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Does ICT diffusion lead to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in emerging Asian economies?

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Abstract

The role of information and communication technology (ICT) is imperative in the transformation of the world. ICT is directly affecting all the sectors of the whole economy. Thus, the present study is determined to investigate the effect of ICT on energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in emerging Asian economies from 1990 to 2019. The panel augmented autoregressive distributed lag-pooled mean group approach has been used for empirical investigation. Two separate models have been designed to attain the empirical consensus. ICT is measured through two proxies namely broadband subscriptions (internet) and mobile cellular subscriptions (mobile). Results show that internet and mobile upsurge the energy efficiency in the long run. However, internet and mobile have a reducing impact on carbon emissions in the long run. While FDI enhances energy efficiency and reduces carbon emissions inferring that environmental efficiency improves in the long run. The study suggests that policymakers must be aware of the impact of ICT on energy efficiency and environmental quality and regulate their manufacturers to enable the amalgamation of ICT into users’ routines.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, China

    Shufang Zhao

  2. Faculty of Management and Administrative Sciences, University of Sialkot, Sialkot, Punjab, 51040, Pakistan

    Muhammad Hafeez

  3. The Centre of Industrial Economics and Green Development, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, 100876, China

    Muhammad Hafeez

  4. Department of Computer Science, National Textile University, Faisalabad, 37610, Pakistan

    Chaudhry Muhammad Nadeem Faisal

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  1. Shufang Zhao
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  2. Muhammad Hafeez
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  3. Chaudhry Muhammad Nadeem Faisal
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This idea was given by SZ and MH. CMNF, SZ, and MH collected the data, computed data analysis, and wrote the complete paper. While CMNF and SZ read and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Hafeez.

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Zhao, ., Hafeez, M. & Faisal, C.M.N. Does ICT diffusion lead to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in emerging Asian economies?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 12198–12207 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16560-0

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