Financial Accessibility and Carbon Emissions:Macro and Micro Evidence from Financial Geographical Structure
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed"Working actively and prudently toward the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality"and"A green and low-carbon economy and society are crucial to high-quality development."As a primary source of greenhouse gases,carbon dioxide emissions account for 72％ of total greenhouse gas emissions and have seriously endangered public health and human well-being in China.The theme of Chinese environmental governance has changed from long-term"energy conservation and emission reduction"to"low-carbon"development and has transitioned to the current"carbon peaking and carbon neutrality"era.Reducing carbon emissions is the"masterstroke"for achieving a green transformation of socioeconomic development and coordinating the various components of the new development concept.Although Chinese governments have been working hard to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,reducing carbon emissions not only relies on the power of government regulation but also other factors that have not been fully utilized in emission reduction.Based on this background,we attempt to explore the relationship between financial development and carbon emissions from the perspective of financial availability,which has important practical significance for expanding ways to reduce greenhouse effects and reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.The geographic information of financial branches is used to construct the financial availability for both Chinese counties and firms.Combining carbon dioxide emission data and pollution data of Chinese industrial enterprises,we examine the impact of enhancing financial availability on carbon emission reduction from the perspective of counties and firms.The main research findings are as follows.First,improving financial accessibility can significantly reduce carbon emissions.Specifically,for a 1％increase in the availability of county-level finance,carbon dioxide concentration in the county decreases by 4.1％.Moreover,within a range of 5～15 kilometers adjacent to industrial enterprises,for a 1％increase in financial availability,the carbon dioxide emissions of enterprises reduce by 4.4％～5.4％.The findings passed a series of robustness tests at the county and firm levels,such as instrumental variables and consideration of other policy shocks.Second,the carbon reduction effect of financial availability varies in intensity with the socioeconomic characteristics of counties and firms.Specifically,the effects are more pronounced in fast-growing regions,private firms,and large-scale firms.Third,the mechanism analysis revealed that improving financial availability in counties can promote the upgrading of industrial structure and improve the number of patents in counties.Improving financial availability in firms can promote the clean energy structure of firms,increase the number of corporate green patents,and decrease the production scale of heavily polluting firms.Fourth,further study reveals that improving financial availability can alleviate the horizontal differences in carbon emissions between counties,which means that improving financial availability can alleviate the mismatch of energy conservation and emission reduction resources between counties.The policy recommendations of this study are in three aspects.First,Chinese local governments at all levels should adhere to the market-oriented reform direction of the financial industry,optimize the supply structure of physical financial branches in various regions,and enhance financial accessibility within their jurisdiction.The geographical layout of physical financial branches has the attribute of green development,which demonstrates new emission reduction channels for the country to achieve the dual carbon target.Moreover,it is necessary to strengthen the environmental responsibility of financial institutions.Financial institutions should fully consider the environmental attributes of projects when deciding on loans.For projects with high carbon emissions,the threshold for loans should be raised.Second,in the process of improving financial accessibility,it is necessary to pay attention to the heterogeneity characteristics of its effectiveness.For regions with better economic development,there are more flexible means to reduce carbon emissions.Regions with poor economies particularly need to accelerate the allocation of financial credit resources to green and low-carbon industries.Moreover,in the process of allocating green credit resources to businesses,it is crucial to consider enhancing financial accessibility to address the inefficiencies in realizing carbon reduction effects for state-owned and small to medium-sized enterprises.This precautionary measure aims to avoid wasteful resource allocation.Third,promote the impact of financial accessibility through industrial restructuring and corporate technological innovation.The optimization of industrial structure and technological innovation serves as effective support for financial accessibility to exert carbon reduction effects.Governments should guide credit funds toward low-pollution,low-energy consumption,and low-input service industries,as well as high-quality enterprises with high spillover effects,efficiency,and value-added.This action aims to optimize the industrial structure and promote corporate technological innovation.By optimizing the supply structure of financial branches across various regions,the expansion of financing channels for green projects is facilitated,helping firms pursue a market-driven,cost-effective path toward emission reduction.
Financial AvailabilityCarbon EmissionGreen Technological ProgressStructure OptimizationStructure of Financial Geography
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万方数据
