Abstract
Improving carbon emission efficiency and narrowing the gap of efficiency between cities are vital for achieving collaborative emission reduction. Based on the perspective of spatial imbalance, this study constructs an empirical analysis framework of “gap explains gap”, quantitatively analyzes the impact of spatial imbalance of green technological innovation and industrial structure upgradation on the carbon emission efficiency gap through quadratic assignment procedure analysis method. The results are as follows: (1) The urban carbon emission efficiency is generally low and shows a decreasing trend. The carbon emission efficiency shows a “step-like” distribution pattern from coastal to inland regions. Some economically developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Nanjing have high CEE. (2) The difference in urban carbon emission efficiency first decreases and then increases, and the inter-regional gap is the key to narrowing the overall gap in the future. (3) The full-sample regression shows that an increase in the spatial imbalance of green technological innovation, industrial structure rationalization, and industrial structure advancement will increase the carbon emission efficiency gap, but the impact is smaller than that of the energy intensity gap. (4) In terms of period, the influence of industrial structure advancement gap economic development level gap, and energy intensity gap is decreasing, while the influence of green technological innovation gap and industrial structure rationalization gap is increasing. As the impact of green technological innovation gap increases the largest, it will become the primary factor affecting the carbon emission efficiency gap in the new era. (5) In terms of region, the dominant factor affecting the carbon emission efficiency gap in the eastern and central regions is the energy intensity gap, whereas that in the western regions is the economic development level gap. This study theoretically enriched the study of carbon emission efficiency and made up for the shortcomings of previous studies that only focused on efficiency and ignored the efficiency gap. And this study has important reference significance for policymakers in accurately formulating strategies to narrow the gap in carbon emission efficiency and cooperatively improve urban carbon emission efficiency.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Notes
Each variable is a matrix of 284*284. Since the main diagonal element of the variable matrix is 0, the number of sample observations is 284* (284–1) = 80,372.
References
Agassi J (1994) Radiation theory and the quantum revolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Alkhathlan K, Javid M (2013) Energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth in Saudi Arabia: an aggregate and disaggregate analysis. Energ Policy 62:1525–1532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.068
Barnett GA (2011) Encyclopedia of social networks. Sage Publication, Los Angeles
British Petroleum Company (2021) BP statistical review of world energy 2021. Accessed on https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/country-sites/zh_cn/china/home/reports/statistical-review-of-world-energy/2021/BP_Stats_2021.pdf
Cai HC, Wang ZL, Zhu YF (2022) Understanding the structure and determinants of intercity carbon emissions association network in China. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131535
Chen DK, Chen SY, Jin H, Lu YL (2020) The impact of energy regulation on energy intensity and energy structure: firm-level evidence from China. China Econ Rev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101351
Chen JD, Gao M, Cheng SL, Hou WX, Song ML, Liu X, Liu Y, Shan YL (2020) County-level CO2 emissions and sequestration in China during 1997–2017. Sci Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00736-3
Chen ZQ, Yu BL, Yang CS, Zhou YY, Yao SJ, Qian XJ, Wang CX, Wu B, Wu JP (2021) An extended time series (2000–2018) of global NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light data from a cross-sensor calibration. Earth Syst Sci Data 13:889–906. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-889-2021
Chen Z, Sarkar A, Rahman A, Li XJ, Xia XL (2022) Exploring the drivers of green agricultural development (GAD) in China: A spatial association network structure approaches. Land Use Policy 112:105827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105827
Cheng ZH, Li LS, Liu J (2018) Industrial structure, technical progress and carbon intensity in China’s provinces. Renew Sustain Energ Rev 81:2935–2946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.103
Ding F, Zhuang G, Liu D (2020) Environmental regulation, industrial agglomeration and urban carbon emission intensity: Empirical analysis based on panel data of 282 prefecture-level cities in China. J China Univ Geosci 20:90–104 (in Chinese)
Dong BY, Xu YZ, Fan XM (2020) How to achieve a win-win situation between economic growth and carbon emission reduction: empirical evidence from the perspective of industrial structure upgrading. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:43829–43844. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09883-x
Dong F, Zhu J, Li YF, Chen YH, Gao YJ, Hu MY, Qin C, Sun JJ (2022) How green technology innovation affects carbon emission efficiency: evidence from developed countries proposing carbon neutrality targets. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:35780–35799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18581-9
Du KR, Li JL (2019) Towards a green world: how do green technology innovations affect total-factor carbon productivity. Energ Policy 131:240–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.04.033
Fabrizi A, Guarini G, Meliciani V (2018) Green patents, regulatory policies and research network policies. Res Policy 47:1018–1031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.03.005
Fredrickson MM, Chen Y (2019) Permutation and randomization tests for network analysis. Soc Netw 59:171–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2019.08.001
Gan CH, Zheng RG, Yu DF (2011) An empirical study on the effects of industrial structure on economic growth and fluctuations in China. Econ Res J 46:4–16 (in Chinese)
Gao PF, Wang YD, Zou Y, Su XF, Che XH, Yang XD (2022) Green technology innovation and carbon emissions nexus in China: Does industrial structure upgrading matter? Front Psychol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.951172
Huo TF, Tang MH, Cai WG, Ren H, Liu BS, Hu X (2020) Provincial total-factor energy efficiency considering floor space under construction: An empirical analysis of China’s construction industry. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118749
Kuang B, Lu XH, Zhou M, Chen DL (2020) Provincial cultivated land use efficiency in China: Empirical analysis based on the SBM-DEA model with carbon emissions considered. Technol Forecast Soc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119874
Li SJ, Zhou CS, Wang SJ, Hu JC (2018) Dose urban landscape pattern affect CO2 emission efficiency? Empirical evidence from megacities in China. J Clean Prod 203:164–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.194
Li LS, Cai Y, Liu L (2019) Research on the effect of urbanization on China’s carbon emission efficiency. Sustainability 12:163. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010163
Li JK, Ma JJ, Wei W (2020) Study on regional differences of energy carbon emission efficiency in eight economic area of China. J Quant Tech Econ 37:109–129 (in Chinese)
Li YY, Zhang YR, Lee CC, Li J (2021) Structural characteristics and determinants of an international green technological collaboration network. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129258
Liu Z, Shi YR, Yan JM, Ou XM, Lieu J (2012) Research on the decomposition model for China’s national renewable energy total target. Energ Policy 51:110–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.04.080
Liu HC, Fan J, Zhou K, Wang Q (2019) Exploring regional differences in the impact of high energy-intensive industries on CO2 emissions: evidence from a panel analysis in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:26229–26241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05865-w
Liu ZH, Xu JW, Zhang CH (2022) Technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading and carbon emissions efficiency: an analysis based on PVAR model of panel data at provincial level. J Nat Resour 37:508–520 (in Chinese)
Lv CC, Bian BC, Lee CC, He ZW (2021) Regional gap and the trend of green finance development in China. Energ Econ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105476
Ma QF, Jia P, Kuang HB (2022) The impact of technological innovation on transport carbon emission efficiency in China: spillover effect or siphon effect? Front Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1028501
Mussard S, Richard P (2012) Linking Yitzhaki’s and Dagum’s Gini decompositions. Appl Econ 44:2997–3010. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2011.568410
Pastor JT, Lovell C (2005) A global Malmquist productivity index. Econ Lett 88(2):266–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2005.02.013
Sheinbaum-Pardo C, Mora-Perez S, Robles-Morales G (2012) Decomposition of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Mexican manufacturing industries: trends between 1990 and 2008. Energy Sustain Dev 16:57–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2011.08.003
Sueyoshi T, Qu JJ, Li AJ, Liu XH (2021) A new approach for evaluating technology inequality and diffusion barriers: the concept of efficiency Gini coefficient and its application in Chinese provinces. Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.121256
Sun W, Huang CC (2020) How does urbanization affect carbon emission efficiency? Evidence from China. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122828
Tang MR, Mihardjo LWW, Haseeb M, Khan SAR, Jermsittiparsert K (2021) The dynamics effect of green technology innovation on economic growth and CO(2)emission in Singapore: new evidence from bootstrap ARDL approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:4184–4194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10760-w
Tone K (2001) A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis. Eur J Oper Res 130:498–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(99)00407-5
Tone K, Tsutsui M (2010) An epsilon-based measure of efficiency in DEA—a third pole of technical efficiency. Eur J Oper Res 207:1554–1563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2010.07.014
Wang HP, Wang MX (2020) Effects of technological innovation on energy efficiency in China: evidence from dynamic panel of 284 cities. Sci Total Environ 709:136172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136172
Wang K, Wei YM (2014) China’s regional industrial energy efficiency and carbon emissions abatement costs. Appl Energy 130:617–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.03.010
Wang GF, Deng XZ, Wang JY, Zhang F, Liang SQ (2019) Carbon emission efficiency in China: a spatial panel data analysis. China Econ Rev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2019a.101313
Wang HK, Lu X, Deng Y, Sun YG, Nielsens CP, Li YF, Zhu G, Bu ML, Bi J, McElroy MB (2019b) China’s CO2 peak before 2030 implied from characteristics and growth of cities. Nat Sustain 2:748–754. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0339-6
Wang KY, Wu M, Sun Y, Shi XP, Sun A, Zhang P (2019c) Resource abundance, industrial structure, and regional carbon emissions efficiency in China. Resour Policy 60:203–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.01.001
Wang SJ, Wang JY, Fang CL, Li SJ (2019d) Estimating the impacts of urban form on CO2 emission efficiency in the Pearl River Delta, China. Cities 85:117–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.08.009
Wang JL, Wang WL, Ran QY, Irfan M, Ren SY, Yang XD, Wu HT, Ahmad M (2022) Analysis of the mechanism of the impact of internet development on green economic growth: evidence from 269 prefecture cities in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:9990–10004. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16381-1
Wang SJ, Wang ZH, Fang CL (2022b) Evolutionary characteristics and driving factors of carbon emission performance at the city level in China. Sci China Earth Sci 65:1292–1307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9928-2
Wu MR, Zhao M, Wu ZD (2019) Evaluation of development level and economic contribution ratio of science and technology innovation in eastern China. Technol Soc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101194
Xie ZH, Wu R, Wang SJ (2021) How technological progress affects the carbon emission efficiency? Evidence from national panel quantile regression. J Clean Prod 307:127133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127133
Xu S, Liu Q, Lu X (2021) Time-space evolution characteristics and influence effect of unbalanced regional development in China: from the perspective of industrial structure transformation and upgrading. Financ Trade Res 32:14–26 (in Chinese)
Xu Q, Zhong MR, Cao MY (2022) Does digital investment affect carbon efficiency? Spatial effect and mechanism discussion. Sci Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154321
Yan JN, Su B (2020) What drive the changes in China’s energy consumption and intensity during 12th Five-Year Plan period? Energ Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111383
Yang YH, Yang X, Tang DL (2021) Environmental regulations, Chinese-style fiscal decentralization, and carbon emissions: from the perspective of moderating effect. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 35:1985–1998. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-021-01999-x
Yao X, Zhou HC, Zhang AZ, Li AJ (2015) Regional energy efficiency, carbon emission performance and technology gaps in China: a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function analysis. Energ Policy 84:142–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.05.001
Yin YK (2022) Digital finance development and manufacturing emission reduction: an empirical evidence from China. Front Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.973644
You JM, Zhang W (2022) How heterogeneous technological progress promotes industrial structure upgrading and industrial carbon efficiency? Evidence from China’s industries. Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.123386
Zeng LG, Lu HY, Liu YP, Zhou Y, Hu HY (2019) Analysis of regional differences and influencing factors on China’s carbon emission efficiency in 2005–2015. Energies. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12163081
Zhang ML, Liu Y (2022) Influence of digital finance and green technology innovation on China’s carbon emission efficiency: empirical analysis based on spatial metrology. Sci Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156463
Zhang W, Liu XM, Wang D, Zhou JP (2022) Digital economy and carbon emission performance: evidence at China’s city level. Energ Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022a.112927
Zhang W, Zhu ZR, Liu XM, Cheng J (2022) Can green finance improve carbon emission efficiency? Environ Sci Pollut Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20670-8
Zhao J, Jiang QZ, Dong XC, Dong KY, Jiang HD (2022) How does industrial structure adjustment reduce CO2 emissions? Spatial and mediation effects analysis for China. Energ Econ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105704
Zheng Y, Long YH, Fan HG (2022) The analysis of spatial-temporal effects of relevant factors on carbon intensity in China. Stoch Env Res Risk A 36:3785–3802. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-022-02226-x
Zhou YX, Liu WL, Lv XY, Chen XH, Shen MH (2019) Investigating interior driving factors and cross-industrial linkages of carbon emission efficiency in China’s construction industry: based on Super-SBM DEA and GVAR model. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118322
Zhou D, Zhang XR, Wang XQ (2020) Research on coupling degree and coupling path between China’s carbon emission efficiency and industrial structure upgrading. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:25149–25162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08993-w
Zhou XX, Cai ZM, Tan KH, Zhang LL, Du JT, Song ML (2021) Technological innovation and structural change for economic development in China as an emerging market. Technol Forecast Soc 167:120671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120671
Zhu XW (2022) Have carbon emissions been reduced due to the upgrading of industrial structure? Analysis of the mediating effect based on technological innovation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:54890–54901. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19722-w
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number: 42001139].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
ZS: methodology, writing-original draft. YS and HL: reviewed the manuscript. XC: software and collect data. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Consent to participate
The article development does not require investigation or experimentation, and the authors of this article are aware of the situation.
Consent to publish
All the authors approved the manuscript for publication.
Ethical approval
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Sun, Z., Sun, Y., Liu, H. et al. Impact of spatial imbalance of green technological innovation and industrial structure upgradation on the urban carbon emission efficiency gap. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 37, 2305–2325 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-023-02395-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-023-02395-3