The Impact Of Green Technology Innovation On Environmental Governance Performance

With China’s industrialization and urbanization,resource shortage and ecological degradation are becoming increasingly serious.For a long time,China’s crude development model of "high input,high consumption and high pollution" has not only prospered the economy,but also brought about a series of serious environmental problems such as frequent pollution and abnormal climate change.It not only jeopardizes the potential for sustainable economic development,but also poses a threat to public health.Since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,environmental governance has been placed in a prominent position,and the Party’s determination and efforts in environmental governance have never been greater.The key to improving environmental governance lies in the transition to a green and low-carbon economy,and its core driving force is green technology innovation.Making full use of green technology innovation to optimize factor allocation and promote cleaner production mode is an important way to improve environmental governance.Therefore,under the concept of "clear water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains" and the harmonious coexistence between man and nature,it is of great practical significance to explore the effect and internal mechanism of green technology innovation on environmental governance performance for solving environmental governance problems and achieving coordinated and sustainable development between economy and environment.Using city-level panel data in China,this study attempts to explore three issues around the relationship between green technology innovation and environmental governance performance.First,whether green technology innovation has improved the environmental governance performance;Second,through which mechanism green technology innovation affects environmental governance performance;Third,does green technology innovation promote the convergence of environmental governance performance in China? In order to answer these three questions,this study empirically examines the driving effect of green technology innovation on environmental governance performance on the basis of theoretical exposition and current situation analysis.The internal mechanism between the two variables is also investigated from three intermediary paths of industrial structure upgrading,green productivity improvement and energy structure optimization.In addition,from the perspective of "polarization effect" and "diffusion effect",the convergence characteristics of environmental governance performance and the accelerator role played by green technology innovation are also clarified.Based on the above empirical results,the research puts forward specific policy suggestions to improve environmental governance.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:First,the analysis of the current situation of green technology innovation show that green technology innovation has maintained a sustained and rapid development in the sample period(2007-2018).In terms of spatial distribution,green technology innovation is more active in eastern China than in central and western China.As for the correlation network,the spatial correlation network of green technology innovation presents a typical "center-periphery" structure.These central nodes are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas and have spillover relations to other areas.The analysis of the current situation of environmental governance performance show that environmental governance performance continues to improve during the sample period.In terms of spatial distribution,the average environmental governance performance in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions,but the growth rates in the central and western regions are faster,and the gap between regions is narrowing.Second,green technology innovation has significantly improved environmental governance performance,and the improvement effect varies with different conditions.In terms of technology category,other green technology innovation has the largest improvement effect on environmental governance performance,followed by pollution mitigation technology innovation,and green energy technology innovation has the least improvement effect.In terms of geographical location,the improvement effect of green technology innovation on environmental governance performance is strongest in central China,followed by western China and weakest in eastern China.For different periods,green technology innovation did not show significant improvement effect on environmental governance performance before the new Normal.In the new Normal period,green technology innovation had significant improvement effect on environmental governance performance.Further analysis also shows that there is a threshold effect with the level of economic development as the threshold variable on the impact of green technology innovation on environmental governance performance.In other words,only when the level of economic development reaches the threshold value,green technology innovation has a significant improvement effect on environmental governance performance.In addition,there is no significant spatial spillover effect of green technology innovation.Third,there are three mediating mechanisms for the impact of green technology innovation on environmental governance performance,namely industrial structure upgrading,green productivity improvement and energy structure optimization.(1)The mediating mechanism of industrial structure advanced is significant,but the mediating mechanism of industrial structure rationalization is not significant.Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are differences in the mediating effect of industrial structure upgrading under different types of technologies,different geographical location,different city size,different market segmentation degree and different financial development degree.(2)Green technology innovation promotes green productivity by improving resource allocation efficiency and reducing resource mismatch and waste,and thus improves environmental governance performance.That is,the mediation mechanism of green productivity is also significant.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the mediating effect is different due to different types of technologies,different geographical location,different city size,different market segmentation degree and different degree of financial development.(3)The results show that the mediation mechanism of energy structure optimization exists,and green technology innovation can optimize the energy structure by promoting the development and application of new energy.However,the improvement effect of energy structure optimization on environmental governance performance is not significant.In addition,the intermediary effect of energy structure optimization is also heterogeneous.Fourth,from the perspective of dynamic development,there is a significant convergence of environmental governance performance across the country.Green technology innovation not only promotes the growth rate of environmental governance performance,but also accelerates the convergence process.Heterogeneity analysis shows that club convergence exists in eastern,central and western regions,as well as in big cities and small and medium-sized cities.Compared with central and western regions,green technology innovation has a greater accelerating effect on the convergence of environmental governance performance in the eastern region.Similarly,compared with big cities,green technology innovation has a greater accelerating effect on the convergence of environmental governance performance in small and medium-sized cities.Based on the findings,the study puts forward specific suggestions on promoting green technology innovation continuously and facilitating the three mediating mechanisms of industrial structure upgrading,green productivity improvement and energy structure optimization to play their role in improving environmental governance performance.