Do Natural Disasters, Fossil Fuels, and Renewable Energy Affect CO2 Emissions and the Ecological Footprint?

Global climate change caused by Greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, poses incomparable threats to the environment, development, and sustainability. This research investigates the potential of economic growth, renewable energy use, and technological innovation to achieve environmental sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions in Bangladesh. Time series data from 1980 to 2019 were utilized by applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach followed by the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) method. The DOLS estimate findings show that the long-run coefficient of economic growth is positive and significant with CO2 emissions, indicating a 1% increase in economic growth is related to a 1.3% rise in CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the coefficient of renewable energy use is negative and significant, which indicates that increasing renewable energy use by 1% is associated with CO2 emissions reduction by 0.15% in the long run. In addition, the estimated long-run coefficient of technological innovation is negative but not significant, implying that a 1% increase in technological innovation results in a 0.07% reduction in CO2 emissions. The empirical findings reveal that economic growth increases CO2 emissions in Bangladesh while increased renewable energy use and technological innovation help to achieve environmental sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions. The estimated results are robust to alternative estimators such as fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). In addition, the pairwise Granger causality test is utilized to capture the causal linkage between the variables. This article provides policy recommendations aimed at a low-carbon economy, promoting renewable energy use, and financing technological advancement, to achieve emission reduction and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh.

Climate change and environmental degradation, largely driven by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, have become significant global concerns. In Nepal, the challenge of balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability is pertinent due to the country's reliance on agriculture and hydropower. This study explores the relationship between CO2 emissions, socio-economic factors, and renewable energy consumption in Nepal, utilizing advanced econometric techniques. Using a 30-year dataset from 1991 to 2020, this study employs the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) model to examine long-term relationships between CO2 emissions and key independent variables such as renewable energy consumption, GDP, and human development. Unit root tests (ADF and PP) are conducted to ensure stationarity, followed by co-integration and causality tests. The findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth, supporting the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Conversely, renewable energy consumption is found to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, underscoring its role in mitigating environmental impacts. The coefficient for renewable energy consumption (LNREC) is -5.818686. This implies that for every 1% increase in renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions decrease by approximately 5.82%. The results highlight the importance of renewable energy in balancing Nepal's economic and environmental goals.

Achieving sustainable environmental quality has become a critical global issue, necessitating the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate environmental pollution. Hydropower energy has the potential to play a significant role in this effort by providing a clean, renewable energy source that can help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease CO2 emissions. This study examines the dynamic impact of hydropower energy consumption, economic growth, capital, and labor on Indonesia's CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2020. Applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method, the findings demonstrate that hydropower energy consumption has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in both the short and long term, indicating that increasing hydropower energy consumption leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions. Conversely, labor exhibits a positive influence on CO2 emissions in both the short and long term, suggesting that a rise in labor contributes to higher levels of CO2 emissions in Indonesia. Furthermore, the Granger causality analysis reveals a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and hydropower energy consumption. The robustness of ARDL results is confirmed through additional tests using Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regressions (CCR) methods. The findings underscore the importance of promoting sustainable hydropower energy for effective environmental management in Indonesia. Policymakers should prioritize investments in sustainable hydropower infrastructure, encourage the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, and develop a skilled workforce to mitigate the environmental impact of increased labor force participation.

Role of economic growth, renewable energy, and technological innovation to achieve environmental sustainability in Kazakhstan

Environmental challenges have intensified as a result of global warming and climate change, creating significant threats to environmental quality. The member nations of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) are especially impacted by these issues, primarily because of their reliance on fossil fuels, leading to elevated carbon emissions. This study examines the influence of natural resources, renewable energy, technological innovation, and globalization on environmental degradation in five OTS member countries—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan—covering the years 1996 to 2020. The ecological footprint and CO2 emissions are employed as the main indicators of environmental harm. Through the application of the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), the findings reveal that natural resources significantly contribute to CO2 emissions in the lower quantiles but show a lesser impact on the ecological footprint. Conversely, renewable energy consistently improves environmental quality across all quantiles, whereas technological innovation and globalization are both associated with increased environmental degradation. Additionally, the causality test reveals a bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and both CO2 emissions and the ecological footprint (EF), as well as between technological innovation and EF. Moreover, a unidirectional causal relationship is observed from globalization to EF. Based on the findings, policy recommendations for OTS member states include promoting the adoption of renewable energy, fostering green technological innovations, and addressing the negative environmental effects of globalization. Such measures are vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring long-term environmental sustainability.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relationship between economic growth, renewable energy consumption, energy consumption, capital fixed formation, and trade openness for the period 1971–2015 for South Africa. In this regard, the study used auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach. The empirical findings show that the variables in the study are cointegrated indicating the existence of long-run relationship among them. Granger causality test shows that there exists bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and trade openness to economic growth. This result supports feedback hypothesis. The stability of model was also checked at the end. The empirical findings provide strong evidence that the interdependence between renewable energy consumption and economic growth indicates that renewable energy is important for economic growth, and likewise economic growth encourages the use of more renewable energy source.

Economic growth must be balanced with ecological sustainability as G20 nations face mounting environmental concerns and sustainability challenges. These countries account for the majority of global economic output and emissions, making them pivotal in efforts to reduce ecological footprints while fostering innovation and economic progress. This study introduces a novel approach by integrating advanced econometric methods such as Cross-Sectional Augmented ARDL (CS-ARDL), Augmented Mean Group (AMG), Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG), and Granger causality tests to comprehensively analyze the dynamic relationships between ecological footprint (EFP), environmental policies (EP), renewable energy consumption (REC), capital formation (CF), and innovation (INN) in G20 countries from 1990 to 2023. The key novelty of this study lies in its methodological rigor and ability to address cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity within the G20 economies. Unlike prior research, this study simultaneously examines linear, nonlinear, and interaction effects, providing a holistic understanding of how economic and environmental factors interact over time. The CS-ARDL results highlight that environmental policies, innovation, and renewable energy consumption drive ecological sustainability, with REC playing the most significant role in reducing EFP over time. The findings on capital formation and economic growth further emphasize that sustainable development hinges on strategic investments in human and physical capital. By leveraging AMG and CCEMG methodologies, this research strengthens the robustness of its findings, ensuring their validity across diverse economic contexts. Granger causality analysis reveals a bidirectional relationship between EFP and innovation and a unidirectional link between REC and EP, underscoring the critical role of renewable energy in shaping environmental policy. This study offers groundbreaking empirical insights into the economic, environmental, and innovation dynamics of G20 nations, advocating for policies that prioritize renewable energy, technological advancements, and sustainable capital investments. Future research should explore sector-specific dynamics and the socio-political dimensions of sustainable development pathways.

This article seeks to analyze the impact of technological innovations, financial development, renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and population on the ecological footprint in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries by utilizing the balanced longitudinal data set during the period from 1990 to 2017. This study creates a new technological innovation index through principle component analysis including three important indicators that represent the technology and employs a consistent environmental framework identified as Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The second generation panel estimation technique is employed to calculate robust and reliable outcomes. After confirming the cross-sectional dependency among series, panel unit root tests confirm that all variables are stationary at their first integrated order. Furthermore, Westerlund cointegration test confirms the presence of long-run association among variables. The outcomes explore that financial development and renewable energy utilization significantly accelerate the environmental quality by 0.0927% and 0.4274%, respectively. While, the increase in technological innovation activities, economic growth, and population size has a detrimental effect on environmental quality in the long run by 0.099%, 0.517%, and 0.458%, respectively. Moreover, the results of panel Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) non-causality test discovered the bidirectional causality relationship between financial development, technological innovations, renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and population size with the ecological footprint. These empirical findings provide some vital policy implications for central authority and policymakers to overcome the detrimental impact on environmental quality in the APEC region.

Role of country risks and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality: Evidence from MINT countries

Global climate change, exacerbated by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, notably carbon dioxide (CO2), provides a huge danger to lives, the global environment, and development. The current study explored the dynamic effects of economic growth, fossil fuel energy consumption, renewable energy consumption, tourism, and agricultural productivity on CO2 emissions in Egypt. The Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) method was used to analyze time series data from 1990 to 2019. The empirical findings revealed that, while economic growth, the use of fossil fuel energy, and tourism contribute to environmental damage by cumulative CO2 emissions in Egypt, an increased share of renewable energy and agricultural productivity contribute to improved environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions. Similar results were obtained using alternative estimators such as fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). Furthermore, the pairwise Granger causality test was used to determine the causal relationship between the variables. This study adds to the current literature by putting light on the causes of pollution in Egypt. This article made policy ideas for a low-carbon economy, boosting renewable energy consumption, green tourism, and climate-smart agriculture, all of which would assure environmental sustainability in Egypt by lowering emissions.

Recent economic and environmental literature suggests that the current state of energy use in South Africa amidst rapid growing population is unsustainable. Researchers in this area mostly focus on the effect of fossil energy use on carbon (CO2) emission, which represents only an aspect of environmental quality. In contrast, the current study evaluates the influence of renewable energy use, human capital, and trade on ecological footprint--a more comprehensive measure of environmental quality. To this end, the study employs multiple structural breaks cointegration tests (Maki cointegration tests), dynamic unrestricted error correction model through Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, and VECM Granger causality tests. The results of the Maki cointegration tests reveal the existence of a cointegration between the variables in all the models with evidence of multiple structural breaks. Further, the ARDL results divulge that an increase in renewable energy use, human capital, and trade improves environmental quality through a decrease in ecological footprint, while an increase in income stimulates ecological footprint. Moreover, causal relationship is found, running from all the variables to renewable energy and trade flow in the long run, while in the short run, economic growth causes ecological footprint. Trade is found to Granger-cause human capital, while human capital causes renewable energy. Additionally, human capital, renewable energy, and economic growth are predictors of trade. The study therefore recommends South African policymakers to consider the importance of renewable energy, human capital development, and trade as a policy option to reduce ecological footprint and improve environmental quality.

PurposeSub-Saharan Africa is a region that is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Renewable energy consumption could play a major role in mitigating the effects of climate change by improving environmental quality in the region. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of renewable energy consumption on environmental quality in sub-Saharan African countries.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical investigation is based on the estimation of an augmented Green Solow model through the defactored instrumental variables approach on a sample of 34 countries over the period 1996 to 2018.FindingsThe results of two-stage defactored instrumental variables estimator show that renewable energy consumption improves environmental quality. Indeed, renewable energies have a significant negative influence on CO2 emissions. This result is robust when using the ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental quality.Practical implicationsIn terms of implications, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa need to pursue policies to encourage investment in the renewable energy sector. This will promote renewable energy consumption, change the structure of the energy mix in favour of renewable energy, improve environmental quality and effectively combat climate change.Originality/valueThe originality of this research in relation to the existing literature lies at several levels. Firstly, the analysis is carried out using a unified framework combining the environmental Kuznets curve and the environmental convergence hypotheses. Secondly, this research uses a very recent econometric method. Finally, environmental quality is measured using two indicators.

ABSTRACTThis paper uses the vector error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality tests to investigate short and long-run relationships between per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, real gross domestic product (GDP), renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, trade openness ratio and agricultural value added (AVA) in Tunisia spanning the period 1980–2011. The Johansen-Juselius test shows that all our considered variables are cointegrated. Short-run Granger causality tests reveal the existence of bidirectional causalities between AVA and CO2 emissions, and between AVA and trade. There are short-run unidirectional causalities running from non-renewable energy and GDP to AVA and to renewable energy, and running from CO2 emissions to renewable energy. Interestingly, there are long-run bidirectional causalities between all considered variables. Our long-run parameters estimates show that non-renewable energy, trade and AVA increase CO2 emissions, whereas renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions. In addition, the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is not supported. Our policy recommendations are to increase international economic exchanges because this gives new opportunities to the agricultural sector to develop and to benefit from renewable energy technology transfer. Subsidizing renewable energy use in the agricultural sector enables it to become more competitive on the international markets while polluting less and contributing to combat global warming.

Decoupling CO2 emission and economic growth in China: Is there consistency in estimation results in analyzing environmental Kuznets curve?

The research investigates the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth as well as analyzing the dynamic relationship between both variables from 1990 to 2022. Annual secondary data covering the period between 1990 and 2022 were used in the study. Data on real gross domestic product, renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption), gross capital formation (% of GDP), labor force, total and trade (% of GDP) were sourced from World Development Indicator. The study applies Johansen co-integration test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to examine the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth and other explanatory variables as well as using pairwise granger causality test to examine the causal relationship between both variables. The empirical evidence revealed long-term relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Evidence shows that there is no causality either unidirectional or bi-directional between both variables. In short run, renewable energy consumption revealed a significant positive impact on economic growth. This shows that renewable energy may stimulate economic growth, particularly as it has a greater short-term impact on economic growth than capital formation. The key policy implication drawn from the results indicate the need for investment in renewable energy technologies and infrastructure, which can help to increase the availability and affordability of renewable energy, improve workforce development in Nigeria renewable energy sector.