How ICT and globalization interact with the environment: a case of the Chinese economy

An era of rapid changes in the technological and economic aspects of developing and developed countries can have detrimental extortions on the environment around the world. From the perspective of globalization, the rapid development and growth can reroute to enhance the interaction between people, organizations, and countries across the globe including China through the usage of information and communication technology which in turn contributes to the economic growth of one side, whereas on the other side, it affects the environmental quality. Referring to this aspect, this study is focused to inspect the link between information and communication technology, and globalization with the facets of degradation in the environment that as CO₂ emission and ecological footprint by keeping the view of economic growth prospects as well via using the EKC hypothesis. In our study, time-series data was employed from 1987 to 2020 for China using the Dynamic ARDL approach. Grounded on the findings of the study, economic growth from the sight of GDP fallouts in rising the emission of CO₂ and EFP in the short and long run whereas GDP sqr cause decrease in the CO₂ emission and EFP. Thus, this authorizes the presence of inverted U-shaped existence among GDP sqr, CO₂ emission, and EFP. Therefore, this provides provision for the EKC hypothesis in China. Furthermore, ICT and globalization cause a decline in the emission of CO₂ and EFP in the short and long run respectively. In combatting challenges linked to the environment, globalization, as well as ICT, is seen as a crucial factor based on the pieces of evidence in our study while the policy implications are also proposed in the paper.