An empirical appraisal of the non-linear nexus between foreign remittance receipts and carbon emissions intensities

The Indian government's 2070 carbon-neutrality agenda has glorified the urgency of designing roadmaps that would enable this highly polluted South Asian nation to become carbon-neutral. In this regard, considering the nation's interim objective of significantly reducing its carbon emission intensity figures, this study explores how different macroeconomic factors influence India's carbon emission intensity levels of economic output and energy use within the 1975-2021 period. Among the key findings derived form the empirical investigations, the duality of the nexus between foreign remittance receipts and environmental quality is verified. Precisely, the results endorse the inverse U-shaped relationships between foreign remittance receipts and both measures of carbon emission intensities, but only for the long run scenario. Besides, the carbon emission intensity-boosting impacts of energy consumption and urbanization are also affirmed by the results. However, technological progress is found to reduce the carbon emission intensity of economic output while boosting the carbon emission intensity of energy use in the long run. Additionally, the long-run carbon emission intensity of energy use-surging impact of financial development is confirmed, as well. On the other hand, in the short-run, the results further certify that technological progress boosts carbon emission intensity of economic output while more consumption of energy resources amplifies carbon emission intensity of energy use levels in India. Furthermore, for the majority of the cases, the causality test's outcomes support these above-mentioned findings. Thus, as part of policy recommendations, several strategies are prescribed to assist India in realizing its carbon emission intensity-reducing target. CO 2023 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.