Linking clean energy consumption, globalization, and financial development to the ecological footprint in a developing country: Insights from the novel dynamic ARDL simulation techniques.

Developing countries have been facing economic difficulties for over three and a half decades due to numerous factors, including fossil fuel consumption and dwindling biocapacity. It is necessary to pinpoint the factors that may be culpable for poor environmental quality leading to a rising ecological footprint (EFP). This study explores the effect of clean energy, financial development (FDV), and globalization on the EFP in a developing country using the novel dynamic ARDL simulation techniques and the bootstrap causality test. The findings suggest that green energy has no meaningful impact on the EFP. Globalization and FDV significantly reduce the EFP by 0.25% and 0.08%, respectively. Besides, the findings confirm the existence of the EKC hypothesis. Furthermore, the causality results affirm a unidirectional causality from globalization and FDV to EFP, while economic growth drives globalization. Also, a one-way causality flows from globalization to FDV, just as FDV Granger causes green energy. In line with the findings, the study recommends that public policies focus on funding environmental-friendly technologies and green innovations. The funding must be on recently developed energy-saving technologies that can ensure complementarity between increased economic growth and environmental deterioration.

Technological innovations, renewable energy, globalization, financial development, and carbon emissions: role of inward remittances for top ten remittances receiving countries.

Asides from renewable energy consumption, technological innovation and remittances are mostly ignored as critical tools and resources that can be adopted to ameliorate environmental worries, even when remittances have more considerable resource inflow than official development aids. Based on this information, the current research investigates the implications of technological innovation, remittances, globalization, financial development, and renewable energy on CO2 emissions in top remittances-receiving countries from 1990 to 2021. To obtain reliable estimates, we use a battery of advanced econometric techniques and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) method. The AMG results suggest that innovation, remittances, renewable energy, and financial development alleviate CO2 emanations, whereas globalization and economic growth worsen environmental sustainability by increasing CO2 emissions. Besides, the MMQR results confirm that renewable energy, innovation, and remittances decrease CO2 emissions across all quantiles. A bidirectional causality exists amid financial development and CO2 emanations, and across remittances and CO2 emissions. However, one-way causality flows from economic growth, renewable energy and innovation to CO2. This study suggests some essential measures for ecological sustainability in light of the findings.

Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty and Pandemic Uncertainty on International Tourism: What do We Learn From COVID-19?

Uncertainty is an overarching aspect of life that is particularly pertinent to the present COVID-19 pandemic crisis; as seen by the pandemic's rapid worldwide spread, the nature and level of uncertainty have possibly increased due to the possible disconnects across national borders. The entire economy, especially the tourism industry, has been dramatically impacted by COVID-19. In the current study, we explore the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and pandemic uncertainty (PU) on inbound international tourism by using data gathered from Italy, Spain, and the United States for the years 1995-2021. Using the Quantile on Quantile (QQ) approach, the study confirms that EPU and PU negatively affected inbound tourism in all states. Wavelet-based Granger causality further reveals bi-directional causality running from EPU to inbound tourism and unidirectional causality from PU to inbound tourism in the long run. The overall findings show that COVID-19 has had a strong negative effect on tourism. So resilient skills are required to restore a sustainable tourism industry.

Military spending, financial development, and ecological footprint in a developing country: insights from bootstrap causality and Maki cointegration.

Military spending is required for national sovereignty, but it comes at a cost. The ecological consequences of military activities remain insufficiently investigated, especially in developing countries, where military spending is on the rise due to terrorism and civil unrest created by different secessionists' groups. As such, this study has a maiden attempt to address this gap by exploring the effects of military spending on the ecological footprint (EF) using the bootstrap causality test and the Maki (2012) cointegration test under multiple structural breaks. The findings suggest that military spending increases the EF. Also, while energy consumption and economic growth degrade the environment, financial development enhances environmental wellbeing by reducing the ecological footprint. The causality results suggest a unidirectional causality from military spending to EF, while feedback causality exists between military spending and economic growth. The result of this study affirms the existence of destruction theory and also provides a better understanding of the links behind environmental degradation and is applicable for the design and implementation of environmental policies.

Quantile estimation of ecological footprint and economic complexity in emerging economies: The moderating role of increasing energy consumption.

There are increasing debates on the relationship between economic complexity and environmental degradation. This study deepens our understanding of this nexus in 11 emerging economies given the moderating role of energy consumption while controlling for economic development, trade openness and population growth. The findings from the quantile regression technique reveal that emerging economies are characteristic of low energy consumption, leading to insignificant contributions of economic complexity to environmental degradation across the spectrum as they also have very low-trade openness. Further results show the invalidity of the EKC between energy use (such as fossil fuels) and environmental degradation in emerging economies. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) between economic development and environmental degradation is valid especially for those countries in the low and median quantiles (Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam). Also, the EKC hypothesis between population and environmental degradation is valid only for countries in the high and highest quantiles (Korea Republic, Turkey, Mexico and Iran). Finally, the results revealed that trade openness strictly reduces environmental degradation across the spectrum. Policy implications, limitations of the study and direction for future research are discussed.

The relationship between external debt and ecological footprint in SANE countries: insights from Kónya panel causality approach.

There are many studies on the relationship between energy consumption and various environmental indicators in Africa, and SANE countries in particular. However, there is a dearth of studies that relate external debt to CO2 emissions, and even the ecological footprint, which is a more comprehensive environmental indicator. As such, this paper applies advanced estimation techniques to explore the role of external debt in the famous energy-growth-environmental nexus in SANE countries from 1970 to 2018. The findings from the Augmented Mean Group estimator indicate that economic growth and energy consumption increase environmental pressure in the SANE countries. On country-level results, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, monotonic increase, and monotonic decrease for ecological footprint holds in South Africa, Algeria, and Nigeria, respectively. Also, the results reveal that external debt increases the ecological footprint in South Africa and Algeria. Furthermore, the Kónya (2006) bootstrap country-level Granger causality test shows that ecological footprint is sensitive to economic growth and energy consumption in South Africa and Nigeria, while economic growth is sensitive to the ecological footprint in both Algeria and Nigeria. This study argues that stringent policy suggestions should be centred on reducing the overdependence on non-renewable energy sources since it underscores the major deteriorating state of environmental quality across SANE countries.

Environmental performance and international trade in China: The role of renewable energy and eco-innovation.

Renewable energy and green innovation can enhance environmental performance by encouraging international trade, as anticipated by the current theoretical framework. This study investigates how renewable energy and eco-innovation affect international trade and environmental performance using quarterly data series from 1981 to 2018 for China. The study applies a quantile-based autoregressive distributed lag model. The results indicate that environmental innovation and renewable energy are consistent with environmental quality, while trade openness and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation by stimulating CO2 emissions. In addition, the quantile causality test showed a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, trade openness and CO2 emissions, and urbanization and CO2 emissions. Additionally, the findings lend theoretical support for the formulation of environmentally protective policies to better understand the role of renewable energy in stimulating international trade, which eventually enhances environmental performance. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:813-823. © 2021 SETAC.

Mitigating energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina: the roles of renewable energy and economic globalization.

The energy sector of Argentina is predominantly reliant on fossil fuels. Consequently, such fossil fuel dependency within the nation's power sector, in particular, has aggravated the environmental quality in Argentina by amplifying the nation's energy production-based carbon emission levels. However, keeping into consideration the international commitments pledged by Argentina under the Paris Accord and the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, it is pertinent for this South American country to curb its energy production-based emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Against this milieu, this study examines the impacts of renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, and urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions generated from the production of electricity and heat in the context of Argentina. Using annual frequency data from 1971 to 2016, recent econometric methods are applied to control for multiple structural breaks in the data. The major findings from the ecnometric analyses affirmed long-run associations between renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, urbanization, and energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. Besides, enhancing renewable electricity output shares is found to curb these emissions while economic globalization and urbanization are witnessed to boost them. Moreover, renewable electricity generation and economic globalization are found to jointly reduce the energy production-related carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. The results also validate the authenticity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Finally, the causality analysis reveals evidence of unidirectional causalities running from renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, and urbanization to energy production-related carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. In line with these findings, this study recommends several viable policies which can be implemented to help Argentina control the growth of its energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions.

Revisiting the EKC hypothesis by assessing the complementarities between fiscal, monetary, and environmental development policies in China.

Recently, China has declared its national objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. Hence, mitigating carbon dioxide emissions has become an important agenda of the Chinese government. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pursuing expansionary fiscal and monetary policies on China's carbon dioxide emission figures by using annual frequency data from 1980 to 2018. Accordingly, this study considers the levels of government expenditure and broad money supply as fiscal and monetary policy instruments, respectively. Besides accounting for structural break concerns in the data, the findings from the empirical analysis reveal that there are long-run associations between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and fiscal and monetary expansion in China. Moreover, the results also show that in both the short- and long-run expansionary fiscal policy trigger higher carbon dioxide emissions while expansionary monetary policy inhibits the carbon dioxide emission figures of China. Furthermore, the results invalidate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis since the relationship between China's economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions is evidenced to portray an N-shape. In line with these findings, it is recommended that China achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth by aligning the national fiscal and monetary policies with the 2060 carbon-neutrality objective.

Linking external debt and renewable energy to environmental sustainability in heavily indebted poor countries: new insights from advanced panel estimators.

There are numerous studies on the linkage between renewable energy and environmental sustainability. These studies have tried to show how renewable energy is relevant in curbing the environmental difficulties associated with climate change. However, the role of external debt is seldom considered in the nexus. As such, this study applies advanced estimation techniques compatible with two core panel data issues (cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity) to investigate the role of external debt in the growth-energy-emissions relationship in thirty-three heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) from 1990 to 2015. The findings of the study reveal that economic growth increases emissions thereby degrading the environment, while renewable energy ensures environmental sustainability by abating CO2 emissions. Further findings from the study suggest that external debt increases CO2 emissions in HIPC across the three estimators. The country-wise results reveal that economic growth deteriorates the environment in all the countries except in Burkina Faso, Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Nicaragua, and The Gambia. Also, the result reveals a bidirectional causal relationship between external debt and economic growth, CO2 emissions and economic growth, external debt and CO2 emissions, and renewable energy and economic growth. This study argues that the consumption of clean energy sources and strong institutional quality could help mitigate the trade-offs between economic growth and environmental quality and also curtail the negative effects of external debt on the environment. The limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.

Economic complexity versus ecological footprint in the era of globalization: evidence from ASEAN countries.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have witnessed significant growth over the years amidst increase energy consumption, dwindling biocapacity, and increasing ecological footprint (EF). However, while the influence of energy consumption, globalization, and economic growth on EF has been previously examined, the literature is silent as regards the association between the level of skills and knowledge needed in the creation of exported goods and the EF, particularly in the ASEAN region. The current study is a maiden attempt to explore the impact of economic complexity on EF and CO2 emissions in the said region while considering heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence among countries. From the findings, economic complexity, energy consumption, and economic growth increase EF and CO2 emissions. Globalization reduces the EF, but its impact on CO2 emissions remains unclear. Economic complexity has a more devastating impact in Indonesia, but less severe in Singapore. The direction of causality flows from economic growth, economic complexity, and energy consumption to EF. A feedback causality exists between globalization and EF, and between energy consumption, globalization, and CO2 emissions. The limitations of the study and directions for future research have been highlighted along with relevant policy directions.

Environmental pollution and energy research and development: an Environmental Kuznets Curve model through quantile simulation approach.

Energy research and development (R&D) and environmental sustainability is often referred to as two interrelated trends, especially in the current context of the 4th industrial revolution. As a primary input of energy innovations, R&D in the energy sector constitutes a vital tool in addressing global environmental and energy challenges. In this frame, we observe the effects of disaggregated energy R&D on environmental pollution within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework in thirteen developed countries over the period 2003-2018. By employing the panel quantile regression technique, we find an inverted U-shaped nexus between economic growth and carbon emissions only in higher carbon-emitting countries, thus, confirming the EKC hypothesis. However, the U-shaped nexus is more predominant in lower carbon-emitting countries. As such, we demonstrate that there is not any single dynamic in the relationship between economic growth and pollution as reported in previous studies. Contrary to expectations, we find that energy efficiency research and development is more effective in curbing carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels and renewable energy research and development. The empirical results indicate also that only energy efficiency R&D mitigates significantly the CO2 emissions from the 50th quantile up to 90th quantile, although the magnitude of the negative sign is more pronounced (in absolute term) at the highest quantile (90th). In this light, our findings would guide policymakers in the establishment of sustainable energy research and development schemes that will allow the preservation of equilibrium for the environment while also promoting energy innovations.

The roles of nuclear energy, renewable energy, and economic growth in the abatement of carbon dioxide emissions in the G7 countries.

In the current century, the G7 countries have attached more importance to energy security, and have prioritized low-carbon sources which have necessitated the consumption of nuclear and renewable energy resources to achieve a resilient low-carbon system. However, it is still not clear if the sacrifice has paid-off since the environmental quality in the majority of these countries is yet to be significantly improved. As such, this study employs advanced panel data econometric techniques that account for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity issues to explore the impacts of nuclear and renewable energy use in respect of CO2 emission mitigation in six of the seven G7 countries. The core objective of this study is to justify whether energy diversification through the promotion of nuclear and renewable energy consumption can assist the G7 nations in complying with their commitments concerning the Paris Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals agendas. The overall findings from the econometric analysis affirm the abating role of nuclear energy on CO2 emissions. However, renewable energy consumption is found to be statistically insignificant in explaining the variations in the CO2 emission levels. On the other hand, economic growth is found to initially boost the CO2 emission level but mitigate it later on; thus, the authenticity of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is established in the G7 context. Besides, the country-specific results suggest that nuclear energy significantly reduces CO2 emissions in all the countries, except in Canada and the USA. Also, renewable energy significantly curbs CO2 emissions only in Canada and France. Furthermore, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is validated for Canada, France, the UK, and the USA. In line with these findings, it is pertinent for the G7 countries to boost nuclear energy use to reduce the fossil fuel dependency in the majority of the G7 nations to mitigate CO2 emissions. Moreover, it is also suggested that these nations adopt relevant policies to further green their consumption and production processes to ensure complementarity between economic growth and environmental development.

What drives ecological footprint in top ten tourist destinations? Evidence from advanced panel techniques.

The persistent dwindling of the biocapacity has caused the ecological footprint (EF) to keep increasing in the top ten tourist destinations over the last three decades. Moreso, economic growth, natural resource rent, and urbanization substantially increased for the same period. Tourism contributes to economic prosperity. However, growth in tourism promotes an increase in energy consumption, natural resource exploration, transportation, and consequential ecological distortions. It is important to understand the predictors of EF to suggest suitable policies for environmental sustainability. Hence, this study examines the predictors of EF by considering factors that could influence EF. More precisely, the study analyzes the linkage among economic growth, natural resource rent, urbanization, energy intensity, and tourism using some of the most advanced and reliable econometric techniques, such as Westerlund's (J Appl Econ 23(2):193-233, 2008) cointegration technique, and the continuously updated full modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC), long-run estimators. The outcomes of the analysis indicate that EF has a negative association with urbanization and natural resources, which implies that an abundance of natural resources and increasing urban population can help to reduce environmental degradation. Likewise, energy intensity helps in decreasing EF, while economic growth adds to EF. Tourist arrival and tourist receipt also add to EF and, therefore, negatively affect environmental quality. Finally, policy directions are discussed to reduce environmental degradation without reducing economic growth.

Does economic growth, international trade, and urbanization uphold environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa? Insights from quantile and causality procedures.

International trade and urbanization are increasing at an unprecedented rate in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The region has also witnessed a fair share of economic growth, with minimal investment and consumption of renewables. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of economic growth, international trade, and urbanization on CO2 emissions in SSA. The current study enriches the existing literature by employing the panel quantile regression analysis to account for existing levels of CO2 emissions in the region. Empirical findings reveal that GDP increases CO2 emissions across quantiles, especially in countries where the existing level of CO2 emissions is low. International trade improves environmental sustainability in countries where the existing levels of CO2 emissions are at their lowest and highest levels but exacts a reversed impact on CO2 emissions at the median. Further findings suggest that urbanization increases CO2 emissions across the observed quantiles with a more pronounced effect in countries where the existing levels of CO2 emissions are at its lowest level. The study also reveals a bi-directional causality between economic growth, international trade, urbanization, and the emissions of CO2. The limitations of the study and possible direction for future research have been highlighted. Policy directions are discussed.

Environmental degradation in ASEAN: assessing the criticality of natural resources abundance, economic growth and human capital.

The ASEAN countries have enjoyed significant economic advancement over the years. The region is also blessed with lots of natural resources. However, natural resource abundance and economic growth could contribute to environmental deterioration, especially when the exploration and consumption of natural resource is not sustainable. This study has a maiden attempt to constitute the dynamic linkages between natural resources, human capital, economic growth, and ecological footprint (EF) in ASEAN. The Augmented Mean Group (an advanced econometric estimator) is adopted for empirical analysis over the period 1990 to 2016. The findings confirm the adverse effect of economic growth and natural resource on environmental quality. Human capital, though with a negative coefficient, is not efficient in mitigating environmental degradation in ASEAN. The country-wise results affirm that economic growth intensifies environmental degradation in all the countries, and the outcome was consistent with the dynamic OLS results. Further findings from the country-wise results suggest that natural resource is not harmful in Laos PDR and Thailand, but constitute environmental deterioration in the other countries. Finally, a feedback causality is discovered between natural resource and economic growth, and between human capital and economic growth. The limitations of the study and directions for future research have been highlighted along with relevant policy directions.

Towards achieving environmental sustainability: environmental quality versus economic growth in a developing economy on ecological footprint via dynamic simulations of ARDL.

Studies have shown that factors like trade, urbanization, and economic growth may increase the ecological footprint (EFP) since ecological distortions are mainly human-induced. Therefore, this study explores the effect of economic growth and urbanization on the EFP, accounting for foreign direct investment and trade in Nigeria, using data from 1977 to 2016. This study used the EFP variable as against the CO2 emissions used in the previous studies since the former is a more comprehensive and extensive measure of environmental quality. We apply the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulations for model estimation, the Bayer and Hanck J Time Ser Anal 34: 83-95, (2013) combined cointegration, and the ARDL bounds test for cointegration. Although the results affirmed the presence of long-run relationship among the variables, economic growth deteriorates the environment in the short run, while urbanization exacts no harmful impact. In the long run, FDI and trade deteriorate the environment while economic growth adds to environmental quality. It is recommended that policymakers strengthen the existing environmental regulations to curtail harmful trade and provide rural infrastructures to abate urban anomaly.

Natural resource, globalization, urbanization, human capital, and environmental degradation in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The world is increasingly getting urbanized and globalized, and the increase in natural resource exploration could have a far-reaching impact on environmental quality. Since most Latin American and Caribbean countries (LACCs) have proximity to the Amazon, they, therefore, rely heavily on agriculture and mining which develop via deforestation which could exacerbate the already increasing carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 emissions). Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, this study becomes the first to investigate the link between natural resources, globalization, urbanization, and environmental degradation in LACCs countries from 1990 to 2017 with advanced panel data econometric techniques. The unit root tests affirm all the variables to be stationary at first difference, and the Westerlund (Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69(6):709-748, 2007) cointegration test confirms the long-run relationship among the variables. The augmented mean group (AMG) and the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) results affirm that the aforementioned variables add to CO2 emissions, while human capital mitigates it. Further findings reveal that human capital performs a moderating role in promoting urbanization sustainability. The country-specific results confirm that economic growth adds to emissions in all the countries, except in the Dominican Republic. A feedback causality exists between economic growth, globalization, urbanization, and CO2 emissions. This study argues for the development of human capital, a gradual transition to sustainable growth-driven and knowledge-based industries, and the introduction of sustainability practices in the natural resource sector to mitigate CO2 emissions in LACCs.

An investigation into the anthropogenic nexus among consumption of energy, tourism, and economic growth: do economic policy uncertainties matter?

Global warming has been a pressing issue for the past decade as various economic activities have been flagged and are expected to reduce emissions. While previous studies have examined the energy consumption-emissions-economic growth nexus in significant detail, attention is yet to be given to the role of economic policy uncertainties and human activities such as tourism in a carbon function. Thus, this study aims to investigate the long-run relationship between energy consumption, tourists' arrivals, economic policy uncertainty, and ecological footprint in the top ten earners from international tourism over the period 1995 to 2015. The fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square estimation techniques and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality tests were used in the study. Empirical results suggest that economic policy uncertainties in addition to tourism and energy consumption are drivers of environmental degradation. However, the contribution of energy consumption to ecological footprint is significantly moderated by economic policy uncertainties such that a 1% increase in the latter reduces environmental damage by 0.71%. This study suggests that policy uncertainties matter a great deal for energy and environmental policies. Also, green economic growth is possible if the proper implementation of environmental protection policies can restrict the harmful impact of economic activities on the quality of the environment. Based on the empirical findings, vital energy policy recommendations are suggested.

Energy consumption, FDI, and urbanization linkage in coastal Mediterranean countries: re-assessing the pollution haven hypothesis.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and the consumption of non-renewable energy have been on the increase in the coastal Mediterranean countries (CMCs) over the last few decades. Both trigger growth, but the environmental impact could be far-reaching as environmental distortions are mainly human-induced. This study examines the environmental issues facing CMCs. Specifically, we investigate whether the pollution haven hypothesis holds for CMCs. We employ a quantile panel data analysis for CMCs to account for heterogeneity and distributional effects of socioeconomic factors. The result reveals that the influence of FDI on environmental degradation is a function of the indicators utilized and also depends on the initial levels of environmental degradation. The results suggest that the pollution haven hypothesis does not hold for CMCs. However, we also find that energy consumption significantly increases environmental degradation for all indicators and across the observed quantiles. The effects of economic growth and urbanization on the environment were mixed for the different indicators and across quantiles. We recommend that it is pertinent for CMCs to limit their "dirty" energy sources and substitute them with renewables to promote environmental sustainability.