The spatial effect of integrated economy on carbon emissions in the era of big data: a case study of China

Abstract

The digital economy has the characteristics of resource conservation, which can solve China’s high carbon emissions problems. The digital economy can quickly integrate with the real economy, forming an integrated economy. However, it is still unclear whether an integrated economy can effectively reduce carbon emissions and achieve China’s ‘dual carbon goals’. Therefore, this study takes 30 provinces in China as the research object, constructs the integration economy index system through the statistical data from 2011-2021, and explores the spatial effect of the impact of the integration economy on carbon emissions by using principal component analysis, coupled coordination model and spatial econometric model. The research results are as follows. (1) From 2011 to 2021, the comprehensive economy showed a trend of increasing yearly (from 0.667 to 0.828), and carbon emissions showed a slow decrease (from 0.026 to 0.017). (2) Due to the infiltration of China’s economic development from the eastern to the western, the spatial distribution of the integrated economy shows a decreasing trend from east to west. The spatial distribution of carbon emissions may be related to China’s industrial layout of heavy industry in the northern, and light industry in the southern, showing a trend of low in the south and high in the north. (3) The integrated economy can significantly reduce carbon emissions (the coefficients of influence, -0.146), and the reduction effect will be more obvious if spatial spillover effects are taken into account (-0.305). (4) The eastern coast, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the middle reaches of the Yellow River economic zones all increase carbon emissions at a certain level of significance (0.065, 0.148, and 3.890). The Northeast, South Coastal and Southwest economic zones significantly reduce carbon emissions (-0.220, -0.092, and -0.308). The results of the Northern Coast and Northwest are not significant (-0.022 and 0.095). (5) China should tailor regional economic development policies, such as strengthening investment in digital infrastructure in the Northwest Economic Zone and fully leveraging the spatial spillover effects of integrated economy in the Northeast, Southern Coastal, and Southwest Economic Zones to reduce carbon emissions.