How Green Data Center Establishment Drives Carbon Emission Reduction: Double-Edged Sword or Equilibrium Effect?

As inevitable outcomes of the digital economy’s low-carbon development, green data centers play a crucial role in environmental impact and underlying mechanisms. This study focuses on green data center establishment as a representative practice, utilizing Chinese A-share listed companies and urban data from 2009 to 2023 to construct a multi-period difference-in-differences model. From a supply chain perspective, we investigate the impact of green data centers on corporate carbon emissions and their mechanisms. The results demonstrate that regional establishment of green data centers significantly promotes corporate carbon emission reduction, with conclusions remaining robust after a series of comprehensive robustness and endogeneity tests. This process primarily operates through two channels: green total factor energy efficiency and green attention. Green data center establishment significantly enhances green total factor energy efficiency and corporate green attention. The more developed the regional digital infrastructure and the higher the computing power development levels, the stronger the incentive effect on corporate carbon reduction. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that green data centers have more significant promoting effects on carbon emission reduction in state-owned enterprises and high-tech enterprises. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the effects, mechanisms, and regional variations related to green data centers in facilitating corporate carbon emission reduction.