Stay circular economy, empowerment, and natural resource utilization factual factors for SDG 12? The principal role of digital technologies

Abstract

Recently, the UN has suggested several green initiatives to adopt renewable energy consumption in human & economic activities. Therefore, most practitioners have followed the responsible production & consumption (RP&C) pattern under SDG 12 to increase economic progress. This study considers the top 15 circular economies that are ruthless in producing and consuming energy greenly. This study finds the circular economy, digital technologies, natural resource utilization, empowerment, environmental policy, and environmental degradation as decisive factors for the RP&C of energy. Similarly, the current empirical research utilizes an advanced series of estimators to investigate the study's objective. However, the long-term outcomes show a significant contribution to responsible production by circular economy while remaining insignificant for production. Under RP&C base models, this study obtains a 1.830% change in consumption and 0.135% in energy production via a significant shift in digital technologies. Furthermore, environmental policy and empowerment are positively associated with RP&C in the specified region. The role of natural resources is inversely but insignificantly related to responsible consumption and vice versa for the production side. Rising environmental concerns show a heterogeneous role for both models. This study also investigates the mediating role of digital technologies on circular economy, natural resources, and empowerment and supports the positive association in RP&C. This study suggests some implications to support SDG 12 further.