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The core of low-carbon development lies in reducing carbon sources and increasing carbon sinks, and the construction of free trade zones (FTZs), as an experimental field for China' s comprehensively deepening reforms, is of great significance to urban lowcarbon development. Based on the panel data from 288 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper first comprehensively evaluated the carbon neutrality levels of cities from two aspects: carbon emission and sequestration. Then, it used the multi-period difference-indifferences method and the spatial Durbin model to explore the 'low carbon effect' of the establishment of FTZs. The results showed that: the establishment of FTZs had a significant impact on the low-carbon development of the cities where they were located. Specifically, the establishment of FTZs could drive urban low-carbon development from within the cities by improving their digitization and resource allocation efficiency. At the same time, increased government attention to green development enhanced the carbon emission disincentive and boosted carbon uptake facilitation, fostering a more robust urban low-carbon development. Moreover, the carbon emission suppression effect, carbon absorption promotion effect, and carbon neutral effect of establishing the FTZs varied according to the batches of the establishment, city location, and city characteristics. The 'low-carbon effect' of the first two batches of FTZs, the region south of the Qinling-Huaihe River, and the cities with a higher degree of openness were more pronounced overall. Furthermore, the establishment of the FTZs also had a certain spatial spillover effect on urban low-carbon development. Based on these findings, the paper suggests prioritizing top-level design, exerting comparative advantages, and promoting the low-carbon development benchmark area in a gradient manner. Acceleration of trade facilitation and digital financial reform, promotion of the digital transformation of traditional industries with advantages, and encouragement of digital and low-carbon deep integration are also recommended. The introduction of highquality foreign investment should be combined with the improvement of the effectiveness of supervision and services to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. The study proposes leveraging digital platforms and free trade alliances to maximize the FTZs' catalytic effects. Overall, this study offers significant theoretical and practical insights for enhancing the construction of the FTZs, promoting urban low-carbon development, and advancing towards the goal of carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy conservation and low carbon action plan in the Top-10 000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program (T10000P) was an important policy underpinning for achieving the constrained targets of energy consumption and carbon emission reduction during the 12th Five Year Plan period, and is a representative large-scale national energy saving and emission reduction policy with Chinese characteristics. Green technology innovation (GTI) is an important driving force for green development and enterprises are the main participants of GTI. In view of the fact that T10000P is an exogenous shock and based on the green patent panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2004 to 2018, this paper employed the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the count data model to examine the impact of T10000P on GTI at the micro level. Moreover, this paper designed an intermediary effect model to study the mediating role of local governments in the process of T10000P affecting corporate GTI and conducted the triple difference model to study the heterogeneity of T10000P on corporate GTI. The study showed that: ① T10000P significantly promoted corporate GTI. ②Considering the excessive discretization and zero inflation of the data, the regression results of the count data model further supported the conclusion.③The conclusion was still robust after a series of robustness tests such as variable index change, placebo test, and post-matching regression. ④ The assessment constraint of T10000P on local governments affected the subsidies to the top-10 000 enterprises, which promoted their GTI level. ⑤ The GTI effect of T10000P had dynamic characteristics in time, marginal characteristics in innovation level, and heterogeneous characteristics in cooperate property rights: the effects were significant during the policy implementation period, but not significant when the policy phased out. Compared with the regions with low urban innovation index, the promotion effect of T10000P on cooperate GTI was more significant in the regions with high urban innovation index. Compared with private enterprises, the promotion effect of T10000P policy on cooperate GTI was more significant in state-owned enterprises. Based on these conclusions, policy design should be optimized to actively guide enterprises to improve the level of GTI. The green-oriented assessment system for local government should be improved. The environmental regulation and innovation incentive policies should be implemented according to enterprises' conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green credit is an important financial tool to promote the transformation of the low-carbon economy. On the basis of clarifying the theoretical mechanism of the impact of green credit on carbon emission reduction, this paper used the fixed effect stochastic frontier model containing unexpected output to measure the total factor carbon productivity of 156 cities in China from 2000 to 2019 and empirically tested the carbon emission reduction effect of green credit and its mechanism from the three dimensions of productivity, intensity, and total amount. The research found that: ① Green credit development significantly improved total factor carbon productivity and reduced carbon emission intensity, but the average impact on total carbon emissions was not significant. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests and treatments of endogeneity problems. ② The carbon emission reduction effect of green credit was heterogeneous due to differences in regional location, resource endowment, and financial efficiency. In the central region, non-resource-based cities, and cities with higher financial efficiency, green credit had significant carbon reduction effects in both carbon productivity and carbon intensity dimensions, while green credit in the eastern region, resource-based cities, and cities with lower financial efficiency only reduced carbon intensity. ③ The stimulation of green innovation and the reduction of energy intensity were the most effective channels for green credit to reduce carbon emissions, whereas the mediating effect of the structural transformation channel was not yet significant. Green credit was more effective in promoting green innovation and generating positive spillovers in the green innovation channel. However, green credits were more effective in improving carbon emission efficiency in the energy intensity channel, but the role of supporting low-carbon technologies must be enhanced. ④ Environmental regulations had two moderating mechanisms, 'positive compensation' and 'negative offset,' for the carbon reduction effect of green credit. When the demand and supply of financial resources were low, strengthening environmental regulations would weaken the incentive effect of green credit on low-carbon economic transformation. The above conclusion not only provides a new research perspective and supplementary empirical evidence for understanding the environmental effects of green credit, but also provides a useful reference for further improving green credit policies and promoting the development of a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The system as a whole is composed of various interrelated sub-systems. The effect of a system will be affected by the coordination of other systems associated with it. Only when the complementarity and coordination between systems increase can the implementation effect of the system be fully brought into play. As an informal system, social trust can affect the implementation effect of formal environmental regulations, but there are few studies on the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. Based on this, the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2019 were selected as research samples. The moderating effect model and mediated moderating effect model were used to study the moderating effect and mechanism of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions. In addition, the heterogeneity of this moderating effect was tested by region. The results showed that: ① The impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions showed an inverted Ushaped nonlinear relationship, and the promotion effect of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was dominant in the present stage. FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation were important mediating channels for environmental regulations to affect carbon emissions. ② As a moderating variable, social trust positively moderated the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions and accelerated the arrival of the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve. ③ In terms of the mediating effect, the moderating effect of social trust on the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions was realized through the mediating effect of FDI, the upgrading of industrial structures, and R&D innovation, and the impact of social trust on the inflection points of the three intermediary channels was heterogeneous. ④ The moderating effect of social trust had regional heterogeneity. In small cities, the impact of social trust on environmental regulations on carbon emissions was greater than that in large and medium-sized cities. The moderating effect of social trust was greater in the cities without environmental protection than in the cities with environmental protection. The above conclusions were still valid after a series of robustness tests. It is hoped that this paper can enrich the relevant research on environmental regulations and social trust and be helpful for local governments to formulate relevant policies according to local conditions, improve the carbon emission reduction effect of environmental regulation, and accelerate the green development and transformation of Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is evolving into a crisis affecting the future of humanity. As the world' s second largest economy, China is actively involved in global climate governance, proposing to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and has successively introduced the corresponding ' 1+N' policy system. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze 23 policy texts relevant to the achievement of the goals with over 160 000 characters from the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant ministries and provinces through two typical qualitative research methods-ground theory and institutional grammar tool, to outline the elemental structure and functional profile of the pathways of China' s carbon peak and carbon neutrality policies, and to clarify the group structure and regulation intensity of different policy pathways. Based on grounded theory, it is found that these pathways are already very comprehensive and complete. Among them, the policy pathways under the administrative mechanism include: high energy consumption and high emission industrial control; regulations and standards systems; carbon reduction governance in key industries; control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption; and carbon absorption capacity of ecosystems. The policy pathways under the market mechanism include circular economy development; energy transformation development; cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions; green finance development; and green transformation development. The results of institutional grammar tool research show that relevant policy pathways are dominated by ADIC normative condition statements (177, accounting for 52%), followed by AIC strategy statements (130, accounting for 38%), while ADICO rule-based statements are the least, with only 33, accounting for 10%. Given the pressure of time constraints and heavy tasks to achieve the goals, ADICO' s institutional grammar structure is the most desirable policy statement paradigm because it is more intense in its policy regulation, and it is easier to achieve its governance effectiveness. Undoubtedly, policy regulation is an important tool to effectively alleviate the pressure of the governance of the goals and to ensure the effectiveness of such governance. Policy regulation mainly focuses on the industrial sector with high energy consumption and high emissions, relying on top-down hierarchical organization and using political mobilization and administrative decrees as means to promote governance in the high carbon emission sector. By further constructing a theoretical framework of regulation mechanisms, relevant governance paradigms are classified as ' mandatory governance' and ' flexible governance' according to the intensity of regulation. It is found that the underlying logic behind these two paradigms is precisely the mobilization of the administrative mechanism and the allocation of resources under the market mechanism. Simultaneously, with the gradual achievement of the goals and the gradual decoupling of carbon emissions from economic development, the governance logic should gradually shift from ' mandatory governance' to ' flexible governance,' and from ' administrative hierarchical mobilization' to ' balanced allocation of market resources.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]