Ecological innovation for environmental sustainability and human capital development: the role of environmental regulations and renewable energy in advanced economies

Abstract

This study examines the trends in environmental sustainability and human well-being through green technologies, clean energy, and environmental taxes using panel data for the top eight advanced economies from 1990 to 2018. The study applies an advanced panel technique, cross-sectionally augmented distributed lags (CS-ARDL), to find long-run and short-run associations between these variables. Moreover, the role of foreign investment is added as a control variable. The CS-ARDL estimation confirms the productive impact of green technologies on environmental and human well-being, providing that it helps to reduce haze pollution while promoting human development. Moreover, clean energy and environmental taxes contribute toa sustainable environment and human development. Moreover, foreign investment is a direct source of haze pollution because of more industrialization and economic activities. The study finally recommends strengthening the promotion of green technology and clean energy to achieve both environmental and human well-being in the long run.