Abstract: With the rapid development of digital economy and the progress of network information technology,“Internet+green ecology”, “Internet+environmental protection”,“Internet +smart energy”and other new forms and models of network economy are constantly emerging. The Internet is likely to have an important impact on the growth of green economy. Through mathematical model deduction, this paper reveals the micro mechanism of the Internet influence on the growth of green economy. It selects China's inter-provincial panel data from 2003 to 2015 to conduct an empirical survey of the impact of the Internet on the growth of China's green economy and the network effect. The findings show that the Internet plays a significant role in promoting the growth of green economy, the economic development, trade opening, scientific and technological innovation, environmental governance and resource recycling have a significant positive impact on the growth of green economy, while the industrial structure has a significant negative impact, the population density has no significant effect. There is a“digital gap”between the eastern, the central and the western regions, and the spillover effect of the Internet on green economic growth is characterized by heterogeneity. The Internet has a significant single threshold effect on the growth of green economy. With the increase of Internet penetration rate, the influence of the Internet on the growth of green economy has been significantly increased, that is, there exists a network effect. We should have a correct understanding of the role of the Internet, taking the Internet as a new power to promote China's green economic growth.

Key words: Internet, green economic growth, green competitiveness, network effect