Sustainable development in BRICS economies: Linking digitalization, higher education, and energy efficiency under the N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) is essential to achieving sustainable development objectives, safeguarding the environment, reducing the effects of climate change, and maintaining biodiversity for a future that is cleaner and more resilient. Nowadays, environmentalists also focus on how the environment reacts to society's increasing level of education. Increasing public awareness of environmental deterioration through environmental education, moral sermons, and higher tertiary enrollment can be a crucial policy in the fight against global warming, along with other measures to reduce CO2e. The effort to combat climate change necessitates improving energy efficiency (EE) and information and communication technology (ICT). Therefore, this study examines the impact of higher education (HED), EE and ICT on CO2e under the N-shaped EKC hypothesis. Using the panel data for five BRICS nations between 1991 and 2023, an empirical analysis is carried out, and the coefficients of the variables are estimated using the Second generation techniques (cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-ARDL), Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) and Augmented mean group (AMG) approach. The estimates confirm the Inverted N-shaped EKC hypothesis between the GDP and CO2e. Moreover, the long-run estimates reveal that higher education, energy efficiency and ICT have negative effects on CO2e. BRICS countries should promote environmental education across all tiers, with an emphasis on conservation, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development, to help improve environmental awareness and literacy. Moreover, they should decouple energy use from economic growth to simultaneously achieve both economic and environmental goals, which can be facilitated by increasing ICT utilization, promoting higher tertiary enrollment, and improving energy efficiency. • This study examines the impact of Digitalization, Higher Education, and Energy Efficiency on environmental sustainability. • This study investigates the the N-Shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve in the BRICS economies. • This study utilizes the CS-ARDL, CCEMG and AMG approaches. • The finding shows there exist an Inverted N-shaped EKC hypothesis between the GDP and CO2 emissions. • The digitalization, energy efficiency, and higher education have negative effect on CO2 emissions.