Can low-carbon energy technology lead to energy resource carrying capacity improvement? The case of China

Energy resource carrying capacity serves as a crucial yardstick for assessing the sustainability of energy systems. To explore to what extent and how low-carbon energy technology affects energy resource carrying capacity, this study first calculates the level of low-carbon energy technology and energy resource carrying capacity in China for the period 2000–2019, and then employs the instrumental variable generalized method of moments (IV-GMM) model to investigate the marginal impact of low-carbon energy technology on energy resource carrying capacity. We also explore their asymmetric, direct, as well as indirect nexus. We find that (1) low-carbon energy technology presents benefits to the energy resource carrying capacity improvement, which indicates their positive nexus. (2) Low-carbon energy technology has a diminishing marginal effect on energy resource carrying capacity as the level of energy resource carrying capacity increases, which implies their asymmetric nexus. (3) Low-carbon energy technology has significant promotion effects on socioeconomic development, energy capacity, and environment capacity, which are three dimensions of energy resource carrying capacity. (4) Energy transition and energy efficiency are two positive mediators in the impact of low-carbon energy technology on energy resource carrying capacity. Several targeted policy implications are proposed based on the above findings.