Does digital infrastructure construction impact urban carbon emission reduction? Evidence from China’s smart city construction

As the cornerstone of the digital economy, the construction of digital infrastructure plays a crucial role in promoting China’s high-quality economic growth.. Against the backdrop of the “dual-carbon” goals, the development of digital infrastructure will provide new momentum for carbon emissions reduction in urban areas. This study utilizes unbalanced panel data from 277 prefecture-level cities in China between 2008 and 2019, treating the smart city construction as a quasi-natural experiment, to systematically evaluate the impact of the pilot construction of smart city on urban carbon emissions intensity. The research findings reveal that the construction of the smart city has significantly contributed to the reduction of urban carbon emissions intensity, indicating that digital infrastructure contributes to urban carbon emission reduction. The reduction of carbon emissions resulting from smart city construction is particularly significant in the East and Central regions., as well as regions with high financial development levels, regions with high human capital levels and non resource-based cities. The construction of the smart city primarily achieves the reduction of urban carbon emissions intensity through two main pathways: improving the penetration rate of digital infrastructure and enhancing technological innovation capability. Therefore, this study recommends that local governments strengthen the integration and penetration of digital infrastructure with traditional industries, foster urban innovation vitality, and accelerate the transformation towards green and low-carbon cities.