Digital empowerment of environmental regulation: a study on the impact of energy big data centers on improving urban air quality

The energy big data center (EBDC) is an important tool for government regulation of energy consumption in the digital era. However, its environmental governance effects have yet to receive systematic empirical tests. Our study uses the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method to examine the environmental effects following the implementation of China’s EBDC policy, providing empirical evidence on the impact of EBDC from the perspective of urban air quality. We find that, compared to non-pilot cities, the establishment of EBDC effectively reduces the urban air quality index by 1.505. Mechanism analysis indicates that EBDC improves urban air quality by enhancing the efficiency of government environmental enforcement and stimulating regional green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the environmental governance effects of EBDC are more significant in cities where local governments exhibit stronger motivation for environmental improvement, are located in northern regions with high reliance on fossil fuels, and have higher levels of digital economic development. Our research findings provide important policy implications for advancing the implementation of EBDC, promoting digital government regulation, and strengthening environmental protection.