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Page 14 of 16 Hu et al. Carbon Footprints 2024;3:16 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cf.2024.28

CONCLUSIONS
Using a dataset covering 204 cities across China over the period of 1999-2019, this study investigated the
effects of three different types of industrial park policies on city carbon emissions. The DID method and the
mediation effects model were employed. The results show that: (1) the construction of all three types of
industrial parks, ETDZ, EIDP, and LCIP, significantly reduced city carbon emission intensity, with ETDZ
exhibiting the strongest effect; (2) Lag effects exist, where it takes an average of 7 years for ETDZ to exhibit
emission reductions, and for EIDP an average of 3 years. LCIP has not yet shown dynamic emission
reduction effects during the study period; (3) Both ETDZ and EIDP induce carbon emission reductions by
raising the GDP share of the tertiary sector relatively, yet the mediating role of industrial structure for LCIP
was not evident; (4) The emission effects of industrial parks would vary in sign and magnitude with respect
to city’s geographical region, resource endowments, and their own amounts; and (5) All three types of
industrial parks exhibit spatial spillover effects, with ETDZ and EIDP reducing the carbon emission
intensity of surrounding cities, while LCIP does the opposite.

Limitations
The study has several limitations that may affect the findings. First, the data period of 1999-2019 may not be
long enough to fully capture the long-term effects of some industrial parks, especially LCIP. Second, the
control variables used (investment level, industrial development, economic development, and population
density) may not capture the influence of other potentially important factors like energy mix, technological
innovation, transportation infrastructure, and environmental policies, which could also influence carbon
emissions. Additionally, the study focuses on three types of industrial parks, potentially overlooking the
effects of other industrial park types. These limitations suggest that the results may not have fully reflected
the broader or longer-term impacts of industrial park policies on carbon emissions. Future research could
extend the data range, incorporate additional control variables, and consider more types of industrial parks
to address these issues [38-40] .

DECLARATIONS
Authors’ contributions
Made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study and performed data analysis and
interpretation: Hu X, Zhang YW
Performed the data acquisition and provided administrative, technical, and material support: Geng Y,
Zhang YW, Yu H, Li L

Availability of data and materials
The data used for this study could be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Financial support and sponsorship
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72088101) and Shanghai
Jiao Tong University (WF220428008).

Conflicts of interest
Geng Y is the Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Pathway and Policy Implications of Urban Low-Carbon
Transition under Carbon Neutrality” and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Carbon Footprints. While the
other authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.