The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) positively contributes to economic growth; however, their environmental implications cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the impact of ICT, energy consumption, economic growth, and financial development on the air quality in Pakistan. Drawing on the data set from 1976 to 2018, we employed Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. The results revealed that there is a substantial presence of asymmetric cointegration between ICT and CO₂ emissions. The empirical results unfold that positive shocks in ICT negatively affect CO₂ emissions, implying that an increase in ICT brings a decrease in CO₂ emission; negative shocks in ICT publicized a negative association with CO₂ emissions, inferring that a decrease in ICT will bring an upsurge in CO₂ emissions. Moreover, on the dark side, energy consumption and financial development degrade the environmental quality by increasing the CO₂ emissions in Pakistan. Additionally, the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in Pakistan was confirmed. Our key findings emphasize the importance of ICT development and several environmental implications in attaining the sustainable development goal.

信息和通信技术的发展为经济增长做出了积极贡献；但是，它们对环境的影响不容忽视。因此，必须调查信息通信技术，能源消耗，经济增长和金融发展对巴基斯坦空气质量的影响。利用1976年至2018年的数据集，我们采用了非线性自回归分布式滞后模型。结果表明，ICT与CO ₂排放之间存在着不对称的协整关系。实证结果表明，ICT的正面冲击会对CO ₂排放产生负面影响，这意味着ICT的增加带来了CO ₂的减少。排放; ICT的负面冲击宣告了与CO ₂排放的负相关，这表明ICT的减少将带来CO ₂排放的激增。此外，从不利的一面看，能源消耗和金融发展通过增加巴基斯坦的CO ₂排放量而降低了环境质量。另外，证实了巴基斯坦的环境库兹涅茨曲线假说的存在。我们的主要发现强调了信息通信技术发展的重要性以及对实现可持续发展目标的若干环境影响。