Is green technology vertical spillovers more significant in mitigating carbon intensity? Evidence from Chinese industries

Green technology is a crucial way to achieve energy conservation, emission reduction and economic growth. Most of the previous literature has studied the influence of green technology on carbon emission from the regional perspective. This paper discusses the direct role in terms of industry of seven green technologies under the International Patent Classification (IPC) Green Inventory classification standard on the reduction of carbon intensity and the indirect impact of technology vertical spillovers generated by transmission via the intermediate input products channel on carbon intensity. Based on empirical research that was conducted by adopting an improved regression on the population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT) model using the panel data of 17 categories of industries in China from 2000 to 2015, the indirect effect was more significant than the direct result, as every green technology innovation level and technology spillover capacity was increased by 1%, the carbon intensity reduced by 0.1303% and 0.1558%, respectively. Energy conservation technology played a direct role in the reduction of carbon intensity and achieved the best results, and its impact was 1.76 times that of waste management technology, which had the weakest effect. Transportation emission reduction technology played an indirect role in the reduction of carbon emission intensity and achieved the best results; its impact was 2.13 times the average value of all types of technology spillover effects. Finally, the paper analyzes seven types of green technology spillover capacities and the heterogeneity in the reduction of carbon intensity efficiency and provides some relevant policy suggestions.