The key role of renewable energy consumption, technological innovation and institutional quality in formulating the SDG policies for emerging economies: Evidence from quantile regression

Abstract

Since the commencement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Emerging Seven economies have faced many problems in achieving the objectives of SDGs, while environmental degradation is one of the foremost issues for them. In this study, researchers reconsidered the technological policies for these economies. For this purpose, we addressed the problems of clean and affordable energy, sustained economic growth, and institutional quality to address the issue of environmental degradation. In doing so, we have investigated the influence of renewable energy consumption, institutional quality, technological innovations and economic growth on carbon emissions using feasible generalized least square (FGLS), panel quantile regression (PQR), and variance decomposition analysis from 1996 to 2018. The empirical results of FGLS depict that a 1% rise in renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and institutional quality reduces carbon emissions by 0.144%, 0.189%, and 0.257%, respectively. In contrast, a 1% rise in economic growth and population increases emissions by 0.961% and 1.510%, respectively. A similar outcome is echoed in PQR; however, their impact differs across lower, medium, and higher quantiles. Particularly, the influence of technology and renewable energy consumption is highest at higher emission quantiles, while the influence of institutional quality is higher for medium emissions quantiles. These outcomes reinforce the recommendation of an SDG-oriented policy framework, including renewable energy transition (SDG-7), climate action (SDG-13), technological innovations (SDG-9), government institutions (SDG-16), and economic growth (SDG-8).

Keywords

• Technological innovations
• Institutional quality
• Carbon emissions
• SDGs
• Panel quantile regression