State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 3;19(17):11025. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191711025.
Economic development and environmental conservation are two important challenges for China. A series of initiatives including Eco-province (EP) policies have been taken to achieve sustainable development by the Chinese government. Increasing concerns regarding policy implications on sustainable development have increased attention to the topic. However, the research on the relationship between economic development and pollutant (COD, SO) emission intensities after the implementation of EP policy remains inadequate. We applied a Time-Varying Difference-in-Differences Model by employing Chinese provincial panel data to quantitatively study the policy effect, and further utilized the Mediating Effect Model to analyze the mechanism. The article generates several findings: (1) The EP policy had overall inhibitory effects on both COD and SO emission intensities, and it would reduce the emission intensity by 4.99% and 6.77% on average, respectively. However, there was a five year lag in the policy effect. (2) The policy effect was significant in the western and central provinces with high pollutant emission intensities, but not in the eastern provinces. (3) The primary inhibiting mediating effects of Eco-province policy to lower pollutant emission intensity were increased GDP per capita and inventions.
经济发展与环境保护是中国面临的两项重要挑战。中国政府采取了一系列包括生态省份（EP）政策在内的措施，以实现可持续发展。由于人们越来越关注政策对可持续发展的影响，该主题受到了更多关注。然而，对于 EP 政策实施后经济发展与污染物（COD、SO）排放强度之间的关系的研究仍不够充分。我们应用时变双重差分模型，利用中国省级面板数据进行定量研究，进一步利用中介效应模型分析了作用机制。本文得出以下几点结论：（1）EP 政策对 COD 和 SO 排放强度均具有总体抑制作用，平均分别降低排放强度 4.99%和 6.77%。但政策效果存在 5 年滞后。（2）政策效果在污染排放强度较高的西部和中部省份显著，但在东部省份不显著。（3）生态省份政策降低污染物排放强度的主要中介抑制效应是人均 GDP 和发明的增加。
