Are government energy technology research, development, and demonstration budgets converging or diverging? Insights from OECD countries

Since the reform and opening up, China’s rapid economic growth mainly depends on the industrial development mode of “high energy consumption and high pollution,” which has caused serious haze pollution. In order to achieve the goal of haze control and sustainable development, we need to give full play to the role of technological innovation. Empirical analysis of the haze control effect of technological innovation has theoretical significance and practical value. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2018 and the PM2.5 concentration data published by the atmospheric composition analysis group of Dalhousie University, this study selects R&D personnel input and technology market turnover to represent the level of technological innovation and uses the panel data model, threshold effect model, and spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the impact of technological innovation on haze pollution control. The empirical results show that 1) technological innovation can significantly reduce the PM2.5 concentration of the province, showing a positive haze control effect; 2) technological innovation indicates a negative indirect effect on PM2.5 concentration, confirming the “technology spillover effect,” that is, technological innovation also has a haze control effect on the surrounding provinces; 3) with the increase in the province’s economic aggregate, the haze control effect of technological innovation shows a trend of “high low high,” and the role of technological innovation is the lowest in the stage of economic transformation; and 4) from the perspective of regional differentiation, the haze control effect of technological innovation is the largest in the central region, and the smallest in the western region. Technological innovation indicates a positive haze control effect on all regions at all stages of economic development. This study provides policy suggestions for the government and enterprises to use innovation for cleaner production and sustainable development.

Section: Threshold Regression Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Technological Innovation Promote Haze Pollution Control? New Evidence Based on Panel Threshold Model and Spatial Econometric Model

Shi

Zhang

2022

“…Moreover, financial development may, in general, increase R&D activities and, as a result, improve economic activity, influencing environmental quality (Altıntaş and Kassouri, 2020;Bilgili et al, 2021;Kassouri et al, 2021). Clean energies such as renewable and nuclear energies are long-term endeavors that necessitate funding.…”

Section: Discussion Of the Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating Carbon Emissions in China: The Role of Clean Energy, Technological Innovation, and Political-Institutional Quality

Azam

Rafiq

Shafique

et al. 2022

The global warming phenomena arise from the subject of climate change, which draws intellectuals’ attention toward replacing polluting energy sources with clean energy sources by continued deployment of innovations. Also, global warming problems put large pressure on governments, individuals, and policymakers. Therefore, for reliable energy supply and economic development, the target of achieving a low-carbon and sustainable environment is needed. In this light, we explore the role of clean energy and technological innovation in carbon emission reduction in China from 1995 to 2018. The key outcomes from the fully modified least-squares and robust least-squares indicate an elasticity of −0.065 and −0.075, respectively, for the nexus of renewable energy and CO2 emissions. Similarly, nuclear energy, technology innovation, and political-institutional quality have a negative influence on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the granger causality demonstrates feedback between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, as well as between technological innovation and CO2 emissions. To achieve a cleaner environment, the implementation of the existing policy pathways is potentially geared toward applying technological innovations to produce renewable energy at lower costs.

“…The results of Samargandi (2017) described the relationship between technological change and environmental pollution in Saudi Arabia and could not provide the influential role of technological innovation in minimising environmental degradation. Kassouri et al (2022) examined the development of renewable energy, oil utilization, and natural capital in the European countries between 1996 and 2016. Their empirical findings concluded that growth in renewable energy consumption is significantly discouraged by the different use of oil utilization by inelastic proportions.…”

Section: Literature On Environmental Degradation and Technological In...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of environmental taxes and stringent environmental policies in attaining the environmental quality: Evidence from OECD and non-OECD countries

Chen

Jiandong

Saleem

2022

Numerous economies focus on attaining a clean environment by applying environmental policies and green technology. This study examined the impact of GDP growth, non-renewable, technological change, environmental tax, and strict regulations on an ecological footprint for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Non-OECD (not members of OECD) economies from 1990 to 2015. This analysis applied the Cross-Sectionally Augmented Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) to identify the role of GDP, and environmental taxes, with selected control factors on ecological degradation. These CS-ARDL techniques resolve the issues of slope heterogeneity, endogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. For robustness, this study used Augmented Mean Group (AMG), and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG) tests to check the long-run association between variables. The empirical findings of CS-ARDL have confirmed that environmental taxes, stringent environmental policies, and ecological innovation significantly improve environmental quality in OECD compared to the Non-OECD countries. The D-H panel Granger causality test results show the unidirectional causality moving from environmental tax to ecological footprint, which referred to the “green dividend” hypothesis of minimizing environmental degradation. Using AMG and CCEMG tests for Robustness checks indicates that environmental taxes and tight environmental policy can effectively improve the environment’s quality in both regions. Hence, environmental protection awareness is forcing policymakers to minimize the impact of environmental degradation to achieve sustainable growth.