Environmental policy uncertainty and green transformation dilemma of Chinese enterprises.

With the intensification of environmental issues, environmental policies have played an increasingly important role in the Chinese economic system. The previous literature focuses on the impact of environmental policies on the green transformation of enterprises but pays little attention to policy-related environmental risks. In this way the impact of environmental policy uncertainty on enterprise green transformation remains a black box, which forms the initial motivation of this essay.

Can carbon emission trading policy break China's urban carbon lock-in?

Greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil energy are the main drivers of global warming. China's dominant consumption of fossil energy necessitates adjustments in its energy consumption structure to break free from the carbon lock-in (CLI) phenomenon. Market-based environmental regulations, represented by the carbon trading market (CTM), play an important role in achieving the dual carbon goals of China.

Can the green finance improve export green-sophistication? New insights from China.

The green financial policy is one of the important policy tools for China to achieve the national carbon peak goal and carbon neutrality through financial means. How financial development affects the growth of international trade has been an important research topic. This paper uses the Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations (PZGFRI) implemented in 2017 as a natural experiment drawing on the relevant data of Chinese provinces' panel data from 2010 to 2019.

Does green finance restrain corporate financialization?

Green financial policy is one of the important policy tools for China to implement the national carbon peak goal and carbon neutral vision through financial means. This policy has an important impact on the business strategy of corporates. Based on the data of listed corporates from 2013 to 2020, this study examines the impact mechanism of China's green financial reform and innovation pilot zones (GFRIPZ) on corporate financialization (CF) using the difference-in-difference method.

Impact of dual control system of energy consumption and intensity on cost of debt financing: micro-evidence from Chinese listed companies.

Capital providers have placed increasing importance on risks associated with transitioning to a low-carbon economy. This study investigates the causal link between energy regulation and cost of debt financing by exploiting regional variations in stringency of the dual control system of total energy consumption and energy intensity (dual controls) to construct a continuous difference-in-difference model. We use a sample of A-share listed firms in 2010-2020 and find that tighter energy regulation leads to higher cost of debt financing.

Green credit guideline and enterprise export green-sophistication.

Green credit is a major policy innovation to guide enterprises to participate in environmental governance actively. This study uses the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2016, takes the green credit guideline (GCG) issued in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses a difference in difference (DID) model to test the effect of GCG on the enterprises' export green-sophistication (EGS) and its internal and external mechanisms. The study finds that GCG improves enterprises' EGS and research and development (R&D) investment is the intermediation channel for GCG to affect EGS.

The COVID-19 pandemic and energy transitions: Evidence from low-carbon power generation in China.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a decline in carbon emissions or an improvement in air quality. Yet little is known about how the pandemic has affected the "low-carbon" energy transition. Here, using difference-in-differences (DID) models with historical controls, this study analyzed the overall impact of COVID-19 on China's low-carbon power generation and examined the COVID-19 effect on the direction of the energy transition with a monthly province-specific, source-specific dataset.

China's carbon allowance allocation strategy under the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism: An integrated non-parametric cost frontier approach.

The implementation of the European Union (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will affect the cost efficiency of Chinese exporters, and few studies have considered how to deal with its impact from the carbon market perspective. Based on this, this paper constructs two price-variable resource allocation (VPRA) models to investigate China's allowance allocation strategies to mitigate the impact of the EU CBAM from a carbon market perspective. This paper takes the steel and cement industries in each province of China for example for cost efficiency assessment and carbon allowance allocation, and finds that: (1) The EU CBAM has a negative impact, and it is necessary to incorporate the CBAM into the top-level system design of allowance allocation to obtain an allowance allocation scheme that maintains the cost efficiency level of each industry.

Decomposition and prediction of China's carbon emission intensity towards carbon neutrality: From perspectives of national, regional and sectoral level.

China has actively participated in global climate governance and put forward its ambitious carbon neutrality target. The formulation of scientific plans has become the primary concern of the policy makers, especially for the 14th and 15th Five-Year Plans (FYP) which are important periods to secure the neutrality pledge and transform the whole economy. Since the carbon emission intensity play a key role in achieving carbon neutrality, it is necessary to summarize and explore the evolution trend of carbon emission intensity as well as its driving factors.

The influence of China's pollution emissions trading system on the listed companies' export products' quality.

The pollution emissions trading system (PETS) pilot policy is China's first large-scale implementation of market-based environmental regulations; whether it can reduce pollution emissions and improve the export competitiveness is crucial for China to achieve the coordinated development of environment and economy. Based on the panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2003 to 2016, this paper considers the PETS pilot policy as a natural experiment, and investigates the impact of the policy on export products' quality using the difference-in-difference (DID) model. We found that (1) the PETS pilot policy has significantly improved the quality of listed companies' export products.

The potential for China's outward foreign direct investment and its determinants: A comparative study of carbon-intensive and non-carbon-intensive sectors along the Belt and Road.

Ensuring that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is green and low-carbon is crucial to tackling climate change while simultaneously promoting a win-win outcome of BRI countries. In recent years, China has altered its BRI Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) portfolio by reducing investment in carbon-intensive sectors and increasing it in non-carbon-intensive sectors. Therefore, it is particularly important to assess the potential of these two types of sectors in attracting China's FDI, and to identify the major determinants of investment.