The role of green innovations, environmental policies and carbon taxes in achieving the sustainable development goals of carbon neutrality

The green innovations, environmental policies, and carbon taxes are the tools to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the mitigation process. This study is intended to examine the impact of innovation, carbon pricing (CTAX), environmental policies (EP), and energy consumption (ECON) on PM 2.5 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission for Central-Eastern European countries. The panel effect during 2000–2018 is tested using a dynamic panel data model while the Granger causality approach obtains country-related outcomes. The outcomes reveal that eco-friendly innovations have a more profound effect on carbon mitigation. Environmental policies reduce emissions by 2.7% in the short run and 17.4% in the long run. Similarly, CTAX mitigates GHG emissions by 8.6% in the short-run and PM2.5 by 0.9% and 5.7% in the short and long run. However, urbanization, energy consumption and trade openness are the leading polluters in the region. The main findings remain dominant in the country-specific results and find unidirectional and bidirectional causality evidence among variables. The research concludes that green innovations and strict environmental policy can lead towards achieving sustainable development goals using carbon taxes as a tool on the way. Graphical abstract