Achieving environmental sustainability: the interplay of technological innovations, foreign direct investment and agricultural production on CO2 emissions in BRICS countries

Climate change has become a global burden. In part, technological innovations (TIs), foreign direct investments (FDIs), and agricultural growth are potential factors contributing to overall emissions. However, empirical evidence on the interplay of these variables on CO2 emissions is rare in literature, particularly for BRICS countries, which is essential to investigate. In this quest, we sourced panel data obtained from World Development Indicators and FAO repositories. We found cross-sectional dependency in the panel data. Hence, the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (Pooled Mean Group regression) was used to analyse the short-run and long-run relationship. We found a long-run negative effect of TI on CO2 emissions, but no short-run effect was observed. Likewise, agricultural growth had positive significant effect on CO2 emissions only in the long-run. The Granger Causality test confirmed a causal relationship between agricultural growth, TI, and CO2 emissions in the BRICS countries. We recommend that BRICS countries should invest in innovative technologies, especially those that facilitate green production and renewable technologies to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there is a need to embrace sustainable agricultural practices like tree-crop plantations, sustainable production technologies, and less-carbon-emitting inputs used to minimize the emissions from agriculture.