Abstract:To reveal the transmission mechanism of carbon emissions trading on green high-quality development, provide theoretical reference for spatial resource integration and narrowing of regional economic development gap, from the perspective of green and high-quality development system, the impact of carbon emission trading on green and high-quality development is systematically studied. Consider the Chinese government's pilot carbon emission trading program as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper constructs a green high-quality development index system consisted of four aspects of technical innovation, industrial structure, residents' livelihood, and green development under the perspective of new quality productive forces. According to the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2021, the multi-period difference-in-difference method and spatial Durbin model is adopted to carry out empirically examination. The conclusions show that: (1) Carbon emissions trading significantly promotes green and high-quality development, which is conducive to the development of new quality productive forces. (2) Carbon emissions trading promotes green and high-quality development by promoting technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, and improving the livelihood of residents. (3) The green and high-quality development effect of carbon emissions trading exhibits regional heterogeneity with increasing gradients from the eastern, central, and western regions. (4) Carbon emissions trading has a positive spatial spillover effect of “local-neighbourhood” on green and high-quality development. Corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are proposed from the aspects of orderly and gradually expanding the scope of carbon emission trading, planning differentiated carbon emission trading implementation systems according to local conditions in each region, and enhancing regional spatial coordination and linkage.