Investigating the environmental externalities of digital financial inclusion and the COVID-19 pandemic: an environmental sustainability perspective

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 30; no. 33; pp. 80758 - 80767
• Main Authors: Zheng, ShiYong, Sheng, Bing, Ghafoor, Abdul, Ashraf, Ahsan Ali, Qamri, Ghulam Muhammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Banking; Carbon Dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Clean technology; COVID-19; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic activity; Economic Development; Economic growth; Ecotoxicology; Emissions; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Environmental performance; Environmental Policy; Environmental quality; Environmental science; Externality; Financial inclusion; Financial services; Humans; Medical research; Pandemics; Policies; Pollution; Poverty; Research Article; Social responsibility; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; COVID; Financial inclusion; Environment
• ISSN: 1614-7499; 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-27433-z

Financial inclusion enhances economic growth by facilitating businesses and individuals to access financial resources. Financial inclusion also contributes to environmental sustainability; however, very few studies have explored the link between financial inclusion and the environment. Also, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental performance remains unexplored. From this perspective, this study probes the objective of whether financial inclusion and environmental performance co-move in COVID-19 in highly polluted economies. This objective is tested with the help of 2SLS and GMM approaches. The study also gets assistance from a panel quantile regression approach for empirical tasks. The results show that financial inclusion and the COVID-19 pandemic have a negative impact on CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, the study suggests that highly polluted economies should promote financial inclusion and assimilate environmental policies with financial inclusion policies to attain environment-related goals.