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

How has the rural digital economy influenced agricultural carbon emissions? Agricultural green technology change as a mediated variable

“…For example, Alipay's "garbage sorting and recycling platform" is specially set up for problems such as the low recycling rate of domestic waste, supporting door-to-door collection of waste items so that the resource recycling rate is improved. Digital finance promotes green growth and green technological significantly (Wu et al, 2022;Razzaq and Yang, 2023). Mobile payment and online financial services can continuously reduce farmers' dependence on financial institutions, not only reducing the transaction costs of paper money but also promoting the rational layout of financial business outlets, lowering resource consumption, while uniting both economic and environmental benefits.…”

The impact of digital inclusive finance on environmental pollution: A case study of air pollution

“…Additionally, digital inclusive finance plays a key role in promoting a green transformation of consumption patterns. By providing loans and other financial products, it motivates consumers and businesses to choose more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products and services, such as the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and energy-saving appliances, which significantly reduce emissions of air pollutants [ 27 , 28 ]. Enterprises also reduce energy use and pollution by adopting more efficient production technologies and practices, further diminishing their negative impact on air quality.…”

“…In the global effort to tackle air pollution, digital inclusive finance has not only produced positive effects in the areas it directly serves but also significantly benefitted the environmental quality of neighboring areas through spatial spillover effects [ 28 , 70 ]. This effect highlights the indirect role of digital inclusive finance in promoting environmental protection and reducing air pollution, particularly in areas such as technology innovation dissemination, enhancing environmental awareness, and policy impact [ 10 , 71 ].…”

Internet Development, Consumption Upgrading and Carbon Emissions—An Empirical Study from China

“…The spherical distance from the provincial capital cities to Hangzhou is not correlated with carbon emission; while Hangzhou is one of the cities with the best Internet economy development in China, and the radiation drive of the Internet economy is correlated with distance and then there is a correlation between Internet development and the instrumental variable. In addition, considering that the spherical distance (distance) does not vary with time, drawing on [12,81,82], we interact the spherical distance (distance) with the one-period lag term of Internet development (L1.Internet) to construct a new instrumental variable (distance*L1.Internet) that varies with time.…”