Climate Governance and Urban Carbon Emission ReductionA Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Pilot Policy of Climate-Resilient City Construction

Climate governance is an important engine to promote the realization of the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and the construction of climate-resilient cities provides a Chinese solution to global climate governance. Based on the panel data of 274 cities in China from 2010 to 2022, this paper explores the impact and mechanism of climate-resilient city construction pilot policies on urban carbon emissions. The results show that the climate-resilient urban construction pilot policy can effectively reduce carbon emission intensity, and this conclusion is still valid after passing multiple robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the pilot policy of climate-resilient city construction can restrain carbon emissions mainly by improving the level of green technology innovation, reducing energy consumption intensity and enhancing public climate concern. Heterogeneity analysis shows that compared with resource-based cities, small and medium-sized cities and old industrial bases, the carbon emission reduction effect of climate-resilient city construction pilot policies is more obvious in non-resource-based cities, large-scale cities and non-old industrial bases. The above findings provide policy reference and empirical support for promoting the construction of climate-resilient cities and helping to achieve the “double carbon” goal.