At the crossroads of sustainability: insights into ICT, globalization, and carbon footprint in APEC nations

Recently, environmental sustainability has become a concern all around the world ever since the initiation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. For Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, this concern is even more challenging which is why they have put several measures in place to address the issues of environmental sustainability while promoting economic integration of the region. This research therefore provides an insight into environmental sustainability of Asia Pacific economies using carbon footprint as a measure of environmental sustainability. To see how this sustainability is affected by different factors, economic growth, information and communication technology (ICT), globalization, urbanization and public sector corruption are analyzed along with the moderation effect of ICT and globalization. To achieve these objectives, a Dynamic Common-Correlated Effect is adopted for this study. The study findings reveal several interesting insights. Economic growth promotes environmental sustainability by reducing carbon footprint of APEC nations. ICT, one of the core variables, has negative effect while globalization’s effect on environmental sustainability is also negative but insignificant. Public sector corruption and natural resources both induce unsustainability. The interaction between ICT and globalization promotes carbon footprint but it is not statistically significant. In light of these results, the study recommends incorporating environmentally friendly ICT while promoting a green growth strategy to achieve Sustainable development goals.