The effect of technological innovation, FDI, and financial development on CO2 emission: evidence from the G8 countries

Abstract

The nexus of foreign direct investment and economic growth has been extensively investigated by the researchers of environmental economics; however, few studies have been conducted to find the impact of financial development and technological innovation in the backdrop of the environment. In the G8 countries (UK, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy Russia, Japan), the rapid increase in urbanization resulting from their speedy economic growth has brought about a huge increase in energy consumption that is in turn responsible for contemporary environmental degradation. This research intends to find the impact of technological innovation, financial development, foreign direct investment, energy use, and urbanization on carbon emission in G8 member countries, based on data from 1990 to 2019. The findings present strong cross-sectional dependence within the panel countries. According to the FMLOS estimator, a statistically significant long-run and negative association with CO2 has been found between foreign direct investment, financial development, and technological innovation in G8 countries. A long-run bidirectional causality has been found among economic growth, financial development, urbanization, trade openness, CO2 emission, and energy use; antithetically there is unidirectional causality between carbon emission and foreign direct investment. A quality foreign direct investment is the present demand for the development of industries, technological innovation, and financial development for G8 countries. Furthermore, urbanization plays a major role in environmental degradation, and more improved policies are needed for these countries.

Keywords: EKC hypothesis; Environmental degradation; Foreign direct investment; Technological innovation.