Does Digital Economy Successfully Drive Down the Energy Intensity? Low-carbon Technology Innovation Perspective

Chinese government has been advocating a reduction in energy intensity in its efforts to meet peak carbon targets, particularly in the context of emerging economic growth and frequent technological breakthroughs. This study assesses China’s digital economy based on regional data experience and constructs a non-linear dynamic threshold model that incorporates heterogeneity thresholds for low-carbon technology innovation into the impact mechanism to explore whether the digital economy can effectively reduce regional energy intensity. It is found that China’s digital economy currently shows an overall upward trend with fluctuations in parts and a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Further, a significant heterogeneous threshold effect of low-carbon technology innovation exists in the effect of digital economy development on energy intensity: a lower level of low-carbon technology innovation is not advantageous to the decrease of energy intensity by digital economy development, while as the level of low-carbon technology innovation increases and exceeds the “threshold value,” the effect of digital economy development is effectively enhanced to a certain extent, thus promoting the reduction of energy intensity. As the level of low-carbon technology innovation raises and surpasses the “critical value,” the impact effect of digital economy development is heightened to a certain extent, thus promoting the decrease of energy intensity. The study replies the question of how to effectively use low-carbon technology innovation to accomplish digital economy development and help reduce regional energy intensity, which provides a reference for achieving the goal of carbon peak and accelerating green and high-quality economic development.