IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i18p13685-d1239169.html

Do Green Energy and Information Technology Influence Greenhouse Gas Emitting Countries to Attain Sustainable Development?

Author

Listed:
  • Ningning Cui

    (School of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China)

  • Emmanuel Nketiah

    (School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science & Technology, Nanjing 210094, China)

  • Xiaoyu Ma

    (School of Finance and Trade, Wenzhou Business College, Wenzhou 325035, China)

Abstract

Transitioning from traditional energy sources to green and sustainable energy sources can potentially reduce environmental problems. Many countries are gradually recording increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as they develop their economies. As a result, this study aims to use top GHG-emitting countries in its analysis to establish the role green energy and information technology play in reducing their pollution levels. Data from 11 GHG-emitting countries from 1990–2020 were utilized. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least squares (FMOLS), Dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and Granger causality are used for the analysis. The empirical results revealed that an increase in non-renewable energy usage of 1% increases GHG gas emissions by 0.6960% (FMOLS) and 0.6119% (DOLS). On the impact of renewable energy, a 1% increase reduces GHG emissions by 0.1145% (FMOLS) and 0.1957% (DOLS). Also, a 1% increase in information technology increases GHG emissions by 0.0459% (FMOLS) and 0.0429% (DOLS) under the specifications of FMOLS and DOLS. The directional causalities are established in the study as well. In light of this, using “abundant” renewable energy sources is the gateway to reducing GHG emissions alongside their tremendous economic growth and I.T. development. Other policy implications are outlined for future research and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Ningning Cui & Emmanuel Nketiah & Xiaoyu Ma, 2023. "Do Green Energy and Information Technology Influence Greenhouse Gas Emitting Countries to Attain Sustainable Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13685-:d:1239169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13685/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13685/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Yulong & Wang, Zheng & Zhong, Zhangqi, 2019. "CO2 emissions, economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy production and foreign trade in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 208-216.
    2. Chihwa Kao & Min‐Hsien Chiang & Bangtian Chen, 1999. "International R&D Spillovers: An Application of Estimation and Inference in Panel Cointegration," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 691-709, November.
    3. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    4. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    5. Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2023. "Determinants of Green Innovation: The Role of Monetary Policy and Central Bank Characteristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-23, May.
    6. Łukasz Skowron & Olena Chygryn & Marcin Gąsior & Vitaliia Koibichuk & Serhiy Lyeonov & Serhii Drozd & Oleksandr Dluhopolskyi, 2023. "Interconnection between the Dynamic of Growing Renewable Energy Production and the Level of CO 2 Emissions: A Multistage Approach for Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, June.
    7. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Kahia, Montassar, 2019. "Impact of renewable energy consumption and financial development on CO2 emissions and economic growth in the MENA region: A panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 198-213.
    8. Bhattacharya, Mita & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy, 2017. "The dynamic impact of renewable energy and institutions on economic output and CO2 emissions across regions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 157-167.
    9. Bélaïd, Fateh & Youssef, Meriem, 2017. "Environmental degradation, renewable and non-renewable electricity consumption, and economic growth: Assessing the evidence from Algeria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 277-287.
    10. Namahoro, J.P. & Wu, Q. & Zhou, N. & Xue, S., 2021. "Impact of energy intensity, renewable energy, and economic growth on CO2 emissions: Evidence from Africa across regions and income levels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    12. Sawng, Yeong-wha & Kim, Pang-ryong & Park, JiYoung, 2021. "ICT investment and GDP growth: Causality analysis for the case of Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    13. Kumaran Kadirgama & Omar I. Awad & M. N. Mohammed & Hai Tao & Ali A. H. Karah Bash, 2023. "Sustainable Green Energy Management: Optimizing Scheduling of Multi-Energy Systems Considered Energy Cost and Emission Using Attractive Repulsive Shuffled Frog-Leaping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-19, July.
    14. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Sun, Huaping & Edziah, Bless Kofi & Sun, Chuanwang & Kporsu, Anthony Kwaku, 2019. "Institutional quality, green innovation and energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    16. Nguyen, Kim Hanh & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2019. "Renewable energy consumption, carbon emissions, and development stages: Some evidence from panel cointegration analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1049-1057.
    17. Hamit-Haggar, Mahamat, 2012. "Greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: A panel cointegration analysis from Canadian industrial sector perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 358-364.
    18. Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Mo, Di & Gupta, Rakesh, 2017. "The effects of stock market growth and renewable energy use on CO2 emissions: Evidence from G20 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 360-371.
    19. Ioannis Dokas & Minas Panagiotidis & Stephanos Papadamou & Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2022. "The Determinants of Energy and Electricity Consumption in Developed and Developing Countries: International Evidence," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-30, March.
    20. Tang, Chor Foon & Tan, Eu Chye, 2013. "Exploring the nexus of electricity consumption, economic growth, energy prices and technology innovation in Malaysia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 297-305.
    21. Stock, James H & Watson, Mark W, 1993. "A Simple Estimator of Cointegrating Vectors in Higher Order Integrated Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(4), pages 783-820, July.
    22. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:653-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. De Vita, Glauco & Trachanas, Emmanouil & Luo, Yun, 2018. "Revisiting the bi-directional causality between debt and growth: Evidence from linear and nonlinear tests," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 55-74.
    24. Yinuo Wang & Fengxiu Zhou & Huwei Wen, 2023. "Does Environmental Decentralization Promote Renewable Energy Development? A Local Government Competition Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    25. Hu, Hui & Xie, Nan & Fang, Debin & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2018. "The role of renewable energy consumption and commercial services trade in carbon dioxide reduction: Evidence from 25 developing countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1229-1244.
    26. Xiaohang Ren & Cheng Cheng & Zhen Wang & Cheng Yan, 2021. "Spillover and dynamic effects of energy transition and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions for the European Union: A dynamic spatial panel model," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 228-242, January.
    27. Shoeib Faraji Abdolmaleki & Danial Esfandiary Abdolmaleki & Pastora M. Bello Bugallo, 2023. "Finding Sustainable Countries in Renewable Energy Sector: A Case Study for an EU Energy System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    28. Edziah, Bless Kofi & Sun, Huaping & Adom, Philip Kofi & Wang, Feng & Agyemang, Andrew Osei, 2022. "The role of exogenous technological factors and renewable energy in carbon dioxide emission reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 1418-1428.
    29. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:691-709 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Samour, Ahmed & Moyo, Delani & Tursoy, Turgut, 2022. "Renewable energy, banking sector development, and carbon dioxide emissions nexus: A path toward sustainable development in South Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 1032-1040.
    31. Avom, Désiré & Nkengfack, Hilaire & Fotio, Hervé Kaffo & Totouom, Armand, 2020. "ICT and environmental quality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Effects and transmission channels," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    32. Jun Wen & Lingxiao Li & Xinxin Zhao & Chenyang Jiao & Wenjie Li, 2022. "How Government Size Expansion Can Affect Green Innovation—An Empirical Analysis of Data on Cross-Country Green Patent Filings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-22, June.
    33. Mamon Adam Maarof & Dildar Haydar Ahmed & Ahmed Samour, 2023. "Fiscal Policy, Oil Price, Foreign Direct Investment, and Renewable Energy—A Path to Sustainable Development in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, June.
    34. Asongu, Simplice A. & Le Roux, Sara & Biekpe, Nicholas, 2018. "Enhancing ICT for environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 209-216.
    35. Zhang, Qianxiao & Shah, Syed Ale Raza & Yang, Ling, 2022. "An Appreciated Response of Disaggregated Energies Consumption towards the Sustainable Growth: A debate on G-10 Economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    36. ., 2023. "Development indicators at the global level," Chapters, in: Macroeconomics for Development, chapter 2, pages 15-29, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    37. Cristina Boţa-Avram & Adrian Groşanu & Paula-Ramona Răchişan & Marius Dan Gavriletea, 2018. "The Bidirectional Causality between Country-Level Governance, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24, February.
    38. Apergis, Nicholas & Ben Jebli, Mehdi & Ben Youssef, Slim, 2018. "Does renewable energy consumption and health expenditures decrease carbon dioxide emissions? Evidence for sub-Saharan Africa countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 1011-1016.
    39. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    40. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    41. Moyer, Jonathan D. & Hughes, Barry B., 2012. "ICTs: Do they contribute to increased carbon emissions?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(5), pages 919-931.
    42. AlNemer, Hashem A. & Hkiri, Besma & Tissaoui, Kais, 2023. "Dynamic impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on CO2 emission and economic growth in Saudi Arabia: Fresh evidence from wavelet coherence analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 340-356.
    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. Gheorghița Dincă & Ioana-Cătălina Netcu & Camelia Ungureanu, 2025. "Renewable Energy Transitions in the EU: A Comparative Panel Data Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-31, September.
    2. Nketiah, Emmanuel & Song, Huaming & Adjei, Mavis & Obuobi, Bright & Adu-Gyamfi, Gibbson, 2024. "Assessing the influence of research and development, environmental policies, and green technology on ecological footprint for achieving environmental sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).

    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. Dogan, Buhari & Nketiah, Emmanuel & Ghosh, Sudeshna & Nassani, Abdelmohsen A., 2025. "The impact of the green technology on the renewable energy innovation: Fresh pieces of evidence under the role of research & development and digital economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    2. Francisco García-Lillo & Eduardo Sánchez-García & Bartolomé Marco-Lajara & Pedro Seva-Larrosa, 2023. "Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development: A Bibliometric Overview," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Muhammad Farhan Bashir & Benjiang MA & Muhammad Shahbaz & Zhilun Jiao, 2020. "The nexus between environmental tax and carbon emissions with the roles of environmental technology and financial development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Usman, Muhammad & Makhdum, Muhammad Sohail Amjad, 2021. "What abates ecological footprint in BRICS-T region? Exploring the influence of renewable energy, non-renewable energy, agriculture, forest area and financial development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 12-28.
    5. Rajesh Sharma & Samaresh Bardhan, 2017. "Finance growth nexus across Indian states: evidences from panel cointegration and causality tests," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 1-20, February.
    6. Mounir Dahmani & Mohamed Mabrouki & Adel Ben Youssef, 2021. "The ICT, Financial Development, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth Nexus in MENA Countries: Panel CS-ARDL Evidence," GREDEG Working Papers 2021-46, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    7. Fang, Zheng & Chen, Yang, 2017. "Human capital, energy, and economic development – Evidence from Chinese provincial data," RIEI Working Papers 2017-03, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.
    8. Zhang, Qianxiao & Shah, Syed Ale Raza & Yang, Ling, 2022. "An Appreciated Response of Disaggregated Energies Consumption towards the Sustainable Growth: A debate on G-10 Economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    9. Muhammad Bilal Khan & Hummera Saleem & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Xie Huobao, 2022. "The effects of globalization, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 107-134, February.
    10. Ammar Al-Zubairi & Aseer AL-Akheli & Barakat ELfarra, 2025. "The impact of financial development, renewable energy and political stability on carbon emissions: sustainable development prospective for arab economies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(7), pages 15251-15273, July.
    11. Bilgehan Tekin & Sadik Aden Dirir & Kadir Aden, 2025. "Integrating sustainable finance into energy policies: A comprehensive study on the influence of green investments on energy performance in OECD nations," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 2883-2911, July.
    12. Honoré Tekam Oumbé & Ronald Djeunankan & Alain Mekia Ndzana, 2023. "Does information and communication technologies affect economic complexity?," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 1-25, April.
    13. Lin, Boqiang & Omoju, Oluwasola E., 2017. "Focusing on the right targets: Economic factors driving non-hydro renewable energy transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 52-63.
    14. Qamruzzaman, Md & Jianguo, Wei, 2020. "The asymmetric relationship between financial development, trade openness, foreign capital flows, and renewable energy consumption: Fresh evidence from panel NARDL investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 827-842.
    15. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2022. "Renewable energy and CO2 emissions: New evidence with the panel threshold model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 117-128.
    16. Dhahri, Sabrine & Omri, Anis & Mirza, Nawazish, 2024. "Information technology and financial development for achieving sustainable development goals," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    17. Kahia, Montassar & Ben Aïssa, Mohamed Safouane & Charfeddine, Lanouar, 2016. "Impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on economic growth: New evidence from the MENA Net Oil Exporting Countries (NOECs)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 102-115.
    18. Taner Akan & Halil İbrahim Gündüz & Tara Vanlı & Ahmet Baran Zeren & Ali Haydar Işık & Tamerlan Mashadihasanli, 2023. "Why are some countries cleaner than others? New evidence from macroeconomic governance," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6167-6223, July.
    19. Azam, Anam & Ateeq, Muhammad & Shafique, Muhammad & Rafiq, Muhammad & Yuan, Jiahai, 2023. "Primary energy consumption-growth nexus: The role of natural resources, quality of government, and fixed capital formation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    20. Sofien Tiba & Musavir Ul Habib, 2024. "Examining the Causal Linkages Between Nuclear Energy, Environment, and Economic Growth: An Application from the SAARC Economies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9699-9722, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13685-:d:1239169. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.