Market-based environmental regulations play a crucial role in promoting local carbon emissions reduction under the context of achieving “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals” goals. Previous studies have mainly focused on the emission reduction effects of single policy instruments, lacking systematic measurement of market-based environmental regulation. Based on panel data from Chinese prefecture-level cities during 2011–2020, this study constructs a market-based environmental regulation index using a policy text analysis method to empirically examine its impact on carbon emission intensity and the underlying mechanisms. The research findings are as follows: (1) The impact of market-based environmental regulations on carbon emission intensity shows an inverted U-shaped relationship, indicating increased carbon emissions in the short term but favorable carbon reduction in the long term. (2) Mechanism tests reveal that market-based environmental regulations primarily influence carbon emission intensity through enterprise green innovation, showing an inverted U-shaped relationship, suggesting that such regulations may suppress enterprise innovation vitality in the short term but effectively promote green innovation in the long term. (3) The carbon reduction effect of market-based environmental regulations varies significantly across regions with different official characteristics. This study provides an important theoretical basis and policy implications for improving market-based environmental regulation policy design and enhancing carbon reduction effectiveness.

Carbon emissions have emerged as a critical global environmental challenge, with public participatory environmental regulation becoming an increasingly vital governance tool in promoting carbon reduction. This study employs panel data from 278 prefecture-level cities in China spanning 2011–2020 to construct a public participatory environmental regulation index through policy text analysis, empirically examining its impact mechanism on carbon emission intensity. The findings reveal that: (1) public participatory environmental regulation significantly reduces carbon emission intensity; specifically, baseline regression results indicate that a one-unit increase in public participatory environmental regulation intensity leads to a 0.05 unit decrease in carbon emission intensity, significant at the 1% level; (2) mediation analysis demonstrates that public environmental participation serves as a significant intermediary between environmental regulation and carbon emission reduction; (3) heterogeneity analysis indicates that official characteristics significantly moderate policy effectiveness, with regulations implemented by non-local, shorter-tenured, and less-educated officials showing stronger inhibitory effects on carbon emissions compared to their counterparts. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening public participation mechanisms in environmental governance and considering official characteristics in policy implementation. This study provides both theoretical foundations for optimizing public participatory environmental regulation policies and practical implications for enhancing carbon reduction effectiveness.