The digitalization of finance drives economic development and plays a crucial role in energy conservation and carbon emission reduction. Utilizing carbon emissions data from 2011 to 2020, we find that digital finance development can mitigate carbon emissions intensity (CEI) by approximately 0.14 %. Then, we employ a diverse set of robustness and endogeneity tests to assess the reliability of the empirical findings. Moreover, the study delves into how digital finance impacts CEI through production technology innovation (PTI) and green technology innovation (GTI). The results indicate a positive effect of PTI on CEI. GTI exerts a negative influence on CEI. In addition, there is a chain mediation effect between PTI and GTI in the baseline path. Finally, the impact of digital finance on CEI exhibits apparent regional heterogeneity.

Digital transformation has become a prominent trend in both the private and public sectors. Different from studies focusing on the transformation of the private sector, this study aims to investigate the impact of public sector digitalization, i.e., government digital transformation (GDT), on land use efficiency (LUE). Utilizing the introduction of the Big Data Bureau (BDB) as a quasi-natural experiment to GDT, this study employs a staggered difference-in-differences method (DID) and finds that GDT is significantly and positively related to LUE, denoting that cities undergoing GDT exhibit increased LUE relative to non-participants. These findings are robust after performing parallel trend tests, conducting the instrumental variable method and propensity score matching methods or entropy balance, considering heterogeneous treatment effects, and using other robustness checks. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that GDT has a significantly stronger impact among eastern cities, cities with a greater degree of marketization, or cities with advanced Internet infrastructure. Finally, the rationale behind this effect is that GDT upgrades industrial structures and promotes innovation activities, thereby increasing LUE. This study adds to the literature by providing novel insights into the effects of public sector digitalization and its role in improving LUE.