The carbon emission reduction effect of China’s national high-tech industrial development zones

The double carbon goal is a wide and profound economic and social systematic change. It is also crucial to China's sustainable development. How to promote emission reduction, the National High-Tech Industrial Development Zones(NHTDZs) policy is the key to addressing this problem. Based on urban data from 2003 to 2019 from China, this paper uses the multi-time point asymptotic difference method to explore the impact of the NHTDZs establishment on carbon emissions. The establishment of NHTDZs reduces CO2 emissions, which remains valid through robustness tests. The mechanism analysis demonstrated that the construction of NHTDZs reduces CO2 emissions by increasing innovation levels, increasing research expenditures and emphasizing human capital. Further analysis shown that geographic location, initial resource endowment, population size, and level of green finance development are difference in different cities. This provides guidance promoting the development of NHTDZs and future layout.