The mechanism of renewable energy consumption, technological innovation and carbon productivity—an empirical study of Chinese data

Renewable energy consumption has a strong impetus in promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, which is a new path leading to clean and low-carbon development. Based on that, this paper uses the data of carbon productivity, renewable energy power consumption level, technological progress, national economic development level, population, energy efficiency, industrial structure rationality, and other data in 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, based on the STIRPAT model, conducts an empirical analysis on the impact of renewable energy power consumption on carbon productivity in Chinese provinces while considering both the spatial horizontal dimension and the temporal vertical dimension. The empirical results show that (1) Chinese carbon productivity presents an obvious spatial spillover effect and presents the spatial positive correlation distribution characteristics of “high-high” type agglomeration and “low-low” type agglomeration. (2) The utilization of renewable energy plays a positive role in promoting the development of low-carbon economy. The perspective of the horizontal spatial dimension shows a positive spatial spillover effect. The perspective of the longitudinal time dimension shows a marginal increase in the overall improvement of the environment. (3) Among the seven regions in China, the consumption of renewable energy in North China, East China, and Central China brings a dominant effect on carbon productivity. (4) About 29% of the positive effect of renewable energy consumption on carbon productivity is indirectly realized by technological progress. Finally, the article puts forward targeted policy suggestions.