Carbon Emissions Response Due to Fluctuations in Technology, Education, R&D, and Energy Investment: Nonlinearity Across time and Quantiles

China has experienced significant carbon dioxide emissions (COE) driven by extensive human activities, making it crucial to identify the key factors influencing these emissions to promote environmental sustainability. This study examines the time- and quantile-based effects of fluctuations in technology (TECH), research and development (R&D), public-private partnership investment in energy (PPPIE), and education (EDU) on COE in China, employing the novel wavelet quantile correlation (WQC) method. The results reveal that the positive fluctuations in TECH, EDU and R&D contribute to an increase in COE across short-, medium- and long-term time frames and various quantiles. In contrast, positive fluctuations in PPPIE consistently show a mitigating effect on COE across different time horizons and quantiles. Based on these insights, the study advocates reforms in EDU, TECH and R&D to foster environmental sustainability while also recommending greater support for PPPIE to curb COE effectively.