Does green credit reduce carbon emissions? Evidence from China

Regarding the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,” an urgent practical problem is how green finance decreases carbon emissions. This paper uses the dynamic spatial Durbin model and China’s provincial panel data to empirically test the impact of green credit on carbon emissions. The results show that green credit effectively curbs carbon emissions, and has significant spatial spillover effects on the carbon emissions. In the short run, the spillover effects of green credit on carbon emissions are greater than the direct effects, but in the long run, the direct effects of green credit on carbon emissions are greater than the spillover effects. The mechanism test finds that upgrading industrial structure is an important transmission channel for green credit to affect carbon emissions, and energy consumption only plays a part of the intermediary role in the direct impact of green credit on carbon emissions. However, green credit has not achieved the goal of carbon emission reduction by promoting low-carbon technology innovation.