Synergistic effect of industrial air pollution and carbon emission reduction in China and influencing mechanism

Abstract

The industrial sector is the main source of air pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions, and is also the main contributor to the implementation of promoting synergies and increasing efficiency of pollution and carbon emission reduction in China. Based on China's industrial provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this study used the fixed effect model and the parallel multiple modulation model to analyze the synergistic effect of industrial pollution reduction and carbon emission reduction and its influencing mechanism. The results show that: (1) There is obvious synergistic effect of pollution and carbon emission reduction in China's industry, that is, reducing the emission equivalent of air pollutants will significantly promote the reduction of carbon emissions; (2) Energy efficiency, energy consumption structure, industrial structure, and investment scale are important regulatory variables that affect the synergistic effect. Among them, energy efficiency has a positive regulatory effect on the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon emission reduction, while energy consumption structure, industrial structure, and investment scale have a negative regulatory effect on the synergistic effect; (3) The synergistic effect of industrial pollution and carbon emission reduction in the eastern, central, and western regions of China is evidently different, and there is a clear regional heterogeneity of different regulatory factors on the synergistic effect, among which industrial structure factors have a strong regulatory effect on the synergistic effect in all regions. Finally, this article put forward some recommendations on industrial pollution and carbon emission reduction synergy from the aspects of energy structure adjustment, industrial structure optimization, energy efficiency improvement, and regional differentiated strategies.