The bias effect of technical change from the energy-saving and low-carbon environmental regulations in China, Japan, and South Korea

China, Japan, and South Korea are geographically adjacent. As the core powers in Northeast Asia, they have set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the middle of this century. Energy-saving and low-carbon regulations have become vital policy tools for countries to achieve sustainable development. This paper employs ridge regression to estimate the production function from a low-carbon perspective, thereby measuring the bias of technical change. The research findings are as follows. At this stage, concerning the entire economic system, technical change has consistently favored increased energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, this bias has gradually weakened over time. The energy of China, Japan, and South Korea is mainly fossil and relies heavily on imports, and carbon emissions inherently produce negative externalities with extensive and long-term impacts. In the future, energy and carbon deviations at the technological level are key to the long-term and sustainable development of the economic system. The achievement of the "Dual Carbon" goals in China, Japan, and South Korea is inherently dependent on energy conservation and low-carbon technologies from a technological perspective.