The impact of China?s high-quality development of energy on carbon neutrality

This study highlights the significance of high-quality development of energy (EHQD) in achieving carbon neutrality. Researchers have explored how to successfully achieve carbon neutrality, but few studies have examined the impact of the EHQD on carbon neutrality. Accordingly, while considering the high-quality development of China's economy, this study constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for China's EHQD using the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method based on entropy weight to measure the EHQD level of energy in 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2019. Considering the possibility of endogeneities, the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression is applied to empirically analyze the impact of the EHQD on carbon neutrality. Cointegration tests show a long-term cointegration relationship between the EHQD, real GDP per capita, urbanization, traffic pressure, industrial structure, and CO2 emissions (CE). The 2SLS method empirically shows that the EHQD has a significant negative impact on CE. The EHQD can significantly reduce CE, which is conducive for China to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The results of this study indicate that to reduce CE and enable China to successfully achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, policymakers should take effective measures to promote the EHQD.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).