Politická ekonomie X:X | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.1549

How green innovation shapes the low-carbon transition of the energy structure

Xiaoyan Wen, Tao Li
School of Marxism, Longdong University, Qingyang, Gansu, China

Guided by the national “dual carbon” goals, green innovation has become a critical driver of the low-carbon transformation of energy systems. This study employs provincial panel data from China covering the period 2011–2022 and adopts a two-way fixed effects model for regression analysis. It further incorporates mediation effects, moderation effects, and quantile regression methods to examine how green innovation influences the low-carbon transformation of the energy structure. The results show that green innovation significantly promotes the optimization of the energy structure, and its effects vary notably across different levels of decarbonization, industrial structures, policy environments, and regional development conditions.

Keywords: low-carbon transformation of the energy structure; green innovation; industrial upgrading; governmental environmental attention

Received: May 30, 2025; Revised: September 23, 2025; Accepted: January 19, 2026; Prepublished online: March 18, 2026 

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