Towards A Greener Economy: Harnessing Innovation To Mitigate Pollution In Growth Scenarios

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between pollution and economic growth promotes economies in adopting sustainable energy policies and resources. Although many prior studies have thoroughly explored the relationship between economic growth and pollution in recent years, there is a lack of research concentrating on international sample data and meta-analyses in particular regions. The main purpose of this paper aims to examine the relationship between economic growth and pollution using panel data for 60 developed and 59 developing countries in 20 years from 2000 to 2019. Our findings show that there is a positive impact of economic growth on pollution. The higher level of economic development, the higher the amount of pollution in countries. Notably, this effect is greater in developed nations than in developing ones. Moreover, an inverted U-Shape relationship between lnCO2 and lnGDP is an important result. Specifically, economic growth above a particular level generates advantages for researching and creating more efficient environmental protection solutions, resulting in promoting sustainability. This study examines the role of technical innovation applications in the relationship between economic growth and pollution. In developing countries, high levels of technical innovation applications have no bearing on the good impact of economic growth on pollution levels. Meanwhile, in developed nations, the favorable impact of economic growth on pollution is less noticeable for countries with high levels of technical innovation applications. This paper contributes to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in terms of goal 13 since it promotes the climate action through the deep understanding about how the environmental pollution is affected by the economic growth.