Do tourism and CO2 emission predict technological innovation in developing countries: Examining Porter and innovative Claudia curve hypothesis

The accelerating concentration of CO2 emissions is attributed to human activities worldwide, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions. There is an outcry for innovations to combat the environmental threat to even the existence of the human race. From this perspective, the current study aims to analyze the significance of technological innovation, tourism development, economic growth, and human development from the environmental perspective under the idea of carbon neutrality from 1996 to 2019. The study utilized dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) to estimate the relationship between the study variables and the panel vector error correction model to showcase the variables’ short and long-run connections. Results reveal that CO2 emissions positively affect technological innovations, which is evidence of the Porter hypothesis. The study showed that the gross domestic product, tourism, and human development index are good innovation indicators and supported the growth-led innovation hypothesis. This study supports the innovative Claudia curve theory between technology and CO2 emissions. Moreover, the study also investigated the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis during the study period. The causality analysis also supports the long-run results of DOLS. Based on the results, the study has implications for future researchers, policymakers, and regulatory bodies in developing countries to achieve carbon neutrality and Agenda 2030.