Spatial analysis of rural revitalization on regional carbon emissions in China

Abstract The worsening issue of CO2 emission coincides with the effort to revitalize rural areas in China. Hence, this study aims to determine the impact of rural revitalization on CO2 emissions in various regions of China and find the key to reducing emissions. The central hypothesis of this paper is that rural revitalization will increase CO2 emissions, but some of these actions will reduce regional CO2 emissions. This paper constructs a spatial Durbin panel model for empirical analysis based on panel data from 31 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2023. The results show that rural revitalization can directly promote regional overall and direct carbon emissions, regional indirect carbon emissions, and other carbon emissions. However, developing the Flourishing industry and Ecological livability in rural revitalization can effectively inhibit carbon emissions. It is recommended that the Chinese government promote rural revitalization and economic transformation of emerging industries to optimize the development environment of rural revitalization.