The role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China: Evidence from QARDL approach.

In the past decade, researchers have shifted their interests to explore different ways to mitigate environmental degradation. In that context, the present study explores the role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China. The study utilized data for the period 1990-2018 and applied the latest available econometric technique, a quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, to determine the impacts of solar energy and eco-innovation on improving China's environmental quality. According to the empirical results, in the long term, solar energy is negatively and significantly associated with CO2 emissions at higher quantiles. Eco-innovation has proven to be the most important channel to mitigate CO2 emissions in China. Eco-innovation is exerting a negative and significant influence on CO2 emissions at all quantiles in the long term. In addition, the population size is causing CO2 emissions to surge significantly at lower quantiles. The empirical analysis reveals that per capita income (PI) is positively associated with CO2 emissions at all quantiles, but it is significant only at higher quantiles in China. We found evidence of unidirectional causality for eco-innovation to CO2 emissions and solar energy to CO2 emissions. However, for population and CO2 emissions, per capita income, and CO2 emissions, we found bidirectional causality. As indicated by our empirical results, solar energy and eco-innovation are the two most effective channels to control CO2 emissions in China. Therefore, policies based on the promotion of eco-innovation and the initiation of new solar energy projects can control emissions and improve environmental quality in China. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:555-571. © 2021 SETAC.

The role of eco-innovation and globalization towards carbon neutrality in the USA.

After the Paris Climate Conference (Conference of the Paris COP: 21), many countries started progressing towards carbon neutrality. In doing so, the present study aims to assess the role of eco-innovation and globalization in mitigating CO2 emissions in the case of the USA. The study applied Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) approach to estimate the short-run and long-run relationship among the selected variables. According to the empirical results, gross domestic product (GDP) positively influences the level of CO2 emissions for the USA economy at all quantiles. However, GDP square is negatively associated with CO2 emissions in the USA; therefore, our study supports the existence of EKC for the USA. Further, eco-innovation is the mitigating factor of CO2 emissions in our empirical analysis. Our study proved that globalization is the stimulating factor of CO2 emissions in the US economy. The empirical estimates of the Granger causality test show the bidirectional causality from GDP, eco-innovations, and globalization to GDP for the USA economy. To mitigate CO2 emissions, the study provides useful insights for policymakers in the USA economy.