Decarbonization pathways: the roles of foreign direct investments, governance, democracy, economic growth, and renewable energy transition

The Paris Agreement has united the global nations to embark on pathways to the decarbonization of their respective economies. However, the objective of achieving low-carbon growth is not as straightforward as it seems since the rapidly emerging and fossil fuel-dependent world economies are focused on expediting economic growth at the expense of poorer environmental consequences. Against this background, this study aims to explore the effects of foreign direct investments, governance, democracy, renewable energy use, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in the context of the BRICS countries over the period from 2006 to 2017. The estimation strategy involved in this study specifically accounts for addressing the issues of cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity in the data set utilized for analysis. The associated findings reveal cointegrating associations between the study variables. Besides, the regression outcomes reveal that good governance (achieved by controlling corruption) and strong democracy (achieved by ensuring greater freedom for journalists) help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the long run. More importantly, the results also confirm that both good governance and stronger democracy further reduce carbon dioxide emissions by mediating between emission-inhibiting effects of foreign direct investment inflows in the BRICS countries. In addition, good governance and stronger democracy exert moderating effects to reduce the emission-stimulating impacts associated with higher economic growth. Lastly, it is also witnessed that forgoing non-renewable energy use and adopting renewable energy instead help to curb the carbon dioxide emission levels further. Accordingly, considering these key findings, it is recommended that the BRICS countries should enhance the quality of governance and democracy, attract clean foreign direct investments, promote renewable energy use, and adopt clean economic growth strategies to decarbonize their respective economy.

Automated summary

This study aims to explore the effects of foreign direct investments, governance, democracy, renewable energy use, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in the BRICS countries. The findings indicate that good governance and strong democracy help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and these factors also mediate the effects of foreign direct investment and economic growth on emissions. Additionally, adopting renewable energy instead of non-renewable energy further curbs carbon dioxide emissions.