Study on high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration, green finance, and carbon emission

Based on the relationship between industrial agglomeration, green finance development, and carbon emissions, some relevant theoretical hypotheses are proposed, and this paper employs the combination of spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model to empirically test data from 30 provincial regions in China from 2006 to 2019. The results show that the agglomeration of high energy-consuming industries has an inverse U-curve relationship with carbon emission intensity, and the development of green finance will inhibit the growth of carbon emission intensity. There are significant spatial characteristics of high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration, green financial development, and carbon emissions. And the intensity of local carbon emissions will be influenced by the agglomeration of high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration and green financial development in local and neighboring areas. Moreover, green financial development plays a moderating role in the relationship between high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration and carbon emissions, and the role of high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration and green financial development on carbon emissions has a threshold effect due to the mismatch between the two developments. Under different levels of green financial development, the influence of high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration on carbon emissions varies widely, and green financial development helps to suppress the negative impact of high energy-consuming industrial agglomeration on carbon emissions. Accordingly, we argue that inter-regional joint prevention and control mechanism should be established for pollution control. And China should build more effective high energy-consuming industrial clusters to make them play an active role in reducing emissions. At the same time, China should accelerate the construction of green finance, strengthen the disclosure and transparency of green financial information, and establish a joint mechanism for the development of inter-regional green finance, so that it can contribute to regional industrial transformation and pollution control.