The impact of synergistic development of renewable energy and digital economy on energy intensity: Evidence from 33 countries

Given the severe global warming trend, accelerating the synergistic development of renewable energy and digital economy to reduce energy intensity is crucial to resolving the contradictions among economic growth, energy supply, and environmental pressures. This study explores the complex impacts of renewable energy, digital economy, and their synergistic development on energy intensity in 33 major emitters. Comprehensive indices characterizing the development of digital economy and renewable energy are constructed. Considering the challenges in modeling energy intensity caused by various factors and complex non-linear relationships between energy intensity and factors, Machine Learning and SHAP model are used to uncover non-linear relationships among variables; QAP model analyzes the impact of factor differences on energy intensity differences. The results show that renewable energy has the most significant impact on energy intensity and narrow energy intensity differences among countries. Digital economy and synergistic development have minor impacts on energy intensity; however, synergistic development shows an insignificant effect on energy intensity differences, digital economy significantly enlarges energy intensity differences after 2018. Renewable energy, digital economy, and synergistic development have more significant effects on reducing energy intensity in high-income countries than in other countries. Those findings provide decision support for global sustainable development.