Climate Risk and Industrial Structural Upgrading: Evidence from Chinese Urban Panel Data

With the intensification of global climate change, extreme weather events are occurring frequently, and the emergence of extreme temperatures is having a significant impact on all sectors. In China, climate risk has become a major challenge to economic development. This paper explores the impact of extreme temperatures on industrial restructuring using Chinese urban panel data from 2001 to 2021. It is found that (1) extreme temperatures have a positive promotion effect on industrial structure upgrading; (2) extreme temperatures promote industrial structure upgrading by lowering the output of the primary industry and thus promoting industrial structure upgrading; (3) extreme temperatures have a significantly greater promotion effect on industrial structure upgrading in regions with lower per capita income than in regions with higher per capita income levels; (4) extreme temperatures have a heterogeneous effect on regions dominated by different industries, but The effect of extreme temperature on industrial structure upgrading is more obvious for the primary industry-led regions. The above results provide a theoretical basis for the government to formulate policies to cope with climate change for different regions and put forward policy suggestions for climate risk adaptation strategies in industrial structure adjustment, which can better cope with the challenges posed by climate change by optimizing industrial layout and structure.