Revisiting the synergistic governance efficiency of industrial pollution and carbon emissions reduction from the perspective of eight comprehensive economic regions in China

Promoting synergistic governance efficiency of industrial pollution and carbon emissions reduction (SGEIPCER) is imperative for achieving industrial green transformation. Based on the industrial input-output data, this study employs the super-efficiency SBM and GML index to reveal the temporal evolution trend of SGEIPCER in China. Meanwhile, spatial differences and convergence are analyzed from the perspective of eight comprehensive economic regions. The results show that the SGEIPCER increases significantly at the national level, with an average annual growth rate of 3.30 %. However, it has remained below 0.4, suggesting notable efficiency loss. Except for Northeast China (NEC) and Northwest China (NWC), the SGEIPCER in other regions shows a fluctuating growth trend during 2011–2023, driven primarily by technological efficiency. Although NWC has a negative annual growth rate (−11.20 %), it has the highest average efficiency at 0.392, approximately 1.5 times that of the second-ranked middle region of the Yellow River. The average overall Gini coefficient is 0.469, revealing significant spatial regional differences. Cross-regional differences and the intensity of trans variation (i.e., the contribution from overlaps in the SGEIPCER distributions between regions) emerge as the primary sources of spatial variation, with average contribution rates of 43.65 % and 44.50 %, respectively. Further, σ convergence is observed in the NEC, NWC, Eastern Coastal Area (ECA), and Southern Coastal Area. All regions except ECA exhibit significant β convergence. However, the middle region of the Yangtze River shows the strongest spatial β convergence. Under the combined influence of external factors, the convergence speed has significantly accelerated, from 5.8 % to 6.4 %.