Environmental Regulations and Chinese Energy Sustainability: Mediating Role of Green Technology Innovations in Chinese Provinces

Lijuan Su, Yating Zheng, Fayyaz Ahmad (), Ilhan Ozturk (), Yatao Wang, Tian Tian and Abdul Rehman
Additional contact information
Lijuan Su: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yating Zheng: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Fayyaz Ahmad: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Ilhan Ozturk: College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates
Yatao Wang: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Tian Tian: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Abdul Rehman: College of Economics and Management, Henan Agriculture University, Zhengzhou 450002, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: The stable growth of an economy is based on the coordination between environmental protection and economic development. Environmental regulation may affect energy efficiency because of its function of correcting energy consumption externalities. This paper uses the SBM model and Tobit model to explore the impact on and pathways of environmental regulations of energy efficiency in 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China and explains temporal and regional heterogeneity. The findings suggested that the environmental regulation in all provinces is continuously strengthened and the energy efficiency in eastern China is relatively higher. There is a positive effect of environmental regulation on energy efficiency and there is a temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Environmental regulation affects energy efficiency through green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading, energy structure transformation and other transmission paths, and its influence mechanism on energy efficiency also has regional heterogeneity. The policy suggestions are: further enhance the intensity of environmental regulation, refine supporting safeguards and implement differentiated environmental regulation measures.

Keywords: environmental regulation; energy efficiency; Tobit model; SBM model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8950/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8950/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:11:p:8950-:d:1162222

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().