The critical role of green innovation technologies and democracy in the transition to sustainability: A study on leading emerging market economies

Recent studies emphasize the potential of green technologies and political factors as catalysts for sustainability. Despite extensive examination of various factors' impacts on ecological footprints in previous literature, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the environmental effects of these two factors. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study underscores the importance of green innovation technologies and democracy in the transition to sustainability. The study aims to investigate the impact of green innovation technologies, democracy, income inequality, globalization, economic growth, and energy consumption on the ecological footprint in seven leading emerging market nations from 1990 to 2018. The study utilized second-generation panel data methodology to identify the relationship between variables using the Augmented Mean Group procedure. The study's findings indicate that green innovation technologies and democracy reduce the ecological footprint of the entire panel. While globalization is a force that reduces ecological pressure, income distribution has no significant impact. Factors that significantly increase the ecological footprint include economic growth and energy consumption. Although the results at the country level are somewhat heterogeneous, they provide supportive and promising insights for the panel.