Climate change and the UN-2030 agenda: Do mitigation technologies represent a driving factor? New evidence from OECD economies.

The United Nations 2030 agenda states various sustainable development goals (SDGs) to counter climate change affecting individuals' health and economies. It puts forward various policy guidelines and tools to help in the mitigation process and orientation towards green growth. In this context, this study examines the influence of carbon taxes and innovation (mitigation technologies) on demand, supply and total emissions in OECD regions for a sample spanning from 2000 to 2018. The preliminary data testing employed second-generation approaches, whereas the long-run relationship among the variables is tested using error correction-based modeling approaches due to cross-sectional dependences. IPAT and STIRPAT models are used to test the demand- and production-based emissions, while PMG-ARDL is employed for total carbon emissions. The results confirm the presence of a long-run relationship among variables. Moreover, water and wastewater technologies neutralize production-based emissions by 68%, production and processing innovation by 62%, energy generation/transmission limit it by 39%, and transportation-related technologies lowered demand-based emissions by 15% in OECD states. Environmental taxes have a more dominant effect in lowering carbon emissions in the short run (25%) than in the long run (10%); however, energy consumption remains the main polluter in all sectors. In sum, the results reveal that the policy target achievement tends to be sub-region specific (Asia-Oceania, America, Europe). Nevertheless, carbon taxes and mitigation technologies are helping in achieving SDGs of carbon mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]