The Impact of Environmental Protection Investment on Provincial Carbon Emissions in China: Empirical Analysis Based on Two-way Fixed Effects Model

Abstract

In confront of global climate change, promoting carbon emission reduction and sustainable development has come to be acknowledged internationally. On the basis of panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2009 to 2020, this paper undertakes an empirical investigation into the connection between carbon emission intensity and investment in environmental protection. The findings demonstrate that investment in environmental protection has a nonlinear inverted U-shaped relationship with carbon emission intensity, that is, with the increase of environmental protection investment, its effect on carbon emission has changed from promoting to inhibiting. And the influence degree varied in different regions, with the influence in western and central regions being significantly stronger than that in eastern regions. The government should take full account of local conditions and formulate policies of environmental protection investment in accordance with local conditions.