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The impact of information and communication technology, financial development, and energy consumption on carbon dioxide emission: evidence from the Belt and Road countries

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

Data used in this paper is available on the World Bank, World Development, and World Governance Indicators, https://databank.worldbank.org/source/worlddevelopment-indicators,https://databank.worldbank.org/source/worldwide-governance463indicators.

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Acknowledgements

We all authors are thankful and acknowledge the user reviews, comments, and suggestions from the journal editor and anonymous reviewer, which improved the quality of this paper.

Funding

This research is supported by the major project, funded by the Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China “Comparative Study of Chinese and Foreign Special Economic Zones” (Project No. 16JJD790042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Liu Weili & Hayat Khan

  2. Business School of Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan, China

    Itbar khan & Lei Han

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  1. Liu Weili
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  2. Hayat Khan
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  3. Itbar khan
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  4. Lei Han
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Formal analysis was performed by Hayat khan, supervision and direction were given by Liu Weili, and interpretation of results and writing were done by Itbar khan and Lei Han.

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Correspondence to Hayat Khan.

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Weili, L., Khan, H., khan, I. et al. The impact of information and communication technology, financial development, and energy consumption on carbon dioxide emission: evidence from the Belt and Road countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 27703–27718 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18448-5

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