Exploring the Role of Government AssessmentPolicy and Financial Developmentin Energy Conservation and CarbonEmissions Reduction in China

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.