The Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of Technological Innovation on the Transportation Industry and Its Spatial Heterogeneity: Evidence from China

Abstract

The carbon reduction effect of technological innovation in the transportation industry is conducive to China’s anticipated realization of carbon neutrality. Therefore, we evaluated carbon emission reduction effect of technological innovation in the transportation industry in China. Based on the panel data of 30 sample provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Tibet) from 2012 to 2018, using the Moran’I index and Getis-Ord Gi index, this paper analyzes the evolutionary trend and spatial autocorrelation of carbon emission in the transportation industry, and analyzes the impact of technological innovation on carbon emission levels of the transportation industry and its spatiotemporal differences by using the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model by using ArcGIS 10.4 software. The conclusions are as follows: The carbon emission level of China’s transportation industry generally has been rising steadily, showing a spatial distribution pattern of high emissions in the east and low emissions in the west. The cold spots are concentrated in the western region, and the hot spots are situated in the central and eastern regions. Technological innovation has a carbon reduction effect on the transportation industry in the eastern and north-eastern regions, while the effect in other regions is not obvious. However, there is an obvious “inverted U-shaped” relationship between technological innovation and the transportation industry’s carbon emissions. The technological innovation in the transportation industry will have a significant carbon reduction effect after breaking through the technical pain points. This carbon reduction effect has a higher effect on the western region than on the eastern region. In addition, the economic development level, the fiscal expenditure proportion of the transportation industry, the higher education level, and the proportion of fixed asset investment in the transportation industry have played a positive role in reducing carbon in the transportation industry, but the spatial heterogeneity of this carbon reduction effect is relatively strong. Therefore, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” development period in China, it is necessary to continuously promote the low-carbon development of the transportation industry with technological innovation, while highlighting the differentiated carbon reduction governance, and consolidating the role of talents and fiscal support.

Does Human Capital Matter for China’s Green Growth?—Examination Based on Econometric Model and Machine Learning Methods

“…However, existing studies have shown that the relationship between green innovation and GEE is often nonlinear. Chen and Huo [ 61 ] and Shi et al [ 62 ] argue that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between innovation and carbon emissions. Hu et al [ 63 ] finds that there is a U-shaped relationship between green innovation and green development.…”

“…However, due to the long cycle and high risk of scientific and technological innovation, early R&D investment may not be able to be converted into R&D results in time to play the role of driving the city’s green growth [ 35 ]. Moreover, since now company scale expansion and capital recycling have brought certain negative externality to the environmental system, the “rebound effect” of such negative externality is greater than the energy-saving effect brought by technological innovation [ 65 , 66 ], which will increase energy consumption and carbon emissions to some extent, and is not conducive to improving green economic performance [ 61 , 62 ]. Second, when the innovation level exceeds a certain threshold and reaches a high level, the early R&D investment is transformed into a real force to promote companies’ technological improvement and product iteration.…”

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“…Furthermore, improved innovation can accelerate the aging of sunset industries and promote the rise of emerging industries such as intelligent transportation, which then drive the transformation and upgrading of traditional labor-intensive industries. Based on the development of ST, capital-intensive and technological-intensive industries will become the mainstream (Liu et al, 2021;Shi et al, 2021aShi et al, , 2021bZailani et al, 2014).…”

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