Impact of dual-carbon attention competition from local government on regional carbon emissions in China

Extreme climate change induced by carbon emissions has received extensive attention from governments worldwide. Strong competition in local governments' dual-carbon attention (GCA) produces an effective influence on the reduction of regional carbon emissions, confirming crucial policy implications. In this study, textual content analysis is employed to measure the GCA level and GCA competition, and the mechanism by which GCA competition reduces regional carbon emissions in China is explored from the perspective of competition behaviors. The findings demonstrate that the increase of GCA competition positively influences the reduction of regional carbon emissions. Influence mechanism analyses verify that increasing GCA competition primarily stimulates the greater reduction of regional carbon emissions by intensifying competition in energy consumption reduction and the optimization of the energy consumption structure. The influence of GCA competition on reduced regional carbon emissions is significantly related to industrial structure upgrading, the energy consumption structure, and environmental governance investment, as well as inter-government competition in these areas. The detailed findings of this research can provide economic and environmental benefits for policymakers, and can provide corporations with more targeted policy recommendations related to dual-carbon attention and carbon emission reduction.