China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
Business School of Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Apr;29(19):27703-27718. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-18448-5. Epub 2022 Jan 4.
In today's digital era of globalization, information and communication technology (ICT) has been considered important that contributes to various sectors of an economy and increases economic growth; however, an increase in ICT may influence environmental quality which needs attention. For this purpose, this study examines the effect of ICT, energy consumption, economic growth, and financial development on carbon emission in the Belt and Road countries from 2000 to 2019 using OLS, fixed effect, dynamic system generalized method of moments (GMM), and generalized least square (GLS) models. The results indicate that ICT, financial development, energy consumption, and economic growth increase carbon dioxide emission, while renewable energy use and international trade reduce it. Foreign direct investment exerts both positive and negative effects on carbon emission across different models with different proxies of financial development. In the individual indicators model, only FBS seems to reduce carbon emission, while other indicators are positively associated with CO2 emission. The findings have considerable policy suggestions for the Belt and Road countries in the improvement of ICT sector, innovations, and enhancing financial institutions which can enhance environmental quality.
在当今全球化的数字时代，信息和通信技术（ICT）被认为是对经济各部门有贡献并促进经济增长的重要因素；然而，ICT 的增加可能会影响环境质量，这需要引起关注。为此，本研究使用 OLS、固定效应、动态系统广义矩估计法（GMM）和广义最小二乘法（GLS）模型，考察了 2000 年至 2019 年期间，“一带一路”国家的 ICT、能源消耗、经济增长和金融发展对碳排放的影响。结果表明，ICT、金融发展、能源消耗和经济增长会增加二氧化碳排放，而可再生能源利用和国际贸易则会减少碳排放。外国直接投资在不同模型和不同金融发展代理变量的情况下对碳排放都产生了正反两方面的影响。在个别指标模型中，只有 FBS 似乎能减少碳排放，而其他指标与 CO2 排放呈正相关。这些发现为“一带一路”国家改善信息和通信技术部门、创新和加强金融机构以提高环境质量提供了重要的政策建议。
