Exploring the mechanisms affecting energy consumption in the construction industry using an integrated theoretical framework: Evidence from the Yangtze River economic Belt

Significant environmental challenges remain due to growing construction industry energy consumption (CIEC). Most existing studies focus on energy consumption at the city level, neglecting industry-level perspectives. To clearly explain the CIEC mechanism in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), this study adopts panel data from the YREB collected by the Chinese government from 2004 to 2020 and constructs an analytical model of the CIEC impact mechanism. Through Granger causality, impulse response function, and variance decomposition analyses, we found that technological innovation has an inverted U-shape and the greatest impact on CIEC, with a contribution rate gradually increasing with the cycle, finally reaching 0.4 %. The impact of urban development and foreign direct investment on CIEC shows a gradual upward trend, with a final contribution rate of 0.3 %; and the impact of urban resident population on CIEC is very small, with a contribution rate of only 0.1 %. Therefore, this study provides a new theoretical framework for future research on energy consumption and a theoretical basis for CIEC management from a government and construction industry manager perspectives.