
    9. Norgaard, Kari Marie, 2009. "Cognitive and behavioral challenges in responding to climate change," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4940, The World Bank.
    10. Zhang, L.P. & Zhou, P., 2018. "A non-compensatory composite indicator approach to assessing low-carbon performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 352-361.
    11. Joël Berger, 2021. "Social Tipping Interventions Can Promote the Diffusion or Decay of Sustainable Consumption Norms in the Field. Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Zhu, Bangzhu & Zhang, Mengfan & Zhou, Yanhua & Wang, Ping & Sheng, Jichuan & He, Kaijian & Wei, Yi-Ming & Xie, Rui, 2019. "Exploring the effect of industrial structure adjustment on interprovincial green development efficiency in China: A novel integrated approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Longyu Shi & Xueqin Xiang & Wei Zhu & Lijie Gao, 2018. "Standardization of the Evaluation Index System for Low-Carbon Cities in China: A Case Study of Xiamen," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    14. Jin Guo & Junhong Bai, 2019. "The Role of Public Participation in Environmental Governance: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    15. Cranston, G.R. & Hammond, G.P., 2010. "North and south: Regional footprints on the transition pathway towards a low carbon, global economy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(9), pages 2945-2951, September.
    16. Tan, Sieting & Yang, Jin & Yan, Jinyue & Lee, Chewtin & Hashim, Haslenda & Chen, Bin, 2017. "A holistic low carbon city indicator framework for sustainable development," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1919-1930.
    17. Lin, Boqiang & Zhou, Yicheng, 2022. "Measuring the green economic growth in China: Influencing factors and policy perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    18. Feng Tao & Huiqin Zhang & Yi Hu & Andrew A. Duncan, 2017. "Growth of Green Total Factor Productivity and Its Determinants of Cities in China: A Spatial Econometric Approach," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 2123-2140, September.
    19. Mingxing Chen & Hua Zhang & Weidong Liu & Wenzhong Zhang, 2014. "The Global Pattern of Urbanization and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Three Decades," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    20. Yongsheng Sun & Lianjun Tong & Daqian Liu, 2020. "An Empirical Study of the Measurement of Spatial-Temporal Patterns and Obstacles in the Green Development of Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-19, December.
    21. Mitchell, Catherine & Connor, Peter, 2004. "Renewable energy policy in the UK 1990-2003," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(17), pages 1935-1947, November.
    22. Garmendia, Eneko & Stagl, Sigrid, 2010. "Public participation for sustainability and social learning: Concepts and lessons from three case studies in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1712-1722, June.
    23. Junfeng Yang & Kun Lei & Soonthiam Khu & Wei Meng, 2015. "Assessment of Water Resources Carrying Capacity for Sustainable Development Based on a System Dynamics Model: A Case Study of Tieling City, China," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(3), pages 885-899, February.
    24. Jinling Yan & Junfeng Zhao & Xiaodong Yang & Xufeng Su & Hailing Wang & Qiying Ran & Jianliang Shen, 2021. "Does Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Alleviate Urban Haze Pollution? Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-20, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cai, Bofeng & Guo, Huanxiu & Ma, Zipeng & Wang, Zhixuan & Dhakal, Shobhakar & Cao, Libin, 2019. "Benchmarking carbon emissions efficiency in Chinese cities: A comparative study based on high-resolution gridded data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 994-1009.
    2. Du, Xiaoyun & Meng, Conghui & Guo, Zhenhua & Yan, Hang, 2023. "An improved approach for measuring the efficiency of low carbon city practice in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    3. Guorong Chen & Changyan Liu, 2023. "Can Low–Carbon City Development Stimulate Population Growth? Insights from China’s Low–Carbon Pilot Program," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Aldieri, Luigi & Bruno, Bruna & Makkonen, Teemu & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2023. "Environmental innovations, geographically mediated knowledge spillovers, economic and environmental performance," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Longyu Shi & Xueqin Xiang & Wei Zhu & Lijie Gao, 2018. "Standardization of the Evaluation Index System for Low-Carbon Cities in China: A Case Study of Xiamen," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    6. Rui Zhang & Yong Ma & Jie Ren, 2022. "Green Development Performance Evaluation Based on Dual Perspectives of Level and Efficiency: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-24, July.
    7. He Zhang & Jingyi Peng & Dahlia Yu & Lie You & Rui Wang, 2021. "Carbon Emission Governance Zones at the County Level to Promote Sustainable Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal & James Scott Cardinal, 2023. "The Behavior of Information: A Reconsideration of Social Norms," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, April.
    9. Kun Chen & Yinrong Chen & Qingying Zhu & Min Liu, 2022. "The Relationship between Environmental Regulation, Industrial Transformation Change and Urban Low-Carbon Development: Evidence from 282 Cities in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, October.
    10. Zhang, Shuo & Yu, Yadong & Kharrazi, Ali & Ren, Hongtao & Ma, Tieju, 2022. "How can structural change contribute to concurrent sustainability policy targets on GDP, emissions, energy, and employment in China?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    11. Feng, Yidai & Yuan, Huaxi & Liu, Yaobin & Zhang, Shaohui, 2023. "Does new-type urbanization policy promote green energy efficiency? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    12. Michael Greenstone & B. Kelsey Jack, 2013. "Envirodevonomics: A Research Agenda for a Young Field," NBER Working Papers 19426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Zhu, Chen & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "The effects of low-carbon pilot policy on technological innovation: Evidence from prefecture-level data in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    14. Ben Groom & Zachary Turk, 2021. "Reflections on the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(1), pages 1-23, May.
    15. Qiang He & Xin Deng & Chuan Li & Zhongcheng Yan & Yanbin Qi, 2021. "Do Internet Skills Increase Farmers’ Willingness to Participate in Environmental Governance? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, November.
    16. Zhang, Bingbing & Yu, Lan & Sun, Chuanwang, 2022. "How does urban environmental legislation guide the green transition of enterprises? Based on the perspective of enterprises' green total factor productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    17. Wang, Kai-Hua & Umar, Muhammad & Akram, Rabia & Caglar, Ersin, 2021. "Is technological innovation making world "Greener"? An evidence from changing growth story of China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    18. Gutiérrez, Emilio & Teshima, Kensuke, 2018. "Abatement expenditures, technology choice, and environmental performance: Evidence from firm responses to import competition in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 264-274.
    19. Jiaxin Li & Shaoguo Zhan & Teng Huang & Debo Nie, 2022. "The Green Innovation Effect of Environmental Regulation: A Quasi–Natural Experiment from China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-15, October.
    20. Nana Jiang & Wei Jiang & Haibo Chen, 2023. "Innovative urban design for low‐carbon sustainable development: Evidence from China's innovative city pilots," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 698-715, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14467-:d:963617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.