The Impact of Technological Progress in the Energy Sector on Carbon Emissions: An Empirical Analysis from China

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between technological progress in the energy sector and carbon emissions based on the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) and data from China during the period of 1995–2012. Our study confirms that the situation in China conforms to the EKC hypothesis and presents the inverted U-curve relationship between per capita income and carbon emissions. Furthermore, the inflection point will be reached in at least five years. Then, we use research and development (R & D) investment in the energy industry as the quantitative indicator of its technological progress to test its impact on carbon emissions. Our results show that technological progress in the energy sector contributes to a reduction in carbon emissions with hysteresis. Furthermore, our results show that energy efficiency improvements are also helpful in reducing carbon emissions. However, climate policy and change in industrial structure increase carbon emissions to some extent. Our conclusion demonstrates that currently, China is not achieving economic growth and pollution reduction simultaneously. To further achieve the goal of carbon reduction, the government should increase investment in the energy industry research and improve energy efficiency.

Trade Impacts on Embodied Carbon Emissions—Evidence from the Bilateral Trade between China and Germany

“…On the contrary, the R&D intensity represents the technology of a country in a certain period of time [ 45 ]. Based on the previous studies [ 9 ], higher levels of technology make energy more efficient in the production process and, hence, the embodied carbon emissions tend to decline with the updates of the technology.…”

“…Comparing with trade openness, trade volumes are more accurate and direct in understanding the embodied carbon emissions generated from the trade. A couple of other studies focused on direct carbon emissions generated from the energy sector only (see for example, Jin et al [ 9 ]). Thus, indirect carbon emissions are largely ignored.…”

“…Examining the environmental consequences generated from bilateral trades between developing and well-developed countries is a crucial research direction, as the potential carbon leakage is more likely to happen among countries with differences in environmental regulations and/or economic development [ 9 , 10 ]. Individually, China has become the largest carbon emission emitter in the world since 2007, and its active participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) could offer thoughtful policy implications in the trade and environment [ 11 ].…”

The Spatial Spillover Effect in Hi-Tech Industries: Empirical Evidence from China

“…Second, future studies can employ longer-term longitudinal data, which can bring additional insight to the understanding of the dynamic interactions among knowledge production, international trade, technology development capability, and spatial spillover in the high-tech industries. Third, research can go deeper to study specific innovation activities in high-tech industries related to green product design [52] or carbon emission reduction [53].…”

Special Issue “Decision Models in Green Growth and Sustainable Development”

“…Zhou et al [ 16 ] employed a hybrid approach combining with data envelopment analysis to determine key pollution factors causing lung cancer and identify whether rural or urban residents are more vulnerable to air pollution by using the data from Nanchang, China. In view of the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) and data from China in 1995–2012, Jin et al [ 17 ] studied the relationship between technological progress and carbon emission. Based on the data of carbon dioxide emission in Chongqing, Yang et al [ 18 ] analyzed and forecasted other fossil energy consumption and corresponding CO emission in 2020.…”