Agglomeration production, industry association and carbon emission performance: based on spatial analysis

Abstract

Current emission reduction policies have struggled to adapt to the reality of industrial spatial agglomeration and increasing industrial linkages. In response, this paper incorporates new economic geography factors such as agglomeration production and industrial (trade) association into the analysis framework of carbon emission performance factors through China’s provincial panel data and conducts empirical research. It has been found that large-scale industrial production under economic agglomeration is conducive to improving carbon emission performance and that different forms of agglomeration at different degrees of agglomeration correspond to different carbon emission performances. As the degree of agglomeration increases, the effect of reducing emissions by specialized agglomeration decreases while the effect of reducing emissions by diversified agglomeration increases. Specialized agglomeration externalities and diversified agglomeration externalities can coexist at the same time, depending on the appropriate degree of agglomeration. There is a strong negative environmental efficiency effect in the provinces with close commodity trade links, which has triggered environmental dumping and pollution transfer between provinces. In the work of energy conservation and emission reduction, we must attach great importance to the hidden carbon in domestic merchandise trade and the resulting intergovernmental environmental game, and furthermore, give full play to the “self-purification” effect of aggregate production on energy conservation and emission reduction.