Nexus of green energy innovation, governance quality, and CO2 emissions in natural resource sector: The role of sustainable human development

Abstract

Majority of the literature suggest that the determination of natural resources as either a curse or a blessing cannot be solely based on their impact on economic and social development. This study investigates the relationship between sustainable human development, governance quality, green energy innovation, and CO2 emissions in oil and gas sector of China. The data from 2002 to 2022 was taken for the analysis. This study employed the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (D-ARDL) method to examine long-term and short-term relationships. Our results of short-term analysis demonstrated that all the variables – institutional governance, sustainable human development renewable energy innovation, government stability and renewable energy consumption–have an influential role in reduce carbon emissions. The results of long run analysis reiterate findings of short run, highlighting the inverse relationship of the variables with carbon emissions. The t-statistic shows of such relationships are statistically significant in the long run. The findings of the study offer valuable insights and empirical evidence to reduce emissions using governance quality, sustainable human development, green energy innovation and renewable energy consumption in oil and gas sector of China. Our findings demonstrate that implementation of these strategies require long-term commitment and concerted efforts.