The cyclical impact of green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions in BRICS economies

This paper explored the asymmetrical relationships between green and sustainable technology research and environmental sustainability among the BRICS states from 1990 to 2018. The data was analyzed by second- and third-generation economic techniques such as slope heterogeneity and cross-section independence test, unit root test, structural break unit root test, panel cointegration with structural breaks cointegration tests, cross-section autoregressive distributed lags technique, augmented mean group, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test. First, the results validated a long-run cointegration among variables. Second, the results showed that renewable energy consumption and positive shocks to green and sustainable technology research are proper to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions (short- and long-run). Third, gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, exports, and negative shocks to green and sustainable technology research increase carbon dioxide emissions. Fourth, the nexus between green and sustainable technology research and carbon dioxide emissions was counter-cyclical during economic expansion and contraction periods. Fifth, the impact of positive shocks to green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions was more than the impact of negative shocks to green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions.