How Environmental Regulations Impact Carbon Emissions

Abstract

Achieving the "dual carbon" goals is crucial for China's sustainable development. From the perspective of industrial structure upgrading, using panel data from 279 prefecture-level and above cities nationwide from 2007 to 2021, this study empirically examines the effect of environmental regulations on carbon emissions and their underlying mechanisms. The research findings are as follows: (1) Environmental regulations significantly suppress carbon emissions, a conclusion robust across various sensitivity analyses; (2) From the viewpoint of industrial structure upgrading, utilizing panel data from 279 prefecture-level and above cities nationwide from 2007 to 2021, this study empirically examines the effect of environmental regulations on carbon emissions and their underlying mechanisms. The research findings are as follows: (1) Environmental regulations significantly suppress carbon emissions, a conclusion that remains robust after rigorous testing; (2) The mediating effect indicates that environmental regulations influence carbon emissions through promoting industrial structure upgrading; (3) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the carbon emission reduction effects of environmental regulations are more pronounced in western region cities, resource-based cities, and non-resource-based cities. From the perspective of industrial structure upgrading, this study provides new empirical evidence and detailed transmission mechanisms regarding the causal relationship between environmental regulations and carbon emissions.