Climate investment and financing, economic growth target constraints and urban green development efficiency.
Journal:
Journal of environmental management
PMID:
40254006
Abstract
Climate change constitutes a multidimensional crisis impacting global security and sustainable development, and immediate collective response is necessitated to address this challenge for all humankind. Guiding climate investment and financing (CIF) to enhance urban green development efficiency (GDE) is an important initiative for mitigating and adapting to climate change. This study scientifically measures the development level of CIF in 62 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2022 by innovatively constructing an evaluation index system for CIF. On this basis, we use a panel two-way fixed-effects model to examine the impact and mechanism of CIF on GDE. The research results indicate that CIF significantly improves GDE, and this contribution is more pronounced in CIF pilot cities, cities with strong environmental regulations and high levels of financial development. Channel analysis shows that CIF can enhance GDE by promoting green technology innovation and artificial intelligence development. The moderating effect analysis shows that the soft constraint of economic growth target significantly and positively moderates the enhancement effect of CIF on GDE. Further analysis reveals that CIF promotes substantive green innovation rather than strategic green innovation to improve GDE. Overall, this study observes that there are significant regional differences in the level of CIF in China, and there is still much room for improvement.