Carbon reduction through renewable energy and digitalization in emerging economies: Moderating role of public debt.

Utilizing renewable energy (RE) and embracing the digital economy (DIG) can significantly contribute to achieving economic, energy, and climate goals by promoting carbon reduction. In this regard, public debt (DEB) is particularly important since it provides the funds required to achieve these goals by investing in renewable energy and digital economy projects. This study examines the impact of public debt on the link between renewable energy and carbon emissions (CE), as well as the association between the digital economy and carbon emissions in emerging economies from 2003 to 2022. The study employed cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimation to check the relationship between the variables. The findings of our study suggest that the integration of renewable energy sources and the growth of the digital economy have a positive impact on reducing carbon emissions. On the other hand, public debt has a positive effect on carbon emissions. In addition, the findings support the notion that interaction terms (RE × DEB) and (DIG × DEB) have a diminishing effect on carbon emissions. It can be concluded that the reduction of carbon emissions is contingent upon the utilization of public debt to promote the growth of renewable energy and the digital economy. Based on our study, it is recommended that emerging economies' needs focus on boosting renewable energy usage and digital economy initiatives. Additionally, it is necessary for these economies to maintain a sustainable level of debt.

BRICS and the climate challenge: navigating the role of factor productivity and institutional quality in CO2 emissions.

The BRICS countries are important contributors to global efforts aimed at preventing a climate catastrophe. These countries account for half of the total emissions generated by the G20 nations. In this context, this paper examines the relationship between total factor productivity (TFP) and CO2 emissions (CE) in BRICS countries from 1996 to 2022, with institutional quality serving as a moderating factor. Moreover, a diverse range of methodologies was employed to address the problem of cross-sectional dependence; i.e., the CS-ARDL technique is used to analyze the relationship between variables in both the long and short-run. The AMG and CCEMG methods are employed for robustness analysis, while the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test is used to assess causality. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that TFP is positively associated with CE. Conversely, we find that institutional quality has a negative impact on CE. Furthermore, the study confirms that the interaction between TFP and institutional quality has a negative effect on CE. This implies that an improvement in institutional quality leads to a decrease in CE, as it strengthens the regulatory system governing CE and reduces pollution. Environmental policy must include economic flexibility and policy unpredictability in order to meet CO2 reduction targets. In addition, the study has identified bidirectional causal links between CE and variables such as TFP, institutional quality, and other control variables. According to our study, the BRICS countries should encourage digitalization and renewable energy production while preserving a reasonable standard of institutional quality since they have significant resource advantages in the renewable energy sector.

Role of institutional quality in debt-growth relationship in Pakistan: An econometric inquiry.

This study attempts to investigate the mediating role of institutional quality on the relationship between public debt and economic growth in Pakistan spanning 1996-2020. Time series data on all six World Bank World Governance indicators of institutional quality is used in the empirical analysis. Findings of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing technique and error correction method (ECM) confirmed the existence of cointegration among variables of interest. The short-run results indicate that public debt has a favorable association with economic growth, while the relationship is found to be detrimental in the long run. Furthermore, the combined effect of public debt and institutional quality indicators revealed the significant positive association with economic growth, suggesting that better institutional quality can contribute to mitigate the negative impact of public debt on economic growth in Pakistan.