ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Energy Efficiency
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2025.1550002
"The role of Energy Efficiency as a Mediator in the Digital Economy's Impact on Carbon Emissions: Insights from Time Series Data Perspective"
Provisionally accepted- Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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The study investigates the relationship between the digital economy (DE), energy efficiency (EE), and environmental governance interact to reduce carbon emissions. Understanding these dynamics is vital for achieving sustainable development and effectively mitigating climate change. Employing STIRPAT and ARDL models on time-series data from 1990-2023, focusing on the case of Pakistan. The current study aims to analyze how EE, the DE, and environmental governance influence carbon emissions, providing insights for emission reduction strategies. The findings indicate that the DE expansion exacerbates carbon emissions while EE plays an important role of mediator in this relationship. Improving EE can mitigate carbon emissions, yet the digital infrastructure growth does not help to prioritize such enhancements, thereby indirectly contributing to increased carbon emissions. The mediating effect of EE contributes to 12.82% of the overall DE's impact on carbon emissions. Moreover, a percent increase in information and communication technology led to a reduction in carbon emissions by 0.0043%. Increased such as improved living standards, education levels, increased use of renewable energy sources, urbanization, and environmental governance regulations have substantially contributed to reducing carbon emissions.Conversely, population size and gross domestic product growth tend to increase emissions, with no significant impact observed from the labor force participation rate. These findings hold crucial implications for policymakers, emphasizing the necessity of integrating EE considerations into developing DE policies to effectively combat carbon emissions.
Keywords: digital economy, STIRPAT model, Carbon mitigation, energy efficiency, Pakistan
Received: 02 Jan 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kazim, Khan and Hongxing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lan Hongxing, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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