Understanding how information and communication technologies enhance electric power consumption and break environmental damage to reach sustainable development

Abstract

This research article investigates the association between electric power consumption (henceforth EPC), information and communication technologies (ICTs), economic progress (EP), and environmental damage (ED) for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) economy with data spanning from 1980 to 2019. Economic openness (EO) and urbanization are involved within a multivariate approach. This research has applied the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) unit root tests accounting for the existence of stationarity and specified that the concerned variables are integrated. At the same time, we applied the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and noticed that cointegration occurs between the series. Empirical results reveal that except ICT1 all the variables have a significant impact on ED in the short-run as well as the long-run. Regarding the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) techniques, the findings have shown that all the ECT coefficients are negative and statistically significant showing the existence of feedback effect between the variables of interest. Regarding the short-run causality, the results reveal that the EPC, ICT2, EP, and URB cause the ED. Besides, results show that three bidirectionalities exist for ED with EPC, ICT2, and URB. Therefore, these results recommend the KSA policymaker to support the environmental and ICTs regulations, adopt sustainable economic growth policies, and reduce EPC to ensure environmental sustainability.