Digital input requirements for global carbon emission reduction

Abstract To answer the question of whether the growth of digital inputs can be beneficial for carbon neutrality, we thoroughly explore the impacts of digital inputs on carbon emission reduction in this work. We propose a combined framework of panel regression model and multi-objective optimization model to identify the key digital sectors and obtain their optimal total outputs. First, the results show that digital inputs continue to increase in most countries (regions) from 2000 to 2021, especially in the USA, EU countries and China. Digital equipment inputs in China are the most significant, while digital service inputs in the USA and EU countries are relatively important. Second, the regression results show that digital service inputs have significantly negative influence on carbon emissions, which means that the growth of digital service inputs will decrease carbon emissions. This result indicates that the key point of industrial digitalization for carbon emission reduction may be increasing the digital service inputs. Third, the optimization results show that the digital-input-oriented optimization model, which encourages an increase in digital service inputs, could achieve greater targets of economic growth and carbon emission reduction. The total outputs of Telecommunication Services and Computer Services should increase globally by 10.24% and 8.89%, respectively.