A Study on the Synergistic Effects of Carbon Reduction and Economic Growth in Green Finance: Evidence from Green Finance Reform Pilot Zones

Market-based environmental policy represented by green finance is a powerful tool for exploring a new development model that is a win-win situation for both economic development and environmental protection, and is also a necessary way to achieve the dual-carbon goal. However, existing studies have paid less attention to the practical path of green finance synergies. Based on this, this study selects China's municipal panel data from 2010 to 2021, and adopts a multi-temporal double-difference model to analyse the impacts of the green finance reform pilot zone policy on the carbon intensity and economic development level, and to explore the path of the synergistic effect of the pilot zone policy, and further explore the impacts of the pilot zone policy on the differences between different regions. The results of the study show that the implementation of the pilot zone policy significantly reduces the carbon emission intensity of the pilot area and improves the economic development level of the area. In terms of the path of action, the pilot zone policy mainly achieves synergistic effects through optimising industrial structure, promoting green technological innovation and enhancing resource allocation efficiency. The policy effects are different for key environmental protection cities, resource-based cities, and cities in the east, centre and west. Therefore, in the future, we should deepen and expand the work of the pilot zone, continue to promote the optimisation of industrial structure, increase the strength of technological innovation policies, and formulate green financial policies with regional characteristics according to the regional environment and level of economic development, so as to empower the sustainable development of the economy.