Unleashing green technology innovation in agribusiness: traditional environmental regulations, carbon trading, or synergies? 

​AbstractStimulating green technology innovation in agricultural enterprises through appropriate environmental policies is of great significance for achieving green agricultural development. Based on the data of listed agribusinesses from 2007 to 2020, this paper analyzes the incentive effects of traditional environmental regulatory tools, carbon trading, and policy synergies using the SDM-SDID model. It was found that: (1) Although both traditional environmental regulatory tools and carbon trading provide incentive effects, the former tends to exhibit more pronounced direct effects, making it more suitable for adoption by local governments, while the latter demonstrates stronger spatial spillover effects, making it more appropriate for application in a national market context. (2) Command-and-control environmental regulatory instruments and carbon trading are complementary policy mixes, and other environmental policy mixes are to be used as appropriate in the context of the actual situation. (3) The incentive effects of environmental policies are more significant in eastern regions, non-heavily polluting, and state-owned agribusinesses, but not in the basic agricultural sector. Based on the above research, this paper reveals the differentiated effects of different types of environmental policies and policy combinations on the green technology innovation of agribusinesses. This contributes to the deepening of research on environmental policy selection and provides theoretical support and practical references for precise policy implementation and collaborative governance.
IntroductionIn China, greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities account for 24% of the total emissions (Huang et al. 2022). In September 2020, the Chinese government set two major goals: “carbon peakâ€� and “carbon neutrality.â€� The aim is to achieve carbon peak around 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, reducing carbon emissions to zero or negative values (Li et al. 2023b). Green and sustainable development has become the inevitable direction for China’s agricultural production (Yu et al. 2022). Green technological innovation is a technological innovation in energy conservation and pollution prevention, which has the dual positive externalities of innovation knowledge spillover and environmental protection (Huang et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2019). During China’s 13th Five-Year Plan period, the adoption of green innovation technologies led to an 8.5% increase in output across 13 major grain-producing regions and a 30% reduction in pollution load across 109 agricultural demonstration zones (Xiao et al. 2022). Consequently, green technological innovation is emerging as a pivotal catalyst for green agricultural growth (Zheng and Zhang, 2023). Agricultural enterprises are significant contributors to both pollution emissions and active innovation. The efficacy of green technological innovations within these enterpris