Will The Digital Economy Help Achieve The “Double Carbon” Target?

In today’s booming digital economy,China’s industrialization and urbanization are characterized by excessive energy consumption.China’s economy has entered a new normal.Although China’s economic growth has slowed down,the growth rate is still very fast.Therefore,the energy required for industrialization and urbanization is still growing,which also leads to the long-term pressure of reducing carbon emissions in China.Therefore,an urgent problem is whether the development of the digital economy will reduce carbon dioxide emissions? If the answer is "yes",how does the digital economy promote emission reduction? What is the mechanism? Sorting out the above issues can help us see the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions more clearly,and then on this basis,we can further accelerate the high-quality development of the digital economy and provide positive suggestions to promote carbon peaking and carbon neutralization.Based on this background,the thesis tries to make a comprehensive and detailed study of the inner relations between the digital economy and the carbon emissions from2011 to 2019.On the one hand,this paper analyzes the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions from the theoretical mechanism by Sorting out the achievements of domestic and foreign related fields;On the other hand,this thesis has carried out a systematic and deep research on the problem by means of the two-directional fixed-effect model,empirically test the actual impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions,and analyze whether the upgrading of industrial structure and total factor productivity are one of the impact ways.The research conclusions show that: first,the digital economy can significantly reduce regional carbon dioxide emissions,and the results will not change after the robustness test.Second,the contribution of digital economy development to carbon dioxide emissions varies among regions,While the central and eastern areas had a marked decrease,there was no significant effect in the west.Third,the mechanism analysis shows that the carbon emissions are reduced under the joint effect of digital economy and industrial structure upgrading,and the carbon emissions are reduced under the joint effect of digital economy and total factor productivity.Based on the above research,the suggestions are as follows: First,strengthen the standardized management of digital economy development and guide the green and low-carbon transformation of digital economy;Second,give full play to the technology enabling role of the digital economy,accelerate the digital transformation of the traditional manufacturing industry.In the process of promoting industrial digitalization,the country should adjust the relevant policies of different industries according to the emission reduction effect;Third,optimize and adjust the industrial structure to promote the deep integration of digitalization and greening.On the one hand,we should increase the investment of digital economy in energy conservation and carbon reduction technologies,and on the other hand,improve the construction of China’s carbon trading market;Fourth,adhere to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and promote the establishment of an international carbon emission reduction cooperation mechanism.China should actively promote bilateral or multilateral international climate cooperation and gradually shift from a participant to a leader in global environmental governance.The innovation of this paper is as follows: first,in the research field,this paper brings the development of digital economy and regional carbon emissions into the same research framework,based on the current background of the times,this paper systematically analyzes the role of digital economy in promoting low-carbon development in the region,and considers the upgrading of industrial structure and Total factor productivity as the impact paths of digital economy on carbon emissions.Second,in terms of research object,most of the previous studies on digital economy and carbon emissions focused on provincial data,this paper used 279 prefecture-level city data from 2011 to 2019 for empirical analysis.