The Impact Of China’s Digital Economy On Embodied Carbon Emissions From Industrial Sectors

In the context of global value chains,upstream industries transfer carbon emissions from production to downstream industries,which eventually leads to the problem of "unequal" responsibility for carbon emissions among industries.To clarify the responsibility of carbon emissions,it is necessary to control carbon emissions in each industry sector in a more detailed way.Therefore,Exploring the flow network of implied carbon emissions and the factors affecting implied carbon emissions can help provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of relevant policies.Meanwhile,along with the digital revolution,the impact of digital economy on carbon emission reduction is an important topic.The paper uses input-output analysis,carbon emission coefficient method and BEA to measure embodied carbon emissions and the development level of digital economy,and analyzes the results.The paper focuses on the following aspects: firstly,we study the embodied carbon emissions from the perspective of "consumer responsibility",and use the input-output method to measure the digitalization of industries and the embodied carbon emissions;secondly,we use the complex network analysis method to construct and analyze the embodied carbon transfer network,analyze the overall characteristics and individual characteristics of the network,explore the aggregation effect and small-world nature of the embodied carbon emissions transfer network,and find the key carbon emissions.Third,we use panel model and threshold model to investigate the effects of industrial digitalization on carbon emissions.The main findings of the study are as follows.(1)The embodied carbon emission transfer network among industrial sectors has a significant small-world quality.There are close embodied carbon emission transfer relationships among most industrial sectors.A change in carbon emissions in any one industrial sector may trigger a chain reaction of carbon emission flows between industrial sectors,leading to large-scale and structural changes in carbon emissions in the entire industrial system.(2)A few industrial sectors play important roles as suppliers and consumers in the network.In terms of the industrial sectors that supply carbon emissions,a few industrial sectors bear the vast majority of supply responsibility across the network;while those that consume carbon emissions are relatively balanced.Among them,the service sector is an important driving and pulling industry sector in the embodied carbon emissions industry network,and also the sector that dispatches the most carbon emissions in the embodied carbon transfer network.(3)The scaling up of the digital economy has a significant inhibitory effect on the total carbon emissions in the whole industrial network.In addition,the impact of digital economy on embodied carbon emissions has a non-linear relationship.In the start-up phase,the digital economy has no significant impact on embodied carbon emissions.During the construction period,the development of the digital economy will promote the embodied carbon emissions.In the later stage of development,the expansion of the digital economy will significantly suppress the embodied carbon emissions.(4)The impact of the digital economy on embodied carbon emissions varies across industries depending on the total capital formation and the degree of foreign exports.In general,when foreign exports are small or gross capital formation is too large,the digital economy shows a boosting effect on embodied carbon emissions,while when foreign exports are large or gross capital formation is too small,the digital economy has a significant suppressing effect on embodied carbon emissions.Finally,the following recommendations are made based on the findings of the study: first,focus on key sectors in the embodied carbon emission transfer network;second,control key upstream and downstream industries in carbon production and consumption;third,improve the total carbon emission control mechanism and build a decomposition system of industry carbon emission reduction targets;fourth,rational layout and construction of digital infrastructure and other recommendations.