Can enhancing internet access rates mitigate carbon-dioxide emissions related to use of unclean natural resources within South Asia?

Addressing the agonizing issue of severe climate change-vulnerability across South Asia is a critically important policy agenda of the concerned governments. Hence, to become climate resilient, it is imperative for South Asian countries to figure out mechanisms to overcome their dependence on unclean natural resources which, to a large extent, is responsible for triggering carbon-dioxide emissions and worsening the prospects of establishing environmental sustainability within this region. Therefore, this study specifically explores whether improving internet access rates can help South Asian countries to lessen their atmospheric discharges of carbon-dioxide. Besides, this study also checks whether internet accessibility improvement can limit the emission-enhancing effects associated with greater utilization on unclean natural resources. Accordingly, using a balanced panel data set comprising five South Asian countries and yearly data from 2002 to 2022, empirical estimations are performed using econometric methods that are robust against various panel data-related problems. Overall, in a nutshell, the results verify the direct carbon-dioxide emission-mitigating impacts of internet accessibility improvement. Additionally, more access to internet services is found to moderate the natural resource dependence-emissions nexus by partially reducing the carbon emission-enhancing effects associated with natural resource dependence. Thus, internet accessibility improvement is deemed as a climatic vulnerability-lessening factor for the selected South Asian countries. Moreover, renewable energy transition and more availability of domestic credits for the private sector are found to dampen carbon-dioxide emissions. Conversely, good governance promotion, against expectations, is observed to boost CO2 emissions in South Asia. Furthermore, these findings remain robust across alternative empirical model specifications and panel regression techniques. Hence, these robust findings should be considered by South Asian policymakers to design carbon emission-abating policies in the future.