Nonlinear relationship between technological innovation and carbon emission: evidence from maximal information coefficient approach

Abstract

Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction has emerged as a paramount priority, aiming to achieve ‘peak emissions and carbon neutrality’, wherein green innovation assumes a critical role. The existing literature has extensively examined the impact of green innovations on carbon emissions. However, there has been comparatively less emphasis on the nonlinear relationship between technological innovations and carbon emission. This research employs the panel data from 16 districts in Shanghai spanning from 2010 to 2019 to investigate the nonlinear relationship between technological innovation and carbon emissions. The primary objective of our research is to examine the applicability of the maximum information coefficient method within an environmental context. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that patent applications, patent citations, and patent grants exhibit feature importance scores of 0.55, 0.53, and 0.52, respectively, according to the random forest regression results. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers committed to achieving carbon neutrality of China.