Environment-related Technologies Research Articles

Government political ideology and green innovation: evidence from OECD countries

In this paper, we examine the relationship between government political ideology and green innovation. We employ data on 20 democratic countries with multi-party systems between 2010 and 2018. Green innovation is measured by the total patents in environment-related technologies. We find a negative relationship between left-leaning government and green innovation, suggesting that leftist governments are associated with low green innovations. This finding is consistent with the political assumption that leftist governments resist technological advancement because it may cause unemployment, whereas rightist promotes technological advancement to benefit the capitalist. We also find that the effect of political ideology remains the same during electoral years, implying that elections do not present any pressure on parties to change their course towards green innovation. Our result implies that partisan politics matters in finding solutions to unending environmental challenges. The results are robust to alternative measurements of variables and econometric identification strategies.

Probing the carbon neutrality drive of environmental-related technologies and energy transition in France and Germany: a novel time–frequency technique

AbstractThis study presents a rare comparative analysis of the factors influencing environmental quality through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the European Union member states’ largest economies, i.e., France and Germany. By considering the unique economic, energy, and environmental characteristics of both countries, the finding unveils a novel perspective in the literature. The research utilizes a recently developed wavelet local multiple correlation (WLMC) technique with quarterly dataset spanning from 1990/Q1 to 2020/Q4. The results demonstrate that environmental-related information and communication technologies innovations, energy transition, and financial development play significant roles in limiting the growth of GHGs emission, particularly in the medium and long term. The wavelet-based Granger causality analysis reveals evidence of feedback causality among the variables in both countries in the medium and long term. Moreover, there are slight differences in the short-term relationships given that the observations are generally similar in later period. Overall, the findings offer a deeper understanding and policy insights regarding the time and frequency dynamics of GHG drivers in France and Germany. Graphical abstract

What makes environment-related technologies less effective? The role of uncertainty

This study examines the effect of environment-related technologies on environmental quality, conditional on the level of uncertainty. We apply two panel quantile regression approaches to panel data on the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over the period 1990-2015. The empirical results suggest that environment-related technologies and uncertainty both significantly help improve the environmental conditions, although the magnitude of these impacts vary across the level of environmental footprint. Notably, higher uncertainty could negate the beneficial effects of green patents on the environmental footprint, especially in a highly degraded environment. Several preliminary tests, such as cross-sectional dependence, stationarity, cointegration, and nonnormality, provide support for the adoption of panel quantile regression. The significant and heterogeneous relationships between the environmental footprint and its determining factors are also established. This research offers a scientific explanation for the ineffective adoption of environment-related technologies for improving environmental quality in many OECD countries for years and hence has valuable implications for policy makers about leveraging the beneficial impacts of environment-related technologies on the ecosystem.

Environmental apprehension under COP26 agreement: Examining the influence of environmental-related technologies and energy consumption on ecological footprint

Environmental apprehension under COP26 agreement: Examining the influence of environmental-related technologies and energy consumption on ecological footprint

Balancing prosperity and sustainability: unraveling financial risks and green finance through a COP27 lens

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between financial development (FD), financial risk, green finance and innovation related to carbon emissions in the G7 economies. Design/methodology/approach This quantitative study examines the roles that financial development [FD: Domestic credit to private sector by banks as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)], economic growth (GDP: Constant US$ 2015), financial risk index (FRI), green finance (GFIN: Renewable energy public research development and demonstration (RD&D) budget as percentage of total RD&D budget), development of environment-related technologies (DERTI: percentage of all technologies) and human capital (HCI: index) have on the environmental quality of developed economies. Based on panel data, the study uses a novel approach method of moments quantile regression as a main method to tackle the issue of cross-sectional dependency, slope heterogeneity and nonnormality of the data. Findings The study confirms that increasing economic development increases emissions and negatively impacts the environment. However, efficient resource allocation, improved financial systems, and green innovation are likely to contribute to emission mitigation and the overall development of a sustainable viable economy. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of risk management in financial systems for future emissions prevention. Practical implications The study uses a reliable estimation procedure, which extends the discussion on climate policy from a COP-27 perspective and offers practical implications for policymakers in developing more effective emission mitigation strategies. Social implications The study offers policy suggestions for a sustainable economy, focusing on both COP-27 and the G7 countries. Recommendations include implementing carbon pricing, developing carbon capture and storage technologies, investing in renewables and energy efficiency and introducing financial instruments for emission mitigation. From a COP-27 standpoint, the G7 should prioritize transitioning to low-carbon economies and supporting developing nations in their sustainability efforts to address the pressing challenges of climate change and global warming. Originality/value In comparison to the literature, this study examines the importance of financial risk for G7 economies in promoting a sustainable environment. More specifically, in the context of FD and national income with carbon emissions, previous researchers have disregarded the importance of green innovation and human capital, so the current study fills the gap in the literature related to G7 economies by exploring the link between the identified variables related to carbon emissions.

Environmental quality and sustainability: exploring the role of environmental taxes, environment-related technologies, and R&D expenditure

Environmental quality and sustainability: exploring the role of environmental taxes, environment-related technologies, and R&D expenditure

How can natural resource dependence, environmental-related technologies and digital trade protect the environment: Redesigning SDGs policies for sustainable environment?

The worldwide community is seriously concerned about the shocking effects of climate change. In the Paris agreement, policymakers opted to mitigate worldwide emissions to a certain level, which raised considerable apprehension for the highest emitting countries. Numerous studies have investigated several indicators contributing to environmental sustainability, however limited research has focused on environmental-related technologies and the digital trade effect. Therefore, the current study inspects the nexus between environmental-related technologies, digital trade, natural resources, renewable energy use, and financial development on the carbon emissions in the top ten highest emitting countries from 2001 to 2021. This study confirms the existence of cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity by employing second-generation tests for robust results. In this regard, the empirical findings depict that environmental-related technologies and financial development significantly upsurge the ecological footprint. Conversely, digital trade, renewable energy use, and the abundance of natural resources mitigate the level of ecological footprint in the long-run. Moreover, the causality analysis empirically supports the connection constructed on unidirectional and bidirectional causalities. Finally, this study proposes policy insights on the basis of findings to promote eco-friendly technology, renewable energy projects, scientific mining techniques for natural resources, transition to cleaner energy sources (SDG-7), and developed countries should assist emerging economies with advanced clean technology to restore ample biocapacity with less ecological damages (COP-27).

Determinants of sustainable energy in OECD countries: Role of technology and financial resources

Financial development is a leading factor toward economic expansion and endorsing energy innovations worldwide. However, financial development has alarmed stakeholders to evade its harmful impacts on environmental performance. Following the energy trade theoretical perspective, this paper aims to scrutinize the effects of financial development, environment-related technology and foreign direct investment (FDI) on sustainable energy in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies over the period 1990–2020. To reduce the omitting variables' errors, a pool of control variables consisting of urbanization, economic growth and exports is constructed. The study's empirical findings based on the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model elaborate that financial development significantly promotes renewable energy consumption and mitigates environmental deterioration in advanced nations. In terms of environment related technologies (ERT) and FDI, both become a cause to significantly preserve the environmental quality to align with carbon neutrality targets and sustainable development goals (SDGs). These outcomes are further validated with quantile regression to report the heterogeneous results. In the end, this article suggests necessary policy implications for the stakeholders.

Internet financial services, environmental technology, and happiness: Implications for sustainable development

Integrating the internet and financial services gives people the luxury to reduce financial stress and anxiety by giving consumers more power over their financial situation. Likewise, the adoption of environmental technologies helps improve environmental quality, which positively impacts mental and physical health and thus increases the sense of well-being and happiness. Therefore, the main focus of the study is to analyze the influence of financial services and environmental technologies on happiness. For analyzing the short and long-run impacts of financial services and environmental technologies on happiness, we have utilized the ARDL model and QARDL models. The findings of the ARDL model confirm the positive influence of financial services, environmental technologies, national income, financial development, and education on happiness in the short and long term. Similarly, the QARDL model also suggests the favorable long-run effects of financial services and environmental technologies on happiness at most quantiles. The long-run Wald test confirms the asymmetric influence of all variables on happiness, while in the short-term, excluding education, all other variables exert asymmetric impacts on happiness. Thus, to promote happiness, policymakers should try to increase the role of internet-based financial services and increases investment in research and development activities to enhance environment-related technologies. However, the study is limited to China, it should be expanded to other regions.

Analysis of patents and citations for selected areas of the bioeconomy in South Africa

The South African bioeconomy strategy did not clearly articulate the measurement framework to monitor the implementation of the strategy. This paper provides an analysis of bioeconomy patents, the most prolific organizations and citations at the EPO and USPTO for South Africa, BRICS, Egypt and Nigeria during the Ten-Year Innovation Plan 2008–2018. The terms ‘biotechnology’, ‘medical technology’, ‘pharmaceuticals’ and ‘selected environment-related technologies’ were used to search for patents. The OECD patents by technology, the EPO PATSTAT and the USPTO PatFT databases were used to map patents and citations. The results show that South Africa ranked last in the BRICS group but produced a higher number of patents than Egypt and Nigeria. The number of patents generally decreased for the selected countries except for China. The total citations for the selected countries was generally inconsistent. The important innovators for South Africa in the bioeconomy are mainly universities and public research institutions. A new fiscal approach to encourage knowledge application in bioeconomy in South Africa is required. Incentives from government that encourage collaboration between research institutions and industry to direct research with industry application are required. The study contributes to the development of metrics to monitor the bioeconomy in South Africa.

On public policies in the energy transition: Evidence on the role of socio-technical regimes for renewable technologies

Our purpose is to contribute to the debate on the energy transition by investigating the role of social, technical, political, and cultural aspects in stimulating the export of renewable technologies (RTs). The literature draws attention to the need to complement public policies with a supportive socio-technical regime, even if evidence is scarce. We maintain that countries' capability in environment-related technologies, public concern and awareness of climate change, and understanding of its damaging effects are relevant drivers, alongside renewable energy policies. Moreover, we expect that such socio-technical drivers, if operating together, amplify the stimulus of policies. We test these arguments through a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model in first differences in the EU over the period 1996–2020. Due to heterogeneity across countries, we test the determinants on high-performing countries. Results confirm the role of public awareness and show that the export of RTs is also stimulated by increases in the share of environment-related technologies and understanding of climate change. Countries' capability in green technologies is also supported by increases in public awareness and understanding of the climate issue.

Exploring the impact of formal and informal finance on green innovation under the lens of carbon neutrality.

In order to reduce environmental deterioration and promote sustainable growth, green innovation-which includes ecologically friendly technology and practices-has become a top priority of policymakers worldwide. This research investigates how formal and informal finance affects green innovation in highly polluted high, middle-, and low-income economies, using data spanning from 2007 to 2021. For analyzing the empirical link between formal finance, informal finance, and green innovation, we have employed the 2SLS and GMM estimation techniques. The primary estimates of the analysis suggest that formal and informal funding methods significantly impact environment-related technologies in high-income and middle- and low-income nations. Moreover, the GDP, carbon emissions, trade openness, human capital, research and development, financial stability, and digital finance are essential factors in promoting environment-related technologies in high-, middle-, and low-income nations, respectively. The policymakers in both groups of countries should foster collaboration between the formal and informal sectors to promote green innovations, which is essential for achieving sustainable development goals.

Differential benefit of coal and natural gas efficiency in Denmark: How clean is the environmental-related innovation?

Inspired by Denmark's ambitious renewable energy initiatives and its commitment to achieving a substantial 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, this study delves deeper into examining the roles of energy source efficiency, renewable energy utilization, and environment-related technologies spanning the years from 1990 to 2021. A comprehensive array of wavelet tools, including wavelet coherence, wavelet-based ordinary least squares (WBOLS), Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), Granger causality, and wavelet correlation, was employed to dissect these dynamics. The primary findings underscore the potential for enhancing environmental sustainability through these key indicators. For instance, employing the WBOLS method reveals that a percent increase in renewable energy consumption translates into an approximate reduction of ∼0.02%, ∼0.03%, and ∼0.54% in GHG emissions in the short-, medium-, and long-term, respectively. Similarly, improvements in energy efficiency yield remarkable outcomes. A one percent increase in the efficiency of natural gas utilization leads to GHG emission reductions of ∼0.44%, ∼0.19%, and ∼0.83% in the short-, medium-, and long-term, respectively. Moreover, a 1 percent enhancement in coal energy efficiency results in GHG emission reductions of ∼0.23%, ∼0.19%, and ∼0.91% in the short-, medium-, and long-term, respectively. Furthermore, the study indicates that a surge of 1% in innovation through environment-related technologies corresponds to GHG emission reductions of ∼0.56%, ∼0.10%, and ∼0.02% in the short-, medium-, and long-term, respectively. The results are notably substantiated by the CWT Granger causality approach. Considering the somewhat modest impact of innovation on GHG emissions, especially in the long-term, the study recommends a deliberate emphasis on the design and formulation of environmentally-related innovations that prioritize attributes such as reliability, durability, and adaptability.

Sustainable pathways for attaining net-zero emissions in European emerging countries - the nexus between renewable energy sources and ecological footprint.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between renewable energy and ecological footprint during the period of 1994-2018 from selected developing countries in Europe (Czechia, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Romania, and Turkey). In this context, the ecological footprint (EF), which has recently been the most widely used environmental indicator in the literature and is known as the most comprehensive because it includes many environmental factors, has been determined as the dependent variable. As independent variables, renewable energy consumption (REC), energy-related tax revenue (ETR), and energy productivity (EP) are included in the model. GDP and development of environment-related technologies (DET), which affect the ecological footprint in the model, are determined as control variables. As a result of the panel data analysis, according to the Durbin-Hausman cointegration test result, a long-term relationship between the variables was determined. According to the CCE estimator analysis, it can be said that there is a positive relationship between ETR and GDP variables and EF. For the AMG estimator analysis, it can be said that there is a positive relationship between GDP and EP variables and EF. Finally, according to the results of the Konya Causality test, a unidirectional causality relationship is detected from environmental technologies to the ecological footprint in Turkey, and a unidirectional causality relationship from the ecological footprint to GDP in Czechia, Romania, and Turkey. Furthermore, no causality relationship is detected between other variables. Based on the results, several policy implications are suggested.

Are environment-related technologies key to unlock the path towards sustainable development: An econometric analysis

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between energy intensity and environment-related technology in industrialized countries. By utilizing panel data from 23 countries over a span of 32 years (1990–2021), this research aims to contribute to the comprehension of the role of green innovation in sustainable development. The study employs the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology model while controlling for variables including population growth, gross domestic product in purchasing power parity, Information and Communication Technology capital deepening, renewable energy consumption, and green innovation represented by research and development expenditure on environment-related technology. The results of the analysis, employing panel unit root tests, cross-sectional dependence tests, and a Method of Moments quantile regression, reveal that green innovation has a positive influence on diminishing energy intensity, with a more substantial impact at higher quantiles. Moreover, ICT capital deepening is determined to have a positive and noteworthy effect on reducing energy intensity. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for policymakers in their endeavours to accomplish sustainable development goals.

Environmental benefits of nonrenewable energy efficiency and renewable energy intensity in the USA and EU: Examining the role of clean technologies

Given that the United States of America and European Union are among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitting economies, it poses yet to be answered questions on whether efficient utilization of nonrenewable energy sources or renewable energy intensification in these economies account for any environmental benefit. To answer these inherent questions, this study examines and compares environmental performances of the economies in response to nonrenewable energy efficiency, renewable energy intensity, and environmental-related technologies while controlling for natural resource rent and urban population over the period 1990–2019. By implementing the advantage of Kernel-Based Regularized Least Squares alongside robustness measures, the findings posit that nonrenewable energy efficiency, renewable energy intensity, and environmental-related technologies significantly mitigates greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in the economies. Importantly, while the three metrics show louder environmental impact in the EU, nonrenewable energy efficiency plays a louder and environmentally desirable role than the other two metrics. Conversely, natural resources and urbanization significantly hampers environmental sustainability by increasing GHG emission in the economies. Unfortunately, a terribly more damaging environmental impact arising from increased urbanization is noticeable in the EU. These findings afford concrete policy measures to be further devised for the USA and EU, and the entire globe given the foresight of net zero target.

Exploring aggregated and disaggregated environmental impacts of biofuels: Do affluence, green technological innovation and green finance matter for top biofuel-abundant economies?

The unceasing ravaging effects of global warming have made the world rethink the choice of energy consumption, with policymakers pushing for an unconditional transition to sustainable energy believed to be eco-friendly. Although studies have emerged with a view to unravel the path to global environmental sustainability, the paths of biofuels remain scantly investigated. Hence, this study presented the maiden empirical support for the aggregated and disaggregated impacts of biofuels on environmental sustainability in five top biofuel-abundant economies (Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, and the United States) from 1995 to 2019. The papers add to the existing knowledge by considering the roles of green technological innovation (proxied by environmental-related technologies), affluence, green finance, population and coal in a novel STIRPAT framework. The stated model is empirically verified based on recent techniques encompassing CS-ARDL, CCEMG, AMG, and MMQR. The empirical results uncover that both effects of biofuels substantially moderate carbon emissions, thus paving the way for environmental sustainability. Besides, environmental-related technologies and green finance significantly mitigate carbon emissions, whereas affluence, population, and coal positively drive carbon emissions. The empirical regularity of the main estimators is confirmed based on the feedback from MMQR which uphold the validity of biofuels in mitigating carbon emissions at different quantiles. The outcomes of the causality analysis uncover unidirectional, bidirectional and non-causal nexuses. Policy insights that promote sustainable exploration of biofuels for achieving a carbon-neutral environment are exposited following the findings.

New insights from the STIPART model on how environmental-related technologies, natural resources and the use of the renewable energy influence load capacity factor

The rapid development in environmental-related technologies, economic growth and natural resources has promoted many undesirable environmental influences that affect living standards and human health. Consequently, the present research employed an inclusive indicator to quantify ecological eminence known as the load capacity factor. Considering this view, the existing body of literature has not provided a sufficiently supportive indication to discover the factors influencing the load capacity factor in terms of ecological excellence. To do this, the present study employs various panel data estimators and causality tests considering cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity for the period 1990–2019 to analyze the environmental impacts of environmental technologies, economic growth, natural resources, renewable energy consumption, and urbanization for 17 Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries. The study results suggest that economic growth reduces environmental quality.In contrast, natural resources, technological development, urbanization, and renewable energy increase the load capacity factor, which indicates environmental sustainability while considering nature's supply and demand aspects. Based on these findings, APEC policymakers should take advantage of technological development, urbanization, and renewable energy. They should transform their current economic growth models into an environmentally friendly structure to achieve their environmental goals and contribute to a sustainable world order.

Effects of ‘social’ environmental stability and entrepreneurial parameters in assessing the relationship among entrepreneurship, green innovation, and strategic orientation: an entrepreneur development of documentary

Sustainable entrepreneurship is essential for solving the issue of economic and social stability. This paper is about the determinants of entrepreneurship among green innovation and strategic innovation. The research studies the communication and R&D variables that impact entrepreneurship development. The literature shows that green innovation is vital in developing strategic orientation. Entrepreneurship must work on R&D to gain economic and social stability. Entrepreneurship development is a dependent variable, and communication and R&D are independent variables. This paper evaluates the performance of Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and the Artificial Neural Network Regression (ANN) approach for estimating entrepreneurship development (ED) in China from 2000 to 2021. For this work, nine independent variables related to entrepreneurial development were selected, which include CO2 emissions (CO2), GDP growth (GDP), Total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), Computer, communications, and other services (CCS), Nitrous oxide emissions (NO2), Personal remittances, received (PRR), Research and development expenditure (R&D), New businesses registered (NBR), and patents in environment-related technologies (PERT). Data were gathered from the World Bank (WB) official data bank portal. The highest correlation (−0.85 and −0.71) with ED was observed with GHG, followed by a strong correlation with R & D. The MLR model generated 0.78 R2 (error = 0.26) whereas the ANN model produces 0.83 R2 (error = 0.01). The results of the ANN showed that the association among parameters is strong. Ten input variables and 15 hidden neurons were used to estimate the dependent variable. The process took 87 steps, and the optimum result had a Sum of Square Error of 0.001.The top 5 essential variables are NO, NBR, GHG, R&D, and CO2. The least essential variables are PPR and CCS, respectively, with the lowest variable importance (VI) score. This work is unique in the sense that it covers the research gap with new advanced techniques (ANN) applied to time series data. We believe the idea that we developed is a novel approach for social scientists, entrepreneurial development, social stability, and a sustainable environment. The findings of this research can benefit entrepreneurs in many different ways. By understanding the effects of social environmental stability on their success, entrepreneurs can better tailor their strategies to ensure they get the best possible results.

Examining the (non)symmetric environmental quality effect of material productivity and environmental-related technologies in Iceland

This study considers the carbon neutrality 2040 ambition of Iceland to examine the role of raw material productivity, environmental-related technologies, and export intensity (components of the 48 elements of the country’s Climate Action Plan (CAP)) in navigating the country's environmental sustainability pathway. By employing symmetric and asymmetric empirical approaches with dataset that span over 1990–2019, the result reveals that a positive shock to raw material productivity accounts for a decline in GHG emission in both short- and long-run, thus aiding the pathway toward green productivity in the country. While GHG emission is impacted negatively by a positive shock in environmental-related technologies, the finding reveals a surge in GHG emission arising from a negative shock in environmental-related technologies in all the examined models. However, it is revealed that a positive shock to GDP spurs GHG emissions especially in the long run while a negative change in GDP impact hinders the surge in GHG emissions. This evidence poses more question about the country’s pathway to sustainable growth. Interestingly, the result further posits that a positive shock to export intensity enhances environmental sustainability by promoting a decrease in GHG emissions. Meanwhile, a negative shock to export intensification shows a contrary effect. In a compelling manner, the results of the symmetric analysis corroborate the above-mentioned asymmetric evidence. Thus, the result from this investigation brings the Icelandic’s CAP performance under scrutiny alongside offering further recommendation to attaining improved performance.