Cobenefit Effect Between Pollution Reduction and Carbon Emission Mitigation: Evidence from Cities in the Middle Reaches of the China Yangtze River

Abstract This paper is based on the actual problems of the coordinated treatment of pollution reduction and carbon emission mitigation in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the China Yangtze River. It makes two main contributions. First, on the basis of cross-impact analysis, the cobenefit variable of pollution reduction and carbon emission mitigation is added to measure the cobenefit effect more intuitively and accurately. Second, on the basis of adding cobenefit variables and taking into account regional and dynamic characteristics, variable coefficient regression is conducted on the cobenefit variables. It is found that the level of the cobenefit effect of pollution reduction and carbon emission mitigation of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in different regions is not only spatially heterogeneous but also heterogeneous between different types of cobenefit effects. The interregional collaborative level of pollution reduction in the urban agglomeration is better than that of carbon emission mitigation. Then, compared with carbon emission mitigation policy investment, carbon emission mitigation technology investment and pollution reduction investment have a higher cobenefit effect. At the same time, carbon emission mitigation investment has higher comprehensive benefits than pollution reduction investment.