*Article* **Linking Innovative Human Capital, Economic Growth, and CO2 Emissions: An Empirical Study Based on Chinese Provincial Panel Data**

**Xi Lin 1,2,\*, Yongle Zhao 1, Mahmood Ahmad 3, Zahoor Ahmed 4, Husam Rjoub <sup>5</sup> and Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo 6,\***


**Citation:** Lin, X.; Zhao, Y.; Ahmad, M.; Ahmed, Z.; Rjoub, H.; Adebayo, T.S. Linking Innovative Human Capital, Economic Growth, and CO2 Emissions: An Empirical Study Based on Chinese Provincial Panel Data. *Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health* **2021**, *18*, 8503. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph18168503

Academic Editors: Pasquale Avino, Massimiliano Errico, Hamid Salehi and Aristide Giuliano

Received: 6 July 2021 Accepted: 9 August 2021 Published: 11 August 2021

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**Abstract:** To study the economic and environmental effects of human capital, previous studies measure human capital based on education; however, this approach has many shortcomings because not all educated people are innovative human capital. Hence, this study introduces the concept of innovative human capital by developing a new index that measures human capital based on the number of patents every one million R&D staff full-time equivalent. After this, this paper studies the impact of innovative human capital on CO2 emissions in China. The provincial panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017 is analyzed using the fixed effect, ordinary least squares, and the system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM). The analysis revealed that innovative human capital alleviates environmental deterioration in China. The findings unfold the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) considering innovative human capital in the model. It implies that Chinese economic development will eventually support environmental sustainability if China continues to develop its innovative human capital. Among the control variables, economic structure, population density, and energy intensity stimulate environmental degradation by increasing CO2 emissions. However, FDI has a negative relationship with CO2 emissions. Lastly, the study proposes comprehensive policies to increase innovative human capital for environmental sustainability.

**Keywords:** innovative human capital; CO2 emission; Chinese provinces; economic growth
