Impact Study of Environment Public Interests Litigation on Carbon Emissions: Taking Pilot Policy of Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation as a Quasi-Natural Experiment

Jie Shan (), Zhengshan Luo, Liang Pei and Zhe Song
Additional contact information
Jie Shan: School of Management, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Zhengshan Luo: School of Management, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Liang Pei: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Zhe Song: School of Public Administration and Policy, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: The environmental problems caused by carbon emission have become the focus of worldwide attention. Effective control of carbon emissions cannot be achieved without the protection of the rule of law. Environment public interests litigation is a prominent innovation in the judicial system, and its role in supervising the government to perform its regulatory duties on carbon reduction and regulating the carbon emission behaviors of enterprises and the public deserves discussion. The paper selected the panel data from 274 prefecture-level cities from 2013 to 2021 and analyzed the impact of a procuratorial public interest litigation pilot policy on carbon emission control by using the double difference method. The research found that the procuratorial public interest litigation pilot policy can effectively curb carbon emissions. Heterogeneity analysis showed that in cities with relatively low level of green innovation, the negative correlation between procuratorial public interest litigation pilot policies and carbon emissions is more significant. Compared with the eastern region, in the central and western regions, especially in the central region, where the concept, policy, and funding of carbon emission governance are relatively weak, the implementation of the pilot policy of procuratorial public interest litigation had a more obvious effect on carbon emission governance. Mechanism tests showed that procuratorial public interest litigation policies reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption and increasing public participation in environmental protection. The study will provide an empirical basis for the carbon emission reduction effect on pilot policy of procuratorial public interest litigation and will offer certain theoretical recommendations for improving the procuratorial public interest litigation system in the ecological environment field.

Keywords: procuratorial public interest litigation; pilot policy; carbon emissions; double difference analysis method; green innovation level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8688/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8688/ (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:16:y:2024:i:19:p:8688-:d:1494397

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 ().