| Since 2002,China’s outward direct investment has gradually increased,and with the implementation of the "go-out" strategy,the Belt and Road Initiative,and other initiatives,outward direct investment is in a stage of rapid development.China is aggressively dedicated to supporting the green and sustainable development of the Belt and Road Initiative.In the meantime,in 2015,the United Nations proposed sustainable development objectives,which imposed higher standards for the building of the Belt and Road Initiative.Outward direct investment and the environment have,however,frequently generated debate.This article investigates the mechanism by which China’s outward direct investment impacts the environmental performance of those countries along the Belt and Road Initiative by looking at panel data of those countries.When the applicable literature has been sorted,the mechanism of China’s outward direct investment on environmental performance is first analyzed in conjunction with pertinent theoretical foundations.The Belt and Road Initiative’s nations’ environmental conditions and China’s existing outbound direct investment status are both examined.To create a geographic distance weight matrix and analyze the geographical association between China’s outbound direct investment and carbon dioxide emissions of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative,panel data of 59 countries along the initiative from 2005 to 2019 is utilized.The influence of China’s outward direct investment on the environmental performance of nations along the Belt and Road Initiative is evaluated by combining the two-way fixed-effect spatial Durbin model.The business environment and cultural distance are also used as moderating variables in this study to examine the effects of moderating factors,and geographical distance heterogeneity is used to examine the effects of China’s outward direct investment on the environmental performance of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.Finally,robustness tests are performed using various estimating techniques,explanatory factors,and spatial weight matrices.The findings reveal that:(1)China’s outward direct investment has a positive influence on the environmental performance of nations along the Belt and Road Initiative,reducing carbon dioxide emissions in those countries.This finding supports the "pollution halo" concept.(2)The structure of the relationship between GDP per capita and CO2 emissions supports the environmental Kuznets curve,which is an inverted Ushape.(3)Foreign direct investment has a positive influence on per capita CO2 emissions,demonstrating that other nations’ overall investment in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative would raise CO2 emissions,creating a "pollution paradise".(4)The rule of law and R&D investment have a considerable negative influence on per capita CO2 emissions,but natural resource availability and energy consumption have a significant positive impact on per capita CO2 emissions.(5)The level of economic freedom has a moderate negative impact on the environmental performance of the "Belt and Road" countries.The higher the level of economic freedom in the Belt and Road countries,the lower the per capita CO2 emissions due to increased OFDI from China.Yet,geographical spillover effects are insignificant,implying that economic freedom in nearby regions has no influence on per capita carbon dioxide emissions in one’s own nation.(6)The environmental performance of the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative is positively moderated by cultural distance,with a significant spatial spillover effect;that is,the higher the cultural distance,the higher the per capita carbon dioxide emissions of the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.(7)According to the heterogeneity analysis,China’s outward direct investment has a greater inhibitory effect on per capita CO2 emissions in countries that are physically closer to China,whereas it increases CO2 emissions in countries that are farther away.Lastly,the analysis offers a few consequences for policy:(1)improve environmental protection awareness and capabilities of Chinese enterprises,and actively promote green and sustainable investment in "One Belt,One Road" countries;(2)strengthen the assessment and regulation of the environmental impact of outward foreign direct investment;(3)encourage the development of an ecological civilization and the greening of "One Belt,One Road";and(4)pay attention to any potential adverse effects of economic liberalization on the environment. |
