IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v322y2025ics0360544225011879.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digitization and industrial low-carbon energy transition in China

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Junbing
  • Wang, Yajun
  • Yang, Aiwei
  • Zhou, Hongxu
  • Fan, Chuanqi

Abstract

The transition to low-carbon energy systems is essential for mitigating global warming. Concurrently, the increasing integration of digitalization within industries presents a promising pathway to align economic growth with environmental sustainability. Despite its significance, the impact of the integration of digitalization and industry on the industrial energy transition remains underexplored in existing research. This study introduces an innovative framework based on an input-output model to quantify the integration of digitalization and industry and assess its impact on the low-carbon energy transition across China's 30 provincial regions from 2010 to 2021. Empirical findings indicate that integrating digitalization and industries significantly facilitates the low-carbon energy transition, exhibiting considerable variations among different digitalization sectors. Specifically, the distribution sector exerts a marginally greater influence on energy transition compared to the production and exchange sectors. Additionally, industrial digitalization has a more pronounced effect on energy transition than digital industrialization. Mechanism analysis further identifies two critical pathways through which the integration of digitalization and industry drives energy transition: enhancing the supply capacity of clean energy and raising demand for clean energy. These results highlight the transformative potential of integrating digitalization with industry in achieving clean energy transitions and fostering sustainable economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Junbing & Wang, Yajun & Yang, Aiwei & Zhou, Hongxu & Fan, Chuanqi, 2025. "Digitization and industrial low-carbon energy transition in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:322:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225011879
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.135545
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225011879
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.135545?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    2. Dian, Jie & Song, Tian & Li, Shenglan, 2024. "Facilitating or inhibiting? Spatial effects of the digital economy affecting urban green technology innovation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Sa Xu & Cunyi Yang & Zhehao Huang & Pierre Failler, 2022. "Interaction between Digital Economy and Environmental Pollution: New Evidence from a Spatial Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-23, April.
    4. Dongjing Chen & Xiaotong Guo, 2023. "Impact of the Digital Economy and Financial Development on Residents’ Consumption Upgrading: Evidence from Mainland China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-25, May.
    5. Guan, Weili & Li, Yuming & Liu, Jun & Ullah, Sana & Metawa, Noura, 2024. "How does digital government affect natural resource sustainability? A global perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Yicheng Song & Yuantao Jiang, 2024. "How Does the Digital Economy Drive the Optimization and Upgrading of Industrial Structure? The Mediating Effect of Innovation and the Role of Economic Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Zheng, Mingbo & Wong, Chun Yee, 2024. "The impact of digital economy on renewable energy development in China," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(1).
    8. Wang, Yajun & Huang, Junbing, 2022. "Pathway to develop a low-carbon economy through energy-substitution technology in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PA).
    9. Jinqi Su & Ke Su & Shubin Wang, 2021. "Does the Digital Economy Promote Industrial Structural Upgrading?—A Test of Mediating Effects Based on Heterogeneous Technological Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-24, September.
    10. Luo, Jiahui & Dong, Jingrong & Tan, Zhixiong & Zhang, Haitao & Zhang, Wenqing, 2024. "Relatedness, digital economy and renewable energy product evolution—based on product space perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    11. Yating Zeng & Xinyue Xu & Yuyao Zhao & Bin Li, 2023. "Impact of Digital Economy on the Upgrading of Energy Consumption Structure: Evidence from Mainland China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    12. Jun Mao & Jian-min Liu & Zhiyuan Liu, 2023. "Tax effect of digital economy development in China: The policy effect and transmission mechanism," Journal of Information Economics, Anser Press, vol. 1(1), pages 47-58, January.
    13. Malin Song & Heting Pan & Michael Vardanyan & Zhiyang Shen, 2023. "Evaluating the energy efficiency-enhancing potential of the digital economy: Evidence from China," Post-Print hal-04277444, HAL.
    14. Yang Liu & Yanlin Yang & Huihui Li & Kaiyang Zhong, 2022. "Digital Economy Development, Industrial Structure Upgrading and Green Total Factor Productivity: Empirical Evidence from China’s Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-23, February.
    15. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chen, Mei-Ping & Yuan, Zihao, 2023. "Is information and communication technology a driver for renewable energy?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    16. Zhang, Qi & Wu, Peipei & Li, Rongrong & Chen, Afei, 2024. "Digital transformation and economic growth Efficiency improvement in the Digital media era: Digitalization of industry or Digital industrialization?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 667-677.
    17. Cheng, Shihui & Ma, Wenjing & Luo, Lai & Li, Yunlong, 2023. "Can the development of digital economy improve the quality of regional investment? — Empirical evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 214-221.
    18. Huang, Junbing & Wang, Yajun & Luan, Bingjiang & Zou, Hong & Wang, Jun, 2023. "The energy intensity reduction effect of developing digital economy: Theory and empirical evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    19. Jun Mao & Jianmin Liu & Zhiyuan Liu, 2023. "Tax effect of digital economy development in China: The policy effect and transmission mechanism," Journal of Information Economics, Anser Press, vol. 1(1), pages 47-58, January.
    20. Huang, Junbing & Du, Dan & Tao, Qizhi, 2017. "An analysis of technological factors and energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-9.
    21. Myovella, Godwin & Karacuka, Mehmet & Haucap, Justus, 2020. "Digitalization and economic growth: A comparative analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa and OECD economies," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Łukasz Kuźmiński & Joanna Dynowska & Rafał Nagaj & Sergiy Kozmenko & Tomasz Norek & Marcin Rabe & Andrzej Gawlik & Katarzyna Widera, 2025. "Determinants of Ecological Decisions of Users of Single-Family Houses in Poland in the Field of Energy Generation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-24, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Bo & Wang, Jianda, 2025. "China’s green digital era: How does digital economy enable green economic growth?," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 4(1).
    2. Zheng, Mingbo & Zhang, Xinyu, 2025. "Digitalization and renewable energy development: Analysis based on cross-country panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    3. Xinfeng Chang & Jian Su & Zihe Yang, 2022. "The Effect of Digital Economy on Urban Green Transformation—An Empirical Study Based on the Yangtze River Delta City Cluster in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Jiajun Xu & Jinchao Wang & Xiaojun Yang & Zhida Jin & Yiming Liu, 2024. "Digital Economy and Sustainable Development: Insight From Synergistic Pollution Control and Carbon Reduction," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 20063-20090, December.
    5. Kai Yuan & Biao Hu & Xinlong Li & Tingyun Niu & Liang Zhang, 2023. "Exploration of Coupling Effects in the Digital Economy and Eco-Economic System Resilience in Urban Areas: Case Study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-28, April.
    6. Mei-Rui Zhong & Jia-Yu Fu & Han Zou, 2025. "The data as a production factor: nonlinear effects of factor efficiency on haze pollution," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 8977-9002, April.
    7. Aiqin Zhang & Wenjie Zhang & Xiaoqiang Guo, 2024. "The Digital Economy, Integration of Productive Services and Manufacturing, and High-Quality Development of the Manufacturing Sector: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-22, November.
    8. Ullah, Assad & Dogan, Mesut & Pervaiz, Amber & Ather Bukhari, Azaz Ali & Akkus, Hilmi Tunahan & Dogan, Husna, 2024. "The impact of digitalization, technological and financial innovation on environmental quality in OECD countries: Investigation of N-shaped EKC hypothesis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Yuan Zhao & Tian Zhang & Ting Wu & Shujing Xu & Shuwang Yang, 2021. "Effects of Technological Progress from Different Sources on Haze Pollution in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Dong, Kangyin & Sun, Renjin & Hochman, Gal & Li, Hui, 2018. "Energy intensity and energy conservation potential in China: A regional comparison perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 782-795.
    11. Yunyan Jiang & Feng Deng, 2022. "Multi-Dimensional Threshold Effects of the Digital Economy on Green Economic Growth?—New Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-22, October.
    12. Zhao, Shuang & Zhang, Liqun & Peng, Lin & Zhou, Haiyan & Hu, Feng, 2024. "Enterprise pollution reduction through digital transformation? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Letisha S. Fong & Alberto Salvo & David Taylor, 2020. "Evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve for atmospheric pollutant emissions in Southeast Asia and implications for sustainable development: A spatial econometric approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1441-1456, September.
    14. Jing, Li & Tianshu, Quan & Qing, Han, 2025. "Open government data and green economic growth," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 2207-2218.
    15. Zhang, Qianxiao & Shah, Syed Ale Raza & Yang, Ling, 2022. "An Appreciated Response of Disaggregated Energies Consumption towards the Sustainable Growth: A debate on G-10 Economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    16. Kai Chen & Feng Guo & Shuang Xu, 2022. "The Impact of Digital Economy Agglomeration on Regional Green Total Factor Productivity Disparity: Evidence from 285 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Li Zhou & Shuning Zhang & Chenjing Zhou & Shuai Yuan & Hong Jiang & Yifeng Wang, 2024. "The impact of the digital economy on high-quality agricultural development——Based on the regulatory effects of financial development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(3), pages 1-25, March.
    18. Rong Xu & Huixian Yao & Junfeng Li, 2025. "Digital Economy’s Impact on High-Quality Economic Growth: a Comprehensive Analysis in the Context of China," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 2861-2879, March.
    19. Sun, Chuanwang & Khan, Anwar & Xue, Juntao & Huang, Xiaoyong, 2024. "Are digital economy and financial structure driving renewable energy technology innovations: A major eight countries perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    20. Jianfeng Guo & Kai Zhang & Kecheng Liu, 2022. "Exploring the Mechanism of the Impact of Green Finance and Digital Economy on China’s Green Total Factor Productivity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:322:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225011879. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.