Can Digital Finance Promote Peak Carbon Dioxide Emissions? Evidence from China

Mao Wu; Jiayi Guo; Hongzhi Tian; Yuanyuan Hong

doi:10.3390/ijerph192114276

Can Digital Finance Promote Peak Carbon Dioxide Emissions? Evidence from China

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 1;19(21):14276. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192114276.

Authors

Mao Wu¹, Jiayi Guo², Hongzhi Tian¹, Yuanyuan Hong³

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China.
² School of Environment and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.
³ School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.

Abstract

This paper uses Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, measures CO₂ emissions of provinces in China using the IPCC method, and explores the impact of digital finance on CO₂ emissions through the SAR model and SDM. Empirical study shows that digital finance significantly reduces CO₂ emissions. Digital finance reduces CO₂ emissions by promoting energy industrial structure transformation and spreads to surrounding areas through spillover effects, contributes to increasing green patents granted and thus reduces regional CO₂ emissions, advances the green technological progress and therefore inhibits CO₂ emissions, but reduces the green technological progress in surrounding areas and increases CO₂ emissions due to the siphon effect. With the development of digital finance itself, the higher the level of financial regulation, green development and the green finance index, the better the effect of digital finance on CO₂ emission reduction. Additionally, digital finance significantly reduces CO₂ emissions in the south of China.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions; carbon reduction; digital finance; energy industrial structure; green innovation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carbon Dioxide* / analysis
China
Economic Development
Industry*
Technology

Substances

Carbon Dioxide

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Post-Funded Project of the National Social Science Fund of China (21FJLB011), the Humanities and Social Science Research Project of the Ministry of Education in the Western and Border Regions (21XJA910001), New Think Tank Project of the Key Scientific Research Plan of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (21JT042). And the APC was funded by Shengtan Wu and Yaping Dou.