Government institutional trust and sustainable environment: evidence from BRICS economies

The growing environmental degradation and climate change issue require serious attention since they harm human health and adversely affect sustainable development. The current study examines the association of government institutional trust with the environmental quality of the BRICS economies during 1990–2020. Also, this study considers economic growth and technological innovation as control variables. The empirical findings validate the sloe heterogeneity and panel cross-section dependence. Therefore, this study uses the second-generation estimators, including the Mean Group and Augmented Mean Group approaches. The empirical results asserted that governmental, institutional trust, and technological innovation are the drivers of a sustainable environment as they significantly reduce the region’s carbon emissions level. On the contrary, economic growth is a substantial factor in increased environmental degradation in the region. The estimated results are found robust by the fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square approaches. Also, a bidirectional causal association exists between government institutional trust – emissions, technological innovation – emissions, and economic growth – emissions. Based on the results, this study suggested strengthening institutional quality, increasing investment in research and development, education, and adopting environmentally friendly energy resources.