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The emissions trading policy is considered a key measure for China to achieve its “double carbon” goal. In this study, two types of Tapio carbon decoupling models are constructed, panel data for 30 provinces and cities in China from 2004 to 2017 are selected, and the difference-in-differences (DID) model is used to evaluate the role of carbon trading policies in carbon decoupling. The study shows that carbon emissions trading policies can significantly promote carbon decoupling in China and that the formulation and implementation of such environmental regulations promote carbon decoupling with the help of two intermediary variables: gray technology innovation and clean technology innovation. Based on the findings, it is concluded that China should actively build a unified national carbon trading market, ensure the synergistic coupling of emission reduction targets and economic growth targets, and effectively play the role of the carbon trading market in inducing and promoting low-carbon technology innovation to help decouple carbon.

tech-innovation(GT) related to improving the efficiency of fossil energy is stronger than that of clean technology(CT) related to the use of renewable energy. This suggests that for a large economy such as China, where coal is still the dominant source of energy consumption, the short-term local benefits of improving air quality and health through the use of grey tech-innovation to improve energy and industrial structure are still important to balance the cost of carbon mitigation.

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Most studies on the short-term local benefits of carbon mitigation technologies on air quality improvement and health focus on specific technologies such as biofuels or Carbon sequestration technologies, while ignoring the overall role of the growing scale of low-carbon technologies, and the relevant empirical studies are particularly lacking. Based on STIRPAT model and EKC hypothesis, this paper takes 30 provinces of China from 2004 to 2016 as research samples, measures the carbon mitigation tech-innovation(CMTI) with Y02 low carbon patent applications, and constructs a econometric model to empirically analyze the effect of carbon mitigation tech-innovation in response to climate change on the inhibition of haze pollution. It draws on relevant studies to quantify air quality and health benefits of carbon mitigation tech-innovation. Research shows that a 1% increase in the number of low-carbon patent applications can reduce haze pollution by 0.066%. According to this estimate, to 2029,China's carbon mitigation tech-innovation could reduce PM2.5 concentration to 15µg/m3 preventing 5.597million premature deaths. The research further found that carbon mitigation tech-innovation can also indirectly inhibit haze pollution by triggering more systematic economic structure changes such as energy and industrial structure. Additionally, the study found that the role of grey tech-innovation(GT) related to improving the efficiency of fossil energy is stronger than that of clean technology(CT) related to the use of renewable energy. This suggests that for a large economy such as China, where coal is still the dominant source of energy consumption, the short-term local benefits of improving air quality and health through the use of grey tech-innovation to improve energy and industrial structure are still important to balance the cost of carbon mitigation.