IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecp/v63y2024i2p283-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empowering sustainability practices through energy transition: The role of digital economy and technological innovation among BRICS economies

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Awais Baloch
  • Yiting Qiu
  • Zilu Guo

Abstract

Achieving sustainable development targets requires major changes in the existing economic structure and a transition from a pollution‐intensive energy system to a clean one. The role of the digital economy (DE) in this regard has received much attention in recent eras. However, there is little literature investigating the relationship between the DE and the energy transition in the presence of technological innovation. This study's aim, grounded in the sustainability agenda, is to explore the possible impact of DE and technological innovation on the energy transition for the BRICS nations from 2003 to 2021. Using the most recent Moments Quantile Regression method, the results reveal that the DE can contribute significantly to achieving SDG‐7 by promoting energy transition. While technological innovation does not significantly influence the energy transition. Moreover, economic development is hindering the energy transition in the BRICS countries. Several alternative estimation methods have been applied to confirm the robustness of the results. The empirical results conclude that governments should build digital infrastructure and encourage innovation in the energy sector by supporting energy‐related patents. The detailed policy implications are presented in the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Awais Baloch & Yiting Qiu & Zilu Guo, 2024. "Empowering sustainability practices through energy transition: The role of digital economy and technological innovation among BRICS economies," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 283-301, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:63:y:2024:i:2:p:283-301
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8454.12330
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8454.12330
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-8454.12330?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Dong, Xiucheng & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2022. "Assessing the digital economy and its carbon-mitigation effects: The case of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    2. Bompard, Ettore & Ciocia, Alessandro & Grosso, Daniele & Huang, Tao & Spertino, Filippo & Jafari, Mehdi & Botterud, Audun, 2022. "Assessing the role of fluctuating renewables in energy transition: Methodologies and tools," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    3. Hashem Pesaran, M. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2008. "Testing slope homogeneity in large panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 50-93, January.
    4. Pengyu Chen & Yuanyuan Hao, 2022. "Digital transformation and corporate environmental performance: The moderating role of board characteristics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1757-1767, September.
    5. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    6. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    7. Machado, José A.F. & Santos Silva, J.M.C., 2019. "Quantiles via moments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 213(1), pages 145-173.
    8. Wang, Bo & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Dong, Xiucheng, 2023. "Is the digital economy conducive to the development of renewable energy in Asia?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    9. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    10. Bashir, Muhammad Farhan & Pan, Yanchun & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Ghosh, Sudeshna, 2023. "How energy transition and environmental innovation ensure environmental sustainability? Contextual evidence from Top-10 manufacturing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 697-709.
    11. Koenker, Roger, 2004. "Quantile regression for longitudinal data," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 74-89, October.
    12. Muhammad Awais Baloch & Ilhan Ozturk & Festus Victor Bekun & Danish Khan, 2021. "Modeling the dynamic linkage between financial development, energy innovation, and environmental quality: Does globalization matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 176-184, January.
    13. Muhammad Awais Baloch & Danish, 2022. "CO2 emissions in BRICS countries: what role can environmental regulation and financial development play?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-14, May.
    14. Sun, Yunpeng & Bao, Qun & Siao-Yun, Wei & Islam, Misbah ul & Razzaq, Asif, 2022. "Renewable energy transition and environmental sustainability through economic complexity in BRICS countries: Fresh insights from novel Method of Moments Quantile regression," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1165-1176.
    15. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu & Yang, Xiaodong & Xie, Guo, 2021. "Does internet development improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    16. Shu, Haicheng & Wang, Yu & Umar, Muhammad & Zhong, Yifan, 2023. "Dynamics of renewable energy research, investment in EnvoTech and environmental quality in the context of G7 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Bamati, Narges & Raoofi, Ali, 2020. "Development level and the impact of technological factor on renewable energy production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 946-955.
    19. Murshed, Muntasir, 2023. "Efficacies of technological progress and renewable energy transition in amplifying national electrification rates: contextual evidence from developing countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed, Mansoora & Khaskheli, Asadullah & Raza, Syed Ali & Hassan, M. Kabir, 2024. "Eco-tech fusion: Unraveling the nonparametric causal effects of fintech, natural resources, digital infrastructure, and economic growth on environmental sustainability from a quantile perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Rui Dong & Jinzhao Song & Tao Jiang & Muhammad Awais Baloch, 2025. "Environmental Sustainability Across BRICS Economies: the Dynamics Among the Digital Economy, Education, and CO2 Emissions," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 4125-4145, March.
    3. Doğan, Buhari & Khalfaoui, Rabeh & Bergougui, Brahim & Ghosh, Sudeshna, 2025. "Unveiling the impact of the digital economy on the interplay of energy transition, environmental transformation, and renewable energy adoption," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Hwang, Young Kyu & Venter, Alanda, 2025. "The impact of the digital economy and institutional quality in promoting low-carbon energy transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    5. Degirmenci, Tunahan & Aydin, Mehmet & Cakmak, Bunyamin Yasin & Yigit, Busra, 2024. "A path to cleaner energy: The nexus of technological regulations, green technological innovation, economic globalization, and human capital," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    6. Dongri Han & Miaomiao Li & Ke Lu, 2025. "Digital platforms enabling carbon neutral technology innovation: based on market incentives and government constraints," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Talan, Amogh & Rao, Amar & Sharma, Gagan Deep & Apostu, Simona-Andreea & Abbas, Shujaat, 2023. "Transition towards clean energy consumption in G7: Can financial sector, ICT and democracy help?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Khan, Yasir & Hassan, Taimoor & Guiqin, Huang & Nabi, Ghulam, 2023. "Analyzing the impact of natural resources and rule of law on sustainable environment: A proposed policy framework for BRICS economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    3. Muhammad Zahid Rafique & Nicolas Schneider & Umer Shahzad & Malin Song, 2022. "High‐tech industries, financial expansion, and low‐carbon energy deployment along the Belt and Road Initiative," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1779-1795, December.
    4. Xingpeng Zheng & Saeed Mousa & Hafizah Mat Nawi & Muhammad Atif Nawaz & Sobia Hanif, 2025. "Does resource richness help in uplifting the economic status of resource‐abundant developing countries? Evidence from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries using method of moments quantile reg," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2), pages 1108-1131, May.
    5. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nwani, Chinazaekpere & Bekun, Festus Victor & Gyamfi, Bright Akwasi & Agozie, Divine Q., 2022. "Discerning the role of renewable energy and energy efficiency in finding the path to cleaner consumption and production patterns: New insights from developing economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    6. Xiaohong Liu, 2023. "Impacts of Environmental Pollution and Digital Economy on the New Energy Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Razzaq, Asif & Ajaz, Tahseen & Li, Jing Claire & Irfan, Muhammad & Suksatan, Wanich, 2021. "Investigating the asymmetric linkages between infrastructure development, green innovation, and consumption-based material footprint: Novel empirical estimations from highly resource-consuming economi," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Dash, Devi Prasad & Das, Narasingha & Ullah, Ehsan & Hossain, Md. Emran, 2024. "Green energy transition in OECD region through the lens of economic complexity and environmental technology: A method of moments quantile regression perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    9. Javed, Asif & Shabir, Maria & Rao, Fabeha & Uddin, Muhammad Salah, 2025. "Effect of green technological innovation and financial development on green energy transition in N-11 countries: Evidence from the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    10. Liu, Xuemei & Yuan, Shuhan & Yu, Haoran & Liu, Zheng, 2023. "How ecological policy stringency moderates the influence of industrial innovation on environmental sustainability: The role of renewable energy transition in BRICST countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 194-204.
    11. Clement Olalekan Olaniyi & Nicholas Mbaya Odhiambo, 2025. "Do natural resource rents aid renewable energy transition in resource‐rich African countries? The roles of institutional quality and its threshold," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2), pages 1330-1375, May.
    12. Wang, Haohui & Peng, Gang & Luo, Yan & Du, Hongmei, 2023. "Asymmetric influence of renewable energy, ecological governance, and human development on green growth of BRICS countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1007-1019.
    13. Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Rao, Amar & Sharma, Gagan Deep & Dev, Dhairya & Kharbanda, Aeshna, 2024. "Empowering energy transition: Green innovation, digital finance, and the path to sustainable prosperity through green finance initiatives," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    14. Fu, Haoliang & Guo, Wenwei & Sun, Zheng & Xia, Ting, 2023. "Asymmetric impact of natural resources rent, monetary and fiscal policies on environmental sustainability in BRICS countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Ma, Fenfen & Saleem, Hummera & Ding, Xueting & Nazir, Sidra & Tariq, Salman, 2024. "Do natural resource rents, green technological innovation, and renewable energy matter for ecological sustainability? Role of green policies in testing the environmental kuznets curve hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Le, Thai Hong & Mai, Minh Lam & Nguyen, Mai Quynh Thi & Nguyen, Anh Phuong & Do, Chi Phuong, 2025. "Examining the role of environmental tax, green innovation, and digital financial inclusion for energy transition: Evidence from OECD countries," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1).
    17. Śmiech, Sławomir & Karpinska, Lilia & Bouzarovski, Stefan, 2025. "Impact of energy transitions on energy poverty in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    18. Chen, Jianxing & Wei, Shiwei & Mei, Chun, 2023. "Do structural transformation and urbanization assist in enhancing sustainable energy technologies innovations? Evidence from ASEAN countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 895-902.
    19. Voumik, Liton Chandra & Ghosh, Smarnika & Rashid, Mamunur & Das, Mihir Kumar & Esquivias, Miguel Angel & Rojas, Omar, 2024. "The effect of geopolitical risk and green technology on load capacity factors in BRICS," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. Fang, Shuya & Fang, Wei, 2023. "How fiscal decentralization and trade diversification influence sustainable development: Moderating role of resources dependency," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:63:y:2024:i:2:p:283-301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0004-900X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.