Urban intensive land use and enterprise emission reduction: New micro-evidence from China towards COP26 targets

Energy saving and emission reduction are key elements in promoting global sustainable development. From the perspective of urban land resource utilization, this study examines how the intensive use of land resources affects enterprise emission reduction and the mechanism through which it achieves this impact. Based on land use raster data from 2000 to 2017, an urban intensive land use indicator for China is constructed from the “land concentration and continuity” perspective, which is then combined with the 2001–2014 Chinese industrial enterprise database and enterprise pollution emission database for regression analysis. The results show that the intensive use of urban land resources significantly reduces the intensity of enterprise pollution emissions. Moreover, this result remains robust after a series of tests, including substitute variables, elimination of endogeneity, and limited samples. The mechanism test proves that the emission reduction effect of urban intensive land use can be realized through two transmission channels—scale and technology effects. Further heterogeneity analysis results show that central cities and large enterprises benefit more from the intensive use of urban land to promote enterprise emission reduction. This study uses high-resolution land raster data innovatively to construct an accurate urban intensive land use index and theoretically evaluates the impact, mechanism, and heterogeneity of intensive land use on enterprise emission reduction in China. This study thus not only fills an existing theoretical research gap, but also helps promote the mechanism between the intensive use of urban land resources and the green development of enterprises. •We examine how intensive land resource use impacts enterprise emission reduction.•We construct a comprehensive urban intensive land use indicator for China.•The indicator is combined with the industrial and pollution emission databases.•Urban intensive land use significantly reduces enterprise pollution emission.•Central cities and large enterprises benefit more from the emission reduction.