Environmental regulation and its influence on energy-environmental performance: Evidence on the Porter Hypothesis from China's iron and steel industry

Environmental regulation is a critical instrument for achieving sustainable economic and social development in the context of carbon neutrality. The iron and steel industry is highly polluting and energy-consuming, posing a significant threat to China's environmental sustainability. Based on the panel of Chinese provincial-level data from 2000 to 2017, this paper empirically examines how environmental regulation affects the iron and steel industry's green development. The findings show that there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and energy-environmental performance. Low environmental regulation intensity inhibits the improvement of energy-environmental performance. But as the regulation intensity increases, it contributes to the advancement of energy-environmental performance. Environmental regulation affects the industrial energy-environment performance through technological innovation, and the relationship between environmental regulation and technological innovation presents a U-shaped relationship. There are noticeable regional differences in the impact of environmental regulation on energy-environmental performance. The findings provide new evidence to confirm the Porter Hypothesis. Finally, this paper provides policy suggestions for further energyenvironmental performance improvements in China's iron and steel industry.

Automated summary

The study reveals a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and the energy-environmental performance of the iron and steel industry: low regulation intensity hinders performance improvement, while increased regulation intensity contributes to enhancement. Environmental regulation impacts industrial energy-environmental performance through technological innovation, and regional variations in the impact of regulation on energy-environmental performance are noticeable.