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The relationship between renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and carbon dioxide emission: evidence from two-step system GMM

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Abstract

Large amount of energy use for rising economic growth leads to high carbon dioxide discharge that worsens environmental quality which is a challenge for countries in achieving sustainable development. Improved level of technological innovations and renewable energy consumption might overcome the issue of environmental degradation and achieving sustainable development. This study examines the effect of technological innovations on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission in the belt and road initiative countries for the period of 1995 to 2019. Two-step difference and two-step system GMM models were employed for analysis where the results indicate that technological innovations increase renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. The effect of renewable energy consumption and trademark applications on carbon dioxide is negatively significant that raises environmental quality. Furthermore, this study confirms the validity of Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the sample countries. The findings of this study have considerable policy implication for the sample countries on rising technological innovations and renewable energy consumption in achieving environmental sustainability.

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Funding

This Work was supported by Subject Funding Projects of School of Finance and Public Administration, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics under Grant No.(2021CZXK014), and The Scientific Research Basic Capacity Improvement Project of Guangxi’s Young and Middle-aged College Teachers under Grant No.(2019KY0651).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Yuan Jiang

  2. School of Finance and Public Administration, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanning, 530007, China

    Yuan Jiang

  3. China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Hayat Khan

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  1. Yuan Jiang
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  2. Hayat Khan
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Formal analysis of results, interpretations, and writing were performed by Yuan Jiang; literature review, paper arrangement, innovation of the study and idea, and proofreading were done by Hayat khan

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Correspondence to Hayat Khan.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 9 The effect of innovation on renewable energy consumption
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Table 10 The effect of innovation on carbon emission
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Table 11 The effect of innovation on carbon emission
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Jiang, Y., Khan, H. The relationship between renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and carbon dioxide emission: evidence from two-step system GMM. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 4187–4202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22391-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22391-4

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