Efficiently managing green information and communication technologies, high-technology exports, and research and development expenditures: A case study

Green information and communication technologies (ICTs) are imperative in achieving long-term sustainable development. Technological footprint is considered as the main factor that negatively affected the environment, which sabotaged the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; hence, efficient technologies are needed to conserve the natural environment. The study examined the role of ICTs (i.e., telephone, mobile, and internet), advanced technological factors (i.e., agricultural machinery and high-technology exports [HTEXP]), growth-specific factors (i.e., research and development[R&D] expenditures, per capita income, foreign direct investment [FDI] inflows, trade openness, and industrial value added), and the resulting impact of carbon-fossil fuel emissions in the aggregated data of South Asia by using a time series data from 1975 to 2016. The results show that fixed telephone subscriptions, mobile cellular subscriptions, and secured internet servers significantly influenced carbon-fossil fuel emissions, whereas agricultural machinery, e.g., tractors, substantially increases carbon-fossil fuel emissions in a region. The HTEXP increase fossil fuel emissions; R&D expenditures decrease carbon emissions, whereas the interaction effect of ICT and R&D expenditures increases carbon emissions during a study time period. The results confirmed an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve relationship of carbon efossil emissions with respect to per capita income and population growth in the South Asian region. The results verified the pollution haven hypothesis, as inbound FDI and trade openness both increase carbon-fossil fuel emissions, which affect the global environmental sustainability agenda. Finally, industrial value added substantially increases CO2 emissions and fossil fuel energy consumption in a region. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.