How to coordinate the relationship between energy consumption’s structure transformation and green economic development: From the perspective of technological advancement
Authors: Xie Fangming , Liu Yali , Guan Fangyuan , Wang Ning 
Published: January 2020

Background: Green economic development refers to reducing pollution emissions and increasing production efficiency while promoting economic growth. Although the transformation of energy consumption’s structure is “green," it may not promote green economic development due to the constraints of existing technical conditions. Thus, the development and use of renewable energy may be detrimental to production efficiency and economic growth. Therefore, the technological advancement approach that can help coordinate the relationship between energy consumption structural transformation and green growth should be identified. In addition, we should determine whether to develop new technologies or improve existing ones. Results: This paper uses the Global-Malmquist-Luenberger approach based on Slacks-Based Measure method to measure the levels of green economic development among the 27 member states of the European Union (excluding the Republic of Malta). Moreover, this study focuses on the impact of energy consumption’s structure transformation on green economic development through the threshold regression method. Empirical results reveal (1) the inverted N-shaped relationship between energy consumption’s structure transformation and green economic development under the existing technical conditions. The degree of energy consumption’s structure transformation can merely promote green economic development in the interval of 0.67–10.87. That is, the renewable energy consumption (% of total energy consumption) is less than 0.67% or greater than 10.87%, which is not conducive to green economic development. (2) Developing new technologies can stimulate the positive effect of energy consumption’s structure transformation on green economic development. However, the improvement of existing technologies fail to exhibit an effective impact on the relationship between energy consumption’s structure transformation and green economic development. (3) Coordinating the relationship between energy consumption’s structure transformation and green economic development can also be achieved by reducing the dependence of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on fossil fuels. Conclusions: With the existing technical conditions, the blind development and use of renewable energy may not be conducive to green economic development. When the degree of energy consumption’s structure transformation exceeds an appropriate range, it will adversely affect green economic development. Therefore, in order to better coordinate the relationship between energy consumption’s structure transformation and green economic development, European Union member states, especially those with a high degree of energy consumption’s structure transformation, should paid more attention to develop new energy technologies rather than improve existing ones. In addition, to mediate the transformation of energy consumption’s structure that promotes green economic development, we must prioritize and adjust the industrial structure and rationally allocate resources to reduce the GDP’s on fossil energy prior to increasing the intensity of renewable energy consumption.