94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1559528
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Risk and Green and Low-Carbon Transformation: Economic Impact and Policy ResponseView all 21 articles
Policy Mechanisms and Spatial Dynamics of Low-Carbon City Construction in Promoting Inclusive Green Growth in China
Provisionally accepted
Xuan Mu1
Tong Zou2*- 1North University of China, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
- 2Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Against the backdrop of global climate governance and China ' s dual-carbon goals, low-carbon city construction has emerged as a critical strategy for balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability.This study evaluates the impact of low-carbon city construction on inclusive green growth in China from 2006 to 2021. Empirical results indicate that these policies contribute to an average increase of 0.005 units in inclusive green growth for the treatment group compared to the control group, with robustness assessed through placebo tests and alternative variable substitutions. Further analysis indicates that the policy effects are more pronounced in central cities, resource-based cities, and cities with high carbon abatement potential, driven strongly by urban technological innovation, industrial structure optimization, and enhanced government leadership. However, spatial effect analysis shows that, despite a significant positive spatial correlation between cities, the spillover effects of low-carbon policies are limited, primarily concentrated within the pilot cities. Therefore, it is recommended to strengthen cross-regional governance alliances, establish green technology transfer centers, promote the "R&Dmanufacturing-recycling" industrial chain, and deploy tailored regional transformation incentives. Additionally, drawing on international models such as the EU's carbon border mechanism and Germany's industry-universityresearch framework, collaborative "regional green growth partnerships" should be developed to foster inclusive green growth.
Keywords: Low-carbon city construction, Inclusive green growth, Difference-in-differences method, Double machine learning, Energy policy evaluation
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mu and Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tong Zou, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.