{"title":"Digital infrastructure empowerment and urban carbon emissions: Evidence from China","authors":"Kaicheng Liao , Juan Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102764","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>China is accelerating its entry into the digital age, and the contribution of digital infrastructure to the reduction of carbon emissions is becoming increasingly prominent. The influence mechanism of digital infrastructure on urban carbon emissions is empirically tested in this study from the standpoint of digital empowerment using panel data from 250 cities between 2008 and 2020. According to the study, digital infrastructure greatly lowers urban carbon emissions, with each additional mobile base station reducing carbon emissions by 36 tons. This conclusion remains robust even after controlling for endogeneity issues. The mechanism examination indicates that the decarbonization effect of digital infrastructure is mainly achieved by empowering enterprises, individuals, and governments with digital capabilities. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effects of digital infrastructure on carbon emissions vary after considering variations in the city's administrative hierarchy, industrial structure, and resource types in China. According to the study's findings, developing countries should expand digital infrastructure construction and fully harness its potential for energy saving and emissions reduction to meet their emission reduction targets. At the same time, differentiated emission reduction policies should be formulated to adapt to the heterogeneous characteristics among cities and ensure that emission reduction measures are effectively implemented in each city.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":22290,"journal":{"name":"Telecommunications Policy","volume":"48 6","pages":"Article 102764"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Telecommunications Policy","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596124000612","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
China is accelerating its entry into the digital age, and the contribution of digital infrastructure to the reduction of carbon emissions is becoming increasingly prominent. The influence mechanism of digital infrastructure on urban carbon emissions is empirically tested in this study from the standpoint of digital empowerment using panel data from 250 cities between 2008 and 2020. According to the study, digital infrastructure greatly lowers urban carbon emissions, with each additional mobile base station reducing carbon emissions by 36 tons. This conclusion remains robust even after controlling for endogeneity issues. The mechanism examination indicates that the decarbonization effect of digital infrastructure is mainly achieved by empowering enterprises, individuals, and governments with digital capabilities. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effects of digital infrastructure on carbon emissions vary after considering variations in the city's administrative hierarchy, industrial structure, and resource types in China. According to the study's findings, developing countries should expand digital infrastructure construction and fully harness its potential for energy saving and emissions reduction to meet their emission reduction targets. At the same time, differentiated emission reduction policies should be formulated to adapt to the heterogeneous characteristics among cities and ensure that emission reduction measures are effectively implemented in each city.
期刊介绍:
Telecommunications Policy is concerned with the impact of digitalization in the economy and society. The journal is multidisciplinary, encompassing conceptual, theoretical and empirical studies, quantitative as well as qualitative. The scope includes policy, regulation, and governance; big data, artificial intelligence and data science; new and traditional sectors encompassing new media and the platform economy; management, entrepreneurship, innovation and use. Contributions may explore these topics at national, regional and international levels, including issues confronting both developed and developing countries. The papers accepted by the journal meet high standards of analytical rigor and policy relevance.