Enhancing carbon productivity in Germany through climate technology, carbon capture, environmental management and renewable energy technology

Climate unpredictability has assumed new dimensions in recent years. In response, countries are implementing various strategies to either eliminate or, at the very least, enhance resilience and improve environmental performance. Among others, carbon productivity (CP) has been identified as one of the key strategies for mitigating climate unpredictability and promoting a more sustainable environment. However, the contributions of climate technology (CT), renewable energy technology (RET), carbon capture (CC), environmental management (EM), and energy taxes (ET) to CP remain underexplored, highlighting a significant void in the literature. This study employed the wavelet-quantile-correlation (WQC) and wavelet-quantile-Granger-causality (WQGC) methods to analyze annual data (1990–2022) from Germany, covering the aforementioned variables. The findings indicate that renewable energy technology contributes most substantially to CP in the long run, followed by climate technology. However, the CP-enhancing effects of climate technology declined over time, suggesting possible policy inconsistencies or misalignments. Energy taxes and environmental management demonstrate moderate positive impacts on CP, particularly in the long term. In contrast, carbon capture exhibits the weakest influence on CP, with limited effects observed mainly in the medium term and no significant long-term impact. These findings are critical for enacting green innovation policies aimed at strengthening climate change resilience in Germany.