Human activities in recent decades have severely affected environmental quality, and CO2 emissions have irreparable consequences on human health and the survival of the earth. Moreover, achieving sustainable development goals requires the expansion of environmental literature to accelerate the performing of critical actions. With this in mind, this study evaluates the impact of foreign direct investment, economic complexity, and the utilization of renewable energy on CO2 emission in N-11 countries from 1995 to 2019 by Panel Quantile Regression. As a novelty, the interaction between economic complexity and foreign direct investment is considered to get a better comprehension. Given the results, Environmental Kuznetz Curve is validated in N-11 countries through economic complexity. Notably, the impact of economic complexity is more substantial and robust in the incipient stages of industrialization. Furthermore, foreign direct investment is a destructive factor for environmental quality, and Pollution Haven Hypothesis is not rejected. Interestingly, the interaction of economic complexity and foreign direct investment mitigates the trend of CO2 emissions. Eventually, the utilization of renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions. Thereby, applying more strict environmental regulations and standards, developing green energy infrastructure and technologies, improving institutional quality, and supporting knowledge-based and technology-intensive exports are the main policy recommendations of this study.

Department of Applied Economics 1 University of Castilla La Mancha 16002 Cuenca Spain; Department of Management Faculty of Economics and Management Czech University of Life Sciences Prague 16500 Prague Czech Republic; Department of Applied Economics University of Alicante Spain

Department of Economics National College of Business Administration and Economics Lahore Pakistan; Lecturer Business Administration Department Faculty of Management Sciences ILMA University Karachi Pakistan

Faculty of Economics Allameh Tabataba'i University Tehran Iran

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