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Renewable energy (RE) plays a crucial role in global energy transformation, and a thorough study of the potential impact of RE on regional carbon emissions is of great significance. This is particularly relevant to China, which needs to clarify its path to carbon reduction. Using the sample data of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2021, this paper uses the Granger causality test to verify the causal relationship between carbon emission intensity (CEI) and other factors. It builds a mediation effect model on this basis to explore the direct impact effect and indirect transmission path of renewable energy utilization (REU) on CEI. The results show that REU has a one-way causal relationship with CEI. REU can directly and indirectly reduce CEI by improving social wealth and changing the direction of energy investment. In addition, REU indirectly increases CEI through the transmission paths of investment in the energy industry - social affluence and industrial level-social affluence. The CEI is indirectly reduced through the conduction paths of (social affluence-Urbanization rate), (Investment in the energy industry-Urbanization rate), (Industrial level-Urbanization rate), and (Industrial level-Investment in the energy industry). These conclusions will assist policymakers in exploring targeted pathways for low-carbon power development, providing a reference for strategic and sustainable carbon reduction policies. [Display omitted] • Enrich the view of renewable energy's indirect impact on carbon emissions. • Renewable energy's carbon emission reductions go beyond replacing fossil fuels. • Constructed a mediating effect model between renewable energy and carbon emissions. • Renewable energy can promote or inhibit carbon emissions through various pathways. • Research helps develop more effective renewable energy sustainability strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data of the manufacturing sector of China and Japan from 2003 to 2016, this paper attempts to measure the progresses in energy-biased technology and energy efficiency by constructing a threshold panel regression model with variables including foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy consumption structure to explain energy efficiency using energy-biased technology as the key explaining variable. The estimation indicates significant differences in the energy efficiency of China's and Japan's manufacturing industries. In general, Japan's total energy efficiency is higher than China's. The industry with more intensive technology has higher energy efficiency which rises much faster. The paper finds that the energy efficiency of China's manufacturing sector shows an upward trend in general, while Japan's fluctuates more, showing two peaks and two troughs. Our empirical results show that there is a threshold value of progress in energy-biased technology; below this, progress in energy-biased technology will have a positive effect on energy efficiency and beyond it, the effect will be negative. Since this effect is not one-way, we define it as a 'double-edged effect'. It is estimated that the level of energy-biased technology progress of most manufacturing industries in China is below the threshold value, indicating that the technology progress in China's manufacturing sector has not been excessively biased towards energy consumption, and the impact on energy efficiency is still positive. The China-Japan comparison shows that the threshold value for Japan's manufacturing sector is significantly lower than that for China's, indicating a marginal effect on the 'double-edged effect': The threshold value will decrease when energy efficiency reaches a certain level. Therefore, it is necessary to offset these negative externalities from technological progress with other factors such as by increasing FDI and improving energy consumption structure. • This paper examines the influence of energy-biased technological progress alone on energy efficiency. • It proves the influence of energy-biased technological progress on energy efficiency to be nonlinear. • It measures the energy-biased technological progress and energy efficiency of some industries of the manufacturing sector of China and Japan. • It proves the rebound effect to be conditional in the manufacturing sector of China and Japan. • It also proves the threshold effect in the influence of energy-biased technological progress on energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a unique micro-level dataset of 30,689 mining enterprises from 2008 to 2011, this paper uses the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to calculate the unified efficiency index (UEI) and energy-environmental performance index (EEI) for China's mining enterprises. The double bootstrap method is then used to test how tax incentive policies affect the UEI and EEI of China's mining enterprises. The results show that: (1) the UEI and EEI of Chinese mining enterprises first decreased and then increased over the sample period; overall, Chinese mining enterprises had low energy and environmental efficiency, especially the coal mining enterprises, private mining enterprises and mining enterprises in the central and western regions. (2) Tax incentives positively affect the energy and environmental efficiency of mining enterprises, especially the efficiency of coal mining enterprises, non-state-owned mining enterprises and mining enterprises in the central and western regions. Our results remain robust after using the propensity score matching estimator (PSM). (3) There is a positive feedback between tax incentives and energy and environmental efficiency, more efficient mining enterprises receive more government incentives. Further analysis shows that although tax incentives do not reduce the total energy consumption of enterprises, reducing the energy consumption of enterprises can improve their UEI and EEI. In addition, R&D investment, profitability and resource taxes all contribute to improving the UEI and EEI of mining enterprises. • The NDDF is used to calculate the UEI and EEI of mining enterprises in China. • How tax incentive policies affect the energy and environmental efficiency is tested. • Chinese mining enterprises had low energy and environmental efficiency. • There is a positive feedback between tax incentives and enterprises' efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crucial to the green and sustainable development of China's industry are both choosing an appropriate path of directed technical change and optimizing and improving energy consumption pattern. In this paper we incorporate fossil energy, non-fossil energy and environmental factors into the traditional production function and calculate the factor output elasticity, the growth rate of environmental total factor productivity, the factor-biased degree of directed technical change and factor substitution elasticity in China's industrial sector based on stochastic frontier analysis of the transcendental logarithmic production function. The results show that the high output elasticity of capital leads to the highest factor-biased degree of directed technical change of capital although it is accompanied by an increase in energy consumption and environmental degradation. At present, the factor-biased degrees of directed technical change in China's industry, from high to low, are capital, the environment, fossil energy, labor and non-fossil energy; these can be seen as the root cause of, among other things, overcapacity, energy shortages and environmental pollution. Optimizing the path of directed technical change of labor, capital and non-fossil energy is an advisable way to solve the above problems. The patterns of energy consumption in industrial production in most provinces are unsustainable and each province should optimize its local energy consumption pattern according to those technical changes biased towards non-fossil energy and the positive factor substitution relationship between two kinds of energy. • We calculate the growth rate of environmental total factor productivity. • We measure the factor-biased degree of directed technical change. • The factor-biased degrees of capital and environment are relatively high. • The patterns of energy consumption in most provinces are unsustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]