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Cited by 450Energy, Environment, Economic GrowthEconomic Growth and DevelopmentRenewable energy and sustainable power systems

An empirical analysis of the non-linear impacts of ICT-trade openness on renewable energy transition, energy efficiency, clean cooking fuel access and environmental sustainability in South Asia

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Murshed, Muntasir·2020·Environmental Science and Pollution Research
DOI 10.1007/s11356-020-09497-3PMC PMC7302924
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Abstract

Energy security and environmental sustainability have become an integral policy agenda worldwide whereby the global economic growth policies are being restructured to ensure the reliability of energy supply and safeguard environmental well-being as well. However, technological inefficiency is one of the major hindrances in attaining these over-arching goals. Hence, this paper probed into the non-linear impacts of ICT trade on the prospects of undergoing renewable energy transition, improving energy use efficiencies, enhancing access to cleaner cooking fuels, and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions across selected South Asian economies: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Maldives. The results from the econometric analyses reveal that ICT trade directly increases renewable energy consumption, enhances renewable energy shares, reduces intensity of energy use, facilitates adoption of cleaner cooking fuels, and reduces carbon-dioxide emissions. Moreover, ICT trade also indirectly mitigates carbon-dioxide emissions through boosting renewable energy consumption levels, improving energy efficiencies, and enhancing cleaner cooking fuel access. Hence, these results, in a nutshell, portray the significance of reducing the barriers to ICT trade with respect to ensuring energy security and environmental sustainability across South Asia. Therefore, it is ideal for the government to gradually lessen the trade barriers to boost the volumes of cross-border flows of green ICT commodities. Besides, it is also recommended to attract foreign direct investments for the potential development of the respective ICT sectors of the South Asian economies.

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  • The accumulated evidence establishes climate security as an empirically grounded field concerned with measurable changes in political order, governance performance, and economic stability under environmental stress.

    “The cumulative evidence from these diverse outcome families establishes climate security as an empirically grounded domain concerned with measurable changes in political order, governance performance, and economic stability under environmental stress (Murshed, 2020; Rifat, 2025; Sazzadul, 2025).”

    From Climate Security, Water Governance, and Resilience How Climate-Induced Water Stress and Migration Challenge State Capacity (2026) · cites this paper as Murshed, 2020

    The Conclusion reports findings about ICT-trade openness, energy security, and environmental sustainability in South Asia. The Results and discussion examines economic growth in relation to CO2 emissions, but neither passage addresses climate security as a field or measures changes in political order, governance performance, or economic stability under environmental stress. Searches for those terms found no supporting passage in our copy; page numbers were unavailable. (LLM, conf=0.74)

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Cited by

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Authors
Murshed, M.
Affiliations
North South University (BD)
Corresponding author
Murshed, Muntasir
ORCID
Murshed, Muntasir
Venue
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-06-18
Volume
27
Issue
29
Pages
36254-36281
ISSN
  • 0944-1344 (ISSN-L)
  • 1614-7499
DOI
10.1007/s11356-020-09497-3
PMC
PMC7302924
OpenAlex
W3036253928
Cited by
450
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 32 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 87 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 17
FWCI
51.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Environmental Science and Pollution Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Energy, Environment, Economic Growth
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Economic Growth and Development
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Renewable energy and sustainable power systems
Keywords
ICT trade, renewable energy transition, energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, nonlinear effects, energy security, environmental sustainability, South Asia, foreign direct investment
MeSH terms
Bangladesh, Carbon Dioxide, Cooking, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Reproducibility of Results, Economic Development, Renewable Energy

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