The Characteristics and Spatial Spillover Effects of Green Technology Innovation on Regional Energy Intensity

Green technology innovation (GTI) has become a basic force for promoting energy development transformation. China must play the role of the first driving force of GTI to achieve low-carbon sustainable development. Based on the relevant panel data of 30 Mainland Chinese provinces from 2007 to 2017, this paper calculates the GTI level in each province through the Slack Based Model- Global Malmquist-Luenberger (SBM-GML) model. This paper uses the Dynamic Spatial Dobbin Model (DSDM) to analyze the spatial spillover of GTI on regional energy intensity (EI) from the time and space dimensions. This study finds that GTI has achieved positive quarter-on-quarter growth each year, but innovation efficiency is low, resulting in a small overall annual innovation improvement rate. Moreover, the level of GTI in the eastern region is much higher than that in the central and western regions, and regional heterogeneity is gradually increasing. China's regional EI shows significant positive agglomeration characteristics. High EI agglomeration is mainly concentrated in major energy provinces such as those in Northwest and Northeast China, while low EI agglomeration mainly occurs in developed provinces in East and Central China with complete infrastructure and strong technological innovation