[01] Mohammadreza Mohammadvand Nahidi, Department of Economics, College of Management, Economics and Accounting, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran. [02] Arash Ketabforoush Badri, Department of Economics, College of Management and Accounting, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran. [03] Mohammad Taheri, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resource, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran.

One of the most obvious challenges facing the environment, the production of different goods and products harmful to the environment and expand energy that leaves a lot of destructive effects. The use of new technologies can play an important role in this regard. One of these new technologies is ICT. The impact of ICT on the environment is one of the issues are complex and multifaceted. ICT can have both positive and negative effects on environmental sustainability. For this purpose, this study aimed to investigate the effects of ICT on the environment by using panel data for 13 countries of Latin America in the period 2003-2012. The results show that fixed telephone lines as an indicator of ICT and significant negative relationship between CO₂ emissions in countries that have been studied. The variable GDP per capita, the degree of openness of the economy and square GDP in the studied countries have a positive impact on CO₂ emissions.

ICT, Environment, Phone Lines, CO₂, Panel Data

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