A Path Analysis Of Transmission Mechanism Among Environmental Regulations And Energy Consumption And CO2 Emissions Under The Energy Conservation Target

Since the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period,the Chinese government has published an energy conservation target as a binding indicator for the first time to achieve effective control of environmental pollution problems,and finally achieved good results in practice.Studying the transmission mechanism by how the provinces achieved the energy conservation and emission reduction targets during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” and “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period,it is good experience for the local governments to complete the emission reduction targets under the dual pressure of deepening structural reform and energy conservation and emission reduction goal.In this paper,environmental regulation tools are subdivided into two types: control and command type and market-based type.This paper makes some empirical tests on the two environmental regulation tools and the effects of energy conservation and emission reduction,and the emphasis is placed on analyzing the mechanism for the implementation of control and command regulations and market-based regulations under the pressure of energy conservation targets;secondly,this paper explores the role of major factors affecting the energy consumption and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP during the five-year plan,and further analyze the contribution of the environmental regulations to achieve different paths for energy conservation and emission reduction.The empirical results show that,from the overall perspective,the realization of the energy saving and emission reduction targets during the five-year plan is more dependent on control and command regulations,and the government’s direct control intervention is still an effective means to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction targets.In the long run,the realization of energy conservation and emission reduction targets by environmental regulations is ultimately achieved by technological progress.Environmental regulations effectively achieve energy conservation and emission reduction targets by influencing the development of clean technologies and the inflow of high quality foreign investment,while traditionally ways are difficult to achieve an ideal environmental pollution control effect in terms of energy prices,adjustment of energy consumption structure,and industrial structure.