Achieving pollution abatement and carbon reduction synergistically: How can industrial robots play a role?

Intelligent manufacturing and green development are pivotal issues in China's pursuit of high-quality economic growth. As the core carrier of artificial intelligence-driven production transformations, industrial robots' role in synergizing enterprise pollution control and carbon reduction has rarely been discussed in the literature. Leveraging a unique micro dataset with robot adoption, energy use, emissions, and economic factors, this study investigates the impact and mechanisms of robot adoption on enterprise pollution abatement and carbon reduction. The results unveil simultaneous SO2 and carbon emission intensity reductions after robot adoption. Further analysis attributes such synergistic effects primarily to front-end cleaner production rather than back-end pollution treatment. Promoting lean production, cleaner energy consumption, and technological innovation emerge as critical channels for robot adoption to exert synergistic benefits in pollution abatement and carbon reduction. Additionally, this collaborative abatement effect concentrates in large-scale enterprises, technology-intensive industry enterprises, and non-resource-based region enterprises. By elucidating robotization's micro-level workings, these findings provide valuable insights into green intelligent manufacturing and guide future integration of digital intelligence and green economy.