Environmental Regulation And Industrial Green Transformation In Yangtze River Economic Belt

Yangtze River Economic Belt is a new force to promote the high-quality development of Chinese economy.Accelerating the industrial green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is an inevitable requirement for building a demonstration zone for ecological civilization construction and achieving high-quality development.Industry is the main source of environmental pollution.Under the constraint of the sharp drop in the marginal benefit of traditional factors,provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt are simultaneously facing the dual pressure of green development and governance transformation.On April 26,2018,Xi Jinping held a symposium on the theme of “Further Promoting the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt”,he emphasized that we should dialectically treat the relationship between economic development and ecological environment protection,as well as forcing industrial transformation and upgrading and high-quality development.Environmental regulation policy is an important tool for local governments to promote industrial green transformation.At present,the environmental regulation policies of the Yangtze River Economic Belt have some problems,such as low intensity of environmental regulation,“one-size-fits-all” policy and ineffective supervision.Study the influence of environmental regulation on the Yangtze River Economic Belt industry green transformation is helpful to formulate reasonable and effective environmental regulation policies,as well as play an important guiding role in improving the governance system of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,and also has a great practical value to the ecological civilization construction and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The research objectives of this paper include two aspects: firstly,in the aspect of theoretical research,building a theoretical analysis framework including the relationship between environmental regulation,green technology innovation,industrial restructuring and industrial green transformation,and then study how environmental regulation affects industrial green transformation systematically.secondly,take the Yangtze River Economic Belt as a sample to study the situation of environmental regulation and industrial green transformation of Yangtze River Economic Belt.Thirdly,testing the impact of environmental regulation on industrial green transformation,and define the optimal environmental regulation intensity in the heterogeneous regions of Yangtze River Economic Belt.The theoretical analysis of this paper is on the base of systematically review the academic research progress on environmental regulation and industrial green transformation,and environmental regulation theory,industrial ecology theory,“porter hypothesis”,“pollution haven hypothesis”.On the basis of the cost of environmental regulation effect,using tools of the budget constraint line,the cost curve of the pollution treatment and environment regulation price yield curve,this paper analysis the microcosmic influence mechanism of environmental regulation effect on sewage heterogeneity enterprise,as well as the basic power source of green transformation,then deduct the mediating influence mechanism and spatial spillover effect of environmental regulation effect on industrial green transformation.Lastly,from the perspective of heterogeneity of pollution emission,this paper analyzes the heterogeneous characteristics of environmental regulation affect on industrial green transformation.The empirical research is divided into two parts,which are characteristic fact research and empirical test.This paper takes 30 provinces of China and 110 cities in Yangtze River Economic Belt as sample.Firstly,study the heterogeneity of pollution discharge in the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the entropy weight method-Topsis evaluation model.Secondly,measure the industrial green transformation efficiency of Yangtze River Economic Belt by Super-SBM model,and analysis the dynamic evolution characteristics by the nonparametric kernel density estimation.Then,analysis the source of power and loss.by using index of GML and input-output redundancy.Thirdly,comparing the differences between upper,middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze Economic Belt,as well as the heterogeneous areas of pollution discharge,and the three major urban agglomerations.Then,draw maps for visual presentation by Arcgis10.5 software.Finally,using GML index and input-output redundancy to analyze the source of power and efficiency loss of industrial green transformation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The empirical research is testing the “Porter hypothesis”,which is based on issues of environmental regulation and industrial green transformation of Yangtze River Economic Belt.Firstly,study the linear and nonlinear effects of environmental regulation to the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by OLS model.Secondly,analyze endogeneity problems between environmental regulation to the green transformation by OLS model which is based on instrumental variables.Thirdly,study the spatial spillover effect of environmental regulation on industrial green transformation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt by means of spatial econometric model.Lastly,study the intermediary mechanism of environmental regulation affecting the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by three-stage OLS model and panel threshold model.The research results based on the characteristics of environmental regulation and industrial green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt show that the environmental regulation intensity of the Yangtze River Economic Belt showing an overall trend of “convergence”,which is lower than the national average level,but there are great differences between the upper,middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,so as well as the heterogeneity of pollution discharge and the three major urban agglomerations.The industrial green transformation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt showing a dynamic “convergence”trend,which is lower than the national average level,and it still belongs to the extensive development mode.The green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is driven by the efficiency of green technology and the progress of green technology.The loss of efficiency comes from the high redundant input of labor force and water resource,and the high redundant output of three kinds of undesired output.The research results based on environmental regulation to the transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt industrial green directly influence the effect of the empirical show that the Yangtze River Economic Belt environmental regulation has a positive role in promoting the industrial green transformation.The result is in tune with the “porter hypothesis”,but there is heterogeneity characteristics that the higher emission intensity region of the stronger the promoting effect of industrial transformation of green.Environmental regulation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has the nonlinear effect and the threshold effect on industrial green transformation.The relationship between environmental regulation of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the transformation of industrial green into a “J” shape.However,the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial green transformation of light pollution provinces is a “U” shape,so as to heavily polluted provinces.At the same time,the threshold effect of moderately polluted provinces and cities is not significant.There is a feature of “environmental regulation competition” between cities in Yangtze River Economic Belt.Through the path of “environmental regulation competition”,the influence of environmental regulation on the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has spatial spillover effect,and the direct and total effects of environmental regulation on the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt are both positive and significant.After analysis,we believe that the environmental regulation intensity of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is too low,and it has not fully played its role in promoting the green transformation of industry.In addition,the level of economic development has a significant positive impact on the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Factor endowment has significant positive influence and spatial spillover effect on the green transformation of industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The level of opening has little influence on the green transformation of the industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The urbanization rate has a significant negative impact on the green transformation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The research results based on environmental regulation effect of the Yangtze River Economic Belt industrial green the mediation mechanism of the transformation of the empirical show that the green technology innovation in environmental regulation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt industrial green transformation intermediary effect,and heterogeneity characteristics that exist in which green technology innovation in light pollution provinces and cities has weakened the role of environmental regulation in promoting industrial green transformation,and the innovation of green technology in medium and heavy pollution provinces and cities promotes the green transformation of industry.The green technology innovation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has a double threshold effect on the impact of environmental regulation on the industrial green transformation,which is manifested as two threshold values as nodes,and the promoting effect of environmental regulation on the industrial green transformation shows an increasing trend.However,the industrial restructuring does not play a significant mediating role.According to the above research conclusions,combined with the actual needs of ecological civilization construction and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,it is suggested to promote the green transformation of industry from three aspects.Firstly,guiding the green transformation development of the Yangtze Economic Belt according to the heterogeneity of pollutant discharge classification: improving the intensity of environmental regulation in the heterogeneous areas of the Yangtze Economic Belt by classification,and giving full play to the role of environmental regulation in promoting the green transformation of the Yangtze Economic Belt industry.Green technology catch-up effect and spilt effect of promoting industrial green transformation in heterogeneous areas of Yangtze River Economic Belt.To establish a consultation mechanism for environmental regulation policy formulation in the Yangtze Economic Belt,and to formulate environmental regulation policies in heterogeneous regions of the Yangtze Economic Belt according to different categories on the basis of full consultation.Secondly,strengthen the policy support for the green technology innovation of industrial enterprises in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: strengthen the policy support for the green technology innovation of industrial enterprises in the heavily polluted areas of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,release the long-term promoting effect of green technology innovation.We should strengthen efforts to improve green technologies for industrial enterprises in heavily polluted cities in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,and reduce the negative externalities of industrial pollution in heavily polluted cities in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Avoid simply relying on the way to adjust the industrial structure to promote the green transformation of industry.Thirdly,the structural redundancy of industrial input and output of the Yangtze River Economic Belt should be improved in a multi-scale coordinated way.At the level of provincial and municipal governments,we should seize the opportunity of the 14 th five-year Plan and guide the implementation of energy conservation and emission reduction policies in the Yangtze River Economic Belt at the level of cities and counties through planning.At the level of industrial park,the enterprise access threshold and evaluation standard including input-output redundancy related indicators should be formulated to promote the green transformation of the industrial park.At the level of enterprise,we should evaluate the input-output redundancy of each link of production scientifically,then select and make breakthroughs for the links with high redundancy.