Achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is an inherent requirement for countries to promote green recovery and transformation of the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. As “a smoke-free industry,” producer services agglomeration (PSA) may have significant impacts on CO 2 emission reduction. Therefore, based on the nightlight data to calculate the CO 2 emissions of 268 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this study deeply explores the impact and transmission mechanism of PSA on CO 2 emissions by constructing dynamic spatial Durbin model and intermediary effect model. Furthermore, the dynamic threshold model is used to analyze the nonlinear characteristics between PSA and CO 2 emissions under different degrees of government intervention. The results reveal that: (1) Generally, China’s CO 2 emissions are path-dependent in the time dimension, showing a “snowball effect.” PSA significantly inhibits CO 2 emissions, but heterogeneous influences exist in different regions, time nodes, and sub-industries; (2) PSA can indirectly curb CO 2 emissions through economies of scale, technological innovation, and industrial structure upgrading. (3) The impact of PSA on China’s CO 2 emissions has an obvious double threshold effect under different degree of government intervention. Accordingly, the Chinese government should increase the support for producer services, dynamically adjust industrial policies, take a moderate intervention, and strengthen market-oriented reform to reduce CO 2 emissions. This study opens up a new path for the low-carbon economic development and environmental sustainability, and also fills in the theoretical gaps on these issues. The findings and implications will offer instructive guideline for early achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

Achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is an inherent requirement for countries to promote green recovery and transformation of the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. As "a smoke-free industry", its agglomeration may have significant impacts on CO2 emission reduction. This study uses nightlight data to calculate the CO2 emissions of 268 cities in China from 2005 to 2017 and then employs dynamic spatial Dubin model and intermediary effect model to explore the impact and transmission mechanism of producer services agglomeration (PSA) on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the dynamic threshold model is used to analyze the nonlinear characteristics of PSA on CO2 emissions under different degrees of government intervention. The findings indicate that: (1) Generally, China's CO2 emissions are path-dependent in the time dimension, showing a "snowball effect". PSA not only significantly inhibits local CO2 emissions, but also reduces CO2 emissions in adjacent areas through spatial spillover effect; (2) PSA can indirectly curb CO2 emissions through economies of scale, technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences in the impact of PSA on CO2 emissions in different regions, time nodes and sub-industries; (3) The impact of PSA on China's CO2 emissions has an obvious double threshold effect under different degree of government intervention. Accordingly, the Chinese government should increase the support for producer services, dynamically adjust industrial policies, take a moderate intervention, and strengthen market-oriented reform to reduce CO2 emissions so that the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality” can be early achieved.

Currently, global warming and resource and environmental constraints are becoming formidable. Improving green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) is an effective tactic to alleviate carbon emissions and resource scarcity, and also a practical demand for the sustainable and healthy development of China’s economy. This study applies the super efficiency SBM model to calculate GTFEE of China’s 30 provinces over the period from 2006 to 2020, and then the dynamic spatial Durbin model (SDM) is employed to investigate the impact of government competition on GTFEE. Furthermore, the influence path between government competition and GTFEE is identified by the intermediary effect model. The findings reveal that as a whole, local government competition has undermined GTFEE both in local and adjacent areas, but significant differences exist in different regions. After the robustness tests, the conclusions remain valid. The intermediary effect results show that government competition indirectly inhibits GTFEE by triggering corruption. Based on this, policymakers should establish an effective performance appraising for local governments to spark a cycle of virtuous competition and cooperation among regions. Meanwhile, the anti-corruption system should be improved so as to shape a favorable institutional atmosphere for the improvement of GTFEE, and ultimately promote the sustainable development of China’s economy.