Digital Economy, Energy Structure Transformation, and Regional Carbon Dioxide Emissions

For China to reach its “dual carbon” aim, the digital economy presents both opportunities and obstacles. This paper examines the potential impact of digital economy development on regional carbon dioxide emissions, concluding that while the direct impact on regional carbon dioxide emissions through industrial structure upgrading and technological progress is unclear, the indirect impact through promoting energy structure transformation is both positive and clear. This research experimentally validates the results of a theoretical analysis using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2019 and the STIRPAT model and discovers an inverted U-shaped association between digital economy development and regional carbon dioxide emissions. According to the transmission path test, the digital economy primarily achieves its carbon dioxide emission reduction effect by promoting energy structure transformation, while the carbon dioxide emission reduction effect from upgrading industrial institutions and technological progress is insignificant. By region, the expansion of the digital economy in eastern China has a large carbon dioxide emission reduction effect but not in central and western China. The policy implication of this paper is that curbing new carbon dioxide emissions caused by digital infrastructure construction using the digital economy to accelerate energy structure transformation and accelerating digital economy development in central and western China can be effective policy options for the Chinese government to achieve the goal of carbon dioxide emission reduction.