The role of natural resources, financial development, renewable energy, and technology in mitigating carbon emissions in BRICS

Making economic activities less carbon-intensive is a major task for the governments of the BRICS countries. Hence, considering data from 2001 to 2021, this study delves into understanding how annual carbon-dioxide growth rates in the BRICS countries are affected by their natural resource use, financial development, renewable energy use, and technological innovation levels. Overall, from estimates derived from panel data analyses, it is found that dependence on natural resources, financial development, and renewable energy consumption enhance per capita carbon emission growth rates within the BRICS bloc. Thus, these mechanisms do not align with the sustainable environmental goals set by these countries. However, technological innovation is found to exert carbon emission growth rate-reducing effects to facilitate the objective of securing sustainable environments across this bloc. Moreover, the robustness of these findings is validated by using an alternative estimation technique. However, CO2 emission growth rate determinants are found to exhibit heterogeneity across BRICS countries with low, moderate, and high pollution levels. Nevertheless, in a nutshell, these findings highlight the importance of reducing reliance on unclean natural resource use, greening financial borrowing schemes, raising share of renewables substantially within the energy mix, and developing green technologies. Accordingly, a set of policy recommendations are put forward.