Nexus between Technological Innovation, Renewable Energy, and Human Capital on the Environmental Sustainability in Emerging Asian Economies: A Panel Quantile Regression Approach

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the interlinkage of renewable energy, technology innovation, human capital, and governance on environment quality by using a panel quantile regression in Asian emerging economies over the period of 1990–2019. The results indicated that higher economic growth, population density, technological innovation in renewable energy, and exploitation of natural resources have significantly raised CO2 emissions in emerging Asia. Furthermore, larger capital, more use of renewable energy, green technology, and human capital development can improve environmental sustainability in Asia. As for governances, proxied by corruption rates, no evidence indicated that it has resulted in more damage, unlike earlier studies have suggested. The findings indicated that the three channels exposed in the Kuznets hypothesis can serve as a reference for proposals for environmental policies (scale of consumption, energy composition, and choice of technologies). There are opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions through investments in human development, investing in new technologies to increase efficiency in energy (generation and consumption), increasing working capital (GCF), and migrating to more environmentally friendly energy. The negative link between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, increases in population density, and exploitation of natural resources can compromise the achievement of sustainable environmental goals.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emission Efficiency in the Yellow River Basin of China: Comparative Analysis of Resource and Non-Resource-Based Cities

“…Improvements in the economic development level [ 27 ] and optimization of the industrial structure [ 28 ] are conducive to improving CEE. Technological innovation can effectively improve CEE by improving the efficiency of energy resource utilization [ 29 ]. The effect of urbanization-induced population agglomeration on CEE follows a U-shaped curve [ 14 ], and foreign direct investment affects CEE through scale, structural and technological effects [ 30 ].…”

Reinvestigating the Presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve in Malaysia: The Role of Foreign Direct Investment

“…FDI not only cause the rise in the economic growth of host nations but also causes a sharp rise in CO 2 emissions (Omri et al, 2014). FDI inflows, known as one of the most substantial global investment activities, has been a key factor in achieving sustainable development, a hot topic in current research (Azam et al, 2021;Esquivias et al, 2022;Rahman et al, 2022). In addition, global climate change may be related to the rise in FDI inflows.…”

“…The link has been studied in previous studies across regions (Suki et al, 2020). As the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) argues, FDI inflows could hasten environmental degradation (Huang et al, 2022;Esquivias et al, 2022). According to the theory, businesses in industries with high pollution levels are most frequently located in nations or areas with lax environmental regulations, which could result in excessive or inadequate pollution levels.…”

Do Financial Development and Trade Liberalization Influence Environmental Quality in Indonesia? Evidence-based on ARDL Model

“…Due to poor planning in the development and construction, most of the major cities in the ASEAN region are extremely susceptible to flooding. The ASEAN countries' CO 2 emissions peaked in 2016, and the largest contributors to carbon emission releases are Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia (Esquivias et al, 2022). Identifying the primary contributors to carbon dioxide emissions is important in light of the environment's degradation and the economy's growth.…”

“…Moreover, a more rapid financial development can foster business expansion, increase land use demand, intensify energy use, foster consumption, and increase resource use (Kihombo et al, 2021). Still, larger FDI inflows, more open economies (trade), and deeper financial markets can favour environmental quality if linked to more efficient use of resources (Esquivias et al, 2022) and larger productivity that may reduce energy needs and lower CO 2 emissions.…”