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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Exploring the Role of Government Assessment
Policy and Financial Development
in Energy Conservation and Carbon
Emissions Reduction in China
1
Business School, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, 3601 Hongjing Avenue, Nanjing, China
2
Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
Submission date: 2024-07-15
Final revision date: 2024-08-24
Acceptance date: 2024-10-13
Online publication date: 2025-01-27
Publication date: 2025-11-04
Corresponding author
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(6):7851-7864
KEYWORDS
government energy conservation assessment policyfinancial developmentcarbon emissions reductionenergy conservation
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Achieving energy conservation (EC) and carbon emissions (CE) reduction through effective policies
and economic instruments has become an important issue in China. Using China’s provincial panel data,
this paper quantitatively analyzes the impact of the Chinese government’s EC assessment policy and
financial development on EC and CE reduction. The results show that the government EC assessment
policy can effectively promote EC, but have no significant impact on CE. Financial development has
a significant positive effect on CE; however, it does not promote EC due to its significant positive effect
on EC intensity. We found that the increasing proportion of tertiary industry does not effectively reduce
total CE and CE intensity. Based on the results, to achieve the CE peak goal in 2030, we suggest:
(1) To promote the development of green finance and provide financing support for green projects with
CE reduction benefits; (2) To innovate and improve the energy pricing system, the green development
and the energy consumption structure should be enhanced and restructured through the energy price
mechanism; (3) Strict CE reduction system, energy consumption control, and other measures to
strengthen the control of CE growth; (4) With higher market access standards and low-carbon product
certification, it is mandatory for enterprises to save energy and reduce CE in the production process.
The implementation of these policies will accelerate the process of transforming the economy into
a low-carbon development model and achieve the goals of EC and CE reduction.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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