Digital economy enabling low-carbon development—spatial spillover and heterogeneity

Since the announcement of China’s “30-60” dual-carbon target, the digital economy has played a pivotal role in driving green and low-carbon development. This study investigates the spatial and heterogeneous impacts of the digital economy on regional carbon emissions by analyzing panel data for 30 provinces and cities in China from 2012 to 2021. We employ spatial lag models and quantile regression models to assess the impact of digital economic development levels on regional carbon emissions. The key findings are as follows: (1) Carbon emission intensity across regions exhibits significant positive spatial dependence, with negative influence from one region to its neighboring region. (2) The development of the digital economy significantly reduces regional carbon emission intensity, which poses a long-term and more significant impact on environmental improvement. The richer carbon emissions experience, the greater improvements to the environment with its regional heterogeneity. (3) Improvements in industrial structure and environmental regulations mitigate carbon emission intensity, while higher urbanization levels and energy consumption ratios exacerbate it. The data show that promotion of technological prowess in the digital industry, reduction of energy consumption intensity, optimization of industrial structures, and implementation of stringent environmental regulations are critical mechanisms for achieving carbon emission reductions, which provide insights into leveraging the digital economy for green and low-carbon development.