Effect of Digital Economy Enabling Pollution and Carbon Reduction in China

Zihao Peng; Xueya Xu

doi:10.53941/esrs.2026.100021

Highlights

The digital economy is decomposed into infrastructure and commerce dimensions.
Composite indices are constructed using the entropy method.
Digital infrastructure hinders pollution and carbon reduction.
Digital commerce application hinders pollution and carbon reduction.
Distinct environmental effects exist across digital economy dimensions.

Abstract

Since the introduction of China’s “dual carbon” goals, achieving synergistic pollution and carbon reduction has become a critical task for promoting ecological civilization and highquality development. As the digital economy expands rapidly, its role in facilitating green transformation has attracted increasing attention. Drawing on panel data from 31 Chinese provinces during 2015–2024, this study conceptualizes the digital economy from two dimensions—digital infrastructure and digital commerce application. The entropy method is employed to construct composite indices for both dimensions, and a two-way fixed effects model is applied to investigate their effects on pollution and carbon reduction. The results show that the growth of digital infrastructure has a significant negative effect on pollution and carbon reduction, likely due to intensive energy use and emissions during its construction and operation. Similarly, the development of digital commerce application also exhibits a negative effect, probably because of increased energy consumption from e-commerce logistics, data center operations, and enterprise digital transformation. Both dimensions currently hinder progress in pollution and carbon reduction, with digital infrastructure having a stronger adverse impact. Policy efforts should focus on promoting green and energyefficient development of digital infrastructure, accelerating the low-carbon transformation of digital commerce applications, and establishing an integrated evaluation framework linking digital economy development with pollution and carbon reduction. Such measures can provide targeted support for regional green transformation and sustainable development. This paper aims to answer whether the digital economy promotes or inhibits pollution and carbon reduction in China, and whether this effect operates through digital infrastructure or digital commerce application.

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