ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1593632
This article is part of the Research TopicEnergy Transition: Opportunities and Barriers in Technology, Economics, and PolicyView all 5 articles
Sustainability of carbon: research on the impact of digital technology development on carbon equity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
- 2China State Shipping Corporation Limited, Shanghai, China
- 3Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, China
- 4Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, Shandong, China
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Actively leveraging the advantages of digital technology in promoting carbon equity development has provided a feasible solution for achieving ecological common prosperity. Based on provincial panel data from China spanning 2013 to 2023, this study investigates the intricate impacts of digital technologies on carbon equity utilizing fixed effects, mediation, and moderating models. The benchmark regression results indicate that digital technology has a significant positive effect on carbon equity, with heterogeneous effects across regions: “central region > western region > eastern region”. The mechanism effect study indicates that digital technology can indirectly promote the realization of carbon equity by reducing energy intensity and optimizing the energy structure. The moderating effect study reveals that both energy intensity and energy structure negatively moderate the relationship between digital technology on carbon equity. The research findings extend the theoretical boundaries of how digital technology can contribute to the construction of carbon equity, while providing certain reference value for the implementation of ecological civilization construction and the high-quality development of the “carbon neutrality” strategy in a manner that suits local conditions.
Keywords: Digital technology, Carbon equity, energy intensity, Energy structure, Moderating models
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Geng and Li. 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: Chaoyang Li, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, 262700, Shandong, China
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