Smart Cities are feasible + good for the environment

Based on the panel data from 2008 to 2020, this paper uses the multi-period difference in differences method to empirically test the impact of the implementation of smart city policies on the urban green economy. The research results show that the implementation of smart city policies has promoted the development of urban green economy from two aspects: First of all, in terms of environmental protection, the implementation of the smart city policy has reduced the discharge of industrial SO2 pollutants in central and northeastern regions; secondly, in terms of energy conservation, the implementation of this policy has particularly reduced power consumption per unit of GDP in east and west regions. The paper further verifies the robustness of the results using a series of tests such as PSD-DID, lagged one period, expanded sample size and placebo test. Moreover, the endogeneity problem is effectively solved by the instrumental variable method. Further explore the impact mechanism of smart city policies to promote green economy, and found that smart cities can promote green economic growth through technological activities and government public expenditure. In addition, the multi-period nature of smart cities allows the accumulation of construction experience and the construction effect will become better and better. Based on the research results of this paper, the following policy recommendations are proposed: 1. To further expand the scope of smart city pilots, and the construction of smart cities should be differentiated based on the basic conditions and actual conditions of the city or region (Ning et al., 2020). In addition, return visits to cities and regions that have been established as smart city pilots are conducted to ensure the continuity and stability of the implementation of smart city policies, in order to establish a stable and long-term mechanism for environmental friendliness, energy conservation and emission reduction, and to promote green economic development. 2. The empirical results of this paper show that the progress of technology is one of the influencing mechanisms to promote the development of green economy. Therefore, the government needs to include low-carbon science and technology as an important component of the national strategic science and technology force. Increasing R&D investment in energy conservation and emission reduction, promoting the proliferation of energy conservation and emission reduction technologies are necessary for the development of green economy. 3. The government should not only increase support for enterprises to invest in low-carbon emission reduction and improve their green innovation capacity, but also subsidize green enterprises, using financial and administrative measures to reduce the cost of developing low-carbon technologies and resources and to promote the development of a low-carbon green economy. The implementation of smart city policies is important to enhance the sustainability of cities, not only to provide the necessary guarantee for green economic development, but also to promote the achievement of the “carbon emission peaking” goal in terms of reducing pollutant emissions and fossil energy consumption. Although the text focuses on the impact of the implementation of smart city policies on the development of green economy in cities, in fact, the construction of smart cities also has an important impact on the energy structure and carbon emission structure, which plays an important role in the long-term development of green economy and “carbon neutrality” of cities, and this will also be one of the future research directions.