How can green industry policy facilitate carbon emissions reduction? Evidence from China’s National Eco-Industrial Demonstration Parks

Promoting carbon emission's reduction through green industry development is a noteworthy topic and a crucial initiative for advancing low-carbon transformation. This paper uses the National Eco-Industrial Demonstration Parks as a quasi-natural experiment and employs state-of-the-art difference-in-differences models to identify the impact and mechanisms of green industry policy on carbon emissions reduction. The research findings indicate that implementing green industry policy leads to a significant decrease in carbon emissions. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the construction of green industry policy is more conducive to realizing carbon emission's reduction effects in non-old industrial base areas and eastern cities. Green industry policy promotes carbon emission's reduction by driving green innovation, enhancing energy efficiency, and optimizing industrial structures. Green industry policy exhibits significant spillover effects, with a greater spillover impact on carbon emission's reduction in non-pilot cities. These findings provide empirical evidence for the practical development of green industries and low-carbon synergies.