Financial technology, industrial ecology and energy efficiency.

To achieve peak carbon neutrality, it is necessary to transform energy structures, promote industrial ecology, and enhance energy efficiency. Employing provincial panel data from 2011-2020, we empirically investigate the impact of financial technology on energy efficiency and the role of industrial ecology in the development of financial technology to enhance energy efficiency. The findings reveal that financial technology can significantly enhance energy efficiency and promote it by improving industrial ecology. Furthermore, industrial ecology can act as a crucial channel for financial technology to promote energy efficiency. Specifically, an increase of one standard deviation in financial technology is associated with a 33.1% surge in energy efficiency on average. Financial technology has made a significant contribution to the improvement of energy efficiency in all regions, albeit with regional heterogeneity. Under different threshold variables, financial technology exerts a facilitating effect on the enhancement of energy efficiency; the impact of financial technology on energy efficiency remains heterogeneous.