Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility
Climate change is one of the largest challenges facing mankind, and the question of how to reduce carbon emissions has raised extensive concern all over the world. However, due to the lack of mechanisms to explain the impact of political factors on environmental regulatory tools, the evaluation of c...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Land |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/4/903 |
| _version_ | 1797604698005438464 |
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| author | Zhichao Li Bojia Liu |
| author_facet | Zhichao Li Bojia Liu |
| author_sort | Zhichao Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate change is one of the largest challenges facing mankind, and the question of how to reduce carbon emissions has raised extensive concern all over the world. However, due to the lack of mechanisms to explain the impact of political factors on environmental regulatory tools, the evaluation of carbon emissions reduction is insufficient in the majority of previous studies. How to better explore the path of carbon emissions reduction has become the key for China to achieve carbon neutralization as soon as possible. Based on a quasi-natural experiment regarding China’s carbon emission trading policy, this paper adopts a difference-in-differences model to address the impact of political mobility on China’s carbon emissions trading policy, and the selected pilot and non-pilot provinces of this policy in China enabled the model to be matched. Using a panel database with 30 provincial administrative units as the observation objects, the results show that China’s carbon emissions trading policy and the horizontal mobility experience of the provincial governors exert a significant positive effect on carbon emission reduction. Additionally, this study identifies a latent factor previously ignored by the existing literature: the correlation between political factors and carbon emissions. This verifies our theoretical hypothesis that officials transferred from the provincial level tend to have higher performance regarding carbon emission reduction. This paper also provides suggestions for the central government to further plan and implement carbon emission reduction policies and mobilize the incentives of local officials in environmental governance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:50:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d0a4d69efb414ed8b4174f8e629085e0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-445X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:50:26Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Land |
| spelling | doaj.art-d0a4d69efb414ed8b4174f8e629085e02023-11-17T20:03:53ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2023-04-0112490310.3390/land12040903Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political MobilityZhichao Li0Bojia Liu1School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, ChinaSchool of Public Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, ChinaClimate change is one of the largest challenges facing mankind, and the question of how to reduce carbon emissions has raised extensive concern all over the world. However, due to the lack of mechanisms to explain the impact of political factors on environmental regulatory tools, the evaluation of carbon emissions reduction is insufficient in the majority of previous studies. How to better explore the path of carbon emissions reduction has become the key for China to achieve carbon neutralization as soon as possible. Based on a quasi-natural experiment regarding China’s carbon emission trading policy, this paper adopts a difference-in-differences model to address the impact of political mobility on China’s carbon emissions trading policy, and the selected pilot and non-pilot provinces of this policy in China enabled the model to be matched. Using a panel database with 30 provincial administrative units as the observation objects, the results show that China’s carbon emissions trading policy and the horizontal mobility experience of the provincial governors exert a significant positive effect on carbon emission reduction. Additionally, this study identifies a latent factor previously ignored by the existing literature: the correlation between political factors and carbon emissions. This verifies our theoretical hypothesis that officials transferred from the provincial level tend to have higher performance regarding carbon emission reduction. This paper also provides suggestions for the central government to further plan and implement carbon emission reduction policies and mobilize the incentives of local officials in environmental governance.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/4/903carbon emissions tradingpolitical mobilitydifference-in-differences modelpolicy evaluation |
| spellingShingle | Zhichao Li Bojia Liu Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility Land carbon emissions trading political mobility difference-in-differences model policy evaluation |
| title | Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility |
| title_full | Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility |
| title_fullStr | Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility |
| title_short | Understanding Carbon Emissions Reduction in China: Perspectives of Political Mobility |
| title_sort | understanding carbon emissions reduction in china perspectives of political mobility |
| topic | carbon emissions trading political mobility difference-in-differences model policy evaluation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/4/903 |
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