Unpacking the environmental quality through the effects of natural resources, renewable energy consumption, banking development and industrial value addition: An empirical evidence from BRICS countries.

This study explores the association between natural resources rent, industrial value addition, banking development, renewable energy consumption, total reserves and environmental quality in the dynamic context of BRICS nations from 1995 to 2019. BRICS economies are responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions and confront pressing environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss and pollution. For the dependent variable, the environmental quality, the study constructed a composite index using PCA for all environmental indicators where interdependencies among variables are prevalent. Besides this, the study incorporates two interaction terms to determine the indirect influence of natural resource rent and banking development on environmental quality through the mediating role of industrial value addition. By applying the CS-ARDL technique, the outcomes of the study reveal that natural resources rent, industrial value addition, and total reserves positively influence ENQ, indicating the adverse consequences of industrial sectors on environmental quality and continued environmental degradation due to resource-intensive industrial production, underscoring the urgency of sustainable resource management. In contrast, banking development and renewable energy consumption negatively influence ENQ, signifying the positive role of developed banking sectors in supporting eco-friendly projects and enhancing environmental quality. This study offers valuable insights for policy interventions to foster a more sustainable future.

Exploring the impacts of economic policy uncertainty, natural resources, and energy structure on ecological footprints: evidence from G-10 nations.

The role of energy and natural resources rent has been studied in the literature but very few research works investigated the impacts of economic policy uncertainty and energy structure on ecological footprints (EFs) in the group of ten G-10 countries. Therefore, this research is designed to probe the impacts of economic policy uncertainty (EP), natural resources rent, energy structure, economic growth, and total factor productivity on EF. The annual data for 1995-2018 is analyzed by adopting second-generation methods. The empirical results from the CS-ARDL unveiled that EP is significantly and positively related to EF, indicating that EP is not environmentally friendly in these nations. A 1% increase in EP contributes to EF by 0.025% in the long run. In addition, the results show that natural resource rents and energy structure positively contribute to mitigating EF by 0.012% and 0.095% respectively, while economic growth increases EF by 0.237%. Based on the empirical results, this work suggests addressing the economic policy uncertainty and economic progress to lower ecological deprivation can be a viable solution to attain sustainable development goals. This work recommends adopting feasible economic policies with sound efforts. For this purpose, the economic sector has to be strong enough with sustainable production. They should ensure the supply of continuous renewable energy to the economic sector.

Do fiscal decentralization and natural resources rent curb carbon emissions? Evidence from developed countries.

This study provides new insight by introducing the role of fiscal decentralization and natural resources rent in affecting CO2 emissions. For assessing this objective, this paper use panel data from seven highly fiscal decentralized Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 to 2018. For empirical analysis, we use the Westerlund test and cross-sectional autoregressive distributive lag model. In order to ascertain the integration order of variables, the study utilizes the Pesaran second-generation unit-root test. The findings reveal that all the variables are stationary at first difference. The long-run results confirm that fiscal decentralization and natural resources rent improve the atmosphere by reducing CO2 emissions. Moreover, gross domestic product and total natural resources rent increase, while improvement in institutional quality reduces CO2 emissions. For policy implication, this study recommends that transferring the power to the local governments will further reduce CO2 emissions and shift these countries to more environmentally friendly sources.

Does green investment, financial development and natural resources rent limit carbon emissions? A provincial panel analysis of China.

This study investigates the role of natural resources rent, green investment, financial development and energy consumption in mitigation of carbon emissions to achieve sustainable development goal of a clean environment by using the panel data of 30 provinces of China from 1995 to 2017. This study employs novel cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) methodology to find the long and short-run impact of the variables of the study on carbon emission, where CS-ARDL estimates confirm the positive impact of energy consumption and financial development on carbon emissions (CO2). Moreover, green investment is negatively linked to CO2, whereas national natural resources rent is positively associated with carbon emissions. Similarly, augmented mean group and common correlated effect mean group methods provide supportive results for CS-ARDL estimates. This study recommends strengthening of national natural tax law, promotion of green investment and environmental-friendly policies to control carbon emissions.