LAUSR

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the role of regional technology transfer in reducing carbon dioxide emissions in China. By collecting a panel data of 150 observations from 30 regions of mainland China during 2006–2010, this paper extends the STIRPAT model to explore the relationship between intraand inter-regional technology transfer and CO2 emission intensity, and meanwhile compares the effects of energy and environmental technologies in different regions of China. The results show that, in the national level, only intra-regional transfer of energy technologies can significantly reduce the CO2 emission intensity. When it comes to the regional level, intra-regional transfer of energy technologies has a negative influence on CO2 emissions in the eastern and western regions. In contrast, intra-regional transfer of environmental technologies negatively affects CO2 emissions in the central regions, and even leads to a significant increase of CO2 emissions in the eastern regions. However, neither inter-regional transfer of energy technologies nor inter-regional transfer of environmental technologies has significant effect on CO2 emissions reduction in China. Our findings reveal the critical role of intraregional rather than inter-regional technology transfer, and also energy technologies rather than environmental technologies in reducing CO2 emissions, which has important implications for future environmental policy-making in China.