The role of green industrial transformation in mitigating carbon emissions:Exploring the channels of technological innovation and environmental regulation

The industrial sector is vital to economic progress,yet industrial pollution poses environmental and economic concerns.The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of green industrial transformation in re-ducing Pakistan’s carbon intensity between 1975 and 2020.Carbon emissions are considered an endogenous construct,while foreign direct investment(FDI)inflows,technological innovation,green industrial transforma-tion,environmental legislation,and research and development(R&D)investment are possible mediators.The association between variables is assessed using the robust least-squares approach.Green industrial transforma-tion is connected with lower carbon emissions,yet technical innovation,R&D investment,and inbound FDI raise a country’s carbon emissions.The findings support the pollution haven hypothesis in a country.The causality esti-mates indicate that inward FDI contributes to environmental regulations;green industrial transformation directly relates to inbound FDI and R&D expenditures;and technological innovations correspond to inbound FDI,R&D ex-penditures,industrial ecofriendly progression,and environmental standards.According to the impulse response function,environmental policies are anticipated to have a differential effect on carbon emissions in 2023,2024,2028-2030,while they are likely to decrease in the years 2025-2027 and 2031 forward.Additionally,inward FDI and technology advancements would almost certainly result in a rise in carbon emissions over time.Green industrial transitions are projected to result in a ten-year reduction in carbon emissions.The variance decomposi-tion analysis indicates that eco-friendly industrial adaptations would likely have the largest variance error shock on carbon emissions(11.747%),followed by inbound FDI,technological advancements,and regulatory changes,with R&D spending having a minimal impact over time.Pakistan’s economy should foster a green industrial revolution to avoid pollution and increase environmental sustainability to meet its environmental goals.

Technological innovation paths toward green industry in China

With the environmental carrying capacity reaching its limits and the decreasing margin benefits of traditional production factors, the green transformation and green development through technological innovations has been a major direction for the future development of Chinese industries. However, the characteristics and heterogeneities of various types of industries call for different approaches regarding technological innovations. How to choose the most effective mode of technological innovation according to the characteristics of a certain industry has been a key issue. This paper measures the green total factor productivity of 32 industrial trades using the Slacks Based Measure(SBM)-DDF method. The effects of three innovation modes in the green transformation of industrial industry, including the independent innovation(Ⅱ), the technology introduction(TI), and the government support(GS), are empirically analyzed based on industry heterogeneity. Results indicate that the green total factor productivities of different industries show significant differences if taking into account the energy input and the undesirable output of pollutant emissions. The green total factor productivities of traditional high input,high pollution, and high energy consumption industrial trades were significantly lower than those with obvious green features. The year of 2009 is a leap year for the industrial green transformation in China. For resource-intensive industries, the II and the GS are the important ways to achieve green transformation. For labor-intensive industries, the TI is the best path to achieve green transformation, while for technology-intensive industries, the II is the primary driving force for the promotion of green developments. In addition, the innovation-compensating effect of the current Chinese environmental regulations to the resource-intensive industries has been revealed. Improving the overall scale and the industrial concentration of the industries is also beneficial for the green transformation of the industries.

Have Industrial Robots Improved Pollution Reduction?A Theoretical Approach and Empirical Analysis

To investigate whether industrial robots have improved the ecological environment,this study integrated the adoption of robot technology and pollution abatement into Melitz's heterogeneous firm model.This showed that using robots in production can lower firms'pollution intensity by increasing their abatement investments,and this reduction effect is greater for higher polluting firms and those subject to weaker local environmental regulations.These theoretical expectations were then confirmed through a series of empirical investigations based on Bartik instrument regressions,with multiple robustness checks as well as heterogeneity and mechanism analyses.This paper adds to the literature on the relationships between automation technologies and green transformation.It shows that in the pursuit of economic growth and environmental protection,it is necessary for policymakers to shift from pollution control to technical support for traditional manufacturing firms.