This paper investigates the role of the digital economy in reducing carbon emissions, with a particular focus on the moderating and threshold effects of green finance. An analysis of data from 30 Chinese provinces shows that the digital economy significantly reduces carbon emission intensity by restructuring energy consumption and promoting green technological innovation. Green finance plays a crucial moderating role by alleviating financial barriers to digital transformation and supporting the implementation of emission-reducing technologies. The study reveals a nonlinear relationship, with green finance exhibiting a “strong initial, weak subsequent” threshold effect. At the same time, the digital economy’s impact on carbon reduction strengthens over time as technological development progresses. These findings contribute to understanding how digitalisation and green finance can work synergistically to drive sustainable low-carbon development.

“Administrative collaboration” is an important theoretical and methodological requirement proposed by the Chinese government to advance the environmental governance of the Yellow River Basin (YRB). In the governance of Yellow River water pollution, it has been regarded as a key strategy to respond to and resolve pollution issues. Administrative collaboration refers to the timely linkage and cooperation that government departments in different administrative regions of the basin carry out when water pollution occurs. China’s current legal documents have stipulated provisions on this; however, most of these provisions are only guiding rather than obligatory, so collaboration between government departments mainly relies on their respective willingness. As a result, administrative power barriers are difficult to break through, making it hard to implement collaborative governance. To address this, relevant entities should be endowed with obligations through legal provisions. This study innovatively proceeds from the perspective of normative texts, establishes administrative collaborative governance as a legal obligation that government departments at all levels must fulfill, and proposes a series of operable and specific supervision requirements. This is intended to ensure the effective implementation of administrative collaboration in governance practice, realize the value of sustainable basin development, and at the same time provide legislative references for governments around the world in carrying out collaborative governance of major rivers.

This paper explores the effects of multiple external shocks faced by manufacturers and the government on the macroeconomy and the quality of the ecological environment by constructing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in various sectors, with the following conclusions: (1) Both productivity and environmental protection technology shocks can achieve the coordinated development of macroeconomic and ecological environments. (2) Environmental improvement is lagging behind business willingness to cut emissions, and an energy shock has an immediate but long-term unsustainable impact on reducing low-carbon emissions. (3) The effects of the government's three emission-reduction measures diverge significantly. In the short term, the carbon tax rate significantly improves environmental quality. However, in the long term, its effect is counterproductive, as it does nothing to support the coordinated development of the economy and ecological environment. The subsidies for energy conservation and emission reduction, along with government expenditure on pollution control, stimulate growth in output, consumption, and energy in the current period. However, the restoration effect on the ecological environment has a lag. (4) The long-term coordinated development of the ecological environment and economy will fundamentally necessitate continuous technological progress, as well as flexible and effective market mechanisms.