The role of technology innovation, renewable energy and globalization in reducing environmental degradation in Pakistan: A step towards sustainable environment

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse the role of technological innovation, globalization, and renewable energy to reduce environmental degradation in Pakistan by using the time series data from 1980 to 2018. The study used the quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) model for empirical estimation. According to the analysis, economic growth is positively and significantly associated with carbon dioxide emissions. The study also validates the EKC hypothesis in the case of Pakistan. Moreover, we found that technological innovation and renewable energy are negatively associated with the environmental degradation. This relationship is significant at all the quantiles. Our analysis shows that globalization is also an important source to bring an increase in CO2 emissions in Pakistan. Our empirical analysis also supports the negative role of cleaner energy for mitigating emissions in the short-term. The results from Granger causality also reveal the bidirectional causality from GDP, Innovation, and renewable energy to carbon dioxide emissions, however, there exists a unidirectional causality from GDP to globalization for Pakistan. The study provides useful policy directions for the policymakers in Pakistan.