94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Atmospheric Science
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1546703
The Impact of New Quality Productivity on Carbon Emission Intensity: Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted- 1Chongqing Jiaotong University, Nan'an District, China
- 2Chongqing Technology and Business Institute, Chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The new quality productivity, which integrates the concepts of technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and green development, plays a pivotal role in achieving carbon emission reduction targets. Given that current research on the relationship between new quality productivity and carbon emission intensity remains limited, in order to delve into the impact of new quality productivity on carbon emission intensity, its underlying mechanisms, as well as its heterogeneous performance across different regions and city types, we select panel data from 251 Chinese cities spanning from 2010 to 2021 and conduct an empirical analysis using a panel data two-way fixed-effects model. The research findings reveal that new quality productivity can significantly reduce carbon emission intensity. Further analysis demonstrates that new quality productivity can achieve a reduction in carbon emission intensity by enhancing urban innovation levels and the intensity of government environmental regulations. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that, compared with other regions, the inhibitory effect of new quality productivity on carbon emission intensity is more pronounced in the western regions and non-resource-based city samples. This study not only enriches the relevant theories on the relationship between new quality productivity and carbon emissions but also provides a crucial basis for governments to formulate targeted carbon emission reduction policies. Based on this, this paper proposes that investment in areas related to new quality productivity should be increased, technological innovation and industrial upgrading should be promoted, and government environmental regulations should be strengthened. Particular attention should be paid to the development of the western regions and non-resource-based cities to give full play to the role of new quality productivity in carbon emission reduction.
Keywords: New Quality Productivity, Carbon emission intensity, carbon emission, Carbon reduction, Urban innovation
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, He and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiangke Zhang, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Nan'an District, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.