The Impact Of Internet Development On Urban Air Pollution In China

The contradiction between human activities,natural resources and ecological environment has always existed,and how to deal with the problem between production activities and environmental pollution has always been the focus of domestic and foreign scholars.Over the past 40 years since the reform and opening up,China’s rapid economic growth has brought a new look to the city.The improvement of economic development has brought high-rise buildings,advanced infrastructure and convenient means of transportation to the city,but at the same time,it has also produced serious environmental pollution,especially the atmospheric pollution that has a greater impact in recent years.In the process of economic development,how to balance with environmental pollution becomes crucial.At the same time,China’s network development has shown great vitality.Advanced Internet technologies,such as big data,cloud computing,the Internet of Things,artificial intelligence,blockchain,5G and others,have entered people’s vision.The Internet has played an important role in collecting environmental pollution information,processing large amounts of data,environmental supervision,and green transformation and upgrading of enterprises.Therefore,exploring the impact of Internet development on urban air pollution is of great significance for China’s ecological civilization construction,and also provides a new direction for China’s air pollution control.This paper first defines the connotation and characteristics of the Internet and the related concepts of air pollution;Secondly,based on the three laws of network economy,the environmental Kuznets curve and the theory of sustainable development,this paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of the impact of Internet development on air pollution and puts forward research assumptions;Thirdly,it analyzes the current situation of Internet and air pollution in China and the correlation between them;Then the panel data of 270 cities in China from 2003 to 2018 are used for empirical analysis to explore their impacts,spatial spillover effects and impact mechanisms;Finally,the heterogeneity is analyzed from different regions,different city sizes and different city levels.The results show that:(1)In recent years,China’s Internet infrastructure has gradually improved,the size of Internet users has gradually expanded,the gender structure of Internet users has gradually become balanced,the age structure has a trend of younger and older,and Internet applications have also developed rapidly.China’s PM2.5 emissions have decreased year by year,and the air quality has been improved.The central region has the most PM2.5emissions,followed by the eastern region,and the western region has the least PM2.5emissions.The gap of PM2.5 emissions among regions has gradually narrowed,and China’s overall and regional PM2.5 emissions have gradually changed from high emissions to low emissions.(2)The development of the Internet can significantly reduce air pollution.The improvement of industrial structure,scientific and technological level and human capital level can reduce air pollution.The increase of economic development level,population density and the proportion of retail sales of social consumer goods will aggravate air pollution.The impact of per capita paved road area on air pollution is not obvious.(3)There is a significant positive spatial correlation between Internet development and air pollution among cities in China.Air pollution itself has a positive spatial spillover effect.The development of the Internet has a negative spatial spillover effect on air pollution,reducing local air pollution and improving the air pollution of surrounding cities.(4)From the perspective of impact mechanism,Internet development can improve air pollution by promoting green innovation and reducing the inflow of foreign investment,but the effect of reducing air pollution only through the impact of Internet development on intermediary variables is limited.(5)From a regional perspective,the development of the Internet has reduced the air pollution in the eastern region,intensified the air pollution in the central region,and has no significant impact on the air pollution in the western region;In terms of city size,Internet development in large cities and small and medium-sized cities in China has significantly reduced urban air pollution,but the absolute value of regression coefficient in small and medium-sized cities is slightly larger;In terms of city level,Internet development has improved air pollution in both central and non central cities,but it has a more significant effect on emission reduction in central cities.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions from four aspects: improving Internet infrastructure,using the Internet to develop and empower,strengthening the linkage of air pollution control among cities in China,and implementing differentiated Internet development strategies among regions and cities.