Digital sparks for a greener future: Unleashing the potential of information and communication technologies in green energy transition

Abstract

The current article examines the asymmetric impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) on the energy transition within the top ten green energy-consuming nations. This study employs various advanced econometric tests and methodologies for analytical purposes, utilizing quarterly data from 1990 to 2020. The results reveal the asymmetric effects of ICT on the energy transition across the sampled economies. For instance, the energy transition process benefits from increased ICT installation in the cases of Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and the UK while looking at lower to higher quantiles. However, in the cases of China, Germany, Spain, and the USA, ICT enhances and hinders green energy production across different quantiles. Conversely, India consistently experiences adverse effects of ICT on its energy transition throughout all quantiles. Additionally, a continuous wavelet transformation causality test is applied to validate the reliability of the quantile-quantile regression (QQR) estimates. The causality test results suggest a significant causal link between ICT and renewable energy (RE) in all cases, underscoring the robustness and reliability of these findings for informing policy recommendations. Consequently, based on these findings, the study puts forth several noteworthy policy recommendations for the relevant authorities.