Measurement of green development and influencing factors in emerging economies: the empirical evidence from BRICS

This paper aims to construct a Green Development Index for emerging economies, focusing on the BRICS nations as the research subjects. The study measures the index of various indicators and explores the influencing factors from 2012 to 2021 using the entropy value method. The trend analysis indicates that the global level of green development is gradually increasing, albeit with significant fluctuations. China and Brazil lead with the highest levels of green development, while Russia consistently maintains a lower level. Regression results, in terms of estimated coefficients and statistical significance, suggest the greatest impact comes from industrial structure, followed by technological R&D, with human capital having the least impact. Implications are policy changes in emerging economies to enhance industrial structures, human capital, and sci-tech research.