Time-varying impact of information and communication technology on carbon emissions

Xianming Sun, Shiyi Xiao, Xiaohang Ren, Bing Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

To investigate the time-varying net environmental impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), we apply the local linear dummy variable estimation (LLDVE) method using a panel data consisting of 63 countries for the period 1995–2017. Our analysis reveals that ICT increases CO2 emissions until 2004, while reducing them after 2008, regardless of the national income level. We further uncover that the positive environmental impact of ICT on high-income countries is about 10 times greater than that on middle-income countries over time. These findings indicate that the development of ICT should be encouraged to alleviate carbon emissions on a global scale, especially for middle-income countries, given the benefits of an improved technology absorption rate on the mitigation effect in high income countries.
Original languageEnglish
Article number106492
JournalEnergy Economics
Volume118
Early online date2 Jan 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2023

Keywords

  • Carbon emissions
  • Information and communication technology (ICT)
  • Nonparametric panel data
  • Time-varying coefficient function

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • General Energy

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