ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Impact of Digital Trade on Regional
Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China
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1
University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
2
Qingdao University College of Electronics and Information, Shandong, China
Submission date: 2023-10-19
Final revision date: 2023-11-30
Acceptance date: 2023-12-09
Online publication date: 2024-04-12
Publication date: 2024-04-18
Corresponding author
Feng He
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2024;33(4):3869-3885
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ABSTRACT
With the rise of China’s economy and the expansion of China’s foreign trade scale, the carbon
emissions generated by China’s trade are attracting extensive attention from political and academic
circles. In the context of global ‘decarbonization’, this paper focuses on the new trade model of
digital trade and uses China's provincial panel data from 2013 to 2021 to deeply explore the effect
of digital trade development on carbon emissions and its transmission mechanism. We find that
digital trade development can reduce regional carbon emissions through structural and technological
effects; specifically, industrial structure upgrading, consumption upgrading, and green technology
innovation play a crucial intermediary role in this process. Subsequent investigation reveals a nonlinear,
diminishing trend in the marginal impact of digital trade on emission reduction. Furthermore,
once digital trade surpasses the threshold of environmental regulation its marginal effect on emission
reduction becomes more pronounced. Additionally, employing a spatial econometric model has revealed
that the advancement of digital trade can also contribute to reducing carbon emissions in neighboring
regions. Heterogeneity analysis results demonstrate that the eastern region exhibits the most significant
emission reduction effect in relation to digital trade, followed by the western and central regions.