Abstract: The local governments in China are facing huge financial pressure under the“dual carbon”goals, and the local government special greenbonds are an important source of financial resources to reduce financial pressure and improve the ecological environment. Based on the provincial panel data from 2018-2021, this paper empirically analyzes the spatial carbon emission reduction effect of the local government greenspecial bonds. The results show that the issuance of local government green special bonds has significantly reduced the carbon emission levels and has a spatial spillover effect, that in the local government green bond system, the larger the issuance scale and the more local government fund revenue, the more beneficial it is to reduce carbon emission levels, and that the higher the average interest rate and project yield, the less beneficial it is to reduce carbon emission levels. Further analysis reveals that the local governmentgreen bonds can reduce carbon emission levels by optimizing the energy consumption structure. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a governance model that combines territorial and regional linkages to clarify the proportion of the local governmentgreen bonds, issue different types of local government green bonds based on spatial differences in geography, economy and carbon emissions, optimize the issuance and reimbursement system of the local government green special bonds in light of the carbon emission reduction targets and the current situation, and introduce a third-party institution to strengthen the professional auditing, monitoring and disclosure of the local governmentgreen bonds in all aspects.

Key words: "double carbon"goals, local government green special bonds, carbon emission reduction effect, financial pressure