green total factor productivity

economic agglomeration

kernel density estimation

green technology innovation

Environmental management

Policies for economically sustainable development

Policies for socially sustainable development

Policies for environmentally sustainable development

Stimulation of green transformation is of great significance for central government in order to realize high-quality development in China. Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is evaluated among provinces during 2000~2017 to indicate their trends and find out their key driving factors. Results are as follows: First, Chinese green transformation performance turns better as GTFP grows slightly in the research period in a whole. Technical progress is the most contributor source and technical efficiency is in the second order. Second, provincial green transformation performances obey typical ‘one-peak’ distribution curve. Its peak point moves to the right and downward directions from the horizontal and vertical axis. Third, as parameter results of the dynamic panel data econometric model, economic agglomeration leads to positive effects on GTFPs significantly. Enlarging economic agglomeration is an important development potential to accelerate green transformation performance. Meanwhile, regional heterogeneity among eastern, central and western in China should be considered in details to comprehensively this transformation process. For eastern region, making the full use of its significant advantages in R&D environment, endowment and achievement accumulation should be the best choice while for the central and western regions, absorbing from eastern or foreign technology may be more economic. The coordinated development of different regions will release more development opportunities for China in the future.