Nexus between greenhouse gas emissions and its determinants: The role of renewable energy and technological innovations towards green development in South Korea

The environmental challenges that have arisen as a result of rapid economic growth have become a hindrance to social progress. This article examines the effects of energy consumption, urbanization, industrialization, economic development, and technological innovations on South Korea's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Using data from 1990 to 2021 and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method for empirical investigations, the findings indicate that fossil fuel energy consumption, urbanization, industrialization, and economic expansion all pose a threat to environmental sustainability due to their positive impact on GHG emissions. In contrast, the results suggest that renewable energy usage and technological innovations improve environmental sustainability by reducing GHG emissions in both the short and long term. In addition, the findings were validated using Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) techniques. The most significant contribution is that the findings of this study provide various policy recommendations for achieving environmental sustainability and net zero emissions in South Korea.