Do governance indicators interact with technological innovation and income inequality in mitigating CO2 emissions in Belt and Road Initiative countries?

Environmental degradation is being studied by linking with various factors depending upon the interest of researchers. Our interest is in investigating how income inequality and innovation affect the role of governance in mitigating CO2 emissions in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries because no previous study provides any thoughtful insight into this. We also included Gini and technological innovation in our model to check the interaction effect with governance. Therefore, to study our field of interest, we included 49 BRI countries, and the panel data covered ranges from 1996 to 2014. The generalized method of moments was used to estimate the parameters in our statistical model. Results suggest that governance managed to decrease CO2 emissions in BRI countries in the long and short terms even when high-income inequality existed. However, in a government-technological innovation interaction and government-technological innovation and Gini interaction, the CO2 emissions are increased.

Automated summary

The study found that governance can reduce CO2 emissions in Belt and Road Initiative countries, even in the presence of high income inequality. However, in interactions between government and technological innovation, as well as government, technological innovation, and the Gini coefficient, CO2 emissions increase.