Technology, Urbanization and Natural Gas Supply Matter for Carbon Neutrality: A New Evidence of Environmental Sustainability under the Prism of COP26

Abstract

The rising temperature and environmental deterioration have been observed as crucial agendas for the globe. Therefore, economies worldwide have tried to minimize growing temperatures up to 1.5 0C. In the recent decade, a meeting (COP26) by the UN has been held in Paris to fight for environmental sustainability. However, the energy sector can play a significant role in determining the best solution. Thus, natural gas has attained remarkable attention from policymakers. Accordingly, the current study mainly focuses on the natural gas supply for environmental sustainability under COP26. Consequently, we consider the economic complexity index, urbanization, technology, and natural gas supply determinants of carbon emissions in the top 15 natural gas supplier economies from 2000 to 2019. However, Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Cross-Sectional ARDL estimators are employed to inspect the long-term connection among selected variables. Similarly, summarized results validate the inverted U-shaped EKC curve for selected economies. Similarly, urbanization significantly contributes to environmental deterioration. Besides, technology and natural gas supply (NGS) are inversely associated with carbon emissions and contribute to ecological sustainability. Besides the moderate role of NGS on ECI, urbanization and technology significantly contribute to environmental quality. Several necessary policies are proposed in this study to achieve the target level of environmental sustainability.