1. Introduction
A growth structure with viability and sustainability is globally perceived as an operational target of all economies. To accomplish the target of high growth and sustainability is sometimes viewed as two distinct objectives, particularly when the role of technical progress is deemed as something that has depressing effects on the ecology [
1]. As an aftermath, the struggle to achieve sustainable growth becomes an uphill task and challenges policymakers, thinkers, and researchers. The fast economic development of the past 30–35 years has been accompanied by natural resource depletion and declining environmental value [
2]. The growth of the world economy at large has experienced a collapse of nature and social segregation. Consequently, the expansion of the green economy has steadily got the attention of researchers and authorities [
3]. In the digital era, information, and communication technology (ICT) triggers energy efficiency and productivity. Innovation in the use of technology, particularly in the energy sector, is considered a solution to the environmental challenge of using technology sets [
4]. The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) believes that ICT will reduce 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 [
5]. Likewise, Mathiesen et al. [
6] and Ishida [
7] suggested that ICT positively affects CO
2 emissions. On the contrary, Salahuddin and Alam [
8] argued that ICT enhances energy consumption and GHG. Similarly, the study of Van Heddeghem et al. [
8] has mentioned that energy consumption from ICT products has increased from 3.9 to 4.6 percent in 2007–2012. Thus, the impact of ICT on CO
2 emissions is still inclusive. Hence, the ICT and CO
2 emissions nexus cannot be ignored.
The relationship between ICT and energy consumption and CO
2 emissions is complex. In general, information technology has a positive impact on the quality of the environment, and energy and carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced through online delivery and transportation alternatives [
5]. Asongu et al. [
9] verified their impact on reducing environmental pollution by developing ICTs in 44 sub-Saharan African countries between 2002 and 2012. Gelenbe and Caseau [
5] believed that ICT could continue to diminish energy consumption and CO
2 emissions by changing jobs and business models. However, at the same time, many communication technology equipment and electronic waste will also harm the environment [
10].
On the other side, the usage of electronic battery vehicles helps sustain the CO
2 emissions in Europe [
11]. The reduction of greenhouse gas and CO
2 emissions also depends on energy sources and tax policy [
12]. Furthermore, the possibility of subsidies and taxes also create the dynamics in CO
2 emissions in Europe, considering each car segment and nation [
12]; an increase can reduce the CO
2 emissions through tariff subsidies for renewable energy [
12]. In contrast, subsidies on CO
2 utilization are helpful to uplift the oil production and carbon capture utilization and storage projects in China [
13]. For the Chinese economy, taxes on coal production are also feasible to lower CO
2 emissions [
13].
Nocera et al. [
13] suggested that the variation in social cost of CO
2 emission for the transportation sector decreases by a single order of magnitude. Gelenbe and Caseau [
5] examined the effect of ICT on the energy consumption and CO
2 emission in different sectors. One the one hand, they found that ICT consumes energy and releases CO
2 to affect the environmental atmosphere, but on the other hand, ICT can reduce CO
2 emissions and the use of energy for other sectors, such as transportation, smart building, and virtual work and learning. Higón et al. [
14] explored the association between ICT and CO
2 emission. Unlike previous studies, this paper finds an inverted relationship between ICT and CO
2 emission, and this result coincides with the opposite theory about the effect of ICT on CO
2 emission. The finding, which is obtained by using a developing countries sample, can be applied to developed countries.
For Tunisia, Amri et al. [
15] tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC henceforth) hypothesis and concluded that the EKC hypothesis does not apply to Tunisia. Moreover, his results explored an insignificant ICT influence on CO
2 emission. Besides, trade and energy consumption have positive impacts on CO
2 emission. Haseeb et al. [
16] evaluated the effect of ICT, electricity consumption, economic growth, and financial development on environmental performance in BRICS countries. They found that these variables are connected and interacted together. For ICT, it can reduce CO
2 emissions significantly and improve environmental quality. For the Japanese economy, Ishida [
7] estimated that the long-run ICT investment elasticity of energy consumption is −0.155. He also argues that energy consumption can be declined moderately through ICT investment, but it will not increase the GDP. It was also shown that there is a nonlinear relationship between ICT and CO
2 emissions, which follows an inverted U-shaped [
17,
18]. Only when information technology usage reaches the average level will it promote carbon dioxide emissions [
14]. Therefore, the academic community has not yet reached a unified conclusion on the relationship between ICT and CO
2 emissions. It is of great significance to rethink the impact of ICT on CO
2 emissions using the latest methods and data.
How ICT achieves CO
2 emission reduction targets has always been the focus of academic attention. The academic community generally believes that information and communication technologies are rapidly spreading through continuous innovation, affecting other economic sectors. Information and communication technologies are important drivers of new lifestyles and economic structural changes [
19]. There are generally two ways to quantify this academic community: one is to quantify the internal communication technology of the enterprise, such as the technical efficiency, economic growth, industrial structure changes, etc. [
20,
21,
22]; and the second is to establish a specific information technology impact model and establish an ICT environment level (ICT hardware life cycle), a second-level (ICT-provided services), and a third-level (emerging effect) impact model. It is believed that the dynamic impact of information technology comes from the feedback of the third-order effect on the first- and second-order effects [
15,
19].
In recent years, ICT technology in BRICS countries is also developing rapidly, greatly impacting its economic development [
22,
23]. Simultaneously, energy consumption and CO
2 emissions are receiving increasing attention in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (hereafter BRICS). Energy consumption also affects the economic policy uncertainty in the short term [
23]. Because, according to data and forecasts from the International Energy Agency, the economy has beaten the OECD as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2013, and this growth trend will not be alleviated until 2023. Hence, it is valuable to study the relationship between ICT and CO
2 emissions in BRICS countries. Nevertheless, the current academic research on this is still very limited; examples are exploring the impact of BRICS cooperation on the regional economy in the field of ICT [
24], and the relationship between economic growth in BRICS countries and CO
2 emissions [
16]. However, there is no found relationship between ICT and environmental quality.
There is still only scant literature on CO
2 emissions and innovation for a region or a group of BRICS countries. Innovation decreases the CO
2 emission in some cross-sections of the countries but cannot help in others. For example, Dauda et al. [
25] claimed that innovation played a role in lessening emissions in G6 countries, whereas it increased it in MENA and BRICS. For the Chinese industrial sector, Zhu et al. [
26] estimated the effects of environmental regulations on technological innovation efficiency and recommended that the government publicize environmental regulations according to each province’s technological innovation capability. Generalizing this hypothesis for the BRICS economies can be the focus of an independent study. BRICS countries have shown an enormous growth episode in the past twenty years. On the other hand, they faced ecological issues, such as emitting GHGs, particularly CO
2 emissions. The scorecard of BRICS economies in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018 suggests that most group members still have to do more to achieve the established policy goals on the environment. China (with 120), India (with 177), and South Africa (with 142) are still below the average score.
At present, the impact of ICT on the environment is mainly limited to global research. For the specific regions, such as the BRICS countries, the emergence of this paper fills the gap. The approach in this study is a holistic one because we have incorporated BRICS, which include almost half of the world’s population, and also because these countries have been involved in generating pollution more than any other group of countries. Three of them, China, India, and Russia, are found in the top four emission-generating countries [
27]. The study of Köhler and Erdmann [
17] recommended that scholars investigate the dynamic of new ICT applications and their depth effects on a global scale by reviewing the existing literature on ICT and GHG emission and putting forward future research about this topic after conducting an in-depth scenario analysis. This background suggests that a detailed empirical investigation is required to identify the role of adopting technology, technical value addition in manufacturing, and the resultant exports have in environmental degradation.
Hence, the paper studies the upshots of technology innovation and the adoption of CO2 emissions along the EKC for BRICS countries. The data suggest that all the BRICS countries are included in the top 15 most polluting countries. Accordingly, this paper uses the first method proposed in the literature to quantify ICT and innovatively links each country to their information technology adoption rate as a surrogate indicator for measuring the information and communication technology in BRICS economies. This study will also examine the environmental Kuznets’ curve evidence using technology innovation, technology adoption, and trade openness as the control variables.