Exploring the impact of economic growth on environmental pollution in South American countries: how does renewable energy and globalization matter?

Most emerging economies and the South American Countries are no exception to the negative consequences of trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability decisions. This study draws strength from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs-7, 11, 12, and 13). Therefore, this study examines the environmental nexus between economic growth, globalization, renewable, and non-renewable energy, in South America from 1995 to 2020. We deployed the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effects (DFE). Cross-sectional dependence, panel unit root, and cointegration tests were performed. Finally, we used the Dumitrescu and Hurlin test of causality to determine the long-run association between variables. The finding indicates that while environmental pollution increases with increasing economic growth, it decreases with increasing renewable energy both in the short and long term. Whereas economic globalization positively affects environmental pollution in the long term, social globalization and the moderation effect between political globalization and renewable energy improves environmental quality in the long run. Finally, a bidirectional causality was found between economic growth and environmental pollution, with a unidirectional causality running from economic, political, and social globalization, renewable, and non-renewable energy to environmental pollution. Given these findings, we discussed potential policy measures.

Investigating the nexus between hydroelectricity energy, renewable energy, nonrenewable energy consumption on output: evidence from E7 countries.

The transition of most economies especially heavily industrialized nations like China, Turkey, Russia, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico fondly known as E7 are fast emerging economies with its impact on economic growth and ecosystem. On the above highlight, the present study explores the dynamic interaction between hydroelectricity energy, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption on economic growth over annual time frequency data from 1990 to 2018. To this end, Kao co-integration technique is adopted in conjunction with panel ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least square estimators over the identified blocs while the heterogeneous causality test of Dumitrescu and Hurlin is employed to detect the direction of causality among the variables. Empirical result shows long-run analysis reveals long-run equilibrium relationship between the examined variables. Furthermore, a one-way causality relationship is observed between economic growth and nonrenewable energy, economic growth and renewable energy, and economic growth and pollutant emission. The present study identifies a U-shaped pattern among nonrenewable energy consumption and economic growth in the long-run. These findings suggest that as economic growth increases, there is less strengthening of energy from the nonrenewable energy consumption hence, portentous deterioration in nonrenewable usage while authenticating the proficiency of nonrenewable energy consumption in the E7 countries. Further policy prescriptions are rendered in the concluding section.