Assessing the impact of the carbon market on the improvement of China's energy and carbon emission performance

All countries are actively taking measures to address carbon neutrality. As a policy measure for China to respond to climate change, the carbon market is necessary and significant for assessing its impact on energy and the environment. This study uses data from 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2017 and employs a difference-in-differences model to estimate the impact of the carbon market on energy and environmental performance. The empirical results show that the carbon market has significantly improved energy and environmental performance, as shown by a 14.14% reduction in energy intensity and an increase in carbon emission efficiency by 4.21%; a series of robustness test results show that the carbon market only has long-term stability characteristics in reducing energy intensity, but is unstable in improving emission efficiency; market reform and technological innovation have played a significant intermediary role in the impact of the carbon market on energy and environmental performance; and the carbon market has significant heterogeneity effects; only Beijing, Chongqing, and Hubei have significant energy intensity reduction effects. Finally, the results revealed that the carbon market is beneficial for improving energy and environmental performance, which provides a universal reference for countries worldwide to implement carbon emission reduction policies.