Edinburgh Napier University

  Previous studies have not paid close attention to the effects of inclusive finance on carbon dioxide emissions. Setting research context in China with its rapid development in inclusive finance and pressing target of carbon dioxide neutrality, this paper adopts fixed effects model, moderating effect model, instrumental variable method and quantile regression method to analyze the effects of inclusive financial on carbon dioxide emissions in China. The results show that the inclusive finance is negatively related to the carbon dioxide emissions. This impact is particularly significant in the deep usage of the inclusive finance. It is also found that the inclusive finance can promote enterprise innovation in the region and reduce carbon emissions by stimulating enterprise innovation to increase productivity. The quantile regression results further show that the effects only exist in the regions within a certain degree of the usage of the inclusive finance. In addition, the results of cross-section analysis signify that compared with manufacturing industry, the effects are only significant in non-manufacturing industry. Moreover, the effects can only be found in inland regions of the country whilst the coastal areas are insignificant. The research contributes to the understanding in development of inclusive finance and relativeness to the carbon dioxide emission issues.