Dynamic effects of technological innovations, research and development expenditure, and effective governance on carbon emission: New insights for environmental policy formulation in BRI region.

Expenditure on research and development, technological innovations, and the commitment of government and state institutions are essential elements in the fight for environmental sustainability. Upon recognizing the effects of these elements, this study examined how Technological Innovations (TI), Government Effective (GE), Institutional Quality (IQ), and R&D influence CO2 emissions and environmental sustainability in the BRI region. The study employed Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Moments of Quantile Regression (MMQ) models to unravel the intricate relationships between these factors. While the GMM estimates showed that GE and TI each reduce CO2 emissions by 8.10% and 8.40% respectively, institutional quality and R&D decrease CO2 emissions by 6.20% and 5.80%, respectively. The MMQ findings displayed similar patterns across lower, middle, and upper quantiles, with effects ranging from 4.01% to 8.60%. The negative effect of both GE and IQ is substantially stronger at the highest quantile (0.9). R&D demonstrates modestly negative at low quantiles but becomes extremely large and negative at the 0.3 (-4.224) and 0.7 (-2.222) quantiles. The implication of these results is that rapidly industrializing countries with moderate governance scores could face rising emissions levels, which may offset the gains from other factors. These findings highlight the importance of strong governance, high-quality institutions, increased investments in R&D, and technological innovations for global environmental sustainability efforts. Therefore, governments should be encouraged to foster institutional collaborations in order to boost investments in R&D and technological innovation. This can help countries in the BRI region to meet their environmetal policy targets and sustainable development goals.