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Impacts of Low-Carbon Innovation and Its Heterogeneous Components on CO 2 Emissions

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  • Zheming Yan

    (International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
    School of Finance and Economics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China)

  • Lan Yi

    (International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China)

  • Kerui Du

    (Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Zhiming Yang

    (Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China)

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the impact of low-carbon innovation on CO 2 emissions. Using patent statistics, we measured low-carbon innovations for 15 major economies during the period of 1992–2012. Then, we classified low-carbon technology into clean and gray technology according to the patent classification system. Following the empirical Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework, we explored the effects of low-carbon innovation and its components on CO 2 emissions. We did not find any evidence of significant influence of low-carbon innovation. Through further estimations, a significantly negative effect of clean innovation was found while the effect of gray innovation is not clear. Heterogeneous impacts within low-carbon technology provide an explanation for the insignificant impact of low-carbon innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheming Yan & Lan Yi & Kerui Du & Zhiming Yang, 2017. "Impacts of Low-Carbon Innovation and Its Heterogeneous Components on CO 2 Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:4:p:548-:d:95055
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