Impact of Environmental Regulation and Industrial Agglomeration on Carbon Emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Xiaoling Zhang, Zhiwei Pan (), Decai Tang, Zixuan Deng () and Valentina Boamah
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Xiaoling Zhang: School of Law and Business, Sanjiang University, Nanjing 210012, China
Zhiwei Pan: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Decai Tang: School of Law and Business, Sanjiang University, Nanjing 210012, China
Zixuan Deng: School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Valentina Boamah: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Carbon reduction is an important aspect of achieving high-quality environmental development; environmental regulation and industrial agglomeration are important ways to affect carbon emissions. Therefore, studying the relationship between industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and carbon emissions has important theoretical and practical significance. Firstly, this article adopts the method of location entropy to measure the indicators of industrial agglomeration. Secondly, it proposes an environmental regulation indicator system based on the experience of previous scholars and measures the environmental regulation indicators using the entropy method. Next, eight types of energy consumption are used to measure carbon emissions based on the carbon emission coefficient method provided by the IPCC. Finally, based on the Moran index, the spatial correlation of carbon emission levels in various regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is tested. A spatial econometric model was introduced to explore the relationship between industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and carbon emissions at a deeper level, and the following conclusions were drawn: (1) The regression coefficient of the spatial term of industrial agglomeration on carbon emissions is 0.848, which is significantly positive at the 10% level, indicating that under the influence of spatial effects, industrial agglomeration has a significant promoting effect on carbon emissions. (2) The regression coefficient of the spatial term of environmental regulation on carbon emissions is −0.011, which is significantly negative at the 10% level, indicating that environmental regulation has an inhibitory effect on carbon emissions under the influence of spatial effects. Based on the above conclusions, useful suggestions have been provided for optimizing industrial structure, improving environmental regulation levels, and alleviating carbon emission issues.

Keywords: Yangtze river economic belt; indicator measurement; spatial measurement; carbon emission (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: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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