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Over the past decades, China's vast regional disparities in resource endowment, economic development, and industrial structure have driven large-scale relocations of high energy-consuming industries (RHEIs). Despite extensive research on broad-based industrial relocation and emission transfer, the trend, structure and environmental impact of China's RHEIs need further investigation. This paper employs the multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) to calculate the trend, scale, and structure of the RHEIs among China's 30 provinces. Additionally, we investigate the RHEIs' effect on green total factor energy efficiency (GEE) and its heterogeneity. Our results indicate that the net inflow of high energy-consuming industries decreases GEE, with a more noticeable effect observed in central provinces and after the execution of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, the positive effect of RHEIs on GEE in outflow areas is more substantial than their negative impact in inflow areas, suggesting that RHEIs can enhance overall efficiency. This study contributes to the understanding of China's industrial relocation by providing valuable insights into China's RHEIs. • China has a large-scale relocation of high energy-consuming industries. • The relocation of China's high energy-consuming industries is calculated. • The relocation's impact on green total factor energy efficiency is analyzed. • Regional heterogeneity is found among different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate the climate change and reduce energy consumption, the Chinese government has applied a variety of polices during the last two decades. Based on data from Industrial enterprises emission and pollution database (IEPED) and Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (ASIF), this study takes Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Plan (ESER) since 2006 as a policy shock to explore the impact of the ESER on industrial firms' energy consumption behavior. The result shows: Firstly, ESER encourages industrial firms to consume less coal, petroleum and natural gas on average. Secondly, by dividing the firms into several groups by the ownership structure, the firm size and the firm age, this paper finds different firms have different strategies in terms of changing their energy consumption to respond ESER. For example, public firms work harder on reducing coal and petroleum consumption per production while private firms prefer to use more natural gas per production. Thirdly, the dynamic effect analysis portrays that traditional fossil fuel intensity declines immediately after energy conversation policy, while the negative effect on industrial firms' natural gas intensity could occur with some delay. Lastly, in terms of total energy consumption, average coal and petroleum consumption of polluted industries and that of non-polluted industries have no difference after the policy. In addition, ESER only has a short-term effect on energy consumption. These results are helpful in understanding how to design an efficient environmental regulation system and protect the environment simultaneously. • This study explores the impacts of the Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Plan (ESER) on firms' energy consumption behavior based on industrial firm data. • ESER encourages firms to consume less traditional energy (coal and fossil fuels) and clean gas. For different firms, their energy intensity changes distinctively in response to ESER. • The dynamic effect analysis portrays that traditional fossil fuel intensity declines immediately after energy conversation policy, while the negative effect on clean gas intensity occur with some delay. • ESER has a short-term and lagged effect on total energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM 2.5 emissions has become a serious issue in China with enormous regional variation in economic development, resource endowment, and consumption patterns, which leads to great variations in regional PM 2.5 emissions and embodied PM 2.5 transfer among provinces. The spatial and temporal evolution pattern of PM 2.5 and its influencing factors are important issues in the study of air pollution emissions and control, which could help policy makers allocate emission responsibilities and reduction targets. Based on the perspective of final consumption, this paper uses a multiregional input-output model to estimate PM 2.5 emissions in 30 provinces in different years in China, applies a geographically weighted regression model to analyze different driving factors, and then analyzes the spatial heterogeneity of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions. The results show that consumption-based PM 2.5 presents a significant reduction trend, although the separation of production and consumption areas of PM 2.5 emission is further intensified. The provinces with rich energy but relatively backward economies and manufacturing industries correspond to the primary net inflow of PM 2.5 , while the provinces with strong consumption ability and the most developed economies and industries present a net outflow of PM 2.5. Moreover, the slowdown of consumption growth and the improvement of consumption quality have a positive impact on PM 2.5 emission reductions. The optimization of industrial structure has a more significant impact on pollution control and haze reduction in the western region, while the improvement of energy utilization efficiency and rational use of construction land are more conducive to the reduction of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions in the eastern region. From the perspective of temporal and spatial changes, significant spatial differences occur between regions. Energy consumption, environmental protection investment and construction land show the trend of " high value area diffusion and low value area reduction". • Explores the spatial distribution characteristics of PM 2.5 emissions in China from the perspective of consumption. • Consider and analyze the inter-annual variation of pollutant emission transfer. • Clarifies the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of influencing factors. • Emphasizes the importance of further optimizing influencing factors to reduce haze from the consumption end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]