Does shipping development affect the level of renewable energy development? evidence from China’s coastal regions

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:The panel data methodology and mechanism analysis offer a framework for studying infrastructure-energy linkages in other regions or with other renewables.

🏢実務担当者:Coastal logistics firms and renewable energy developers can use these findings to advocate for integrated infrastructure planning and policy support.

🏛政策担当者:The results support coordinating shipping development with renewable energy targets, suggesting policy integration for carbon neutrality goals.

Introduction Against the backdrop of the accelerating global energy transition and the urgent need to address climate change, China, as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, bears major responsibility for achieving its carbon peaking target by 2030 and carbon neutrality target by 2060. In this context, accelerating the development of renewable energy has become a crucial pathway toward sustainable development. Evaluating the impact of transportation infrastructure, particularly shipping development, on renewable energy development is therefore of important practical significance for achieving sustainable development goals. Methods Using panel data for 11 coastal provinces in China from 2013 to 2023, this study employs a two-way fixed effects model, mechanism analysis, and the System GMM approach to examine the impact of shipping development on the level of renewable energy development and its underlying mechanisms. Results The results show that, first, the level of shipping development in China’s coastal regions exhibited an overall fluctuating upward trend, while the regional stratification pattern remained relatively stable. Second, the baseline regression results indicate that shipping development significantly promotes renewable energy development. Third, the mechanism analysis reveals that shipping development mainly enhances renewable energy development indirectly through two channels: promoting industrial structure upgrading and facilitating technological progress. Fourth, the System GMM estimates further confirm the robustness of the above findings and suggest that renewable energy development exhibits significant dynamic inertia. Discussion This study enriches the research perspective on the relationship between transportation infrastructure and energy transition to some extent and provides empirical evidence as well as policy implications for coordinating high-quality shipping development and clean energy deployment in China’s coastal regions.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2026.1846985first seen 2026-07-04 05:03:16