The effect of technological innovation and clean energy consumption on carbon neutrality in top clean energy-consuming countries : a panel estimation

According to the reports of the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" (IPCC) 2021, it also is absolutely important to limit global temperature rise to - by 2050, and this is only possible by the involvement of green or clean technologies, negative carbon emissions technologies, change in the attitude of the people towards the environment quality, and suitable energy policies are required for achieving carbon neutrality. Given this framework, the study investigates the empirical impact of technological innovations and clean energy utilize on the ecological footprint and emissions for a panel of clean energy-consuming nations during 1990-2019. The findings indicate that clean energy improves environmental quality by reducing both emissions as well as ecological footprint. On contrary, it is also observed that innovations, population, economic growth and the use of non-clean energy have a substantial positive effect on both the emissions and ecological footprint. Thus, the results offer new insights for policymakers to encourage technological innovations for the advancement of both clean energy and negative emissions technologies. Finally, it shows how carbon neutrality can be achieved by clean energy-consuming countries.