Does agricultural green finance help reduce agricultural carbon emission intensity: an empirical analysis based on 30 provinces in China

As the greenhouse effect and the environmental problems thus arising become increasingly prominent, great concern has been aroused for agricultural carbon emissions reduction and sustainable development. Aiming at exploring how to reduce agricultural carbon emissions from agricultural green finance perspective, this study theoretically analyzed the impact and mechanism of agricultural green finance on agricultural carbon emission intensity, and empirically examined the specific impact and the corresponding impact mechanism of agricultural green finance on agricultural carbon emission intensity. Specifically, a two-way fixed effect model was employed to conduct the study based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022. The results show that agricultural green finance can significantly reduce agricultural carbon emission intensity, which has been verified to be valid after a series of robustness tests; and the reduction displays a heterogenous pattern. As it is, the impact of agricultural green finance is more prominent in the eastern region than in the central and western regions, and greater in non-major-grain-producing areas than in major grain-producing areas. On this basis, some policy suggestions are put forward, mainly including developing agricultural green finance, promoting agricultural and green technological innovation, and implementing differentiated agricultural green finance policies so as to reduce agricultural carbon emission intensity.