Abstract
With the increasing concerns about environmental degradation and the growing awareness of sustainable development, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions has become a topic of intense scholarly interest. This research makes use of panel data from 30 provinces in China covering the years 2000–2019 to explore how renewable energy development affects this nation's environmental sustainability by assessing the reduction of carbon intensity. The results reveal that renewable energy development contributes to decreasing carbon intensity. The mechanism analysis results indicate that the development of renewable energy achieves environmental sustainability by reducing energy intensity, improving energy structure, and upgrading industrial structure. We also find that the beneficial effects of renewable energy development are more pronounced in high-polluting provinces and provinces with high levels of renewable energy development status and well-functioning financial systems. Finally, the improvement of local government fiscal size and the introduction of a policy for green finance and geopolitical risk further improve the positive influence of renewable energy development on environmental sustainability.
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