Towards cross-regional sustainable development: The nexus between information and communication technology, energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions

The environmental impact of information and communication technology (ICT) has drawn increasing attention for two decades. The behaviour of ICT is positive towards economic growth; however, its environmental implications cannot be ignored. This empirical research explores the roles of ICT, economic growth, and energy consumption in environmental pollution across different regions from 1990 to 2015. Robust long-run panel data estimation methods fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square and Driscoll–Kraay regression are applied. To summarise the results, ICT reduces the level of CO₂ emissions across high- and middle-income countries; however, contrary to this, ICT increases CO₂ emissions in low-income countries. Also, energy consumption is responsible for the increase in CO₂ emissions in all income groups as expected. Finally, the environmental Kuznets curve is proved in all income groups. It is inferred that high- and middle-income regions of the world have achieved a level of environmental sustainability in the significance of ICT, but this is not the case in low-income countries.