Study On The Impact Of Green Finance Policy On Air Quality

Air pollution has already caused serious impacts on society and human healthy life.China is one of the countries most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change due to its large population,poor ecosystem stability and harsh climate conditions.At the same time,China’s economy has entered a stage of high-quality development,which has also put forward higher requirements for ecological civilization.The Party’s 20th National Congress proposed to continuously and deeply fight the Blue Sky Defense War as a way to deeply promote environmental pollution prevention and control as well as to promote the construction of a beautiful China.Finance can guide the flow of economic resources from high pollution and high energy consumption industries to environmental protection industries,provide more financial services for environment-friendly projects,promote investment in environmental projects at lower costs,and achieve sustainable social development.Green finance,as a feature to strengthen finance to improve environmental quality,has also become a new source of power to promote ecological civilization.Theoretically,green finance can optimize resource allocation,improve industrial structure,and guide green technological innovation,thus effectively curbing air deterioration.However,China’s green finance started late and is mainly guided by policies.Therefore,this paper firstly compares the relevant literature on green financial policies and air quality,analyzes the impact of green finance policy on air quality and its impact path through externalities,public goods and other related theories,and puts forward the research hypotheses of this paper.Secondly,this paper sorts out the introduction time and content focus of green financial policies in China,while analyzing the current situation of air quality in terms of temporal evolution and spatial layout,and proposes the role of green financial policies on air quality from a qualitative perspective.Then,this paper selects the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zone as a quasi-natural experiment of green finance policy,and takes the city data from January 2015 to December 2020 as the sample to test the above theoretical analysis from an empirical perspective by establishing DID model and mediating effect model.Finally,policy recommendations are proposed.The main conclusions are:（1）With the implementation of green financial policies,air quality has gradually improved.The proportion of air quality grades above good has increased significantly.The Air Quality Index（AQI）shows a significant downward trend,and PM₁₀ has the same trend.PM_2.5,SO₂ and CO show a continuous downward trend.However,the overall trend of O₃ is rising,and the synergistic management of O₃and PM_2.5is the focus of continuous air quality improvement.（2）Air pollution is recurrent.Air quality in the central provinces,which are dominated by large industries,has improved significantly.However,air pollution in some cities due to unfavorable weather and other reasons is recurrent,and air pollution in Xinjiang has not yet been properly addressed.（3）The establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones can significantly reduce AQI and improve air quality.This finding remains robust after parallel trend test,propensity score matching test,placebo test,indicator substitution test,exclusion of parallel environmental policy tests,and cyclical changes in air quality.（4）The mechanism test found that both industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation are effective ways to improve air quality.（5）The heterogeneity study found that the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones significantly improved air quality in cities south of the Qinling-Huaihe River line,large-scale,with better air quality and lower fiscal expenditure levels.According to the conclusion,the following countermeasures are suggested:First,the implementation of green financial policies should be strengthened to induce a stronger role in improving air quality.The country should start the expansion of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones in due course and promote their establishment in more cities.Second,the government should deepen the level of implementation of green financial policies for different subjects.Third,it should play the role of industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation.Fourth,different cities should combine their own resource endowments to take advantage of the situation.Fifth,avoid the recurring nature of air pollution.Sixth,strengthen the green financial system and infrastructure construction,so that they can support the objectives of green financial policies.