How e-government and green technology innovation affect carbon emissions: Evidence from resource-rich countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

The global challenges related to climate change and carbon emissions are constantly escalating. It is important to explore the factors that affect carbon emissions in countries rich in natural resources. However, the nexus among natural resources, e-government, green technology innovation, and carbon emissions has not yet been demonstrated. Therefore, this study explores the impact of the above three dependent variables on carbon emissions using data from five resource-rich SCO countries spanning from 2000 to 2022. This study further controls the quality of the institution and GDP. Unlike existing studies, it introduces an innovative interaction term between e-government and green technology innovation. The cross-sectional enhanced distributed hysteresis (CS-ARDL) method was employed for the analysis. The findings indicate that natural resources and GDP positively contribute to carbon emissions, while institutional quality and the interaction between green technology innovation and e-government have a negative impact. In the short run, green technology innovation has a nonsignificant impact on carbon emissions, while e-government has a positive impact. However, in the long run, both green technology innovation and e-government have a negative impact on carbon emissions. These findings suggest that promoting the simultaneous development of e-government and green technology innovation can help reduce carbon emissions. The paper is of great significance for further promoting the construction of egovernment. In addition, the paper is of great reference value for policymakers in launching carbon reduction policies.