Energy industry advancedization of dynamic evolution and resource-environment decoupling effect: Evidence from China's value chain upgrading.

Accelerating the upgrading of traditional energy industries has become a key area of concern for global green and sustainable development. Notably, few existing studies have focused on the spatial-temporal variability of energy industry advancedization and its resource-environment decoupling effect. This paper was the first to measure China's energy industry advancedization index based on the perspective of industry chain elements and value chain structure, analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution and elemental characteristics, and explored the resource-environment decoupling effect and nonlinear impact. The results showed that energy industry advancedization in China displayed a slow-growth trend from 2008 to 2020, and the spatial unevenness of energy industry capital and workforce advancedization gradually deepened. The decoupling effect of resource endowment dependence in the evolution of energy industry advancedization was better than that of environmental pollution, the spatial decoupling process was better in the eastern and central regions than in the western and northeastern regions, and the decoupling pressure of resources and environment in some regions was still significant. The trend of the nonlinear effect of energy industry advancedization on resource endowment dependence and environmental pollution showed an inverted "N" and "N" shape, respectively, and the nonlinear effect had obvious stage characteristics and regional heterogeneity. • An advancedization index is measured based on the energy industry value chain. • Low levels of energy industry advancedization are mostly energy-enriched areas. • The regional unevenness of the energy industry elements advancedization is deepening. • The pressure of resource-environment decoupling in the energy industry still exists. • Energy industry upgrading effects on resource-environment are nonlinear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]