Engine or drag: Can high energy consumption and CO2 emission drive the sustainable development of Chinese industry?

To analyze China industrial sustainable development featured with high energy consumption and high CO2 emission, this paper constructs the input and output panel data of China's 38 sub-industries, estimates their productivity and carries out the green growth accounting based on translog production function. This paper concludes that, as a whole, China industry has achieved the transformation from extensive to intensive growth, with the productivity to be the first driving force, that is necessary to sustainable development in the long run. In addition to technical progress, energy and capital have also been driving the industrial growth during the sample period, while labor and emission made less even negative contribution to it. Some heavy industries, however, are still characterized by extensive growth and must improve their energy-save and emission-abate technology to favor the sustainable development of overall Chinese industry.