The impact of China’s carbon emissions trading pilot policy on green technological innovation in selected manufacturing enterprises

The carbon emissions trading (CET) pilot policy is a significant practical exploration to guide green and low-carbon development through market mechanisms, and an essential system to promote China’s economic transformation and sustainable development. This paper constructs a quasi-natural experiment with the background of Chinese carbon emissions trading pilot policy, selects the data of China’s Shenzhen and Shanghai A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2008 to 2021, and applies the difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of the CET on the green technological innovations (GTI) of China’s manufacturing enterprises, thereby providing a policy basis for the sustainable development of Chinese economy. The findings are as follows: (1) The carbon emissions trading pilot significantly enhances the level of green innovation of enterprises, and the conclusion is still significant after a series of robustness tests; (2) There is obvious heterogeneity in the policy effect of the CET, i.e., it has a more obvious impact on the level of green innovation of state-owned enterprises, enterprises in non-heavily polluted industries, and enterprises in regions with better business environments; (3) The CET can further enhance its positive impact effect on enterprise GTI through three channels: the level of green financing, media attention and executives’ awareness of green development. Our research also indicates that China’s Carbon emissions trading pilot is both an emission reduction policy and an innovation policy. By stimulating green technology innovation at the enterprise level, it not only promotes Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (climate action) and Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production), but also enhances industrial innovation capabilities under SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure)—provided that there is supportive finance, execution orientation, and transparency.