Impact of Financial Inclusion on the Efficiency of Carbon Emissions: Evidence from 30 Provinces in China

Carbon emissions have become a serious environmental problem worldwide, with the greenhouse effect and global temperature increase being the main areas of concern. Financial inclusion is a means to increase the welfare of citizens and promote sustainable development. Development of financial inclusion may have a big impact on carbon emissions. This study uses data from 2011 to 2019 to do panel Tobit regression and check the effect of financial inclusion on the efficiency of carbon emissions, which is calculated by the super-efficiency Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) -data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The results show that financial inclusion decreases the efficiency of carbon emissions. Moreover, financial inclusion could reduce the efficiency of carbon emissions by increasing the proportion of tertiary industries. Moreover, the effect varies in each region. Thus, following these conclusions, we propose several related policy implications. The government should strengthen the supervision of money due to financial inclusion and ensure that the investment should be put into environmental projects. In addition, it needs to pay attention to carbon emissions generated in the process of industrial upgrading. More access to renewable energy is an effective measure to solve the problem of higher carbon dioxide emissions.