Did Chinese Certified Emission Reduction Projects Promote Rural Residents’ Income?

In the new development stage,it is of significance to explore policy tools that facilitate the simultaneous realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and common prosperity.Based on the data of 2,492 Chinese Certified Emission Reduction(CCER)projects throughout 2195 districts and counties in China from 2013 to 2019,this paper investigated the impact of CCER projects on the per capita disposable income of rural residents and the underlying mechanism by establishing a fixed effect panel model.The research results were verified by a suite of model settings,robustness tests and mechanism analyses.The results showed that:(1)the CCER projects significantly improved the income of rural resident;(2)the increase in local non-agricultural employment constituted the core of the mechanism;(3)the impact of the CCER projects on rural residents’ income varied across the regions,and the faster increase in rural income was observed in areas with a relatively low non-agricultural employment rate.These findings can not only provide a scientific basis for timely resuming the approval of CCER projects and increasing the share of CCER projects in the national emission trading scheme,but also provide empirical evidence that supports the policy synergies of China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and common prosperity.In the next step,it is necessary to explore various socioeconomic effects produced by the CCER projects,as this is the key to generating policy synergies between combating climate change and improving human welfare in a broader sense.