An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Economic Development, Industry 4.0 and Carbon Emission: Evidence from Global 50 Countries

Abstract

Purpose: The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the factors influencing carbon emissions in global countries. Research Design, Data and Methodology: Factor analysis has been applied to reduce factors and to find the most influencing factor in carbon emissions and the chi-square test has been used to test the hypotheses. Result: Among the nine selected factors, three factors, namely the nature of industry & density, demographic change, and economic development, were found to have high carbon emissions. It is found that there is a significant association between industrialisation and carbon emissions among selected Asian countries. However, no significant association has been found between demographical change, economic development and carbon emissions among selected Asian countries. There, industrialisation is considered one of the most important factors responsible for carbon emissions. Conclusion: Growing consumption of energy and industrialisation both support economic growth while harming the environment. It has been determined that one of the key factors affecting carbon emissions and climate change is industrialisation. The two critical variables need to be balanced. Industry 4.0 is anticipated to enable industrialisation to advance without increasing carbon emissions.

Keywords: Carbon Emission, Carbon Per Capita, Economic Development, Industry 4.0

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