Digitalization and carbon emissions: How does digital city construction affect china's carbon emission reduction?

•The impact of digital city construction on carbon emissions was investigated.•Quantified the level of digital city construction at the provincial level in China.•Digital city construction can reduce regional carbon emission intensity.•Digital development and total carbon emissions show an inverted U-shaped curve.•Transmission mechanism for digitization to affect carbon emissions were explored. The rise and vigorous development of digital technology and digital economy provide huge potential for carbon emission reduction globally and in China. However, the current research on digital technology and carbon emissions is still in its infancy, and there is a lack of empirical conclusions between the two. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of digital city construction on carbon emissions in China and its transmission mechanism using the panel regression models and mediating effects models, respectively. In particular, this paper constructs a measurement system for the level of digital city construction in China from four dimensions: digital infrastructure, digital economy, digital industry, and digital application. Then, the relationship between urban digital development and carbon emission reduction in China was investigated. The results show that: firstly, regional digital development significantly reduces carbon emission intensity, and the impact on total carbon emission shows an inverted "U" curve relationship of increasing and then decreasing. Second, digital development affects carbon emissions through three paths: technological innovation, industrial structure and energy structure. Third, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of digitalization is more significant in the central and western regions than in the eastern regions, which highlights the late-development advantage of these regions in terms of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking targets. Based on the above conclusions, specific policy recommendations are proposed for region development in the future.