How information and communication technology drives carbon emissions: A sector-level analysis for China

Zhou, Xiaoyong; Zhou, Dequn; Wang, Qunwei; Su, Bin

doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2019.04.014

Cited by 276 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Salahuddin and Alam [29] used panel data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) countries to find that, if Internet users increase by 1%, electricity consumption per capita will increase by 0.026%. Simultaneously, according to Zhou et al [30], the energy consumption of the information technology industry and the intermediate input of energy-intensive products have led to a large amount of carbon emissions. Haseeb et al [31] observed the one-way causality of information and communication technology on the energy consumption of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Economy and Environmental Quality: Evidence from 217 Cities in China

Wen

2021

Sustainability

119

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With the rapid development of the digital economy, understanding the relationship between the digital economy and the environment is increasingly important for sustainable development. This study mainly studies the nexus of digital economy development and environmental quality for 217 cities in China from 2003 to 2018. Specifically, this study first evaluates the degree of coupling coordination between the digital economy system and the environmental system. Results show that the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy system and the environmental system shows a fluctuating rise from 2003 to 2018. Furthermore, this study empirically investigates the impact of digital economy development on PM2.5, which represents environmental quality, and results show that digital economy development significantly reduces PM2.5. The above finding is still valid by using the quasi-natural experiment of broadband China for the robustness test. Urbanization, population density, and economic development have caused threshold effects. When the urbanization rate and population density exceed a certain threshold, the digital economy significantly inhibits PM2.5. In contrast, when the per capita GDP exceeds a certain threshold, the digital economy significantly promotes PM2.5. The digital economy mainly affects pollutant emissions through direct and technological effects.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Economy and Environmental Quality: Evidence from 217 Cities in China

Wen

2021

Sustainability

119

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“…Some scholars analyze the embodied carbon emissions of the ICT sector of specific countries. Zhou et al (2019) summarize China's embodied carbon emissions of ICT and point out that the ICT sector is far from being environment friendly while considering its embodied carbon impacts, which are dozens of times greater than the direct impacts. Shahnazi and Dehghan Shabani (2019) analyze the correlation between the development of the ICT industry and carbon emissions in Iran's provinces, and their results show that an increase in ICT in a province first leads to an increase and then a decrease in CO 2 emissions in other provinces.…”

Section: Carbon Emissions and Ict Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although many scholars have studied the relationship between the ICT industry and carbon emissions (Moyer and Hughes, 2012;Amri et al, 2019;Shahnazi and Dehghan Shabani, 2019;Zhou et al, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2020), few scholars have conducted in-depth research on carbon emissions caused by the flow of products in the ICT sector caused by global trade. As the ICT industry is one of the important global development sectors in the future (Li et al, 2019), it is necessary to measure its embodied carbon emissions flow and embodied carbon emission intensities, and provide corresponding cross-regional emission reduction strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Embodied Carbon Emission and Its Intensities in the ICT Industry: The Global Case

2021

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With the intensification of globalization, the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector, as one of the emerging industrial sectors, has played an important role in reducing carbon emissions in regional trade and improving the energy efficiency of traded products. This article uses a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model to explore the flow of embodied carbon emissions and embodied carbon emission intensities in the ICT sector triggered by trade in 15 major economies around the world from 2000 to 2014. The article further discusses the emission-reduction strategies of each ICT sector. The results show that: (1) The overall embodied carbon emissions of ICT have demonstrated a significant downward trend, but the proportion of embodied carbon emissions caused by trade is increasing; (2) The embodied carbon emissions in the ICT sector of most developed countries in 2014 are significantly lower than in 2000, but in developing countries such as China and India they show an upward trend during this period; (3) The ICT sector’s export embodied carbon emission intensity in Indonesia is much higher than that of other countries, and the embodied carbon emissions of ICT exported by Mexico have increased significantly; (4) The manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products (S1) is the main contributor to the ICT sector’s embodied carbon emissions, while import embodied carbon emission intensities among publishing activities (S2) are increasing significantly in most countries. The conclusion of this paper has important implications for how to reduce ICT’s embodied carbon emissions of major countries.

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“…Haseeb et al (2019) observe a unidirectional causality from ICT toward energy consumption in BRICS countries. Zhou et al (2019) show that the ICT sector contributes a large amount of carbon emissions due to its energy consumption and intermediate inputs of energy-intensive products. However, some studies suggest that industrial digitalization also affects energy consumption and environmental quality through indirect effects.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Industrial Digitalization Affect Enterprise Environmental Performance?

Wen

Song

2021

Preprint

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Despite the increasing use of digital technology in industrial production, how industrial digitalization affects the environmental performance of production activities remains unclear. This research contributes to the literature on the relationship between industrial digitalization and enterprise environmental performance by employing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Results indicate that the environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises has been significantly improved in the process of industrial digital transformation. Structural and technology effects are the influencing mechanisms. Industrial digitalization reduces the production scale of heavy polluting enterprises and improves product innovation and green total factor productivity, but it has an insignificant effect on total factor productivity. Moreover, industrial digitalization improves enterprise environmental performance by introducing front-end cleaner production technologies, rather than by increasing pipe-end pollutant treatment facilities.JEL Classification: Q56, O13, L86

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How information and communication technology drives carbon emissions: A sector-level analysis for China

Cited by 276 publications

References 54 publications

Digital Economy and Environmental Quality: Evidence from 217 Cities in China

Digital Economy and Environmental Quality: Evidence from 217 Cities in China

Assessing Embodied Carbon Emission and Its Intensities in the ICT Industry: The Global Case

How Does Industrial Digitalization Affect Enterprise Environmental Performance?

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