Abstract
ICT is viewed in earlier research as a double-edged sword that may either help or hurt the environment. Asian nations’ ICT penetration has significantly expanded in recent years, and they are eager to bring about a digital revolution by building up their ICT infrastructure while consuming less energy for transportation and urban growth. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to investigate how ICT might reduce CO2 emissions through the use of transport energy and urban development. Empirical and theoretical debates have been remaining ambiguous and contentious topic of whether energy consumed by the transport sector and urbanization causes CO2 emanation in Asia, and what role ICT played in determining the level of CO2 remains unanswered. This study adds to the ongoing discussion for sustainable transportation in ten Asian nations for 30 years that concentrate on the relationship between the energy consumption of transport, urbanization, ICT, and carbon emanation (1990–2020) and checked the validity of EKC. The STIRPAT and panel threshold models having two regimes are used to explore the stochastic impacts of the dependent and explanatory variables. We have divided explanatory into two categories, that is, the threshold variable ICT and the regime-dependent variables urbanization and transport energy consumption. Our results confirm that the EKC hypothesis holds in these Asian economies. Thus, our findings indicate that the environmental quality improves in terms of reduction in CO2 emissions when ICT passes the threshold level due to the technological advancement in ICT dominating the scale effect induced by ICT. Furthermore, the possible policy recommendations are discussed according to the findings.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data will be available on request.
References
Adams S, Boateng E, Acheampong AO (2020) Transport energy consumption and environmental quality: does urbanization matter? Sci Total Environ 744:140617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140617
Ahmed Z, Le HP (2021) Linking Information Communication Technology, trade globalization index, and CO2 emissions: evidence from advanced panel techniques. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:8770–8781. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11205-0
Ali HS, Law SH, Zannah TI (2016) Dynamic impact of urbanization, economic growth, energy consumption, and trade openness on CO 2 emissions in Nigeria. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23:12435–12443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6437-3
Ali R, Bakhsh K, Yasin MA (2019) Impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions in emerging economy: evidence from Pakistan. Sustain Cities Soc 48:101553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101553
Anwar A, Younis M, Ullah I (2020) Impact of urbanization and economic growth on CO2 emission: a case of Far East Asian countries. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17:2531. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072531
Bakker S, Contreras KD, Kappiantari M et al (2017) Low-carbon transport policy in four ASEAN countries: developments in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Sustain 9:1217. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071217
Baltagi BH (2006) Random effects and spatial autocorrelation with equal weights. Econom Theory 22:973–984. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266466606060464
Birol F (2019) Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2019. Int Energy Agency 199
BP Energy (2021) Statistical review of world energy globally consistent data on world energy markets . and authoritative publications in the field of energy, vol 70. BP Energy outlook 2021, pp 8–20
Chatti W (2021) Moving towards environmental sustainability: information and communication technology (ICT), freight transport, and CO2 emissions. Heliyon 7:e08190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08190
Chatti W, Majeed MT (2022) Investigating the links between ICTs, passenger transportation, and environmental sustainability. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:26564–26574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17834-3
Chen H, Zhu Q, Peng C et al (2013) The impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Glob Chang Biol 19:2940–2955. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12277
Chen J, Gupta AK (2014) Parametric statistical change point analysis: with applications to genetics, medicine, and finance. Birkhäuser Boston, Boston
Danish M, Ahmad T (2018) A review on utilization of wood biomass as a sustainable precursor for activated carbon production and application. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 87:1–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.02.003
Degrande T, Vannieuwenborg F, Verbrugge S, Colle D (2019) Adoption of cooperative intelligent transport systems in Flemish passenger cars: a review of European Policy Options. In: 2019 CTTE-FITCE: Smart Cities & Information and Communication Technology (CTTE-FITCE). IEEE, pp 1–6
Dietz T, Rosa EA (1994) Rethinking the environmental impacts of population. Hum Ecol Rev 1:277–300
Ehrlich PR, Holdren JP (1971) Impact of population growth: complacency concerning this component of man’s predicament is unjustified and counterproductive. Science 80(171):1212–1217
Fodor G, Vinogradova J, Hammarberg P et al (2021) 5G new radio for automotive, rail, and air transport. IEEE Commun Mag 59:22–28. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.001.2001106
Fong Y, Huang Y, Gilbert PB, Permar SR (2017) chngpt: threshold regression model estimation and inference. BMC Bioinformatics 18:454. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1863-x
Fuhr H (2021) The rise of the Global South and the rise in carbon emissions. Third World Q 42:2724–2746. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1954901
Gebru B, Mworozi E, Kibaya P, Kaddu J (2018) Enhancing resilience to water-related impacts of climate change in Uganda’S Cattle Corridor (Chai Ll), pp 1–20
Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1991) Environmental impacts of a North American free trade agreement
Hansen BE (1999) Threshold e ! ects in non-dynamic panels : estimation , testing , and inference, vol 93
Harter JK, Schmidt FL, Asplund JW et al (2010) Causal impact of employee work perceptions on the bottom line of organizations. Perspect Psychol Sci 5:378–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610374589
Hilty L, Aebischer B (2015) ICT innovations for sustainability. Springer International Publishing, Cham
IEA (2019) World Energy Outlook 2019. World Energy Outlook 2019, 1. www.iea.org/weo%0Ahttps://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019%0Ahttps://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019%0Ahttps://webstore.iea.org/download/summary/2467?fileName=Japanese-Summary-WEO2019.pdf
Inglesi-Lotz R (2016) The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth: a panel data application. Energy Econ 53:58–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2015.01.003
IPCC (2022) Summary for Policymakers: climate change 2022_ impacts, adaptation and vulnerability_Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change
Jian L, Sohail MT, Ullah S, Majeed MT (2021) Examining the role of non-economic factors in energy consumption and CO2 emissions in China: policy options for the green economy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:67667–67676. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15359-3
Jiang L, Young MH (2008) Population , urbanization , and the environment the world is trending urban. World Watch 15:34–39
Keane RE, Mahalovich MF, Bollenbacher BL et al (2018) Effects of climate change on forest vegetation in the Northern Rockies. In: Halofsky JE, Peterson DL (eds) advances in global change research. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 59–95
Krambeck K, Silva V, Silva R et al (2021) Design and characterization of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) and nanostructured lipid carrier-based hydrogels containing Passiflora edulis seeds oil. Int J Pharm 600:120444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.120444
Lashkarizadeh M, Salatin P (2012) The effects of information and communications technology (ICT ) on air pollution. 46:8058–8064
Latif Z, Latif S, Ximei L, Pathan ZH, Salam S, Jianqiu Z (2018) The dynamics of ICT, foreign direct investment, globalization and economic growth: panel estimation robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Telemat Informatics 35:318–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.006
Liddle B (2014) Impact of population, age structure, and urbanization on carbon emissions/energy consumption: evidence from macro-level, cross-country analyses. Popul Environ 35:286–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-013-0198-4
Pesaran MH, Ullah A, Yamagata T (2008) A bias-adjusted LM test of error cross-section independence stable. Wiley behalf R Econ Soc 11:105–127
Mahmoud SH, Gan TY (2018) Impact of anthropogenic climate change and human activities on environment and ecosystem services in arid regions. Sci Total Environ 633:1329–1344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.290
Majeed MT (2018) Information and communication technology (ICT) and environmental sustainability in developed and developing countries. Pakistan J Commer Soc Sci 12:758–783
Malthus TR (1798) An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1st ed. J. Johnson, London, p iv
Miao L (2017) Examining the impact factors of urban residential energy consumption and CO2 emissions in China – evidence from city-level data. Ecol Indic 73:29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.09.031
Mohsin M, Abbas Q, Zhang J et al (2019) Integrated effect of energy consumption, economic development, and population growth on CO2 based environmental degradation: a case of transport sector. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:32824–32835. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06372-8
Moyer JD, Hughes BB (2012) ICTs: do they contribute to increased carbon emissions? Technol Forecast Soc Change 79:919–931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2011.12.005
Muggeo VMR (2003) Estimating regression models with unknown break-points. Stat Med 22:3055–3071. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.1545
Nathaniel S, Nwodo O, Adediran A et al (2019) Ecological footprint, urbanization, and energy consumption in South Africa: including the excluded. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:27168–27179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05924-2
Nations U (2020) Cities and Pollution | United Nations. United Nations
Nepal R, Phoumin H, Khatri A (2021) Green Technological Development and Deployment in the Association of Southeast Asian Economies (ASEAN)—at crossroads or roundabout? Sustainability 13:758. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020758
Nihayah DM, Mafruhah I, Hakim L, Suryanto S (2022) CO2 emissions in Indonesia: the role of urbanization and economic activities towards net zero carbon. Economies 10:72. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies10040072
Olerup B (2001) Technology development in market networks. Energy Policy 29:169–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4215(00)00118-X
Ozcan B, Apergis N, Shahbaz M (2018) A revisit of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Turkey: new evidence from bootstrap rolling window causality. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:32381–32394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3165-x
Perrings C, Duraiappah A, Larigauderie A, Mooney H (2011) The biodiversity and ecosystem services science-policy interface. Science 80(331):1139–1140. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202400
Pesaran MH (2003) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross section dependence ∗. 3:
Plepys A (2002) The grey side of ICT. Environ Impact Assess Rev 22:509–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-9255(02)00025-2
Raheem ID, Tiwari AK, Balsalobre-Lorente D (2020) The role of ICT and financial development in CO2 emissions and economic growth. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:1912–1922. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06590-0
Romm J (2002) The internet and the new energy economy. Resour Conserv Recycl 36:197–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-3449(02)00084-8
Sadorsky P (2012) Correlations and volatility spillovers between oil prices and the stock prices of clean energy and technology companies. Energy Econ 34:248–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2011.03.006
Sahoo M, Gupta M, Srivastava P (2021) Does information and communication technology and financial development lead to environmental sustainability in India? An empirical insight. Telemat Informatics 60:101598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101598
Salahuddin M, Alam K (2016) Information and Communication Technology, electricity consumption and economic growth in OECD countries: a panel data analysis. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst 76:185–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2015.11.005
Salam MA, Noguchi T (2005) Impact of human activities on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: a statistical analysis. Environmentalist 25:19–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-005-3093-4
Sanchez-Iborra R, Cano M-D (2017) On the similarities between urban traffic management and communication networks: application of the random early detection algorithm for self-regulating intersections. IEEE Intell Transp Syst Mag 9:48–61. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITS.2017.2743202
Satterthwaite D (2009) The implications of population growth and urbanization for climate change. Environ Urban 21:545–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247809344361
Schaefer C, Weber C, Voss A (2003) Energy usage of mobile telephone services in Germany. Energy 28:411–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-5442(02)00154-8
Stanley TD, Doucouliagos H, Steel P (2018) Does ICT generate economic growth? A meta-regression analysis. J Econ Surv 32:705–726. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12211
Tchamyou VS, Asongu SA, Odhiambo NM (2019) The role of ICT in modulating the effect of education and lifelong learning on income inequality and economic growth in Africa. African Dev Rev 31:261–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8268.12388
Tong STY, Sun Y, Ranatunga T et al (2012) Predicting plausible impacts of sets of climate and land use change scenarios on water resources. Appl Geogr 32:477–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2011.06.014
Tripathi M, Inani SK (2020) Does information and communications technology affect economic growth? Empirical evidence from SAARC countries. Inf Technol Dev 26:773–787. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2020.1785827
Ülengin F, Işık M, Ekici ŞÖ, Özaydın Ö, Kabak Ö, Topçu Yİ (2018) Policy developments for the reduction of climate change impacts by the transportation sector. Transp Policy 61:36–50
Verma A, Harsha V, Subramanian GH (2021) Evolution of urban transportation policies in India: a review and analysis. Transp Dev Econ 7:25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40890-021-00136-1
Wakefield J (2013) Bayesian and frequentist regression methods. Springer, New York, New York, NY
Wang J, Dong X, Dong K (2022) How does ICT agglomeration affect carbon emissions? The case of Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration in China. Energy Econ 111:106107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106107
Wang Z, Liu W (2015) Determinants of CO2 emissions from household daily travel in Beijing, China: individual travel characteristic perspectives. Appl Energy 158:292–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.08.065
Westerlund J (2007) Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2007.00477.x
Xu B, Lin B (2017) What cause a surge in China’s CO2 emissions? A dynamic vector autoregression analysis. J Clean Prod 143:17–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.159
Zhang C, Liu C (2015) The impact of ICT industry on CO2 emissions: a regional analysis in China. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 44:12–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.12.011
Zhang L, Fukuda H, Liu Z (2019) Households’ willingness to pay for green roof for mitigating heat island effects in Beijing (China). Build Environ 150:13–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.12.048
Zhang R, Matsushima K, Kobayashi K (2018) Can land use planning help mitigate transport-related carbon emissions? A case of Changzhou. Land use policy 74:32–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.04.025
Zote N (2010) Sustainable urbanization: the role of ICT in city development. Nikhil Zote - Academia.edu
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Zakia Batool: methodology, data collection, conceptualization. Naeem Ahmed: writing—original draft preparation. Muhammad Luqman: reviewing, editing, and supervision.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
We confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Consent to participate
Moreover, informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Ilhan Ozturk
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
ESM 1
(XLSX 83 kb)
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Batool, Z., Ahmed, N. & Luqman, M. Examining the role of ICT, transportation energy consumption, and urbanization in CO2 emissions in Asia: a threshold analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 78482–78494 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27995-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27995-y
Keywords
- Transport energy consumption
- Information and communication technology
- CO2 emissions
- STIRPAT model
- Panel threshold model