Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Action Path of Environmental Governance on Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Urban Agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin

Hongfeng Zhang, Miao Liu, Yixiang Wang, Xiangjiang Ding () and Yueting Li ()
Additional contact information
Hongfeng Zhang: School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Miao Liu: School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Yixiang Wang: School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Xiangjiang Ding: School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Yueting Li: School of Applied Economics, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 102488, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: Since the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin in China have become a major national strategy, reducing carbon emissions has become pivotal. Therefore, based on the relevant data of 53 cities from 2008 to 2021 in seven urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin, this paper explores the overall situation and spatio-temporal evolution of environmental governance and carbon emissions in the urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin using the entropy method, ArcGIS, slacks-based measurement models (SBM models), etc. Additionally, this paper quantitatively analyzes the pathways by which environmental governance affects carbon emissions in the urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin. The results show that carbon emissions increased year on year from 2008 to 2021, the growth rate slowed down gradually and exhibited a downward trend, and the largest amount of carbon was emitted in 2019, at 3495 million tons. Before 2017, the growth rate of carbon emissions showed a trend of increasing year by year, with the largest increase rate being 11.17% in 2010. After that, the growth rate of carbon emissions continued to decrease and entered a stage of fluctuation. The growth rate of carbon emissions in 2020 was the lowest, reaching −5.66%. The environmental governance effect of urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin exhibits a large gap; the regional difference is obvious, and the overall trend is rising. Environmental governance has a significant negative effect on carbon emissions in urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin. The cross-terms of environmental governance, the energy consumption structure, industrial structure upgrading, green technological innovation, and foreign direct investment (FDI) have significant negative impacts on carbon emissions, while the indirect impacts on urban agglomerations have shown regional heterogeneity. The goal of reducing carbon emissions in urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin is being realized gradually. Based on research conclusions, policy suggestions are put forward, hoping to provide ideas for environmental protection and high-quality development of urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin.

Keywords: environmental governance; urban agglomerations of the Yellow River basin; carbon emissions; spatio-temporal evolution; regional heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14114/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14114/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14114-:d:1246358

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().