Renewable energy, natural resources, technological innovation, and consumption-based carbon emissions in China: Tracking environmental neutrality

Abstract

Although numerous empirical studies have scrutinized the impact of technological innovation, renewable energy, and natural resources on carbon emissions (CCO2), there is a lack of empirical knowledge of consumption-based CCO2 emissions. This study examines the impacts of technological innovation, renewable energy, and natural resources factors on CCO2 emissions in China. In addition, the present work considers the role of the banking sector in environmental neutrality in China from 1990 to 2019. For this purpose, the sophisticated approach of bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag (BARDL) is applied to explore the association of the selected indicators on CCO2. The outcomes indicate that (i) economic growth and natural resources negatively impact environmental neutrality; (ii) environment-related technologies and renewable energy are crucial to promoting environmental neutrality; and (iii) banking sector in China has a positive association with CCO2 emissions. The findings of this work recommend using effective measures to mitigate ecological pollution by using green energy sources and strengthening the banking sector by offering environment-friendly investment loans. Likewise, strategies should be designed that reinforce sustainable development.