Identifying the influencing factors of the sustainable energy transitions in China

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the influencing factors that facilitate sustainable energy transitions in China. For this purpose, this paper assumes that the impact of the energy transition is from three main factors, energy technology innovations, the energy market, and socio-technical regimes, which can be subdivided into 11 subfactors. To empirically test the proposed hypotheses, questionnaire survey data collected from Chinese energy enterprises are statistically analysed by structural equation models (SEMs). The results show that, first, energy technology innovations, the energy market, and socio-technical regimes are the major forces in the transition to sustainable energy in China. Second, the effects of the three main factors on the energy transition vary according to 11 different subfactors. Some subfactors, i.e., innovation strategy, innovation factors, innovation policy, innovation network, and new energy competitiveness, have very important positive effects on the energy transition. Some subfactors, i.e., competitiveness of the coal industry, customer habits and coal-based infrastructure, have negative effects on the transition to sustainable energy in China. Third, the influence of the subfactors on the transition performance is diminished as a result of the joint intermediate effects of transition behaviours.