R&D Intensity, Political Participation And Carbon Emission Intensity

Nowadays, with the rapid development of economies, environmental issues have increasingly attracted public’s attention. As a responsible big country, China makes a commitment to the international community that by2020it will have reduced the carbon emission intensity by40%to45%based on the the carbon emission intensity level in2005, which not only calls on the society to solve the exited environmental problems, but also promotes the upgrading and transformation process of China’s industries.This paper studies the impact of R&D intensity and political participation on carbon intensity on a provincial level. Based on the STIRPAT model which is widely used by international scholars to discover the factors influencing the environment quality and pollution emissions, firstly the paper makes the carbon emission intensity of provinces in2001,2003,2005and2007as the dependent variable, then selects some reasonable controlled variables, at last draws its conclusions.As the results show, higher R&D intensity helps to reduce carbon emission intensity, so does the political participation. In other words, there exits significantly negative correlation between R&D intensity and carbon emission intensity, and also political participation and carbon emission intensity. Specifically speaking, the higher the proportion of entrepreneurs as CPPCC members, and the higher the CPPCC members’ ranking, the lower the carbon emission intensity of the province where it is based; the higher the proportion of entrepreneurs as party members, the lower the carbon emission intensity of the province where it is based.With environmental problems becoming more and more severe today, this paper explores the factors influencing carbon emission intensity in a systematic and comprehensive way. including technical factors (R&D intensity), political factors (political participation), demographic factors, economic factors and so on, aiming at revealing some law in the energy saving and emission reduction. I hope that it can be applied to better predict carbon emission intensity in the future and also contribute to establishing relevant policies, thus China can keep its promise to the international community and realize sustainable development of economy, society and environment by effectively leading provinces to fulfill their environmental responsibilities. Therefore, the paper has strong theoretical and practical significance in energy saving and emission reduction field.