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Deepening decoupling for sustainable development: evidence from threshold model

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Abstract

On the path of seeking sustainable development, ecological decoupling is usually selected to measure the achievements of climate governance. Based on the theoretical assumption arising from solution to endogenous growth model and using the panel data of 50 countries during the period of 2004–2016, this paper establishes a threshold model to quantify effects of industrial structure, income, urbanization, and other production factors on decoupling of economic growth from energy consumption (decoupling) under the constraint of technological level. The results show that there is strong decoupling in developed countries, while weak and even coupling in developing countries. The impact of industrial structure and income on decoupling has changed in direction and is characterized by inverted U-shaped curve under a single technology threshold. In the low-tech regime, income and industry structure deepen decoupling, while it weaken in the high-tech regime. The substitution effect from renewable energy rather than production factors is conducive to decoupling, not restricted by the technological level. The robust driving force of urbanization on decoupling strengthens with technological progress. Deepening decoupling should be devoted to exploring the potential of driving factors and refraining from the dragging effects of resisting force.

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Acknowledgements

ZLT conducted the quantitative analyses and composed the paper. YAZ guided the direction and ideas. LW collected data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project no. 71571046), Fujian College’s Research Base(Project No.IIRC20200105), and the education department of Fujian Provincial middle-aged and young people (project no. JAS20221).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, 350108, China

    LanTing Zeng

  2. School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, China

    Azhong Ye

  3. Fujian College’s Research Base of Humanities and Social Science for Internet Innovation Research Center, Mingjiang University, Fuzhou, 350116, China

    LanTing Zeng & Wen Lin

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  1. LanTing Zeng
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  2. Azhong Ye
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Correspondence to Azhong Ye.

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Appendix 1 Specific names of 50 countries

Appendix 1 Specific names of 50 countries

Table 8 50 selected countries and variables description
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Zeng, L., Ye, A. & Lin, W. Deepening decoupling for sustainable development: evidence from threshold model. Energy Efficiency 15, 33 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-022-10031-2

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