The information and communication technology (ICT) is closely related to the future of global energy consumption, not only because the ICT equipment itself increasingly consumes energy, but also because it is a general-purpose technology which may affect energy use of almost all sectors. Given the controversy over the net energy-saving effect of ICT, this paper focuses on a new perspective, i.e., energy productivity, to investigate the relationship between ICT development and energy consumption. Using a data panel of 50 economies over the period of 1995 to 2013, results of the Malmquist energy productivity index generally indicate an unbalanced development of energy productivity across the globe, while results of the patent-based ICT knowledge stock indicate a huge gap of ICT development comparing the high-income economies with the others. Furthermore, regression results indicate that ICT development is significantly related to energy productivity improvement. Finally, this paper suggests accelerating ICT development in underdeveloped economies, given the global common task of sustainable energy consumption.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of low-carbon innovation on CO₂ emissions. Using patent statistics, we measured low-carbon innovations for 15 major economies during the period of 1992–2012. Then, we classified low-carbon technology into clean and gray technology according to the patent classification system. Following the empirical Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework, we explored the effects of low-carbon innovation and its components on CO₂ emissions. We did not find any evidence of significant influence of low-carbon innovation. Through further estimations, a significantly negative effect of clean innovation was found while the effect of gray innovation is not clear. Heterogeneous impacts within low-carbon technology provide an explanation for the insignificant impact of low-carbon innovation.