Curbing regional carbon emissions through green technology innovation: an empirical analysis in China

Green technology innovation achieves the purpose of energy conservation and emission reduction through structural adjustment and energy replacement, remaining the crucial factor of modern environmental governance. However, there exists knowledge gap exploring the relationship between green technology innovation and carbon emission reduction from this perspective. Therefore, this study measured Chinese provincial carbon emissions through IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) method according to the data collected from 2008 to 2019 and investigated the relationship between green technology innovation and regional carbon emissions. In particular, threshold effects and intermediary transmission effects were captured through spatial measurement, threshold regression, and intermediary model. The results indicate that: (1) green technology innovation can effectively restrain carbon emissions at provincial level in China, while there exists spatial inconsistency; (2) marketization degree and environmental regulation have threshold effects during inhibition process; (3) industrial structure upgrading and energy consumption structure optimization generate intermediary transmission effects during restraining process of green technology innovation on provincial carbon emissions; (4) green technology innovation can still significantly suppress provincial carbon emissions after conducting endogenous tests. The research findings can provide precise references for regional governments to develop scientifically and reasonably tailored carbon–neutral governance paths. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024.