The spatial impact of digital economy on energy intensity in China in the context of double carbon to achieve the sustainable development goals

Using the provincial panel data of China during 2012-2019, the present study employed spatial Durbin error model to explore the spatial effect of the digital economy on energy intensity. The results show that both digital economy and energy intensity have spatial autocorrelation, showing the distribution characteristics of spatial aggregation. The digital economy has a significant negative influence on energy intensity. The result shows a significant spatial spillover effect of digital economy on energy intensity, and the development of the digital economy in neighboring regions reduces energy intensity in the central region. Additionally, industrial structure, urbanization, energy price, and foreign direct investment have a heterogenous impact on energy intensity. Thus, it is crucial to give importance to the development of the energy intensity, plan the spatial layout of the digital industry as a whole, drive the coordinated growth of the regional digital economy, quicken the upgrading of industrial structure, promote urbanization, perfect the energy price formation mechanism, raise the entry threshold for foreign direct investment, to effectively reduce the energy intensity, and facilitate the smooth realization of the double carbon goal.

Automated summary

Using the provincial panel data of China during 2012-2019, this study employed a spatial Durbin error model to investigate the spatial effect of the digital economy on energy intensity. The findings demonstrate that both the digital economy and energy intensity exhibit spatial autocorrelation and display characteristics of spatial aggregation. The digital economy has a significant negative impact on energy intensity, and there is a noticeable spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on energy intensity, with the development of the digital economy in neighboring regions decreasing energy intensity in the central region. Moreover, factors such as industrial structure, urbanization, energy price, and foreign direct investment exert a heterogeneous influence on energy intensity. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritize the development of energy intensity, plan the spatial layout of the digital industry comprehensively, stimulate the coordinated growth of the regional digital economy, accelerate industrial structure upgrading, promote urbanization, perfect the energy price formation mechanism, and increase the entry threshold for foreign direct investment in order to effectively reduce energy intensity and facilitate the achievement of the dual carbon goal.