An empirical analysis of the non-linear impacts of ICT-trade openness on renewable energy transition, energy efficiency, clean cooking fuel access and environmental sustainability in South Asia

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 27; no. 29; pp. 36254 - 36281
• Main Author: Murshed, Muntasir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bangladesh; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Carbon dioxide emissions; Clean energy; Commodities; Cooking; Earth and Environmental Science; Econometrics; Economic Development; Economic growth; Economic policy; Ecotoxicology; Emissions; Empirical analysis; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Energy management; Energy policy; Energy security; Energy transition; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Fuels; Global economy; India; Nepal; Nonlinear analysis; Pakistan; Renewable Energy; Renewable resources; Reproducibility of Results; Research Article; Sri Lanka; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Bangladesh; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; Nepal; India; South Asia; Energy security; Q2; Renewable energy transition; CO; ICT trade; Q42; O13; Environmental sustainability; O14; Cleaner cooking fuels; P28; Energy efficiency; emissions; CO2 emissions
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-09497-3

Energy security and environmental sustainability have become an integral policy agenda worldwide whereby the global economic growth policies are being restructured to ensure the reliability of energy supply and safeguard environmental well-being as well. However, technological inefficiency is one of the major hindrances in attaining these over-arching goals. Hence, this paper probed into the non-linear impacts of ICT trade on the prospects of undergoing renewable energy transition, improving energy use efficiencies, enhancing access to cleaner cooking fuels, and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions across selected South Asian economies: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Maldives. The results from the econometric analyses reveal that ICT trade directly increases renewable energy consumption, enhances renewable energy shares, reduces intensity of energy use, facilitates adoption of cleaner cooking fuels, and reduces carbon-dioxide emissions. Moreover, ICT trade also indirectly mitigates carbon-dioxide emissions through boosting renewable energy consumption levels, improving energy efficiencies, and enhancing cleaner cooking fuel access. Hence, these results, in a nutshell, portray the significance of reducing the barriers to ICT trade with respect to ensuring energy security and environmental sustainability across South Asia. Therefore, it is ideal for the government to gradually lessen the trade barriers to boost the volumes of cross-border flows of green ICT commodities. Besides, it is also recommended to attract foreign direct investments for the potential development of the respective ICT sectors of the South Asian economies.