Overall evaluation and regional differences of green transformation: Analysis based on “government-enterprise-resident” three-dimensional participants perspective

Green transformation has become an inevitable choice to realize carbon peaks and carbon neutrality targets, while promoting green transformation index (GTI) requires the joint efforts of the whole society. Therefore, based on China's provincial data from 2006 to 2019, a GTI evaluation indicator system with the framework of three-dimensional participants perspective was constructed. The GTI was measured by using the comprehensive evaluation method of vertical-and-horizontal scatter degree method and global entropy weight -TOPSIS- grey relational analysis method. In addition, the Dagum Gini coefficient and its decomposition, Kernel density estimation and Moran's I methods were used to further analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of regional differences in GTI. The results showed that: (1) In 2006–2019, China's overall and four regions' GTIs showed an overall growth trend, but the growth rate gradually slowed down after 2013. Governments' environmental governance and enterprises' green production dimensions contributed to GTI, while residents' green consumption dimension constrained it. (2) The regional differences in China's GTI were mainly caused by the inter-regional differences, and the contribution rate of inter-regional differences was increasing. The intra-regional differences and inter-regional differences of GTIs in the four regions were all on a decreasing trend. (3) The absolute differences in China's overall and four regions' GTIs were gradually decreasing, gradually forming a stable polarization status of H-H aggregation and L-L aggregation. Among them, the eastern and central regions were H-H aggregation, while the western and northeast regions were L-L aggregation. Finally, recommendations were put forward according to results.