| At present,China is still in the process of industrialization and urbanization,industrial activities,transportation and infrastructure construction consume a large amount of energy,economic development urgently needs low-carbon transformation,cities as an important subject of national economic and social development,the results of its emission reduction targets in practice are related to the effectiveness of national low-carbon development.The Implementation Plan on Further Improving the Market-Oriented Green Technology Innovation System(2023-2025)points out that the green technology innovation system should be further improved and the role of green technology innovation in supporting green low-carbon development should be given full play.In 2022,the Ministry of Science and Technology,the National Development and Reform Commission and other nine departments issued the “Implementation Plan for Science and Technology to Support Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutral Development(2022-2030)”,highlighting that technological innovation is the key path to achieve the “double carbon” goal.Green technology innovation is the driving engine to promote China’s low-carbon development and combat climate change.This study investigates the impact of green technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency,which is a reference value for national and regional promotion of green technology innovation on carbon emission reduction.This research is based on regional sustainable development and other relevant theories,based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2006 to 2019,and with the help of the carbon emission accounting method of the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventory in 2006,calculates the carbon emissions of cities,and uses the super-efficiency SBM model considering unexpected output to calculate the carbon emission efficiency,Using the methods of regional difference measurement index and Moran index,this paper analyzes the temporal evolution trend,regional difference and spatial pattern of green technology innovation and carbon emission efficiency in Chinese cities,builds a panel regression model to analyze the role path and spatial spillover effect of green technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency,and considers the heterogeneity of green technology innovation’s impact on carbon emission efficiency from the perspective of regional difference,Finally,it puts forward relevant suggestions on strengthening carbon emission reduction governance through green technology innovation.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)The green patent applications in Chinese cities showed an upward trend from 2006 to2019,with an average annual growth rate of 26.25%;the spatial distribution of green patent applications was extremely uneven,showing an obvious coastal-inland spatial divergence pattern,with the tri-polar pattern dominated by the Yangtze River Delta,the Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region prominent;the Gini coefficient and the coefficient of variation fluctuated down during the study period,and The Gini coefficient and coefficient of variation fluctuate during the study period,and the regional differences show a narrowing trend;the spatial agglomeration of green technology innovation strengthens,and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta city clusters are the hotspots of green technology innovation.Carbon emission efficiency shows a fluctuating upward trend,and the carbon emission efficiency value increases from 0.379 in 2006 to 0.543 in 2019,with an average annual growth rate of 2.80%;the spatial differences in carbon emission efficiency of Chinese cities are significant,showing the divergent characteristics of East > Central > West >Northeast cities;the regional differences show a fluctuating trend of widening,and the differences within the four major regions are the main reason for the continuous expansion of the overall differences;there is a more obvious spatial dependence of carbon emission efficiency,and there is a spatial clustering phenomenon in areas with similar carbon emission efficiency levels.(2)Green technology innovation is significantly and positively correlated with urban carbon emission efficiency.Energy efficiency,per capita GDP is significantly and positively correlated with carbon emission efficiency,and environmental regulation is significantly and negatively correlated.In terms of the influence mechanism,green technology innovation is significantly positively correlated with urban carbon emission efficiency in the absence of energy efficiency and industrial structure variables,indicating that green technology innovation can directly improve carbon emission efficiency through green technology progress effect.At the same time,green technology innovation has a significant promotion effect on both industrial structure upgrading and energy efficiency,and green technology innovation can exert carbon emission reduction effect through industrial structure upgrading and energy efficiency improvement,and effectively improve carbon emission efficiency.(3)There is heterogeneity in the influence of green technology innovation on the carbon emission efficiency of cities.Green technology innovation has a significant positive correlation with carbon emission efficiency in eastern cities,a non-significant positive effect with central and northeastern cities,and a non-significant negative effect with western cities.From the perspective of cities with different economic development levels,green technology innovation is significantly and positively correlated with carbon emission efficiency in cities with high economic development levels,and the effect is not significant for cities with medium and low economic development levels.Green technology innovation is significantly and positively correlated with carbon emission efficiency in both medium and small cities,and the promotion effect on carbon emission efficiency in small cities is greater than that in medium-sized cities,and the negative effect on mega cities and large cities.Taking the proposed implementation of innovation-driven development strategy as the time node,green technology innovation presents significant carbon emission reduction effect after the implementation of the strategy.(4)There is a positive spatial spillover effect of green technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency.The number of green patent applications is significantly positively correlated with the carbon emission efficiency of neighboring cities,and the indirect spillover effect is higher than the direct effect,and the total effect is significantly positive,which has a radiation-driven effect on the carbon emission efficiency of neighboring regions.In view of the current problems of insufficient R&D of key technologies,imperfect innovation incentive mechanisms and large regional innovation gaps in China’s green technology innovation level,this study proposes countermeasures for carbon emission reduction from the perspectives of improving the top-level design of green technology innovation,strengthening innovation capacity building and talent training,focusing on green technology research in key industries,promoting the transformation and application of low-carbon technology achievements,and implementing differentiated green technology innovation paths.This study analyzes the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of green technology innovation and carbon emission efficiency in Chinese cities and the impact of green technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency.On the one hand,the influence mechanism of carbon emission efficiency in Chinese cities and its variability are analyzed from the perspective of green technology innovation,which enriches and improves the influence mechanism system of carbon emission efficiency.On the other hand,the mechanisms of technological progress effect,industrial upgrading effect and energy efficiency enhancement effect of green technological innovation to promote carbon emission efficiency are explored,and the spatial spillover effect of the impact of green technological innovation on carbon emission efficiency is analyzed.This study has certain reference and guidance value for promoting green and low-carbon transformation in Chinese cities. |
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