The impact of digitization on ecological environment governance capacity: Evidence from China

Improving ecological environment governance capacity is crucial for achieving environmental sustainability, and the potential benefits of digitalization should be fully leveraged. This study is distinguished by its innovative development of a composite index aimed at evaluating governance capacity in ecological environment. Additionally, we conduct an empirical analysis to explore the causal relationship between digitalization and ecological environment governance capacity while identifying the mechanisms that underpin this relationship. Based on provincial data from China, the research reveals that digitalization significantly enhances ecological environment governance capacity. The finding remains robust following a series of robustness tests. More specifically, for every one unit increase in digitalization, ecological environment governance capacity can be enhanced by 0.06 units. Furthermore, the enhancement effect is more pronounced in the eastern region, big data pilot zone, high carbon emission and high innovation resource endowment regions. The coefficients of digitalization in these areas are 0.123, 0.130, 0.080, and 0.137 respectively. Mechanism analysis shows that digitalization improves ecological environment governance capacity by fostering renewable energy development and facilitating knowledge spillover. Further spatial analysis presents significant spatial spillover effects of digitalization on ecological environment governance capacity. These findings provide valuable insights for enhancing ecological environment governance capacity and promoting environmental sustainability through digitalization.