Under the new development pattern, promoting urban green transformation efficiently addresses resource and environmental restrictions and is the foundation of high-quality development. However, the development of green transformation in Chinese cities faces constraints in three dimensions, production, life, and ecology, and it is not clear whether the digital economy, as a key driver of green development, can empower urban green transformation. Therefore, this paper measures the level of urban green transformation from the three dimensions of production, life, and ecological space and empirically tests the impact of the digital economy on urban green transformation from 2011 to 2020 by using panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The results indicate: (1) The development of the green transformation level in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration demonstrates a constant upward trend, but the absolute difference fluctuates and declines; (2) the development of the digital economy has a positive impact on urban green transformation, as well as changes in urban production, living, and ecological space; (3) the digital economy helps the green transformation of cities by supporting the growth of an advanced and rationalized industrial structure. Nevertheless, the indirect influence of an advanced and rational industrial structure on urban green transformation is quite different.

The global value chain has introduced profound changes in international trade, economic development, and technology progress as well as greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This paper investigated the impact of the global value chain and technological innovation on greenhouse gas emissions by introducing a partially linear functional-coefficient model based on panel data of 15 industrial sectors in China from 2000 to 2020. Moreover, the greenhouse gas emission trends of China’s industrial sectors from 2024 to 2035 were predicted using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. The results showed that (1) Greenhouse gas emissions were affected negatively by global value chain position and independent innovation. Nevertheless, foreign innovation had the opposite effect. (2) The results of the partially linear functional-coefficient model implied that the inhibitory effect of independent innovation on GHG emissions decreased with an improvement in the global value chain position. (3) The positive effect of foreign innovation on greenhouse gas emissions increased and then, decreased as the global value chain position improved. (4) The prediction results indicated that greenhouse gas emissions will continue on an upward trend from 2024 to 2035, while industrial carbon dioxide emissions should peak at 10.21 Gt in 2028. This carbon-peaking goal would be achieved in China’s industrial sector by actively improving the global value chain position. Addressing these issues will enable China to take full advantage of the development opportunities of participating in the global value chain.