低碳城市试点政策促进了再生能源发展吗？ ——来自再生能源企业的证据

Does Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Promote the Development of Renewables? Evidence from Renewable Energy Enterprises

摘要:

低碳城市试点政策不仅会在宏观层面影响城市的能源消耗与碳排放,而且会在微观层面影响工业、制造业、重污染等企业的数字化转型、节能减排及全要素生产率等方面,但该政策如何影响再生能源企业的发展仍未知。基于此,本文将低碳城市试点政策视作一项“准自然实验”,运用双重差分模型检验该政策对再生能源企业的绩效影响。研究发现,低碳城市试点政策通过促进试点地区再生能源企业绩效提升从而促进可再生能源产业发展,随着政策推进,促进作用逐渐增强。经一系列稳健性检验后该结果依然成立。该政策主要通过促进再生能源企业净利润来提升其企业绩效;同时政策效果存在着企业所属区域、企业性质、企业类型方面的异质性:该政策对我国中西部的再生能源企业、国有再生能源企业及再生能源发电企业绩效的促进作用更为明显。研究成果为进一步推广低碳城市试点政策中有针对性地推进再生能源产业发展以助力能源结构转型提供了借鉴和参考。

Abstract:

The low-carbon city pilot policy not only impacts the urban energy consumption and carbon emissions at the macro level, but also influences the digital transformation, energy conservation, and total factor productivity of industrial, manufacturing, and heavy-pollution enterprises at the micro level. However, how it affects the development of renewables remains unknown. Against this backdrop, a “quasi-natural experiment” was developed from the low-carbon city polit, and the difference-in-difference (DID) model was used to examine its impacts on the performance of renewable energy enterprises. The findings indicate that the low-carbon city polit policy notably promotes the development of renewables by enhancing the performance of renewable energy enterprises in the polit areas, and this promoting effect is strengthened as the policy progresses. The results remain robust after a series of rigorous tests. The policy primarily boosts corporate performance by increasing the net profit of renewable energy enterprises. Additionally, heterogeneities across enterprise regions, ownership types, and business categories are observed: the promotion effects are more significantly occurred in central and western China, state-owned renewable energy enterprises, and renewable power generation enterprises. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of how the development of renewables and energy transition can be achieved through the low-carbon city pilot policy.