Mitigating CO2 emissions associated with digital economy sectors through whole supply chain management

As China’s digital economy sectors rapidly expand, the growing demand for coal-based electricity has become a significant source of CO2 emissions. However, the mechanism driving these emissions within supply chains remain unclear, hindering targeted carbon management. This study addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of CO2 emissions thorough the whole supply chain perspective, covering income-, production-, betweenness-, and consumption-based perspectives, along with upstream and downstream supply chain paths. It employs Leontief and Ghosh input-output (IO) frameworks and structural path analysis. The results indicate: (1) The core industry sector of the digital economy (CIDE) ranks highest in CO2 emissions from consumption-based perspective, while the industrial digitalization sector (IDS) ranks highest from both consumption- and betweenness-based perspectives. (2) Inter provincial flows are the main source driving the digital economy sectors’ supply chain embodied CO2 emissions from consumption-based perspective, while labor compensation is the primary source driving its enabled CO2 emissions from income-based perspective. (3) High-carbon upstream and downstream supply chain paths driven by the digital economy sectors are short, with the power and heat production and supply sector and IDS playing crucial roles within these chains. Based on these findings, policy recommendations are provided to optimize supply chain structures, promote green consumption, and integrate carbon management into sector-specific strategies to reduce emissions across both upstream and downstream paths.