The 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) is based on the principles of sustainable development; SDG 9 addresses the environment. Thus, this study applies the STIRPAT model to study how natural resources, technological innovation, and public policy (fiscal policy by government expenditure; as well as monetary policy by money supply affect carbon dioxide ( \({CO}_{2}\) ) emissions in 10 ASEAN countries (1980–2022). Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model and Pooled Mean Group (ARDL/PMG) are implemented to investigate long- and short-run relationships in the series. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel Granger causality approach is employed to explore the direction of causality in the series. Environmental degradation is negatively affected by \({CO}_{2}\) emissions and positively affected by natural resources, economic growth, and the financial development index. Environmental sustainability requires economic, financial, and technical innovation. CO2's bidirectional correlation with fiscal policy, monetary policy, and technological innovation is revealed by the D-H Granger causality analysis. Based on these empirical findings, ASEAN countries are urged to consider the development of green technology and the promotion of a sustainable environment through research and development of energy-saving and ecologically friendly green technology. All this reduces pollution, waste, and the wastage of resources and results in the creation of a healthy environment.
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