Unleashing the critical role of renewable energy through global value chains and digitalization: A path towards...

Sustainable energy promotion within global value chains depends on exchanging green technologies and knowledge, but it also requires international environmental regulations. The study examines how global value chains, labor force, gross fixed capital digitalization, and GDP influence renewable energy. The Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimators have been used to estimate the renewable energy patterns in ASEAN countries from 1995 to 2018. The findings show that renewable energy receives negative influences from the labor force, gross fixed capital, and digitalization over long periods. The relationship between global value chains, labor force, and GDP shows negative results in the short term. The analysis establishes that the labor force, digitalization, and GDP negatively affect renewable energy over a longer period. The combination of global value chains, labor force, gross fixed capital, and digitalization produces negative results for renewable energy in the short run. It also shows renewable energy receives positive impacts from the interaction between digitalization and global value chains. Our findings also show that digitalization (DIGI) lowers the adverse effect of the global value chains (GVCPR), acting as a buffer against the adverse impacts of the GVCPR in the short run, and GVCPR lessens the negative effects of the digitalization acting as a stabilizer in the long run. The study reveals that governments need to integrate digital technology infrastructure with global value chains to achieve positive effects on renewable energy production. Sustainable energy practices enable resilient energy operations by creating energy practices through the beneficial relationships between digital innovation and global value chains.