Can climate policy promote urban green technology innovation in China? — Evidence from China’s low-carbon pilot initiatives

作者：Xiaojuan Cao, Fangyuan Zhong, Mengbing Du · 发表于：Sustainable Futures · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100939 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Energy, Environment, Economic Growth、Climate Change Policy and Economics、Environmental Impact and Sustainability

The low-carbon city pilot policy plays a crucial role in driving China’s low carbon transformation. Promoting urban green technology innovation constitutes a significant objective of this policy. Therefore, the quantitative assessment of policy implementation effectiveness is instrumental in facilitating the advancement of low-carbon initiatives in pilot regions. This study employs a multi-period DID model to investigate the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on green technological innovation in 274 Chinese cities between 2006 and 2021. We find that: (1) the policy has a significant and positive effect on urban green technological innovation; (2) the policy exhibits heterogeneous impacts across cities with different regions, administrative hierarchies, and development patterns; (3) the policy influences urban green technological innovation primarily through three channels—increasing government investment, upgrading industrial structure, and agglomerating talent; and (4) carbon intensity negatively moderates the policy’s effect, weakening the promotional impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on urban green technological innovation. This study builds upon previous research and provides empirical evidence to support the subsequent replication of policies at the city level from a meso-perspective.