China today has an urgent need to develop low-carbon policies that also address local air pollution. This study uses a difference-in-differences model to estimate the extent to which China’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which directly addresses CO2 emissions, has also generated cobenefits by reducing PM2.5. Using monthly PM2.5 concentration and weather data for 297 Chinese cities from January 2005 to December 2017, we find that (1) China’s ETS has reduced PM2.5 concentrations by 4.8%, and this reduction effect is strongest in summer. The results are confirmed by robustness tests including propensity score matching, mahalanobis distance matching, two placebo tests, and controlling atmospheric policies. (2) The ETS pilots have positive spillovers on neighboring nonpilot cities within 300 km of the pilot cites, especially for those downwind neighboring nonpilot cities, and the ETS’s cobenefits are primarily a result of firms adopting abatement activities and adjusting industrial structure. (3) The cobenefits of China’s ETS pilots are greater in regions with larger carbon trading volume and higher carbon trading price. (4) The reduction in PM2.5 concentration caused by China’s ETS may have avoided 23,363 deaths and saved $41.38 billion annually in GDP.

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This study investigates the effect of corporate environmental information disclosure (EID) on green innovation in China's heavily polluting industries during 2009–2020 and the moderating effect of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) visibility. The results show that: (1) corporate EID increases green innovation, and CEO visibility strengthens the positive impact of corporate EID on green innovation. (2) The green innovation fostered by EID comes from the leverage effect, not from the crowding‐out effect at the expense of other existing innovations; EID stimulates green innovation by alleviating financing constraints and increasing R&D expenditures. (3) Corporate EID has a greater impact on substantive green innovation than on strategic green innovation, and hard EID makes a more significant contribution to green innovation than soft EID does. (4) State‐owned, large, and established enterprises benefit more from the promotion effect of EID on green innovation as well as the positive moderating effect of CEO visibility.

Consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions has become one of the main issues facing China. The Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) trading programme is an important supplementary mechanism to China's carbon trading market. Based on the data of 1782 counties in China from 2006 to 2017 and a difference-in-differences model, this study investigates the rural poverty reduction effect of CCER trading. We find that: (1) during the sample period, CCER trading has increased the per capita net income of rural residents by at least 2.5% or 187.5 RMB (about 27.8 USD or 39.3 AUD) per year. (2) The poverty reduction effect of CCER trading in poor counties is greater than that in nonpoor counties. (3) Some relevant heterogeneous effects are also measured. We find that CCER trading of hydropower projects has played a significant poverty reduction effect; the poverty reduction effect is further enhanced when the county has additional CCER projects; we also identify regional differences with CCER trading having a greater poverty reduction effect in the western and central regions. (4) Compared with the implementation of the CCER project, trading the emission reductions generated by the CCER project has brought more significant poverty reduction effects.