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Accelerating the comprehensive green transition of China's socioeconomic development model constitutes a pivotal national strategy. The circular economy (CE), as a paradigm that reconciles economic growth with environmental protection, is central to this transformation. Utilizing panel data from 31 Chinese provinces over the 2005-2021 period, this study employs the generalized method of moments (GMM) to address endogeneity concerns and empirically investigates the impact of CE on exhaustible resource extraction (ERE). The research results indicate that improvements in energy utilization efficiency and waste comprehensive utilization rate are key circular economy-related mechanisms for reducing ERE. However, the analysis reveals significant regional heterogeneity in these effects across eastern, central, and western China. Furthermore, a comparison based on compound growth rates yields a critical finding: the resource savings attributable to socioeconomic transformation are approximately 9.6 times greater than those achieved through CE-related mechanisms. This underscores that achieving sustainable resource management requires not only promoting environmental initiatives but also fostering a fundamental transformation in consumption patterns and economic structures.
Zhu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.