How does the robot adoption promote carbon reduction?: spatial correlation and heterogeneity analysis.

Journal: Environmental science and pollution research international
PMID:

Abstract

Along with the continuous improvement of industrial intelligence, robots are widely used in various aspects of production and life, playing an essential role in achieving carbon reduction targets. However, the existing research on the carbon reduction effect of robots and its mechanism is limited. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of robot adoption on carbon emissions and analyzes the mechanism by taking 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019 as research objects. It found that robot adoption can significantly reduce carbon emissions. However, the degree of marketization plays a masking effect, which limits robots' carbon reduction effect to some extent. Furthermore, the carbon reduction effect of robot adoption is stronger in provinces with lower carbon emissions. Finally, robot adoption has a significant spatial spillover effect on neighboring regions. The improvement of robot adoption will positively affect the region's and surrounding areas' carbon emission reduction. The relevant findings provide empirical support for further deepening the policy implementation of robot-assisted carbon emission reduction.

Authors

  • Yang Nie
    Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
  • Yang Zhou
    State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Guangzhou, China.
  • Hankun Wang
    Department of Public & International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China. hankuwang3-c@my.cityu.edu.hk.
  • Liangen Zeng
    School of Public Policy and Management, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China.
  • Wenchu Bao
    Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.