Driving environmental sustainability in emerging economies: The nexus of green finance, foreign direct investment, financial development, and green technology innovation

Abstract

The relevance of environmental sustainability has grown significantly among academics, professionals, and the general public. A variety of factors influence an economy's ability to support its environmental sustainability. Foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development (FD), green technological innovation (GTI), and green finance (GF) are pillars that hold the key to accomplishing sustainability goals. Despite extensive studies on the factors influencing green finance, there remains a gap in grasping the impact of green finance and various investment factors on environmental sustainability. The study's objective is to analyze the relationship between ecological sustainability, green financing, FDI, innovative green technologies, and FD in developing countries. The study employed a fixed effect and random effect model with robustness analysis to gain an empirical understanding of the relationship. The findings highlighted that green finance plays a crucial role in green technologies and encourages economies to embrace sustainability. It also supports the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the understanding that an increase in FDI has a positive relationship with carbon emission. The study makes a significant novel contribution by analyzing the combined influence of financial and green technological development on environmental sustainability. The numerous theoretical and practical implications for addressing the constraints posed by the PHH include tightening domestic legislation, developing international cooperation, and pushing the adoption of cleaner technology throughout industries. It helps governments enact effective environmental regulations to encourage green investment and technological innovation to have a beneficial knock-on effect on cutting ecological sustainability.