In face of the strategic goal of"carbon peak and carbon neutral",strengthening the institutional guarantee of green and low-carbon development is the objective requirement of China's high-quality economic development.Based on the factor de-composition framework and the energy structure factor,this paper systematically proposed the theoretical mechanism in which car-bon emission trading system drives carbon dioxide emission reduction.Moreover,regarding the carbon emission trading pilot poli-cy as a quasi-natural experiment,this paper empirically tested the governance effect and emission reduction mechanisms by using the difference-in-differences method and taking the panel data of 30 provincial-level regions from 2005 to 2017 as samples.The results showed that the implementation of the carbon emission trading system significantly reduces the carbon dioxide emissions in the pilot areas.The conclusion is still valid after using the instrumental variable method to overcome the potential endogenous problems and a series of robustness tests.The mechanism analysis showed that the governance effect is realized through three paths,namely industrial structure transformation,energy structure optimization,and technological innovation.Besides,it also has a synergistic emission reduction effect on sulfur dioxide,nitrogen oxide,and smoke and dust.The heterogeneity test showed that the impacts of the carbon emission trading system on the regions with strict environmental law enforcement,outstanding inno-vation ability,high human capital level,old industries-based and resource-based areas are more obvious.The conclusions will not only provide new empirical evidence for the governance effect and emission reduction mechanism of the carbon emission trading system,but also provide useful ideas for the improvement of the institutional system and the optimization of supporting policies after the establishment of the national unified carbon market.
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