Riding the green rails: Exploring the nexus between high-speed trains, green innovation, and carbon emissions

Yu Chen, Changyi Zhao, Shan Chen, Wenqing Chen, Kunyang Wan and Jia Wei

Energy, 2023, vol. 282, issue C

Abstract: Carbon management holds increasing significance in today's global economy, particularly in the pursuit of sustainable development and carbon neutrality for nations like China. Given that energy consumption plays a central role in driving carbon emissions, a comprehensive exploration of strategies to enhance energy efficiency becomes imperative. While existing research has scrutinized the direct impacts of eco-friendly transportation modes like high-speed trains on energy usage and carbon emissions, limited attention has been directed towards investigating their indirect implications. This study posits that the introduction of high-speed train systems facilitates swift flows of resources, expertise, and funding, thereby fostering an environment conducive to green innovation. Thus, this research probes the hypothesis that the establishment of high-speed train networks can trigger green innovation, ultimately bolstering energy efficiency and mitigating carbon emissions. Utilizing data spanning 2008 to 2018 of the prefecture-level cities, this study employs mediation, moderation, and robustness tests to validate the notion that the integration of high-speed train cultivates a setting favorable to green innovation, leading to improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. Furthermore, this effect is notably accentuated in cities engaged in intellectual property pilot cities and low-carbon pilot cities.

Keywords: Carbon emissions; HST; Green innovation; Intellectual property pilot cities; Low-carbon pilot cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223023496
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:282:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223023496

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128955

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().