Does overseas eco‐friendly innovation collaboration matter for environmental quality sustainability in India?

The nexus between technological innovations and environmental quality has been much discussed in the field of energy economics and policy. However, the role of overseas eco‐friendly innovation collaboration on environmental quality in India remains unaddressed. In such a line, our study raises the question of whether overseas eco‐friendly innovation collaboration and total technological innovations collaboration are important towards health protection of the natural environment in India. This motivates us to study their effects on India's carbon dioxide emissions function in the presence of energy consumption and economic growth as important control variables. The usage of annual data from 1985 to 2016 permits us to use traditional and structural break unit root tests before the application of ARDL model to evaluate the long‐run relationship between the variables. Besides confirming the long‐run relationship among the variables, we find that eco‐friendly innovation and total innovation collaborations drive health of the natural environment while energy consumption impedes it. The adverse effect of economic growth on environmental quality becomes ineffective. These findings are robust to the usage of alternative techniques, urging climate policymakers in India to house greater overseas eco‐friendly innovation collaboration with other advanced and emerging economies to drive environmental quality sustainability in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]