Abstract
As a crucial instrument, green finance policy facilitates the transition toward a green and low-carbon regional economic structure, which is essential for realizing the target of "double carbon" and the harmonious coexistence of nature and humans. Therefore, taking the green financial reform and innovation pilot zone as a quasi-natural experiment, we select 270 cities from 2010 to 2021 as research samples and empirically assess the effects of the green finance policy on reducing regional carbon emissions through the double debiased machine learning (DDML) model. This study demonstrates that (1) green finance policy plays a significant role in promoting regional carbon emission reduction, and this conclusion remains valid after a variety of robustness tests; (2) the mechanism of action indicates that green finance policy contributes to regional carbon emission reduction by supporting green technological innovation and promoting the optimization of the industrial structure; (3) the analysis of heterogeneity reveals that green finance policy has a more pronounced effect on carbon emission reduction in the eastern region and in non-resource-based cities than in the central and western regions and in resource-dependent cities; and (4) the pilot policy of "Broadband China", the pilot policy of information consumption, and the comprehensive experimental zone of big data has a synergistic effect on carbon reduction and emission reduction with green finance policy. The findings of this study not only contribute to deepening the understanding of the effects of the green finance pilot policy on regional carbon emission reduction but also provide policy support for local governments to explore green technology comprehensively, grasp new opportunities for green development, and expand the space for sustainable economic development with the assistance of the green finance pilot policy.