Race to environmental sustainability: Can renewable energy consumption and technological innovation sustain the strides for China?

Several Asian nations, including China, are experiencing issues with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. Consequently, this research discusses the design of an SDG agenda for China that can be utilized as a model for other Asian nations. Accordingly, we scrutinize the effect of technological innovation and renewable energy on CO2 in China. The study also incorporates other CO2 drivers such as economic growth and structural change into the framework. The current research employed a dataset covering the period from 1985 to 2019. Furthermore, we utilized autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to capture the associations between CO2 emissions and the exogenous variables. In addition, we employed the gradual shift causality test to identify the causal interconnection. This technique can capture smooth or gradual changes and does not require prior knowledge of the dates, number, or form of a break (s). The outcomes from the ARDL disclosed that 1% increases in structural change and economic growth cause CO2 to increase by 1.600% and 0.819%, respectively, while 1% increases in renewable and technological innovation lessen CO2 by 0.688% and 0.090%, respectively. Moreover, the EKC hypothesis is supported. Moreover, the combined effect of renewable energy and innovation demonstrates that innovation enhances environmental quality by regulating the interrelationship between renewable energy and CO2. Lastly, the gradual shift causality test disclosed that CO2 emissions could be predicted by the exogenous variables. Based on these results, policy recommendations are proposed.

Automated summary

This research discusses the design of an SDG agenda for China and provides a model for other Asian nations. It explores the impact of technological innovation and renewable energy on CO2 emissions in China, taking into account factors such as economic growth and structural change. The findings reveal that innovation can enhance environmental quality by regulating the relationship between renewable energy and CO2 emissions.