EFFECTS OF CLIMATE POLICY ON URBAN CARBON EMISSIONS – NEW INSIGHTS FROM CHINA’S LOW-CARBON CITY PILOT POLICY

China's actions to attain sustainable, low-carbon growth are greatly assisted by the Low-Carbon City Pilot (LCCP) scheme, which also offers a viable solution into 2030 peaking carbon in the battle against climate change.In this context, grounded in the panel dataset comprising 282 Chinese cities during 2006-2021, using LCCP execution as a quasi-natural experiment, this research adopts a multi-phase differencein-differences (DID) model and gives a detailed evaluation for the impacts of LCCP on carbon emissions.Following subsequent robustness tests, this study argues that LCCP has notably reduced urban carbon emissions.More importantly, the results of the heterogeneity test revealed that LCCP created notable benefits in curbing carbon emissions, especially in big cities, non-resource-based cities, non-old industrial base cities, and eastern regions.Mechanism results also indicated that LCCP has effectively diminished carbon emissions by cutting energy consumption in urban areas, enhancing the levels of green innovation, and fostering digital economy.Consequently, it is essential to improve LCCP scheme and customize lowcarbon development strategies according to local conditions, offering empirical proofs for widening the range of pilot cities under LCCP scheme.