Does information and communication technology impede environmental degradation? fresh insights from non-parametric approaches

Although ICT has played a critical role in the socio-economic growth of human cultures, it has also brought with it significant environmental risks. Nevertheless, scholars remain divided on this topic; some believe that ICT has had a positive influence on the quality of the environment, while others believe that ICT has created major environmental issues. Hence, this research is another effort to assess the effects of ICT on CO₂ emissions in the top 10 ICT nations (Denmark, Japan, Luxemburg, South Korea, Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) using a dataset from the period between 1986Q1 and 2019Q4. All prior studies have established symmetric association between ICT and CO₂. As a result, we applied the novel non-parametric approaches (quantile-on-quantile regression and Granger causality in quantile) to assess this association. The findings from the QQR uncovered that in the majority of the quantiles, for Denmark, Japan, Luxemburg, Netherland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and Switzerland, the effect of ICT on CO₂ emissions is negative, while in the majority of the quantiles, the effect of ICT on CO₂ emissions is positive for the Netherlands, South Korea, and Iceland. Furthermore, we applied the novel Granger causality in the quantiles approach and the outcomes provided evidence of bidirectional causality between CO₂ emissions and ICT in all the selected nations. The study proposes that sustainable ICT should be used to improve carbon reduction and energy savings potential by optimizing other industries, including managing and monitoring energy usage.