The mechanism and path of pollution reduction and carbon reduction affecting high quality economic development - taking the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as an example

In the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, what is crucial for the continued promotion of ecological civilization construction and sustainable green development in China is to achieve the dynamic and balanced development between pollution reduction, carbon emission reduction, and economic growth. Therefore, the indexes of CO2 emissions, pollution reduction intensity, and high-quality economic development are quantified in this study by using the panel data related to 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration(YRDUA) from 2010 to 2020. Furthermore, kernel density analysis, GIS spatial analysis, and other methods are employed to demonstrate the spatial and temporal patterns of pollution reduction intensity, CO2 emission levels, and the characteristics of high-quality economic development in the YRDUA. In order to reveal the dynamic relationship between pollution reduction, carbon emission reduction, and high-quality economic development, a panel vector autoregressive model (PAVR) was established and the system generalized method of moments was used to estimate the model coefficients. Additionally, Granger causality tests, impulse response analysis, and variance decomposition were conducted. There is a fluctuating upward trend shown by the overall level of CO2 emissions in the YRDUA, with significant spatial nonuniformity exhibited in carbon emissions. Despite the self-promotion mechanism playing a more significant role in the high-quality economic development in the YRDUA and its three regions, the impact of pollutant and carbon emissions on high-quality economic development is quite limited. A significant promoting effect is exhibited in those high and moderately high-quality economic development regions, while nonlinear effects are observed in those high and moderately high-quality economic development regions. As for the interactive relationships, the three factors are correlated with each other to a more significant extent in those high and moderately high-quality economic development regions, which contributes to mutual influence and causal relationship. However, there is no effective interactive mechanism observed among the three factors in the whole area and low-quality economic development regions, with high-quality economic development playing a major role in environmental pollution and carbon emission reduction. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd