The pressing global effort to tackle CO2 emissions has brought about a strong emphasis on adopting green technology by economies striving for low-carbon development. Within this context, this research investigates the environmental significance of green technology and exports in Malaysia. By examining 30-year data from 1989 to 2019 and utilising the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), this study explores these variables' long-run and short-run effects on Malaysia's environment. The outcomes reveal noteworthy insights: population growth and green technology negatively impact environmental degradation, whereas exports and economic expansion contribute to environmental depletion over the long term. However, the influences of a higher population and exports are inconsequential in the short term. Additionally, the study captures the influences of transient economic challenges, such as the COVID-19 outbreak. Consequently, the study emphasises crucial policy implications for the Malaysian government. Firstly, it strongly recommends increasing investment in sustainable technology, especially within the manufacturing sector, to mitigate the adverse environmental impact of exports. Furthermore, it suggests incentivizing companies to embrace green technology through subsidies for acquiring renewable energy and imposing higher taxes on non-renewable energy sources. Additionally, policymakers are urged to prioritise human capital development by raising public awareness about the dangers of heightened CO2 emissions. Malaysia can leverage its expertise to foster economic expansion without compromising the environment by engaging the working population in environmentally sustainable economic activities. These policy recommendations aim to expedite the shift towards a decarbonised economy, promote sustainable development, and safeguard Malaysia's natural resources.
Extensive theoretical and empirical evidence supports the crucial role of savings in driving a nation's economic growth and development. However, previous studies have not considered their potential environmental implications. This study aims to explore the influence of savings and remittances on the Developing-8 countries (D-8) from 1989 to 2019, using the panel autoregressive distributed (ARDL) model. The findings reveal that national savings and remittances, in the long run, help mitigate environmental degradation in the D-8 countries but energy use and population growth stimulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In contrast, economic growth does not significantly affect these countries' environmental quality in the long run. However, none of the explanatory variables have any significant relationship with CO2 emissions in the short run. Therefore, policymakers in the D-8 countries are strongly encouraged to prioritize the enhancement of national savings across the three economic agents to maximize the positive effects of savings on environmental quality. Government savings can be increased by reducing deficits and borrowings, while corporate savings can be encouraged by implementing investment tax credits and promoting research and development. Additionally, governments can embark on public enlightenment campaigns on financial education and provide incentives to encourage household savings.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) can boost economic growth and provide job opportunities. FDI inflows in ASEAN+3 countries have dropped markedly, which may affect economic development in the region. Many previous studies have investigated a multitude of factors that can influence FDI, such as market size, inflation, trade openness, corruption, and inflation. Previous studies did not, however, consider environmental degradation as a potential factor. Besides corruption and inflation, imposing stringent environmental regulations, such as carbon pricing and taxes to reduce environmental degradation, might deter foreign investors from the country. This is due to heightened costs for foreign investors, which may cause FDI inflows to drop. To shed some light on the reality of this situation, this study examines whether environmental degradation can significantly affect foreign direct investment in the region. This study includes environmental degradation as a potential factor and employs the panel ARDL approach to analyse data from 1995 to 2019. Results show that environmental degradation, infrastructure, and corruption can affect the inflow of FDI in the long run. In the short run, inflation can affect FDI. The findings of this study can be utilized by policymakers in formulating the right policies to attract more investors. An increase in infrastructure facilities should be considered to attract more foreign investment. It is also vital for governments to reduce corruption and inflation to attract more FDI inflows. Environmental incentives should also be introduced to ensure that attempts to reduce environmental degradation do not affect FDI inflows.
In the wake of various catastrophic consequences of climate change, Malaysia, a rapidly developing economy, is also inevitably experiencing environmental degradation that merits prompt and serious attention from policymakers and its government. Hence, this study simultaneously highlights the short and long-run dynamic connections between carbon emission in Malaysia and the trio of corruption levels, foreign investment inflow, and trade liberalization. The study also controls for a combination of other factors including energy use, GDP, and urbanization. A robust empirical analysis was conducted on time series observations for the country based on the recent Dynamic ARDL simulation. It was observed that Malaysia's per capita pollution levels significantly reduces based on the corruption perception levels during the sampling period while the economic expansion's effect on emission levels is positive. Additionally, urbanization, trade levels and energy use all aggravate the emission levels. On the other hand, although FDI poses an insignificant environmental damage in the short run, its environmental sustainability enhancement roles were supported by its long-run negative impacts on carbon emission. Lastly, the EKC was established and as such, essential policy directions were provided for stakeholders in the rapidly emerging Malaysian economy.