| As part of the fight against global warming,the Paris Agreement was signed by more than 170 heads of state at the United Nations in New York in 2016.In the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan,China has for the first time included "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality"among the key targets of the 14th Five-Year Plan."China is at a new stage of development,and it is important to ensure that the country is able to meet its targets.China is at a new stage of development,and the digital economy has become an important driver of social development to improve quality and increase efficiency.The application of new digital technologies such as big data and cloud computing can not only save energy and reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency,but also encourage decarbonisation of carbon emissions and technological innovation,promoting digitalisation and greening in tandem.The digital economy is becoming increasingly important as a driver in urban development and is a major breakthrough in promoting low-carbon technological innovation and accelerating the low-carbon transformation of industries.Promoting sustained quality improvement is both an urgent need to cope with the economic slowdown and a long-term strategy to build a new development model.Therefore,it is both theoretically and practically relevant to explore the impact of China’s digital economy development on the transformation of cities to"reduce carbon and increase efficiency".Based on the definition of the concepts of digital economy,carbon emission and highquality development,this paper constructs indicators of digital economy,carbon emission and high-quality development using data from 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019,and measures these indicators using the entropy weight method,IPCC method and SBM super-efficiency model.Through the construction of a panel data model,the direct impact and transmission mechanism of digital economy development on the transformation of cities to"reduce carbon and increase efficiency" is verified,and the heterogeneity of cities based on their geographical location and resource endowment is analysed.The empirical results show that:firstly,the development of the digital economy influences urban transformation by reducing carbon emissions and increasing green total factor productivity.Secondly,the digital economy can effectively contribute to the low-carbon green transformation of cities by improving energy efficiency,upgrading industrial structures and green technological advances.Thirdly,heterogeneity analysis shows that:firstly,from the perspective of geographical distribution,the development of the digital economy can promote the green transformation of cities in the east,central and west.Due to the different levels of development of the digital economy,the impact on reducing carbon emissions tends to decrease from west to east,while the impact on green total factor productivity increases from west to east.Secondly,the development of the digital economy makes a greater difference to the low carbon green transformation of cities of different resource types,with the development of the digital economy contributing more to the low carbon transformation of non-resource-based cities and less to the low carbon transformation of resource-based cities,given the difference in dependence on traditional resources.Finally,based on the findings of the study,recommendations are made for different types of cities to accelerate the development of the digital economy for low-carbon urban transformation,so that digital technology can transform and empower the energy industry,optimise the allocation of energy resources,promote the large-scale use of clean energy and improve energy efficiency,and accelerate the digital transformation of central and western regions and cities with resources,relying on regional resources and industrial development. |
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