How do information and communication technology, human capital and renewable energy affect CO ₂ emission; New insights from BRI countries

Abstract

If nations want to attain sustainable development with the exponential growth of information and communication technology (ICT) around the world, they must understand the connection between ICT and carbon emissions. Therefore, this study has used panel data from 64 ‘‘Belt and Road Initiative economies between 2000 and 2021 while finding the impact of ICT, renewable energy consumption (REC), human capital (HC) and economic growth (EG) on CO ₂ emissions. This study employs the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator, Mean Group (MG) estimator and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality. The findings indicate that the use of ICT, HC and the REC are inversely related to CO ₂ emissions, whereas EG is positively associated to CO ₂ emissions and hence poses a danger to environmental sustainability. In addition, the interaction term of EG with ICT, REC and HC has negative impact on CO ₂ emissions in BRI economies. Intriguingly, the results reveal that ICT and CO ₂ emissions has inverted U-shape relationship in BRI economies. Furthermore, the causality results show that ICT, REC, and human capital are all cause and effect linkages that affect CO ₂ emissions in both directions. In order to reduce energy utilization and boost economic growth, the findings stress the importance of implementing cutting-edge ICT and REC in the industrial sector.