ABSTRACT

The digital technology revolution has enabled a greater vision for global economic change and the reduction of carbon emissions, which has encouraged the development of a new type of infrastructure with digitalization as the key driver in recent years. Based on data from 30 province-level samples in China between 2011 and 2020, this study systematically investigates the effects and mechanisms of new types of infrastructure on carbon emission reduction. The findings demonstrate that the new types of infrastructure has a significant carbon emission reduction effect, both in the present and following lag periods. And the carbon emission reduction effect of new types of infrastructure in the present period increases as the quantile rises. It has been found that the output scale effect and technology effect, in addition to the less obvious structural effect, are the main ways that new types of infrastructure lowers carbon emissions. The carbon emission reduction effect of convergence infrastructure, innovation infrastructure, and information infrastructure has a heterogeneous characteristic of decreasing order. The reduction in carbon emissions is visible on the consumption side as a mediatory result of urban and rural populations’ upgraded consumption patterns. Even while the development of new infrastructure has some spillover effects on carbon emissions, there is still a noticeable general trend toward significant decrease.