Assessment of the Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of Environmental Justice in China

Using the establishment of environmental courts in intermediate people's courts, we conduct staggered difference-in-differences to investigate the carbon emission reduction effect of environmental justice in China. We find that environmental justice promotes carbon emission reduction, both statistically and economically, where cities that implemented environmental courts reduced their carbon emissions intensity by an average of 6.3% and 2.079 million carbon emissions. We confirm our results are robust through an event study, heterogeneous treatment effects tests, and the instruments of Confucian culture. Channel analysis shows that environmental justice promotes the number of environmental administrative penalties and proposals of local people's congresses to be undertaken, pushes green innovation and industrial structure transformation, and improves the number of environmental petitions and proposals of local committees of political consultative conferences to be undertaken. Heterogeneity analysis finds that environmental justice contributes to the low-carbon transformation of major national strategic development regions, resource-based regions, and old industrial bases. Welfare value calculations show that environmental justice responses to climate change have some social benefits, with an average annual reduction of 14 to 97 deaths and savings of 139 to 810 million yuan in social costs.