Abstract
Environmental sustainability is an important issue for current scholars and policymakers in the East Asian and Pacific region. The causal and long-run effects of technological innovation, public–private partnership investment in energy, and renewable energy consumption on environmental sustainability in the East Asian and Pacific regions have not been comprehensively explored while taking into account the role of economic growth using quarterly data for the period 1992–2015. Therefore, the present study aims to close this literature gap using econometric approaches, namely Bayer–Hanck cointegration, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) tests. Furthermore, the study utilizes the frequency domain causality test to capture the causal impact of public–private partnership investment in energy, renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and economic growth on CO2 emissions. The advantage of the frequency domain causality test is that it can capture the causality between short-term, medium-term, and long-term variables. The outcomes of the ARDL, FMOLS and DOLS show that renewable energy consumption and technological innovation mitigate CO2 emissions, while public–private partnership investment in energy and economic growth increase CO2 emissions. Moreover, the frequency causality test outcomes reveal that technological innovation, public–private partnership investment in energy, and renewable energy consumption cause CO2 emissions, particularly in the long-term. Thus, as a policy recommendation, the present study recommends promoting renewable energy consumption by focusing more on technological innovation in the East Asia and Pacific regions.
Highlights
Climate change is currently one of the main obstacles to achieving environmental sustainability globally [1]
The Jarque–Bera p-values illustrated that only renewable energy consumption conforms to normality while CO2 emissions, Public–private partnership investment in energy, and technological innovation do not conform to normality
To the investigator’s knowledge, the causal and long-run effects of technological innovation, public–private partnerships in energy, and renewable energy consumption on environmental sustainability in the East Asian and Pacific regions have not been comprehensively explored while taking into account the role of economic growth
Summary
Climate change is currently one of the main obstacles to achieving environmental sustainability globally [1]. Khan et al [7] investigated the impacts of technology innovation and public–private partnership investment in energy on China’s CO2 emissions using quarterly data from 1990 to 2017. The outcomes indicate that public–private partnership investment in energy hinder environmental sustainability by increasing CO2 emissions; in contrast, innovation mitigates CO2 emissions. The researchers utilized recent econometric techniques, with the findings showing that innovation and green energy usage enhance the quality of the environment, while economic growth and financial development worsen the environment’s quality. Based on the reviewed literature, there is no consensus on the linkages between CO2 emissions and public-private partnership in energy, technological innovation, renewable energy usage, and economic growth, giving room for further analysis of these associations. The fourth section discusses the findings, while the fifth section provides conclusions and proposes a policy path
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