How Natural Gas Infrastructure Affects Carbon Emission Indicators in Guangdong Province?

Ziwei Yan and Chunying Cui
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Ziwei Yan: Department of Economics and Management, Wenhua College, Wuhan 430074, China
Chunying Cui: Department of Economics and Management, Wenhua College, Wuhan 430074, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-26

Abstract: As a public infrastructure, the West to East Natural Gas Pipeline Project (WENGPP), acting as a key supplier of energy, has adopted a potential approach to reduce CE by expanding Natural gas (NG) power in the developed areas in China. However, the literature pertaining to the effects of the efforts made by WENGPP to reduce CE remains scant. Therefore, this study applied the causal inference framework—Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to the Guangdong province, which was chosen as a case in point that provides empirical evidence related to the nexus between WENGPP and CE. Remarkably, our results disclosed that WENGPP had caused the total volume of CE in Guangdong province to decline notably. Both short and long-term emission inhibition effects approximated 10.68–14.96%. We revealed two CE reduction mechanisms: (i) through the low-carbon emission trade-off effect, wherein NG consumers were able to gain emission advantages under policy pressure; and (ii) through price comparison effect, where high combustion efficiency of NG consumers combined with low energy consumption costs could provide the incentive of promoting the optimization of regional emission structure. The article suggests a substitutable channel upgrading public energy infrastructure to improve the low-carbon alternative process, to policy makers.

Keywords: west to east natural gas pipeline project; carbon emission reduction; energy consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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