This article explores the impacts of high technology exports on energy consumption, energy intensity, and carbon intensity for a panel of six GCC economies covering a period of 1990 to 2017. For detailed empirical analysis, we employ panel techniques to explore the linkages between high technology exports and energy efficiency in GCC countries. The empirical results demonstrate that high technology exports help to reduce overall energy demand with −0.154% and energy intensity with −0.254% in GCC countries. Notably, we observe that effects on technology exports on carbon intensity are significantly lower in magnitude with −0.010%. Notably, the long empirics are in consistent with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) of GCC countries (cleaner and affordable energy, environmental awareness, climate change action, etc.). The findings suggest that new and innovative energy conservation policies should be introduced to promote energy efficient equipment’s and technologies for cleaner and greener growth.

Research has proved the significance of forests in controlling carbon emissions, however, our research sheds light on the management of existing forests to combat climate change. To examine the role of forestation and forest investment activities, dynamic spatial techniques are used for 30 provinces of China. The results suggest that forest investment and management not only reduce carbon locally but also in neighboring provinces. Furthermore, the findings of the current study confirmed that forest investment is the most viable practice to control carbon emissions in China instead of just increasing total forest area. Reforms regarding the management of forests would be a good policy for both pollution reduction and employment generation.

Forests are considered the key factor in controlling climate change and extreme climatic events due to their natural role in carbon abatement. However, twenty-first-century economic development is characterized by intensive resource exploitation, energy intensity, population, and urbanization, and hence it is affecting the natural forest habitat. The persistent deforestation and land degradation with limited sustainable forest management and its related services have long-term effects on environmental sustainability. Here, we investigate the impact of forest and its related services on the past decade of China’s carbon emissions while accounting for economic development, urbanization, and fossil fuels. We use several spatial techniques to ascertain the carbon abatement effect of the forestry-driven economy in halting the ecological degradation process. We report that carbon emissions decline across 30 provinces in China through the expansion of forest investment and forest management activities—instead of increasing the forest land without continuous proper management. Besides, the spatial analysis confirms that forest investments and proper management contribute to reducing carbon levels in neighboring provinces. From a policy point of view, it is more than an urgent need for the Chinese government to conduct forest management reforms, and such policies might be helpful to generate new sources of employment and pollution reduction in China.