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Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to address environmental constraints and achieve high-quality economic development. The existing literature suggests that technological progress has an important impact on energy efficiency, but ignores the role of different paths of technological progress. Herein, the impact of different technological progress paths on energy efficiency was analyzed using the dynamic panel data model and the threshold model based on the energy efficiency measurement using the Meta-frontier and Nonradial Directional Distance Function model. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) During the study sample period, a fluctuating upward trend was observed in China's energy efficiency, and there were significant differences in energy efficiency in different regions of China. (2) The energy efficiency in China could be significantly improved by domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion. Even though the imported technologies do not play a significant role in promoting energy efficiency and have no positive effect on the improvement of energy efficiency from the perspective of domestic technology absorption or foreign technology absorption. (3) The eastern and central regions of China improve their energy efficiency through domestic innovation. However, none of the technological progress paths in the western and low-energy-efficiency regions have played a positive role in promoting energy efficiency. (4) The effect of promoting domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion on energy efficiency is gradually increasing with human capital improvement, and the restriction of foreign technology import on energy efficiency has obviously decreased. In a nutshell, different paths of technological progress have differential effects on energy efficiency improvements. Based on the above results, this paper makes some targeted policy recommendations on the choice of technological progress paths to improve energy efficiency in different regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, 22 indexes are selected at three levels, including the informatization development level, the Internet development level, and the digital transaction development level, based on China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020, so as to build a digital economy development index system. Moreover, 28 basic indexes are selected from three aspects, including energy construction, energy production and energy consumption, so as to develop an energy economy development evaluation index system. The development index of China's digital economy and energy economy are measured by using the entropy weight method. The effect of the digital economy on the energy economy and its mechanism are tested by the static panel, the dynamic panel, and the mediating effect and regulating effect models. The results indicate that the digital economy has pronouncedly promoted the development of China's energy economy, and the development of the digital economy can have an effect on the rationalization of the industrial structure and then affect the development of the energy economy, and there is an intermediary effect. Moreover, the upgrading of the industrial structure is conducive to regulating the digital economy and facilitates the development of the energy economy. The development of the energy economy can be better promoted by focusing on the coordinated regional layout of the digital economy development, building a reliable energy commodity trading platform, and expediting the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation possesses dual externalities of "innovation" and "environmental protection", and enhancing energy efficiency serves as a crucial means to promote high-quality economic development. Building upon the energy rebound effect, we use the balanced panel data of cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2008 to 2018 to explore the impact of urban green innovation on total factor energy efficiency (TFEE). The findings of this study indicate that, firstly, the impact of green innovation on TFEE exhibits a positive U-shaped pattern, characterized by initial suppression followed by subsequent promotion. This conclusion remains robust after undergoing a series of rigorous robustness tests. Second, high-quality green innovation is found to reach the turning point more quickly, implying that substantial green innovation can cross the turning point in smaller quantities. Thirdly, on the whole, in comparison to non-resource-based cities, resource-based cities are capable of reaching the turning point at an earlier stage. Finally, the new energy demonstration cities have not yet reached the turning point, while the non-new energy demonstration cities have crossed the turning point. This study contributes novel insights into the relationship between green innovation and TFEE, which holds significant implications for the formulation and implementation of sustainable development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the integration of digitalization and the energy revolution, digitalization can be integrated into the energy industry to develop energy-saving technologies and improve resource allocation efficiency. On the basis of 2013–2019 Chinese provincial panel data, this paper measures the level of green energy efficiency based on the super-EBM-DEA model and analyzes the linear relationship, nonlinear relationship, and potential mechanism between digitalization and green energy efficiency. The findings indicate that (1) overall, both China's digitalization and green energy efficiency formed a steady upward trajectory during the sample period. Digitalization showed a spatial characteristic of extending and spreading from the eastern region to the central and western regions. Green energy efficiency was characterized by obvious regional heterogeneity. (2) Progress in digitalization has a significant driving effect on green energy efficiency. Subdimensional analysis shows that this driving effect mainly comes from digital development and digital transactions. (3) The impact of digitalization on green energy efficiency presents a threshold effect of economic agglomeration (with a threshold of 0.0257 and a marginally increasing, positive driving trend) and population agglomeration (with a threshold of 4.2750 and a marginally decreasing, positive driving trend). (4) Decomposing changes in green energy efficiency into scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency, this study shows that pure technical efficiency gains due to digitalization are the main driver of green energy efficiency improvements. Finally, some specific policy recommendations are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 227 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2002 to 2018, a panel linkage equation model is constructed to explore the bidirectional influence relationship between haze pollution and urban sprawl, and the results of the study find that, firstly, there is a bidirectional promotion of causality between haze pollution and urban sprawl. That is, PM2.5 not only has a significant positive effect on urban sprawl, but also urban sprawl has a significant positive correlation with haze pollution, which is further strengthened by adding the air flow coefficient instrumental variable. Second, the heterogeneity analysis yields that haze pollution has different effects on urban sprawl in different regions. Under the sub-regional samples, haze pollution and urban sprawl have a bi-directional significant negative impact relationship in the eastern region, none of the haze pollution and urban sprawl have a bi-directional significant impact relationship in the western region, but both the central region and the northeastern region have a significant positive impact relationship. Under different city sizes, haze pollution and urban sprawl in large, medium and small cities have a bi-directional significant positive impact relationship, and from the numerical size, the degree of influence of haze pollution on urban sprawl in large cities is greater than that in small and medium cities; while the degree of influence of urban sprawl on haze pollution in medium cities is greater than that in large and small cities. Accordingly, it is proposed that urban governance should be adapted to local conditions, focus on innovative technologies to reduce energy consumption, and utilize big data to manage cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The creation of infrastructure in rural areas is an essential guarantee for the economic development and in improving farmers' living standards. As a critical link between urban and rural production and consumption, rural logistics is essential to maximize the efficiency of rural infrastructure investment. Methods: Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011-2020, the study analyzes the impact of high-quality development of rural logistics on the enhancement of residents' consumption in terms of scale and quality, using a fixed-effects model. Results: It suggest that this development promotes the growth of rural residents' consumption and quality, with a noticeable regional heterogeneity. The most significant effect is observed in the eastern region. Further analysis shows that inland and less developed provinces of rural e-commerce stimulate residents' consumption upgrade with the help of high-quality development of rural logistics at a level weaker than coastal provinces and developed provinces of rural e-commerce. Discussion: Consequently, it is recommended to boost the building of logistics infrastructure in rural areas and actively cultivate diversified rural logistics operators in the western and northeastern regions. The contribution of this study is to examine the impact of rural logistics on rural residents' consumption from the perspective of infrastructure, further validating the role of infrastructure development in promoting economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China mentioned that China is facing tightening resource and environmental constraints, environmental pollution, and other issues, and the energy-consuming right trading policy is a key measure to promote green, circular, and low-carbon development in China. Under the dual consideration of ecological benefits and economic benefits, this paper took the pilot launch of energy-consuming trading as a quasi-natural experiment and used panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 and the different-in-differences method to explore the impact of this policy on the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure. The study showed that: (J) The energy-consuming right trading policy could promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, and the promotion effect on the upgrading of the industrial structure outweighed its adverse impact on the rationalization of the industrial structure, as evidenced by a series of robustness tests. © The mechanism analysis showed that the realization paths of industrial structure upgrading were the upgrading of technological innovation and that of energy consumption structure, and the policy suppressed the adverse impact on the rationalization of industrial structure by improving the input structure and output structure of some industrial sectors. © In addition, the pilot policy of energy-consuming rights had obvious regional heterogeneity for the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, which significantly promoted the upgrading of industrial structure in the central and western regions and the rationalization of industrial structure in the eastern regions. This study provides some policy references for the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure from the perspective of improving the energy-consuming right trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data of 11 provinces in the western region of China, the paper empirically analyzes the influence of public environmental participation on the effectiveness of pollution governance. Based on documents from provincial governments in Western China, the paper uses Nvivo software to extract keywords about local governments' attention to the environment and examines its mediating effect between public environmental participation and pollution governance. Furthermore, a classifiable analysis of government environmental attention is carried out, and the effect of local governments' attention to the environment on pollution governance is studied. The results show that public environmental participation promotes pollution governance by increasing the governments' attention to the environment. Additionally, local governments' environmental attention also has a promotive effect on pollution governance, and the increase in environmental decision-makers' attention to environmental pollution and energy consumption is conducive to the improvement of environmental quality, but the effect of environmental protection and collaborative attention on environmental quality improvement still needs to be explored further. • Local governments' attention to the environment is estimated. • Public environmental participation promotes pollution governance. • Local Governments' Environmental Attention plays mediating role. • Local Governments' Environmental Attention has a promotive effect on environmental quality. • The effect of collaborative attention on environmental quality improvement still needs to be explored further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain a deeper understanding of the carbon emission mechanism from transportation facilities, all system elements affecting carbon emissions from regional transportation facilities are identified and analyzed according to panel data from 30 regions in China. A spatial econometric model for carbon emissions from transportation facilities is constructed using the Spatial Dolbin model from 2004 to 2022 as the research period. From the results, the carbon dioxide emissions from transportation facilities added from 318 million tons in 2004 to 752 million tons in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 4.9%. The global spatial auto-correlation coefficient was significant at the 5%, with an obvious spatial correlation between carbon dioxide emissions within a geographical range. In addition, through stability testing, the model showed high stability in both spatial lag testing and spatial error testing, demonstrating strong ability to interpret data. The research shows that the carbon emission is affected by independent variables, including population, economy, technology, and transportation, and exhibit significant spatial distribution characteristics in different regions and years, providing a basis for policy formulation and carbon emission management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the panel data of 21 China's industrial industries from 2008 to 2020, the relationship models between intelligent industry, energy regulation and ecological transformation are constructed and tested from two dimensions of resource saving and environmental friendliness, then equity financing is introduced into this model as moderating variable to discuss the moderating effects on the relationships between intelligent industry, energy regulation and ecological transformation. Results show that: ⑴China's industrial industries significantly transformed to the resource-saving type, and the environment-friendly level stayed in a slow progression. ⑵Intelligent industry affected ecological transformation positively and significantly. The impact of energy regulation on ecological transformation was nonlinear. The regulation of energy consumption can significantly stimulate the transformation of resource saving, and restrain the transformation of environmental friendliness; the regulation of energy structure can significantly stimulate the transformation of environmental friendliness. ⑶ Equity financing can positively moderate the relationship between intelligent industry and ecological transformation, and it can also moderate the regulation of energy structure and promote the transformation to environmental friendliness, especially in the low consumption industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]