Existing research has focused mainly on the technological effects of rigid constraints such as low-carbon policies, but there has been little exploration of flexible constraints such as the government’s low-carbon concerns. To explore the role of flexible low-carbon constraints and effective paths for achieving low-carbon development, this paper theoretically and empirically investigates the influence of the government’s low-carbon concerns on local firms’ innovation in renewable energy technology and the underlying mechanism. Benchmark analysis shows that the government’s low-carbon concerns can improve renewable energy technology among firms in an area. Mechanism analysis reveals that low-carbon concerns promote firms’ renewable energy technology adoption by increasing the amount of research and development (R&D) investment and government subsidies and energy use costs of firms in the area. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that heterogeneity exists across technologies, firms, industries and locations in terms of the incentive impact of the government’s low-carbon concerns on the level of renewable energy technology innovation. Extensive analysis indicates that the government’s low-carbon concerns have a long-term incentive impact on the renewable energy technology of local firms and a positive demonstration impact on the renewable energy technology of neighboring firms. This study is helpful in that it explores the major driving factors behind the creation of a low-carbon economy and the achievement of climate targets.

现有研究主要集中在低碳政策等刚性约束的技术效应上，而对政府低碳关切等柔性约束的探索较少。为了探讨灵活的低碳约束的作用和实现低碳发展的有效路径，本文从理论上和实证上研究了政府的低碳关注对本土企业可再生能源技术创新的影响及其潜在机制。基准分析表明，政府的低碳关注可以提高一个地区企业的可再生能源技术。机制分析表明，低碳关注通过增加该地区企业的研发（R&D）投资、政府补贴和能源使用成本来促进企业采用可再生能源技术。异质性分析表明，政府低碳关注对可再生能源技术创新水平的激励影响存在技术、企业、行业和地点的异质性。广泛分析表明，政府的低碳关注对当地企业的可再生能源技术具有长期激励作用，对邻近企业的可再生能源技术具有积极的示范影响。这项研究的有益之处在于它探讨了创建低碳经济和实现气候目标背后的主要驱动因素。