Research on Straw-Based High-Quality Energy in China under the Background of Carbon Neutrality

It is imperative to use clean energy in order to achieve “carbon neutrality” and “carbon peaking”. This research aims to explore the impact of the agricultural mechanization level, the rural infrastructure construction level, and the rural economic development level on the utilization of high-quality straw energy, and, resultingly, this study aims to help provide suggestions for promoting high-quality straw energy utilization, develop the potential of high-quality straw energy, and alleviate China’s energy shortage problem. This paper develops a measurement model using the ridge regression model with panel fixed effects, which overcomes the multi-collinearity problem among the various factors influencing the utilization of high-quality energy from straw. Panel data from 24 provinces and cities, from 2009 to 2017, are used. The results show that the improvements of the agricultural mechanization level, the rural infrastructure construction level, and the rural economic development level all promote the use of high-quality straw energy. Moreover, the level of rural economic development plays a mediating role in the agricultural mechanization level and the rural infrastructure construction level pertaining to straw-based high-quality energy. Policy implications can be easy to derive based on our findings, and these include strengthening governmental investment in agricultural machinery in rural areas, paying more attention to areas with backward rural energy infrastructure construction, ensuring the steady improvement of economic development in rural areas, providing the necessary economic foundation for agricultural supply, and promoting the use of high-quality energy from straw