Energy endowment, industrial structure upgrading, and CO2 emissions in China: Revisiting resource curse in the context of carbon emissions

The green transformation of energy-rich areas plays a crucial role in the process of low-carbon sustainable development. It is necessary to integrate energy endowment, industrial structure upgrading and carbon emissions into the same research framework for comprehensive analysis. Using panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2017, this study uses the spatial Durbin model to investigate the effects of energy endowment and industrial structure upgrading on carbon emissions. According to the empirical results, energy endowment has significantly promoted carbon emissions, and the phenomenon of ‘resource curse’ exists in the context of carbon emissions from a provincial perspective. Energy-dependent industrial structure is positively correlated with carbon emissions, which has a partial mediating effect on the influence of energy endowment on carbon emissions. In addition, the upgrading of industrial production factors and industrial level all have a negative moderating effect on the impact of energy endowment on energy-dependent industrial structure, which indirectly reducing carbon emissions. Furthermore, given the obvious regional differences in China's energy endowment and industrial structure, the impact of energy endowment on carbon emissions is higher in the eastern and western regions, and the mechanism of mediating effect exists in the eastern and western regions, but not in the central region. Therefore, the efficient use of energy sources and speeding up the industrial structure upgrading are crucial measures to reduce carbon emissions in energy-rich areas. The findings enrich ‘resource curse’ theory in the environmental field, and provide theoretical guidance for building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. •Integrating energy endowment, industrial structure upgrading and carbon emissions into the same research framework.•Energy endowment contributes significantly to the growth of carbon emissions.•Revisiting resource curse in the context of carbon emissions in China.•The moderated mediating mechanism model of the environmental resource curse is constructed.•The findings enrich ‘resource curse’ theory in the environmental field.