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China's green financial pilot policies (GFPPs) are an important start to build a green financial system in China. It is also an important part of achieving the "dual-carbon" goal. This paper calculates China's total factor energy efficiency (TFEE), analyzes the impact of GFPPs on TFEE, and explores the conduction mechanism. The results show that the relationship between GFPPs and TFEE in the pilot areas is statistically significant. The GFPP mainly improves the TFEE through the green innovation effect and the optimization of the energy structure. The GFPP has a significant effect on TFEE enhancement in eastern coastal cities, non-old traditional industrial cities, and non-resource-based cities with high initial energy. China should continue to deepen the pilot work of green finance, formulate differentiated green finance policies, and ensure green technology innovation. This study provides empirical evidence for further optimization of green finance and energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the carbon neutrality goals set post-Paris Climate Conference (COP21), this study delves into the relationship between green technology innovations, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in China, spanning the period of 1990 to 2021. The objective of this paper is to creatively present the idea of a low-carbon digital economy from the viewpoint of digital technology. Utilizing the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, we scrutinize this relationship, employing unit-root testing to verify the integrative attributes of the variables, inclusive of structural break data. Further analysis using the bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing method corroborates the relationship between these key variables. The study reveals unidirectional co-integration over time among green technology innovations, renewable and non-renewable energy, per capita income, population, and CO2 emissions as per the Granger causality test. Interestingly, our findings suggest that while green technology innovation, per capita income, and renewable energy contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, non-renewable energy consumption and population growth exacerbate them. These insights offer valuable guidance for policymakers in formulating comprehensive strategies to enhance environmental quality through the promotion of renewable energy and green technology innovations, with a specific emphasis on the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an extended Solow decomposition framework with a finite mixture model, which is incorporated to account for heterogeneous regimes. The model decomposes green economy into two different components, namely, green total factor productivity and factor endowment. Then, we reestimate the growth sources of green economy and especially the importance of energy consumption in China's provincial industries over 2000-2015. The empirical results suggest that there are three green growth regimes across Chinese provinces for overall economy and different industries. Specifically, some provinces switch regime over time, while the others maintain the same regime. Furthermore, when controlling for regime heterogeneity, the contribution of factor endowment decreases and that of green total factor productivity increases. With respect to energy consumption, traditional methods overestimate its importance in the primary and tertiary industries and underestimate that in the secondary industry. In addition, the reliance of China's overall economy and the secondary and tertiary industries on energy consumption decreases as economy develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is an important policy in the current global response to climate change and has been widely recognized by various industries. In the process of promoting carbon neutrality, new energy plays a pivotal role. In this study, the definition and connotation of new energy and its role and specific operation in the energy transition of carbon neutrality are firstly explained. Promoting new energy development requires significant green and low-carbon investments. Taking China as an example, this paper analyzes the opportunities brought by the carbon neutral process to the field of green finance and analyzes the main features and development trends of green finance in China at present. Then this paper proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the development of green finance in China in terms of improving the green financial policy system, enhancing the supply capacity of green financial services, and optimizing the supporting environment for green financial development. Finally, this paper analyzes the measures and experiences of the United States in promoting low-carbon development and proposes countermeasures for China's low-carbon development on the basis of the five major relationships that need attention in China's carbon-neutral process. That is, strengthen the top-level design and improve the regulatory policy system; optimize the energy structure and increase the proportion of clean energy; optimize the industrial structure and reduce energy consumption in key industries; build a complete low-carbon technology system and promote low-carbon technology research and development and demonstration applications, and encourage local conditions to explore low-carbon development paths. The development of green finance can contribute to the advancement of new energy technologies, thus contributing to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trade-off between economic growth and ecological improvement has always become an important and difficult issue for many countries, especially for developing countries. Due to a long-term extensive economic growth pattern, the regional resource allocation deviates from the optimal, especially the existence of energy misallocation, which hinders the maximization of economic output. Therefore, considering the characteristics and heterogeneity of resource endowments in different regions and increasing renewable energy consumption, that is, promoting energy transition, is it capable of sustainable development under China's actual conditions? The exploration of the issue is a core step in the research of the impact of renewable energy on industrial green transformation. Based on the panel data of 30 regions in China from 2009 to 2016, this paper constructs a threshold model from the perspective of regional energy misallocation and empirically tests the nonlinear mechanism of renewable energy consumption to promote industrial green transformation. The results show that China's energy allocation efficiency is low, there is a certain misallocation phenomenon, and the improvement effect in recent years is not satisfactory. Further, the relationship between renewable energy consumption and industrial green transformation is not a simple linear relationship, but a double threshold effect due to regional energy misallocation. In areas with severe energy misallocation, renewable energy consumption does not have a significant boost to industrial green transformation. Finally, this paper proposes the policy enlightenment of promoting industrial green transformation from the aspects of performance evaluation, market reform, and factor flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of regional water and energy consumption is of great significance to improving regional resource utilization. This paper analyzed the water and energy footprints in different provinces of China, considering regional economic levels. The results indicate: (1) both the largest water footprint and water footprint per capita were in Xinjiang and agriculture had the largest value; (2) Shandong was the largest energy consumer, Ningxia had the largest energy footprint per capita, and coal occupied the largest proportion for the top five energy footprint provinces; and (3) the resource input–output efficiencies in Beijing and Fujian were high, while water and energy consumption were low and gross regional product was high, compared with the average value of China. The situations in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were opposite. The change of consumption pattern for each inhabitant, the adoption of water-saving technology, and an increase to water-saving awareness would be helpful to decrease regional water consumption. An increase of regional energy use efficiency and a change to reduced energy consumption would contribute to the decreasing of regional energy consumption. More attention should be paid to renewable and clean Energies. In addition to solution from the local perspective, the virtual water trade and the energy product trade may relieve regional resource pressure in some extent, and the possible influencing should be considered at the same time. This paper could provide suggestions for regional resource utilization and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Motivation) With the transfer of labor force and the continuous improvement of household income, the household energy consumption structure is also changing. (Gaps) However, few studies have explored the correlations between labor off-farm employment (LOE) and farmers' cooking clean energy (CCE) consumption. (Methodologies) Using survey data of 8198 farmers in 27 provinces from China's labor dynamic survey in 2016, the IV-Probit model was used to analyze the impact of LOE on CCE use, and the mediation effect model was used to examine the specific mechanism of action between them. (Results) The results found that: (1) LOE accounted for about 39%, and farmers' utilization rate of CCE accounted for 40%. (2) LOE has significantly promoted the use of CCE by farmers, and this action mechanism is mainly realized through three paths, that is, per capita annual cash income, social relationship network, and family population structure. (3) The heterogeneity analysis results showed that the head of the household having a university education or above, the family being located in rural areas and mountainous areas, and LOE will have a greater positive impact on the farmers' CCE use. (Policy) From the micro perspective of LOE, this study can deepen our understanding of LOE and CCE use decisions, and then provide a reference for the rational allocation of labor resources and farmers' CCE-related policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the improvement of environmental protection awareness and transformation of industrial structure, China's energy consumption structure has changed constantly. Although the proportion of coal consumption is gradually decreasing, the consumption has not seen a significant decline; it even increased in 2018. Many researchers have focused on changes in one specific type of energy such as coal or solar. However, the overall energy structure was ignored. In this study, an integrated convolutional neural network (CNN) with Long Short‐term Memory (LSTM) was used to predict the energy structure of China. Historical data were considered as pixels for convolution by layers of the CNN and then encoded by LSTM layers. To verify the effectiveness of the method, CNN‐LSTM was compared with six previous methods using data from 1965 to 2018. The results showed that CNN‐LSTM was superior in predicting energy structure. Finally, the energy structure of China in the next decade was predicted. The prediction results demonstrated that although the share of clean energy consumption will continue to increase, coal consumption will not decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residents' willingness to use green energy products is a major concern for different stakeholders and policymakers due to the reformed Chinese electricity market since 2015. This study focused on the Chinese consumer's willingness to opt and pay for environmentally-friendly electricity sources in Shanghai's residential sector. A questionnaire survey was used to find out the influence of gender, age, education, awareness and income level on consumers' attitudes to alter their energy sources to green ones. The results indicated that income level and awareness are significant barriers in the usage of green energy products. Increasing the respondent's awareness about the issues of non-green energy products convinced 97% of them to change their electricity sources completely or partly, in line with their monthly income. This clearly shows that clarifying the benefits of green energy products is a key tool to achieve a green environment in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]