Does High-Speed Rail Reduce Local Co2 Emissions in China? A Panel Data Counterfactual Approach

This study analyzes the effect of high-speed rail (HSR) projects on CO 2 emissions in targeted city nodes of four selected HSR lines/segments in China. We employ a panel data counterfactual approach to analyze the impact of HSR on local CO 2 emissions using prefecture-level data. We consider 18 treatment cities and 10 control cities with no HSR to determine how the introduction of HSR affects CO 2 emissions and analyze the factors that determined the disparity in HSR impact. We find that CO 2 emissions increased in the early construction period. However, HSR projects significantly and continuously decreased CO 2 emissions for most treatment cities during the operation period. We also find that the CO 2 reduction effect was larger in cities with more human capital and technological innovation. These findings provide strong empirical evidence that building HSR helps reduce CO 2 emissions; hence, governments should improve HSR technologies and expand HSR networks to promote environmentally friendly development