Research on the synergies between low-carbon pilot city policy and high-speed railways in improving Chinese urban electricity efficiency

Abstract

Purpose Global climate change is a serious threat to the survival and development of mankind. Reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality are the keys to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable human development. For many countries, taking China as an example, the electric power sector is the main contributor to the country’s carbon emissions, as well as a key sector for reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. The low-carbon transition of the power sector is of great significance to the long-term low-carbon development of the economy. Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the energy supply structure on the supply side and increase the proportion of new energy in the total power supply. On the other hand, it is necessary to improve energy utilization efficiency on the demand side and control the total primary energy consumption by improving energy efficiency, which is the most direct and effective way to reduce emissions. Improving the utilization efficiency of electric energy and realizing the low-carbon transition of the electric power industry requires synergies between the government and the market. The purpose of this study is to investigate the individual and synergistic effects of China’s low-carbon policy and the opening of urban high-speed railways (HSRs) on the urban electricity consumption efficiency, measured as electricity consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). Design/methodology/approach This study uses a panel of 289 Chinese prefecture-level cities from the years 1999–2019 as the sample and uses the time-varying difference-in-difference method to test the relationship between HSR, low-carbon pilot cities and urban electricity consumption efficiency. In addition, the instrumental variable method is adopted to make a robustness check. Findings Empirical results show that the low-carbon pilot policy and the HSR operation in cities would reduce the energy consumption per unit of GDP, and synergies occur in both HSR operated and low-carbon pilot cities. Research limitations/implications This study has limitations that would provide possible starting points for future studies. The first limitation is the choice of the proxy variable of government and market factors. The second limitation is that the existing data is only about whether the high-speed rail is opened or not and whether it is a low-carbon pilot city, and there is no more informative data to combine the two aspects. Practical implications The findings of this study can inform policymakers and regulators about the effects of low-carbon pilot city policies. In addition, the government should consider market-level factors in addition to policy factors. Only by combining various influencing factors can the efficient use of energy be more effectively achieved so as to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Social implications From the social perspective, the findings indicate that improving energy utilization is dependent on the joint efforts of the government and market. Originality/value The study provides quantitative evidence to assess the synergic effect between government and the market in the low-carbon transition of the electric power industry. Particularly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to comprehend the role of the city low-carbon pilot policy and the construction of HSR in improving electricity efficiency.

Can the low-carbon city pilot policy promote firms’ low-carbon innovation: Evidence from China

“…Theoretically, the difference-in-difference model can satisfy the parallel trend hypothesis if θ 2009 and θ 2010 are not significant while θ 2012 to θ 2016 are all significant. Columns ( 1) and ( 2) of Table 3 are the regression results of the parallel trend test, with no control variables added in column ( 1) and all control variables added in column (2). We can see that the coefficients of pilot×d 2009 and pilot×d 2010 are not significant, but the coefficients of the year after that are all significantly positive, which is consistent with the parallel trend hypothesis.…”

“…According to the median age of municipal secretaries in the sample in 2011, the year before the implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy, the samples are divided into a strong promotion incentive group and a weak promotion incentive group. The regression results are listed in column (1) and column (2) of Table 5, with column (1) showing the regression results of the weak promotion incentive group and column (2) showing the regression results of the strong promotion incentive group. It can be found that the difference-in-difference coefficient in column (1) is not significant, while that in column ( 2) is significantly positive at the 1% level.…”

“…The existing studies mainly evaluated the implementation effects of this policy and obtained some valuable findings. Studies at the city-level discovered that the low-carbon city pilot policy could significantly contribute to the upgrading of industrial structure [1], the conservation of energy [2][3][4], the reduction of emissions [5][6][7][8], and the improvement of green or low-carbon innovation [9][10][11] of pilot areas. In contrast, studies at the firm level found that this policy can reduce not only firms' coal consumption and coal intensity [12] but also enhance firms' green innovation [13,14] and total factor productivity [15].…”

The Energy Consumption and Carbon Emission Model Development and Application for Ongoing Railway Construction

“…Wang and colleagues built a new lifecycle model of China's high-speed railway energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on TLCAM ( Tsinghua University Life Cycle Assessment Model ), providing an important reference for domestic railway energy consumption research [3]. However, most research both domestic and abroad constructs railway lifecycle energy consumption and carbon emission models at a macro scale [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], focusing more on carbon emission estimation during the operation period, with little attention to construction machinery energy consumption during the railway construction period, nor the construction of machinery energy consumption and carbon emission models from the perspective of construction scenarios and energy consumption [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

The impacts of low-carbon city pilot policies on natural population growth: empirical evidence from China’s prefecture-level cities

“…The relationship between natural population growth and LCCP policies promoting economic and environmental development balance in China is still worth investigating because it determines whether the existing economic development pattern is sustainable (25). However, the existing LCCP-relevant studies mainly focus on policy analysis, design and evaluation to promote low-carbon economic and transport system development (20) rather than further investigate their impacts on natural population growth.…”