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From bits to emissions: how FinTech benefits climate resilience?

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  • Qingyang Wu

    (University of California)

Abstract

With financial technology (FinTech) emerging as a pivotal force driving business model innovation and reshaping market competitiveness, its potential contribution to sustainability has garnered widespread attention. Drawing on carbon emissions data at the county level from 2011 to 2017 in China, alongside information on the FinTech companies, this study reveals that FinTech significantly reduces regional carbon emissions intensity. This effect is particularly pronounced in developed regions and metropolitan cities. These findings withstand rigorous scrutiny, including the application of instrumental variable strategies, controlling for financial attributes, and robustness checks altering model specifications. Mechanism analysis indicates that FinTech fosters optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and promotes the development of the ICT industry, while simultaneously driving down the proportion of coal in electricity generation and per unit GDP energy consumption, and increasing the proportion of new energy generation, thereby enhancing overall energy efficiency. The evidence presented herein supports the role of FinTech in enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions and achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingyang Wu, 2024. "From bits to emissions: how FinTech benefits climate resilience?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2009-2037, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:67:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s00181-024-02609-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-024-02609-9
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    Cited by:

    1. Wu, Qingyang & Li, Shanhong, 2024. "Decarbonization by digits: How data factors drive nonlinear sustainable dynamics in manufacturing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 374(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    FinTech; Carbon emission intensity; Industrial optimizing and upgrading; Energy structure and efficiency; Climate change; Sustainable development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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