ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1569938
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Risk and Green and Low-Carbon Transformation: Economic Impact and Policy ResponseView all 27 articles
How the climate resilient cities construction accelerates urban green transformation: Impact effects and mechanism tests
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hunan University of Technology and Business, Changsha Shi, China
- 2Weifang Engineering Vocational College, Weifang, Shandong, China
- 3Hunan First Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China
- 4School of Law, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment leveraging the pilot policy for climate resilient cities construction (CRCC), utilizing panel data from 296 prefecture-level cities in China spanning from 2006 to 2022. The Difference-in-Differences (DID) method is employed to identify the causal effect of CRCC on urban green transformation. Empirical results show that CRCC significantly accelerates urban green transformation, with a 9.8% increase in green technology innovation. Mechanism analysis reveals that CRCC drives green transformation through industrial structure optimization and upgrading, as well as governmental incentive and regulatory actions. Additionally, the promoting effects of CRCC on industrial structure upgrading and governmental behavioral adjustments are weaker in resource-based cities, while in cities with higher administrative hierarchy, CRCC more effectively drives green transformation by accelerating industrial structure optimization and strengthening governmental incentive behaviors. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of CRCC on green transformation is more pronounced in cities located on the southeast side of the Hu Line, and cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Extended test results indicate that CRCC has a considerable enhancing effect on the green transformation of neighboring cities, and that green transformation exhibits a positive spatial spillover effect. For the first time, this study quantifies the causal effect of CRCC on urban green transformation using panel data, filling a research gap in the role of climate resilience policies in green development.
Keywords: climate resilient cities construction, green transformation, Industrial structure, governmental behavior, Spatial spillover effect
Received: 02 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, Zhang, Wen and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chunhui Wang, School of Law, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, Beijing Municipality, China
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