Can Green-Technology Innovation Reduce Atmospheric Environmental Pollution?

Abstract

Rapid economic growth leads to such problems as resource scarcity and environmental degradation. Local governments successively take measures such as technological innovation to solve atmospheric environmental pollution; however, technological innovation fails to fundamentally alleviate atmospheric environmental pollution. Therefore, local governments come to realize the importance of green-technology innovation, which means an inevitable choice for various countries in the world to seek long-term development and win competitive advantage. Under such circumstances, this paper chooses the panel data of 30 provinces and regions in China from 2005 to 2018, takes environmental regulation as the threshold variable, and empirically analyzes the relationship between green-technology innovation and atmospheric environmental pollution by constructing a Spatial Measurement Model and Panel Regression Model. As evinced, green-technology innovation has a significant inhibitory effect and a spatial spillover effect on atmospheric environmental pollution. When environmental regulation reaches a level of intensity, green-technology innovation can effectively curb atmospheric environmental pollution. Accordingly, relevant parties should strengthen green-technology innovation, coordinate the development of the governance system of green-technology innovation, establish a joint prevention and control mechanism, increase the investment in green technology research and development, and augment the role of green-technology innovation.

Keywords

• green-technology innovation
• atmospheric environmental pollution
• spatial spillover effect
• threshold characteristic