Assessing the digital economy and its carbon-mitigation effects: The case of China

With the proposal of China's carbon neutrality target and the accelerated process of digital development, it is necessary for China to explore the prominent role of digital economy in realizing the development of a low-carbon society. Therefore, this study constructs a comprehensive digital economy index of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2017, and estimates the relationship between the digital economy and CO2 emissions by using the system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) technique. The results indicate that (1) the digital economy indexes of the eastern coastal provinces are higher than those in other provinces in China; (2) the digital economy negatively affects CO2 emissions; in other words, an increase in the digital economy index by 1% will cause a decrease in CO2 emissions by 0.886%; (3) in terms of sub-indicators of the digital economy, the infrastructure, innovation and application, and economic growth and jobs of the digital economy also negatively affect CO2 emissions; and (4) the digital economy indirectly reduces CO2 emissions by expanding the economic scale of tertiary industry, reducing the proportion of coal consumption, and promoting green technology innovation. The Chinese government should develop digital infrastructure, increase the scope of digital applications, and serve the low-carbon society in the future.