Research On The Impact Of Digital Economy Development On Regional Carbon Emissions

Since the 21 st century,global carbon emissions have shown rapid growth,with a growth rate of more than 40%.According to the International Energy Agency,Global energy carbon emissions rose 0.9% to a record 36.8 billion tons in 2022.At present,carbon emission has become an important proposition facing all countries in the world,covering economic,political,environmental and other aspects,and is related to the development of a community with a shared future for mankind.At the UN General Assembly in September 2020,China put forward the "30·60" carbon peak and carbon neutrality vision,and incorporated the "dual carbon" goal into the 14 th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social and Economic Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Outline of the 2035 Vision Goals.Compared with the major developed countries which have decoupled economic development and carbon emission,our economic development and carbon emission still maintain a common growing trend.For China’s economy,which is in a critical period of high-quality economic development and transformation,achieving the goal of "dual carbon" means new pressure and challenges.Digital economy is the main way to achieve the goal of "double carbon".As a new economic form,digital economy has become a new economic growth point and the fulcrum of transforming traditional industries.On the one hand,digital economy,based on its new digital technology,penetrates into various industries and provides factor contribution to the realization of the "double carbon" goal.On the other hand,the development of digital industry is increasingly vigorous.With its low energy consumption,low emissions and other characteristics,digital industry has a certain crowding out effect on other high energy consumption industries.At the same time,the digital economy continues to generate new forms of business,create new models,open up new markets and stimulate new demand,reorganize and allocate various factors,improve the efficiency of economic operation,and promote the upgrading and optimization of industrial structure.Industrial structure has an important impact on carbon emissions.Therefore,it is of great significance to clarify the specific path of digital economy affecting carbon emissions and the role of industrial structure in this process.Based on theoretical analysis and empirical test,this paper analyzes the impact of digital economy on carbon emissions.Firstly,the mechanism of digital economy development and carbon emission is analyzed from three aspects: direct effect,intermediary effect and spatial spillover effect,and four research hypotheses are proposed in this paper.Secondly,by building an index system and taking 30 provinces from 2013 to 2020 as research samples,entropy method and carbon emission coefficient method are used to measure the core variables of this paper.The digital economy and carbon emissions are analyzed according to the measurement results.Finally,the fixed effect model,intermediate effect model and spatial Dubin model are constructed for empirical analysis and test.Based on empirical evidence,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)Digital economy and carbon emissions have great differences in temporal and spatial evolution.The development level of digital economy shows the geographical characteristics of east > central > west.The overall carbon emission showed a decreasing trend from east to west.(2)The development of digital economy can effectively inhibit regional carbon emissions and has a positive impact on regional carbon emission reduction.Moreover,with the increase of carbon emission loci,the impact of digital economy on carbon emissions becomes weaker.(3)Industrial structure upgrading plays a significant mediating role in the process of digital economy affecting carbon emissions.(4)The development of digital economy has significant spatial spillover effect on carbon emissions.There is strong spatial autocorrelation between carbon emission and digital economy between regions,and the interaction between regions is greater.Based on the above research,this paper puts forward policy suggestions for completing the "double carbon" goal:(1)Promote the development and expansion of the digital economy in an all-round way and give full play to the lowering carbon effect of the digital economy.All regions should speed up the construction of new infrastructure and support R&D and innovation in key technologies.(2)Under the background of digitalization,further optimize the industrial structure and give full play to the "booster" role of industrial structure upgrading in the process of digital economy affecting carbon emissions.We will accelerate the integration and symbiosis of the digital economy and the real economy,constantly promote industrial digitization and digital industrialization,and penetrate the digital economy into various industries in different ways.(3)Based on regional resource endowment and economic structure,taking into account regional differences,and continuously deepening the process of digital economy and carbon emission according to local conditions.Different regions are encouraged to formulate digital economy development plans with local characteristics in light of their own conditions,so as to improve the efficiency of digital economy in helping carbon emission reduction.(4)Strengthen the leading,demonstration and radiating role of developed regions,and give full play to the spatial spillover effect of digital economy.The digital economy has blurred the spatial constraints in the development process of different regions and facilitated exchanges and cooperation between different regions.The sharing effect of various production factors and technological innovation between neighboring regions should be brought into full play to build a more efficient linkage of green development.