The non-linearity between financial development and carbon footprints: the environmental roles of technological innovation, renewable energy, and foreign direct investment

The economies of the majority of the South Asian countries have substantially expanded in the last couple of decades. Nevertheless, the simultaneous deterioration in environmental quality questions the quality of such growth performances of the South Asian countries in light of their environmental sustainability objectives. As a result, limiting the environmental hardships faced by these countries is deemed as an important agenda of the concerned governments. Therefore, this study aims to examine the determinants of carbon footprints in selected South Asian countries using advanced panel data econometric methods. Overall, the findings confirm an inverted U-shaped association between financial development and carbon footprints based on which the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is verified in the long run. Besides, technological innovation is evidenced to curb the short- and long run levels of carbon footprints while renewable energy transition exerts carbon footprint-inhibiting impact only in the long run. Further, the findings verify the pollution haven hypothesis by confirming carbon footprint-boosting impact of net foreign direct investment inflows. Consequently, for improving environmental quality, South Asian economies should develop their financial sectors further, discover green technologies, undergo renewable energy transition, and restrict inflows of unclean foreign direct investments.