Carbon Abatement and Leakage in China's Regional Carbon Emission Trading.

ABSTRACT: Emission trading schemes (ETS) are increasingly becoming a popular policy instrument to balance carbon abatement and economic growth. As a globally unified carbon pricing system has not yet been established, whether regionally operated ETSs cause carbon leakage remains a major concern. Taking China's regional pilot ETSs as a quasi-natural experiment, the study uses the spatial difference-in-differences method to examine how regional ETSs affect carbon emissions in and outside cities of policy implementation. Our analysis finds that China's regional ETS policy contributes to a 6.1% reduction in urban CO₂ emissions and a 6.6% decline in emissions intensity in regulated cities, causing carbon leakages that increase CO₂ emissions in neighboring cities by 1.7% on average.

SUBMITTER: Jiang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11465775 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature