A Study On The Impact Of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment On The Carbon Emission Of The Belt And Road Countries

Since 2013,China has put forward cooperative initiatives to build “Belt and Road”,and our international direct investment in the countries along the routes has increased rapidly,in March 2022,our government issued the “Opinions on promoting the green development of Belt and Road”,which aims to build green “Belt and Road”together,most of the countries along the Belt and Road are developing countries.Because of the resource endowment and the stage of economic development,most of the countries along the belt and road are developing in a more extensive way,which leads to higher energy consumption and higher pollution discharge,the pressure on the ecological environment continues to increase.In this context,in order to promote Green Belt and Road,it is particularly important to pay attention to the environmental impact of our investments in Belt and Road countries.In the related literature,due to the different research object,research subject and research time,different scholars have different views on the magnitude and direction of the impact of international direct investment on carbon emissions,firstly,this paper combs the relevant literature,and analyzes the transmission mechanism between international direct investment and carbon emission,and summarizes the three transmission mechanisms of scale effect,structure effect and technology effect.Then,based on the panel data of China’s outward direct investment and the carbon emissions of the 34 Belt and Road countries from 2003 to 2020,the system GMM method was applied to carry out an empirical study on the dynamic panel data,and based on the EKC curve theory,according to the size of GDP per capita divided into samples for heterogeneity study.In addition,the existing studies pay less attention to the threshold effect between OFDI and carbon emissions,and do not subdivide the industrial structure in different dimensions.To further explore the impact of industrial structure factors on our OFDI’s impact on carbon emissions in Belt and Road countries,in this paper,the development of industrial structure is subdivided into three more comprehensive dimensions: the level of industrial development,the rationalization of industrial structure and the upgrading of industrial structure,the influence of industrial structure development on the carbon emission effect of OFDI was investigated.The results show that,(1)the effect of OFDI on carbon emissions is significantly positive for the total sample of the countries along the Belt and Road.(2)the industrial structure is the indirect mechanism that influences the effect of OFDI carbon emission,and the industrial structure has the concealment effect for the high level of development countries,however,there are some intermediary effects in the industrial structure for the middle and low level of development countries.(3)there is a threshold effect between OFDI and carbon emissions in Belt and Road countries.The level of industrial development,rationalization of industrial structure and upgrading of industrial structure are all important threshold variables.Finally,based on the empirical test results,the paper puts forward the following policy recommendations:(1)reasonable adjustment of the direction of investment industry.Promote our investments in low-pollution,low-emission industries in Belt and Road countries.(2)reasonable adjustment of investment target.Actively promote Chinese industrial structure in the low proportion of industry,industrial structure rationalization and high level of industrial structure of the country’s investment.(3)enterprises should take social responsibility and comply with environmental standards.Encourage Enterprises to take the initiative to assume social responsibility,and comply with the host country environmental standards,to demonstrate the responsibility of a major country.(4)Promote the development of a new type of “Belt and Road” infrastructure.