Assessing the role of emerging green technology transfer in sustainable development and identification of key regions in Yangtze River Delta region

Green innovation technology transfer (GITT) has become an essential means to realizing regional sustainable development due to its dual attributes in economy and society. To better understand GITT's importance and mechanism in regional sustainable development, we propose new evidence on its significance at the city-regional scale based on green innovation technology patent transfer data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), involving 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2012 to 2020. We find that the Yangtze River Delta's global GITT network has become increasingly dense, moving from existing only within single cities or among geographically adjacent cities to a jump-type interactive cooperation network structure. The hierarchical network structure is broken, the direct paths connecting cities are increasing, redundant connections are being reduced, and the network is increasingly stable and flat. The core cities have been upgraded from a closed-door in-city state to stronger and more open external connections and internal sources. We also find that the development of staged outreach of green technology is key to the region's sustainable development.