Research on the dynamic evolution and convergence of collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction: from the perspective of whole-process governance.

Under the strategic goals of achieving peak carbon neutrality, deepening the battle against pollution, and building a beautiful China, improving the collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction is an important means to achieve comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation of the social economy. Starting from the essential requirements of improving the collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction, based on the whole-process governance perspective of "source-process-end-of-pipe," build an evaluation index system, measure the collaborative capacity, quantify the spatial differences, analyze the evolution characteristics, and explore the improvement path. The study found that China's collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction is characterized by homogeneous agglomeration and unbalanced regional development. Intra-regional differences are the main source of the differences, sorting by contribution is "Eastern > Western > Central > Northeast." After taking into account the factors of green transformation of industry, the input of scientific and technological elements, and opening to the outside world, the differences have gradually narrowed. Among them, the green transformation of industry is instrumentally in bridging the gap in eastern, central, and northeastern, the input of scientific and technological elements is instrumentally in bridging the gap between regions and the eastern and northeast, and opening to the outside world is instrumentally in bridging the gap between regions and the western. The scientific measurement and improvement of this capacity will provide the factual basis and path choice for achieving the task goal of "significantly improving China's collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction by 2030," which is of great practical significance for building a higher-quality, more sustainable, and greener pattern of the collaborative capacity of pollution control and carbon reduction.

The impact of digital economy on total factor carbon productivity: the threshold effect of technology accumulation.

This research focuses on the impact of the digital economy on total factor carbon productivity. Based on the panel data of China's provinces from 2009 to 2019, this paper incorporates undesired output, namely carbon emissions, into the evaluation index system, and uses the SBM-ML index to measure regional total factor carbon productivity, and uses the RAGA-PP model to measure the digital economy development index, which includes three dimensions: digital infrastructure, digital industry development, and digital economic environment. Moreover, this paper incorporates the heterogeneous threshold of technological accumulation into the framework of the impact mechanism of total factor carbon productivity and builds a threshold model to examine the impact of the digital economy on total factor carbon productivity under different technological accumulation thresholds. The research shows that, first, during the sample period, total factor carbon productivity fluctuated around the frontier, showing a certain upward trend, with significant regional heterogeneity. Second, the digital economy has a promotional effect on the total factor carbon productivity level in China and can become the new energy for the country to improve the level of green development. Third, the impact of the digital economy on total factor carbon productivity presents a significant heterogeneous threshold effect of technological accumulation, along with the increasing level of technology accumulation, the effective coefficient of the digital economy on total factor carbon productivity is increasing, and the level of significance is increasing. Last, the low-carbon driving mechanism of the digital economy has temporal and spatial heterogeneity of regional technology accumulation levels. The conclusions of this paper provide an effective reference for exploring the realization mechanism of regional total factor carbon productivity improvement, ecological civilization construction, and high-quality economic development.

Research on the impact of energy technology innovation on total factor ecological efficiency.

Promoting sustainable economic development from the perspective of energy technology is crucial, given limited energy resources and severe environmental pollution. Based on the panel data of China's provinces from 2000 to 2017, we empirically explore the complex relation among energy technology innovation, regional economic growth, and total factor ecological efficiency. We innovatively introduce ecological footprint as one of the input indicators of total factor ecological efficiency measured using slack-based measure-data envelopment analysis, thereby comprehensively quantifying sustainable economic development. Moreover, we adopt spatial econometric and threshold regression models to empirically assess the relation between energy technology innovation and total factor ecological efficiency. We infer the following conclusions. First, both China's provincial ecological efficiency and energy technology innovation possess significant spatial positive correlation, manifesting a spatial geographical distribution agglomerated by similar characteristics. Second, the regional energy technology innovation has a remarkable spatial effect on ecological efficiency, displaying a U-shaped trend. Compared with the direct effect, the spatial spillover effect is more intense, along with a much stronger long-term influence. Third, under the regulation of regional economic growth, two inflection points exist in the effect of energy technology innovation on ecological efficiency. Energy technology innovation is not conducive to total factor ecological efficiency under low regional economic growth. No significant relation exists between the two core variables under medium regional economic growth. Furthermore, energy technology innovation positively influences total factor ecological efficiency only when regional economic growth reaches a certain peak.

Does renewable energy consumption contribute to the development of low-carbon economy? Evidence from China.

Stimulating renewable energy consumption has become a major strategic choice for China to both fulfill the international commitment to reduce carbon emissions and realize the high-quality growth of the domestic economy. On account of the provincial data during the period of 2000 to 2017, we creatively incorporate the ecological footprint into the measurement of low-carbon economy development level through super-efficient SBM model, so as to infer the coordinated development level of 3E system more precisely. Based on the factor substitution effect, energy path dependence effect, and scale effect, the complex nonlinear relationship between the two core research objects is further probed by constructing the threshold regressive model. On the foundation of theoretical research, the consumption of renewable energy, the intensity of energy use, and the level of regional economic development are respectively selected as the moderating variables of the model. Further, we divide different intervals of threshold values to distinguish the differences in the effects caused by regional heterogeneity. The following conclusions are drawn ultimately: There is an apparent threshold effect between renewable consumption and the advancement of the low-carbon economy. Only when renewable itself reaches a higher level of consumption can it show a significant advantage in green economic development. In addition, to make full use of renewable resources to boost the low-carbon and green economy, it is necessary to reduce the economy's dependence on energy, that is, to decrease the intensity of energy use while maintaining the process of improving coordination of regional economy.

Application of Threshold Regression Analysis to Study the Impact of Clean Energy Development on China's Carbon Productivity.

Facing the pressures of international carbon emission reduction, the transformation into a low-carbon economy has become a common issue of all countries. The core of developing a low-carbon economy is to increase carbon productivity, which can be measured as the economic benefits of unit carbon emissions. Therefore, using province-level panel data in China from 2009 to 2017, we analyze the carbon productivity level of each region, and empirically investigate the threshold effect of clean energy development on carbon productivity under different technological innovation levels. The results show that the carbon productivity is rising, and China's economic development pattern has been shifting towards low-carbon and sustainable development. Furthermore, the driving force of clean energy development on carbon productivity is not monotonously increasing (decreasing) but is a "double threshold effect" of technological innovation capability. Finally, based on the research conclusions and realistic requirements of China's low-carbon economic transformation, this paper proposes improving carbon productivity from the aspects of innovation capability improvement and institutional guarantee.