Assessment of the Impact of Digitalization on Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the Example of EU Member States

Abstract

Abstract Digitization and climate neutrality are among the development priorities of EU member states. This causes wide scientific and practical interest in the description of these processes, including their mutual influence. In this case, digitalization is a factor, and climate neutrality, largely characterized by green-house gas emissions, is the answer. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to assess the impact of digitalization on greenhouse gas emissions using the example of EU member states. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is the proposition of hypotheses, the proof of which will allow us to estimate the level of influence of the digitalization process on the volume of greenhouse gases per capita of the EU member states using economic and mathematical tools. It is justified that the direct impact of digitalization on the level of greenhouse gas emissions cannot be considered significant and statistically significant. The impact of digitalization on the processes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with a delay of 1 to 4 years has not been identified. Considering the low degree of correlation-regression dependence between greenhouse gas emissions and the level of digitization, it can be assumed that either (1) other factors have a significant impact (list), or (2) the observation horizon is “captured” only by the part of the Kuznets curve, which corresponds to the descending part parabolas. Consequently, the conducted analysis shows that there are serious reasons to believe that digitalization is not the main (leading) factor in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This necessitates further research with the inclusion of a wide range of variables (related to regulatory policy, tax policy, investment policy, the culture of consumption) in the model.