Has China's Low-Carbon City Construction Enhanced the Green Utilization Efficiency of Urban Land?

China has implemented the low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy in the hopes of efficiently limiting carbon emission intensity to combat global warming and promote green economic growth. Urban land utilization, the second-largest source of carbon emissions, is key to the LCCP policy being able to have the desired effect, which has attracted widespread attention. Based on the panel data from prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this study used the propensity score matching difference-in-differences method (PSM-DID) to examine the impacts of LCCP policy on green utilization efficiency of urban land (GUEUL). The results reveal that LCCP policy has a beneficial impact on GUEUL and can effectively boost the future possibilities of green and low-carbon city development. Due to variances in regional economic and resource endowment level, the impacts of LCCP are different. The pilot has pushed GUEUL in the eastern region, western region, and growing resource-based cities, but has failed to improve GUEUL in other regions. Policymakers should adhere to the long-term sustainability of the LCCP policy and adopt differentiated action strategies to promote GUEUL when implementing it in different regions.