article · Journal of Cleaner Production
An investigation of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden between 1995 and 2020 explores how economic complexity, its forward outlook, and environmental technologies influence greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. The analysis reveals that the existing level of economic complexity promotes environmental sustainability across the Nordic region. In contrast, the economic complexity outlook stimulates greenhouse gas emissions, indicating that future shifts in product and industrial sophistication could harm the ecosystem. Additionally, rising urban population growth diminishes environmental quality by accelerating emissions. However, economic growth, economic complexity, and environmental-related technologies serve as strong mechanisms for sustainability by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. These findings offer guidance for sector-wide policies aimed at strengthening long-term sustainable development programmes across the Nordic countries.
Understanding how industrial diversification intersects with environmental quality is essential for balancing national growth with climate goals. While current sophisticated economies can curb emissions, their future development pathways and expanding urban centres may create new ecological strains. Tracking these dynamics helps policymakers align technological innovation with sustainability targets to prevent future industrial activity from accelerating environmental degradation.
The abstract focuses on macroeconomic analysis of national indicators rather than a specific product or service, meaning it does not directly indicate an applied commercialisation pathway. However, the finding that environmental-related technologies actively curb emissions highlights an ongoing role for clean technology developers and environmental innovation programmes aiming to supply solutions to Nordic industrial sectors facing pressure from rising urbanisation and evolving economic complexity.
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Understanding the outlook of countries' economic complexity is vital for assessing the future of industries' product characterization. It provides opportunity and insight on how to mitigate the negative externalities that arises from the increasing pressure on the ecosystem. Based on this account, the effect of economic complexity and the corresponding outlook on environmental degradation vis-a-vis greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions alongside other environmental indicators are examined for the panel of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden for the period 1995 to 2020. After employing Driscoll- Kraay's standard errors for random effect (RE) with individual effects for the examination, the results indicate that the region's level of economic complexity favors environmental sustainability. Contrarily, the economic complexity outlook spurs GHG emissions, thus suggesting that future performance of the region's economic complexity could be detrimental to its ecosystem. Another similar, and undesirable observation is that the increase in urban population hampers environmental quality as it causes a surge in GHG emissions. Meanwhile, the results then conclude that economic growth, economic complexity, and environmental-related technologies are found to be potent drivers of environmental sustainability as the indicators exert negative pressure on GHG emissions in the Nordic region. Important policies that potentially guide immediate, and future sector-wide activities toward enhancing the region's sustainable development programs are posited through the study outcome.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137154
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