Can Financial Development Curb Carbon Emissions? Empirical Test Based on Spatial Perspective

To respond to global climate change and achieve a “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” as soon as possible has become a common goal around the world. Economic growth relies heavily on financial development; indeed, low-carbon economic development is inseparable from financial support. This paper st...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Xueyang Liu, Xiaoxing Liu
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/dd751fafb4554e7295ba8e8925571329
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:To respond to global climate change and achieve a “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” as soon as possible has become a common goal around the world. Economic growth relies heavily on financial development; indeed, low-carbon economic development is inseparable from financial support. This paper studies the impact of financial development on carbon emission intensity and its mechanism from both theoretical and empirical aspects. Based on the 2005–2018 data on Chinese cities and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) research results, this paper finds that: (1) Financial development has significantly reduced China’s carbon emission intensity overall. After considering spatial effects, financial development increases local carbon emission intensity, although it may lead to a more significant decrease in the surrounding area. (2) The analysis of heterogeneity shows that only the financial development in the eastern region has a substantial detrimental impact on total carbon emission intensity and the carbon emission intensity of neighboring cities. The financial development in the central and western regions has no significant effect on carbon emission intensity. (3) The mechanism test shows that financial development mainly reduces carbon emission intensity through technological innovation and structural optimization, with the effect of technological innovation being 9.5%, and the effect of structural optimization being 12.15%. The expansion of the consumption effects of financial development has no significant impact on carbon emission intensity. Accordingly, this article believes that it is necessary to further support financial development, build large-scale financial centers, continue to optimize the structure of financial products, and encourage the development of green finance.