Integrated development of digital and energy industries: Paving the way for carbon emission reduction

The fusion of digital and energy industries is an efficacious route to advance the high-quality development of the energy system and ensure energy security. This study explored the fusion mechanism of digital and energy industries and built an evaluation index system for the fusion of digital and energy industries from four dimensions: fusion basis, fusion conditions, fusion application, and fusion performance. Next, the fusion level of digital and energy industries and their performance in different dimensions in China and various regions were calculated using the global principal component analysis. Subsequently, the panel data model was used to quantitatively study the influence factors of the integrated development of China's digital and energy industries. The study revealed that the fusion level of China's digital and energy industries has continuously improved from 2002 to 2018, but the gap between different regions in 2017 was still large. The integrated development of digital and energy industries is positively correlated with the development level of digital and energy industries, scientific and technological innovation, environmental regulation, and urbanization.