State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, Jiangsu 210023, PR China.
Research Center for Energy Economics & Low-Carbon Development, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108; China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, Xiamen University, Fujian 361005, PR China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 1;806(Pt 1):150311. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150311. Epub 2021 Sep 14.
Carbon trading scheme is an instrument adopted in many countries of the world to reduce CO emissions. As an important way of environmental regulation, whether it can reduce the emissions and promote the economic development at the same time needs further investigation. This paper tests whether the Porter Hypothesis is true in China's carbon emissions trading scheme for energy intensive industries. Using provincial-level, industrial-level and firm-level data, we construct a DEA model that can incorporate the emissions trading behavior among different decision making units to show that the carbon emissions trading scheme can only reduce the CO emissions but cannot increase the output significantly. That is, the carbon intensity is decreased. The reason is that the carbon trading scheme is conducive to the improvement of the production efficiency, and firm-level research and development input increases after carbon trading scheme. These findings are robust to several robustness checks. Our paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the carbon emissions trading scheme in reducing emissions. An external technological breakthrough is needed if the win-win situation of reducing CO emissions and promoting economic development simultaneously is wanted to be achieved.
碳排放交易计划是世界上许多国家采用的减少二氧化碳排放的工具。作为一种重要的环境监管方式，它是否能同时减少排放并促进经济发展需要进一步研究。本文检验了波特假说在中国能源密集型产业碳排放交易计划中的适用性。我们利用省级、产业级和企业级数据，构建了一个可以纳入不同决策单元之间碳排放交易行为的 DEA 模型，结果表明，碳排放交易计划只能显著降低二氧化碳排放，而不能显著提高产出。也就是说，碳强度降低了。原因是碳交易计划有利于提高生产效率，碳交易计划后企业层面的研发投入增加。这些发现经过多次稳健性检验都是稳健的。本文证明了碳排放交易计划在减少排放方面的有效性。如果要实现同时减少二氧化碳排放和促进经济发展的双赢局面，就需要外部技术突破。
