Have China's pilot emissions trading schemes promoted carbon emission reductions?– the evidence from industrial sub-sectors at the provincial level

Does Emission Trading Boost Carbon Productivity? Evidence from China’s Pilot Emission Trading Scheme

“…Thus, Beijing, Guangdong, Hubei, Chongqing and Tianjin are finally selected as pilot regions. We summarize industries in the light of Industrial Classification for National Economic Activities [ 31 ]. Eight industries covered by the ETS in pilot regions are set as pilot industries.…”

“…Some scholars found that the EU ETS was not fully effective in carbon emission reduction in power markets [ 30 ]. A series of recent studies confirmed that China’s pilot ETS substantially reduced carbon emissions in covered regions [ 17 , 31 , 32 ]. Additionally, some argued that China’s ETS also promoted carbon intensity reduction [ 33 ], but Zhang et al (2019) [ 34 ] found that only in some pilot areas (e.g., Beijing and Guangdong) ETS decreased carbon emission intensity.…”

“…Additionally, some argued that China’s ETS also promoted carbon intensity reduction [ 33 ], but Zhang et al (2019) [ 34 ] found that only in some pilot areas (e.g., Beijing and Guangdong) ETS decreased carbon emission intensity. Existing studies also stated that the implementation of China’s ETS can reduce energy consumption and intensity [ 31 ], boost new energy use [ 35 ], and influence technological innovation [ 36 , 37 ] and green development efficiency [ 38 ].…”

“…Overall, these studies mainly focus either on carbon emissions of a whole region (e.g., a province) [ 17 , 34 , 38 ] or all industries [ 33 ], which is inconsistent with the reality of pilot ETS coverage. Although Zhang et al (2019) [ 31 ] and Hu et al (2020) [ 32 ] tried to revolve around the specific covered industries, they use the difference-in-difference (DID) or propensity score matching (PSM) difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) methods which cannot eliminate the interference effects of other policies (e.g., national or regional industrial policies) [ 39 , 40 ], thereby reducing the validity of the estimated results.…”

Sustainable Feasibility of Carbon Trading Policy on Heterogenetic Economic and Industrial Development

“…From the perspective of different industries, scholars have studied the impacts of ETS on different industries and human behavior. It is generally believed that an ETS can significantly reduce pollution and promote sustainable development [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Some scholars also studied the efficiency of China's ETS pilot provinces and cities with respect to the carbon price.…”