Study On The Effect And Driving Factors Of Decoupling Between Economic Growth And Environmental Pollution In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

At present,the economy has entered the“new normal”stage,and the economic development is gradually transforming from the pursuit of quantity and extensive expansion mode to the pursuit of quality and environmental benefits.The contradiction between economy and environment is becoming more and more prominent.The promotion of ecological environmental protection work is facing a new situation.Achieving economic growth and reducing environmental pollution is one of the top priorities on the road of“ecological priority,green development”.The report of the Nineteenth National Congress focuses on the key areas,key issues and weak links of environmental protection.It puts forward the key tasks and measures to strengthen the prevention and control of air and water pollution.In the new journey of building a well-off society in an all-round way and a socialist modern country,we must fight against pollution.The Yangtze River is one of the most important ecological treasure-houses in China.Guided by the idea of“jointly protecting and not developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt”,the Yangtze River Economic Belt can achieve economic growth along the Yangtze River while reducing environmental pollution emissions.It's essence is to pursue absolute decoupling between economic growth and environmental pollution.This has certain reference significance for the further realization of sustainable development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Based on the existing research,this paper attempts to enrich and improve the relevant research on the decoupling of economic growth and environmental pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Firstly,this paper combs the relevant domestic and foreign literature through literature research on economic growth and resource consumption,environmental pollution,decoupling development and decoupling analysis.In addition,relevant theories such as economic growth are studied,and the theoretical analysis basis of the full text is constructed.Secondly,using industrial wastewater discharge,industrial SO₂ discharge and industrial smoke?powder?dust discharge to comprehensively measure environmental pollution,using the“Entropy Weight Method”to empower these three indicators,and then calculating the comprehensive evaluation index of environmental pollution,in order to fairly and reasonably measure environmental pollution.Based on Tapio decoupling theory,the decoupling model in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is constructed,and the decoupling index is calculated.According to the classification and criteria of decoupling index,the temporal and spatial differentiation of decoupling effect is studied.Thirdly,we study the driving factors that influence the decoupling,put forward hypotheses and build an econometric model.Based on the panel data from2006 to 2017,Using the Stata15.1 software and GMM estimation method to explore the magnitude and direction of the decoupling,and further study the path of the impact of environmental regulation on the decoupling status.The results of this paper are as follows:?1?From the perspective of time differentiation.From 2006 to 2017,11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed certain cyclical characteristics:the overall trend was absolute decoupling-negative decoupling of expansion-absolute decoupling.During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period,most provinces and municipalities were in a stable state of absolute decoupling.Almost all provinces achieved absolute decoupling in 2012,2013 and 2015-2017,and the degree of decoupling was significantly higher than that in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period.Most provinces and municipalities had the highest degree of decoupling in 2017.?2?From the perspective of spatial differentiation.The average value of decoupling index is in absolute decoupling state,including Hunan,Sichuan,Zhejiang and Chongqing.It shows that these four regions have relative basic conditions for absolute decoupling.other provinces and municipalities are changing between absolute decoupling,relative decoupling,growth linkage and expansion negative decoupling.However,the average level of all provinces and municipalities in the last two years is in absolute decoupling state,which indicates a good trend of absolute decoupling.?3?From the driving factors of decoupling.The relationship between economic agglomeration and decoupling is“inverted U”curve;The relationship between population agglomeration and decoupling is“U”curve;Environmental regulation can significantly promote decoupling,and reasonable environmental regulation will promote industrial structure adjustment,technological innovation and decoupling by forcing enterprises to change their mode of production,and through industrial structure adjustment.In addition,there is an"inverted U"curve relationship between the decoupling index and per capita GDP.Based on the above research.the paper puts forward some corresponding countermeasures and suggestions that may promote the decoupling of economic growth and environmental pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Firstly,the study shows that economic agglomeration can promote decoupling when the economic agglomeration exceeds the critical value.Therefore,provinces and municipalities can properly improve the level of economic agglomeration.Secondly,the paper concludes that when the population concentration of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is higher than the critical point,it will restrain decoupling.Therefore,it's necessary to guard against excessive population concentration in large cities and maintain appropriate population concentration.Thirdly,appropriate environmental regulation significantly promotes decoupling.In order to achieve and maintain absolute decoupling,corresponding environmental regulation policies should be adopted for different regional facilities.Fourthly,the proportion of high-polluting industries in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is still high,so it is urgent to vigorously develop green environmental protection industries and actively promote the green transformation of industries.Fifth,under the strategy of promoting technological innovation,we should focus on the innovation of green production technology,which can reduce pollution emissions from the source and avoid the traditional concept of“pollution first and then treatment”.Sixth,vigorously implement the concept of ecological civilization,create a social atmosphere of green life and green consumption,and work together to create a large environment for environmental protection.The main innovations of this paper can be described as follows:Firstly,from the perspective of research,a large number of scholars have carried out a more detailed study on the status and dynamic evolution of the decoupling of the economy and the resources environment.but the effect and driving factors of decoupling in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are relatively few.This paper enriches the existing research to a certain extent.Secondly,from the point of view of research methods,this paper uses the entropy weight method to evaluate the environmental pollution comprehensively,which improves the single pollutant emission index to measure the environmental pollution.This paper adopts the differential GMM estimation method to study the driving factors of decoupling,to a certain extent,avoids the endogenous problems that may exist in the model,and at the same time evades them.Estimation bias caused by FE and RE models is calculated.Finally,this paper adds the cross-terms of environmental regulation,industrial structure and technological innovation to the empirical analysis.Further research is carried out on the action path of decoupling effect of environmental regulation.