Effectiveness of energy depletion, green growth, and technological cooperation grants on CO2 emissions in Pakistan's perspective

Abstract

According to Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Pakistan proposed to set a very ambitious conditional objective of an overall 50 % reduction in anticipated emissions by 2030, with 15 % coming from domestic resources and 35 % contingent on international grant financing, which would entail USD 101 billion just for the energy transition. Due to this consideration, the current study examines the impact of energy depletion, green growth, technological cooperation grants, and labor force on CO2 emissions in Pakistan for 1990 to 2020. This research used the STIRPAT framework and novel dynamic ARDL techniques. Additionally, a robustness check is also carried out using Kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) and the Granger causality approach is utilized to establish cause-effect relationships. The findings indicate that energy depletion leads to environmental contamination in the long run. In contrast, Green growth is reducing environmental contaminations in the long run. Furthermore, we found that technological cooperation grants also decline environmental contamination in the short run. Likewise, the Labor force dwindles CO2 emissions in the long run. According to Granger causality, there is bidirectional causality between GG↔CO2, and TCG ↔CO2, while there is one-way causality between END→CO2 and CO → LF. The findings show that policymakers should emphasize on the transition to green growth with extensive investment in technological innovations, so the country can achieve its CO2 reduction targets.