Study On The Different Types Of Environmental Regulations To China’s Regional Carbon Emissions

As international climate conventions continue to be implemented,China has actively responded to them and has participated in the promulgation of a number of domestic carbon reduction laws and regulations,urging regional energy conservation and emission reduction,and striving to achieve peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.However,can this series of environmental regulations achieve the expected goals,what is the path to achieve the "double carbon" goal,and what role does the public play in this regard?Is there any regional variation in the types of environmental regulations?This paper will focus on these questions in detail.Based on the panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019,this paper examines the emission reduction effects of three types of environmental regulations on regional CO2 emissions,namely,command-based,market-based,and public participation-based,respectively,through a systematic GMM method,and also conducts robustness tests and heterogeneity tests,and further analyzes the synergistic complementary effects of public participation-based on formal environmental regulations,as well as when technology effects and structural The above studies lead to the conclusions and policy recommendations,and the innovations and shortcomings of this paper are added at the end of the paper.Based on the results of the empirical tests,the following conclusions are drawn:First,the three types of environmental regulations,namely,command,market,and public participation,can significantly reduce regional CO2 emissions through different emission reduction paths,and the emission reduction effect of command environmental regulations is better than that of market-type than public participation.Second,there is regional heterogeneity in the carbon emission reduction effects of different types of environmental regulations.In the eastern region,market-based and public participation environmental regulations are the most effective and much more effective than national ones;in the western region,command-based environmental regulations are the strongest;in the central region,the effect of public participation environmental regulations significantly hinders regional carbon emission reduction.Third,public participation environmental regulations can improve the emission reduction effect of formal environmental regulations.It can strengthen the role of command-based environmental regulation under fiscal decentralization and compensate for the lack of market-based environmental regulation due to market failure,but as the coordination of the above two types of formal environmental regulation increases,public participation environmental regulation itself shows the opposite effect,with a "long and short" substitution effect.Fourth,all three types of environmental regulations can reduce regional carbon emissions through technical and structural effects,i.e.,there is a partial mediating effect.In response to the above findings,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations:First,each region should implement differentiated environmental regulation policies according to local conditions and combine different policies.Taking into account the development strategy and environmental carrying capacity of each region,we should formulate environmental regulation policies that are suitable for local development and management by category,and change from a"one-size-fits-all" policy to a "precise drip-feed" differentiated policy.Second,strengthen regional linkage,improve the efficiency of environmental regulation policy implementation,and give full play to the spatial spillover effect.Implement environmental regulation policies,strengthen joint regional governance,and promote coordinated regional development.Third,improve public participation in environmental protection.Promote green production with green consumption;open up supervision and complaint channels,improve democratic decision-making mechanisms,and bring into play the sense of public ownership to promote regional green and low-carbon development Fourthly,through the government,the market and the public to take multiple measures to help enterprises’ technological innovation,promote industrial structure optimization and upgrading,and develop circular economy and green economy.The marginal contributions of this paper are:first,the scope of the study is expanded.The sample size is expanded from the provincial level to 278 prefecture-level cities,and the research results are more convincing.Second,it expands the research perspective.Based on the study of formal environmental regulation,the role of informal environmental regulation-public participation environmental regulation on regional carbon emission reduction is added,and the synergistic complementary effect of public participation environmental regulation on formal environmental regulation is added to test the mutual influence of each policy.