Assessing green innovation and development indicators for carbon emission reduction: Insights from BRICS+ economies

• Green innovation lacks a standardized measurement framework in existing literature • This study introduces a novel, multi-dimensional approach for its assessment. • The study captures the distinct role of innovation intensity, scope, and their relative role towards economic growth. • The findings support tailored emission policies that align with national economic and industrial structures The absence of a uniform green innovation metric contributes to the inconclusiveness and the murky findings in the innovation-emission nexus literature of BRICS economies. Consequently, this study advances knowledge on the measure of green innovation, capturing its intensity, scope and yield. The study assessed the role green innovation and development indicators in mitigation carbon emissions in BRICS + economies for the period 2000–2022. Cross sectional residual interdependence among panel residuals was confirmed using the Pesaran CD and Bias-Adjusted LM tests. To capture heterogeneity and improve statistical inference, the study employed the Augmented Mean Group Estimators and the simultaneous quantile regression. Our study revealed that GDP interacts with innovation intensity, innovation scope, and innovation yield to mitigate the level of emissions in most BRICS+ economies. In India, emissions are decrease by 0.64 %, 0.55 %, and 0.72 %; and in the UAE by 1.95 %, 2.06 % and 6.97 % respectively, through the interaction of GDP with innovation intensity, innovation scope, and innovation yield. However, a unit increase in GDP alone, aggravates the emissions of India and UAE by 14.20 % and 73.50 %, highlighting the combined role of innovation and economic growth. Importantly, our study identified five key trajectory from the GDP interactions with innovation-emission nexus: first an N-shaped Innovation Claudia Curve in Brasil; second, a rebound V-shape curve in UAE; third, a flattened-U shaped path in Indonesia; fourth inverted U-shaped in India and Egypt and fifth a monotonic growth for in Ethiopia. The study submits that the efficacy of green innovation in reducing emissions is contingent upon the enabling conditions and structure of the country and the regional bloc. The study re-echoed the need for transformative growth in innovations, and industrial infrastructure (SDG 9) growth aligned with tailored emission reduction policies.