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As an essential factor of production in economic development, land is an important tool for local governments to boost economic growth. The goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality will push local governments to change the extensive mode of attracting high energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises by transferring industrial land at low prices. The lowcarbon city pilot policy is important for China to achieve green and low-carbon economic transformation and sustainable development. This policy will inevitably influence the land transfer behavior of local governments in heavily polluting industries. Based on the panel data of 286 cities from 2007 to 2019, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and used the time-varying difference-in-differences method to empirically study the relationship between the pilot policy and the land transfer behavior of local governments. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy significantly reduced the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. The above conclusions still held after a series of robustness tests. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on land transfer in heavily polluting industries was affected by the intensity of environmental regulation of local governments and the tenure of officials. The stronger the intensity of environmental regulation in the pilot city became, the more the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were reduced. When the tenure of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee in the pilot city was less than or equal to 3 years, the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were significantly reduced. However, the age of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee had no significant impact on the land transfer in heavily polluting industries. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that non-resource-based cities, cities with high levels of economic development, and large cities displayed a higher reduction in the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. Based on these, this paper puts forward suggestions from three aspects: we should further promote the low-carbon city pilot policy, add environmental objectives to the assessment system of officials to increase the constraints of environmental objectives, and formulate and implement environmental policies in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovation (PZGFRI) is one of the important green finance policies in China and also an important means to achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. To further study the improvement effects of the PZGFRI on air quality, this study selected near-ground ozone concentration as the research object and empirically analyzed the impact of the PZGFRI on urban near-ground ozone pollution using the panel data of 215 cities in China from 2014 to 2019 by using the differential method and the synthetic control method. It further explored the moderating effect of foreign direct investment and financial development level and carried out robustness test by using event study, the placebo test, substitution of explained variables, control of other environmental policies, and quarterly data. The conclusions were as follows: ① During the sample period, the PZGFRI significantly reduced near-ground ozone pollution. There was heterogeneity in the impact of the PZGFRI in different geographical regions on near-ground ozone pollution. ② In the samples from the national level and the eastern region, foreign direct investment itself did not directly cause a significant‘ Pollution Heaven’ effect, but the increase of foreign direct investment was not conducive to the control of ozone pollution in the PZGFRI and indirectly caused the‘ Pollution Heaven’ effect. However, in the central and western regions, the increase of foreign direct investment was conducive to promoting the control of ozone pollution in the PZGFRI, which indirectly brought about the‘ Pollution Halo’ effect. ③ In the samples from the national level and the eastern region, the financial development level had no significant impact on ozone pollution itself, but the PZGFRI had a better effect on controlling ozone pollution in cities with a higher financial development level, i.e., the improvement of financial development level had strengthened the control effect of the PZGFRI on ozone pollution. However, in the central and western regions, the improvement in the financial development level did not significantly enhance the ozone pollution control effect of the PZGFRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]