Linkages between digitalization and carbon emissions generated from natural resource-based energy sources: empirical evidence from Asia

Due to relying heavily on unclean primary natural resources (fossil fuels), power sectors in Asia are regarded as highly pollution-intensive. However, considering the importance of establishing environmental sustainability and combating climatic vulnerability, it is pertinent for Asian countries to figure out solutions through which their power sector-related emissions can be eliminated over time. On that note, this study evaluates the impacts of digitalization and various other macroeconomic factors on carbon-dioxide emissions generated from power sectors in 16 Asian countries. Accordingly, using data from 2008 to 2022 and utilizing robust panel estimators, it is found that digitalization is a key mechanism for abating power sector-related emissions across Asia. Moreover, the results also endorse that renewable energy transition, international trade participation, and corruption control are additional emission-abating factors for the selected Asian countries. Contrarily, natural resource dependency, interestingly, is not found to directly affect such emissions, while financial development is deemed responsible for inflating the power sector-related emission figures in the long-run. Further, these results exhibit regional variations across cohorts of South, Southeast, and Central/Eastern Asian countries. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases, the results appear robust after considering alternative proxies of digitalization within the estimation processes. Hence, policymakers are suggested to consider these findings when designing future emission-abating policies that are relevant for making Asian power sectors carbon neutral.