The role of digital economy in promoting energy justice----Evidence from procedural justice and outcome justice

This paper identifies the procedural justice and outcome justice of the energy transition by analyzing the differences within sample groups and exploring how the digital economy guides the cross-production-stage and cross-regional allocation of factors, influencing the energy justice transition. The research finds that the development of the digital economy significantly promotes energy justice transition. Digital economy drives the cross-border allocation of factors, fostering environment-biased technological progress, especially energy-saving biased technological progress, in energy-lagging cities, which reduces clean energy development and operation costs, thus facilitating energy justice transition. Higher public environmental concerns and cleaner energy levels amplify the positive impact of the digital economy on energy justice transition, while higher urban economic burdens exert a significant inhibitory effect. Further analysis reveals that accelerating the low-carbon energy transition in energy-lagging cities through the digital economy negatively affect urban unemployment and wage levels, with the transitions in low-carbon energy structure having a more pronounced impact. However, the procedural justice of energy transition significantly narrows the economic development gap between resource-based cities and other cities.