The Impact of Environmental Technological Innovations on CO2 Emissions: The Case of OECD Countries

Abstract

Global warming and climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, have compelled all countries to reconsider their production factors. Developing technologies to reduce emission volumes has been one of the priority targets for countries. This study investigated the impact of environmental technological innovations on CO2 emissions in 18 OECD members. The panel generalized method of moments (GMM)was employed in the study to produce estimates for the period between 2005 and 2018. Energy consumption, economic growth (GDP), and technological innovation data were used as independent variables in the study, CO2 emissions were used as dependent variable, whereas the number of patents preventing climate change was used as a technological innovation indicator. The analysis results showed that a 1% increase in patent applications for preventing climate change reduced CO2 emissions by 0.02%. However, a 1% increase in energy consumption caused an increase of 0.56% in CO2 emissions. Finally, the 1% increase in the GDP growth rate caused an increase of 0.002% in CO2 emissions.