Asymmetric effects of renewable energy, fintech development, natural resources, and environmental regulations on the climate change in the post-covid era

Climate change mitigation is critically important for the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants. In the past, several studies have explored the role of various factors in climate change mitigation, but most of the studies focused on the linear relationship. However, factors like fintech, natural resources, and environmental regulations might or might not have a linear relationship; the relationship can also be non-linear, which has been ignored in past studies. Our study's distinguishing feature is that it estimates linear and non-linear effects together and overcomes the limitations of previous research. We examined the linear (symmetric) and linear (asymmetric) effects of renewable energy (RENC), natural resources (NRR), environmental regulations (EPS), and fintech (FT) on climate change. Using the data from 1990 to 2020 for BRICS countries, the study employed panel CS-ARDL and panel NARDL techniques for data analysis. The findings show that FT and EPS have an asymmetric impact on climate change. We found that NRR negatively impacts the environment by worsening climate change mitigation efforts. whereas the RENC is found to have an inverse relation, meaning that the RENC positively contributes towards climate change mitigation efforts. The findings are important for policy formulation to reduce reliance on natural resources, shift dependence towards renewable energy sources, and at the same time accelerate adoption of financial technologies to deal with climate change issues in the post-COVID era.