Does intellectual property rights protection help reduce carbon emissions?

Our study examines the relationship between intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) and carbon emissions (CE) using an unbalanced panel data set from 116 countries spanning 2008–2020. The analysis reveals a positive relationship between IPRP and CE. Mechanism tests and nonlinear analysis further elucidate this relationship. The mediation effect results indicated that IPRP indirectly fostered CE growth by inhibiting energy structure’s improvement, demonstrating that IPRP exacerbated the dependence on traditional high-carbon energy sources, hindering the transition to cleaner, more efficient energy systems. The analysis also revealed that IPRP indirectly promoted the increase of CE by promoting technological progress and economic growth. The moderation effect results suggest that political stability could mitigate the positive impact of IPRP on CE. Furthermore, the analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between IPRP and CE, indicating that while IPRP promotes an increase in CE in the initial stages, its intensification suppresses CE growth beyond a turning point. Hence, our study provides new theoretical and empirical evidence to understand the complex relationship between IPRP and CE. It also offers policy recommendations for effectively integrating global carbon reduction efforts with intellectual property policies.