A pathway to coordinated regional development: Energy utilization efficiency and green development - Evidence from China's major national strategic zones

Abstract

According to the new economic geography hypothesis, this study establishes an analytical framework to assess the efficiency of energy use and the progress of green development. The framework is based on panel data collected from 254 cities at the prefecture level in China. The spatial Durbin model is employed to examine the influence and spatial spillover effect of energy utilization efficiency on green development in major national strategic zones. The results show that: improving energy utilization efficiency promotes green development in major national strategic regions, with a stronger intra-regional transfer effect than inter-regional. This is confirmed by robustness and endogeneity analyses. The spillover intensity of energy utilization efficiency on green development varies across regions. It shows an inverted U-shape curve in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a U-shape curve in the Yellow River Basin and Yangtze River Delta region, a diminishing margin in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and a growing margin in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. There is significant spatial heterogeneity within these regions. Different mediating mechanisms affect green development in different regions. The knowledge spillover effect mediates energy utilization efficiency's impact on green development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the industry linkage effect in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the environmental improvement effect in the Yellow River Basin, and the market linkage effect in the Yangtze River Delta region. To promote regional coordinated development with energy utilization efficiency, the country should not only consider differences between national strategic areas but also focus on the effects of different paths to realize the complementarity between energy utilization efficiency and green development.