Carbon reduction effects of anti-corruption policies: evidence from energy-intensive industries

Against the background of China's “double carbon” target and environmental issues becoming important management matters, energy-intensive industries have received widespread attention as a major source of carbon emission pollutants; at the same time, China is carrying out a sustained and efficient anti-corruption campaign, and energy-intensive industries are mostly state-owned enterprises, and corruption has been a controversial issue. The issue of corruption in energy-intensive industries, which are mostly state-owned enterprises, has also been highly controversial. Faced with the dual dilemma of environmental and political pollution, is there an inevitable link between the anti-corruption campaign in China's energy-intensive industries and the level of carbon emissions? What is the mechanism of influence? To this end, we discuss the impact in this context using a fixed-effects model with panel data of energy-intensive industries from 2007 to 2016. The results show that the anti-corruption campaign significantly reduces the level of carbon emissions in the industry, while on the other hand, green innovation does not play a role in improving the phenomenon of excessive carbon emissions at the technological level.