Environmental policies and Environmentally biased technological advances have important theoretical value and practical significance for air pollution reduction and green economic development in China. The article is based on panel data for 270 cities in China from 2007 to 2020. Using a Spatial model, the direct, spillover and moderating effects of Environmentally biased technological progress on “local-neighbourhood” urban air pollution are examined empirically. On this basis, the PSTR model is used to further explore the non-linear effects of different types of environmental regulations. The study found that: 1) There is a significant positive spatial correlation between both air pollution and Environmentally biased technological progress in China. Environmentally biased technological progress significantly suppresses air pollution, with significant spatial spillover effects, and the conclusions remain robust after a series of robustness tests. 2) Different types of environmental regulations reinforce the dampening effect of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution. However, informal environmental regulation only reinforces the dampening effect of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution in the local cities. 3) There is a significant threshold effect of environmental regulation on the impact of Environmentally biased technological progress on air pollution. When the level of environmental regulation within a certain threshold interval, Environmentally biased technological progress has a dampening effect on air pollution. 4) The more eastern the city, the larger the city and the non-resource-based cities, the more significant the air pollution suppression effect of Environmentally biased technological advances. Based on this, this study points out that governments at all levels should pay attention to the spatial spillover effect of technological progress bias on air pollution, deepen the construction of joint prevention and control mechanisms for regional air pollution control; Establish multiple environmental regulation policies, formulate and implement environmental regulation policies according to local conditions and local technological progress bias; Formulate targeted environmental regulation policies and technological innovation policies according to the characteristics of different cities. It is an important theoretical reference to help China to fight the battle against air pollution in-depth and to promote further improvement of ecological and environmental quality.

The urban green transformation is the basis for the green development of China’s economy, and the reduction of income inequality between urban and rural areas is necessary to ensure stable economic growth. Therefore, ensuring green and sustainable economic development, while taking into account social equity, is of practical importance for China to achieve comprehensive high-quality development. This paper constructs a spatial Durbin model and a mediating-effects model to examine the spatial effect of urban green transformation on the urban-rural income gap (URG) and its mechanism of action based on panel data of 265 cities in China from 2006 to 2018. It also divides cities by geographical location and urban population size to further investigate the heterogeneity of the impact of the urban green transition on URG. The study found that (1) there is a significant positive spatial correlation for the URG in China, and the urban green transition can reduce the URG, and the results of the study remain reliable after a series of robustness tests. (2) Urban green transformation can reduce the URG through technological innovation effects and digital effects. (3) Urban green transformation significantly reduced the URG in eastern regions and cities of considerable size and above and had no significant impact on the URG in other cities. The study results demonstrate the possibility of reconciling urban and rural economic development and environmental friendliness at the same time.