Effects of technological changes on China's carbon emissions

Abstract

Technological progress is widely recognized as a method of reducing carbon emissions. However, many studies have shown that it can also lead to increased energy consumption and carbon emissions. To study the effects of technological changes on carbon emissions, we decomposed technological changes into environmental technological changes and production technological changes. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of technological progress on carbon emissions by embedding the Solow residual model into the logarithmic mean Divisia index model. We used data from China's 30 provinces to calculate the regional effects of technological progress during 2005–2015. We drew the following conclusions: 1) China's overall domestic technological progress reduced carbon emissions over the study period; 2) technological progress in Central and West China significantly reduced carbon emissions, whereas that in East China slightly increased emissions; and 3) the relationship between technological progress and carbon emissions is complex and depends on both environmental technological changes and production technological changes.