The study of environmental-oriented total factor energy efficiency considering pollutants as a non-expected output has attracted wide attention, but few studies have included social welfare into the above framework for analyzing China’s provincial energy ecological efficiency (EEE). In addition, China’s fiscal decentralization and economic competition have created tremendous momentum for economic growth; however, research has been lacking on whether they have improved China’s energy utilization, pollution control and social welfare level. To fill these gaps, by applying the 2000–2016 panel data from 30 provinces and considering the social welfare condition, we use the slacks-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) method to calculate EEE and build empirical model to test the relation between EEE, fiscal decentralization and economic competition. The results reveal that, firstly, in the last 16 years EEE has been getting worse and the situation of the middle and western areas of China are poorer than in the eastern area, with the middle area still deteriorating further. Secondly, economic competition among local governments aggravates the provincial EEE in China, while the high degree of fiscal decentralization in state governments significantly contributes to improve the EEE; and the co-impact of economic competition on EEE has been negatively strengthened against the background of fiscal decentralization. Thirdly, the influence of economic competition on EEE presents a regional difference; economic competition makes the degree of EEE go down in the east and middle regions, while by contrast, economic competition has helped the EEE level in western regions. The conclusions point out that the temporal trend of EEE in various regions of China, and the economic competition actions adopted by most Chinese local governments to enhance their own financial strength, have not improved energy efficiency and pollution control capability, and has reduced the social welfare of the region. Accordingly, policy proposals are that the Chinese government can adjust the fiscal and tax revenue system and preferential tax system of the central government and local governments and curb competition between provincial jurisdictions.

A crucial problem which China faces is how to improve its energy consumption structure. In this paper, a system dynamic model of energy substitution based on energy capital and putty-clay theory is adopted, in order to explore the substitution effect of natural gas on the energy consumption structure transition in China. The results demonstrate that the huge capital stocks of coal and oil capacities effectively delay the progress of natural gas substitution for optimizing the energy structure, resulting in a limited effect of natural gas substitution in the short term and a large cumulative effect in the long term. Further scenario analyses indicate that natural gas subsidies and carbon price policies have positive effects on the growth of natural gas consumption and the optimization of the energy structure. We also found that a higher pressure of safety supply may emerge to meet the demand for energy consumption in the energy transition. Recommendations are given for improving the energy consumption structure in China from three aspects: allocating capital investment to natural gas, reducing the transition cost between natural gas and other energy sources, and awareness of the systemic risks in energy consumption.

Existing research has insufficiently explored the nexus between the new energy industry and CO₂ emissions from the standpoint of export sophistication. This study analyses the implications of the new energy industry’s export sophistication on CO₂ emissions, regional heterogeneity, and its influencing mechanism by gathering data from 31 major economies throughout the world between 1996 and 2021. The study found that the new energy industry’s export sophistication helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and this conclusion still holds after robustness testing; the carbon emission reduction effect of the export sophistication of the new energy industry is more significant in developed countries than in developing countries; the new energy industry’s export sophistication possesses a crowding-out effect on domestic technological progress, which to a certain extent impedes carbon reduction effect. This paper’s findings provide theoretical guidance for the global low-carbon energy transition.

As an important means of regulating pollution emissions, environmental regulation is crucial for reducing urban PM2.5. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the emission reduction effect of formal environmental regulations and neglected the role played by informal environmental regulations represented by environmental information disclosure. We employed a multiperiod difference-in-differences (DID) model to assess the effectiveness of EID policies in mitigating PM2.5 emissions and to investigate their abatement mechanism by focusing on green innovation and industrial structure. The findings indicate that the implementation of EID policies significantly reduces PM2.5 emissions. Mechanism tests reveal that EID promotes PM2.5 reductions by fostering green innovation and upgrading industrial structure. In addition, the impact of EID policy is more marked in resource-based cities and those located in interior regions. This study contributes to the reduction in urban haze emissions in China, offering empirical evidence and policy recommendations for the further implementation of environmental information disclosure.