How does the digital economy accelerate global energy justice? Mechanism discussion and empirical test

In the context of climate change, just transition is particularly significant, and digitalization as a possible solution for a just transition is considered in this paper. We construct an econometric model between the digital economy and just transition by using a balanced panel dataset of 72 economies from 2010 to 2019, and explore their dynamic relationship and mechanism impacts by applying a system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) technique and a mediating model. The main results indicate that both the digital economy index and just transition index increase during the study period. Moreover, the digital economy not only promotes just transition, but also increases distributional justice, procedural justice, and restorative justice. In addition, the infrastructure and social impact of the digital economy also significantly increase the level of just transition; however, digital trade presents a negative effect on just transition. Finally, from the mechanism analysis, the digital economy indirectly improves just transition by increasing the level of human capital and financial development. This paper provides new ideas for realizing just transition in the future.