Author(s)

Aihong He ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Economics and Management, Lanzhou Bowen College of Science and Technology, Lanzhou, 730030, China

Corresponding Author

Aihong He

ABSTRACT

The paper explores how digital trade can help reduce carbon emissions, especially by replacing physical goods with services, and also examining the complex relationship between digital trade and energy use. We analyze this problem using a theoretical framework that includes economies of scale, structural effects, and technical effects. By analyzing data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022, it is found that every 1% increase in digital trade can reduce the carbon intensity of the distribution sector by an average of 0.058%, of which the contribution of service-substituting physical goods to reduce emissions is 37.2%.The study found that digital trade reduces carbon emissions in two main ways: one is the technology effect, such as the increase of green patents by 22.7%; the other is the structural effect, which is the structural effect, and the carbon intensity of the service sector decreases by 0.35 units for every additional unit. However, it also found that the digital infrastructure increases energy consumption in the eastern and central regions, offsets the expected reduction of carbon emissions by 15-22%.The development of China's carbon peak carbon neutral target provides a theoretical basis and practical approach.

KEYWORDS

Digital Trade; Carbon Emissions Reduction; Service Substitution; Energy Rebound Effect; Implied Carbon Transfer; Trade-Off Mechanism

CITE THIS PAPER

Aihong He, The Carbon Reduction Effects of Digital Trade: A Study on the Trade-off Mechanism between Service Substitution for Goods and Energy Consumption. Population, Resources & Environmental Economics (2025) Vol. 6: 1-9. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/pree.2025.060201.

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