Study On The Impact Of Science And Technology Innovation On Carbon Emission Intensity In Yangtze River Economic Zone

"Actively and steadily promoting carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" is an important issue raised in the report of the 20 th Party Congress.The Party’s Central Committee,with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core,is deeply aware of the importance of the dual-carbon target and has taken comprehensive and effective measures to co-ordinate the overall situation at home and abroad,providing a solid foundation for achieving the carbon reduction target.At present,the world is facing the problem of climate change.In this context,green and low-carbon development has formed a general global consensus,and all countries in the world are actively working on carbon emission reduction.China,as a responsible power,has conducted a series of studies and made a solemn commitment at the United Nations conference,proposing to strive to reach carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.On this basis,China faces a serious challenge in terms of carbon emission reduction pressure.In recent years,the Yangtze River Economic Belt has gradually been elevated to a relatively high-level and important strategic region for China’s economic and social development in general,while the upper,middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are in the western,central and eastern parts of China’s territory respectively,and the provinces and cities covered are typical and representative in each region.At the same time,the Yangtze River Economic Zone accounts for 46.9% of the national economic development,49.9% of the number of patent applications granted,and consumes 37.5%of the national carbon emissions,resulting in a high level of overall technological innovation and low carbon emissions intensity.Nevertheless,the total carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region are still increasing.Therefore,this paper analyses and studies the impact of the level of science and technology innovation on carbon emissions intensity and its spatial effects,which has certain theoretical and practical significance for promoting the low-carbon development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt region and successfully achieving the double carbon goal.Based on data related to the level of science and technology innovation and total carbon emissions of 108 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region from 2006 to 2020,this paper analyses the development status of the level of science and technology innovation and carbon emissions in the region from the provincial to the municipal level,conducts relevant theoretical analysis and makes hypotheses.In the empirical analysis,firstly,a benchmark regression model is constructed to introduce a quadratic term for the level of science and technology innovation to verify that the impact of the level of science and technology innovation on carbon emission intensity has an inverted U-shaped non-linear relationship;secondly,industrial structure upgrading is introduced as a mediating variable,and a stepwise regression analysis method is applied to construct a mediating effect model,which finds that science and technology innovation can promote industrial structure upgrading,and science and technology innovation can have an indirect effect on carbon emission intensity through industrial structure upgrading.Finally,a global and local spatial autocorrelation test was conducted on the carbon emission intensity and the level of science and technology innovation in the Yangtze River Economic Zone.The LM test,Hausman test and Wald test were then used to determine that the spatial panel Durbin model was used to carry out the empirical analysis of spatial effects.After the above empirical analysis,the following main conclusions were obtained: Firstly,there is a significant non-linear inverted U-shaped relationship between the impact of the level of science and technology innovation on carbon emission intensity.Secondly,science and technology innovation can effectively promote the upgrading of industrial structure,boost the promotion and application of technology level,and thus promote the reduction of carbon emission intensity.Thirdly,the level of technological innovation has a significant spatial dependence on the reduction of carbon emission intensity,and the increase in the level of technological innovation in the region has a significant contribution to the reduction of carbon emission intensity in the region,while it shows a certain inhibitory effect on the reduction of carbon emission intensity in neighbouring regions.Based on the results of the empirical analysis,this paper proposes policy recommendations from the perspectives of strengthening the level of science and technology innovation and accelerating the upgrading and transformation of industrial structure.