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This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment inflows and economic growth in a carbon function, by incorporating the role of urbanization, and coal consumption as additional variables to avoid omitted variable bias. The different order of integration from the unit root test suggested the adoption of a dynamic autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure. The results confirmed the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between the outlined series within the period under investigation, with a high speed of convergence. The ARDL equilibrium relationship shows that coal consumption is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in both short- (0.77%) and long-run (0.86%). Economic growth was found to escalate CO2 emission by approximately 0.27% (in the short-run) and 0.19% (in the long-run). The Granger causality test indicates a non-causal effect between FDI inflow and economic expansion in South Africa, which implies that FDI is not a driver of economic advancement. The empirical study shows a bidirectional causal effect between urbanization and foreign direct investment. This suggests that urban development stimulates foreign direct investment in South Africa. The findings reveal a one-way link from GDP to coal consumption, suggesting economic prosperity promotes coal consumption. The study underscores that economic development and the attraction of more economic investments is in part dependent on the conservative policy, development of urban centers through infrastructural improvement, and establishing industrial zones.

AbstractScholars and policy makers are paying close attention to reduce climate problems for sustainable growth. The failure to enhance ecological integrity could increase greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, this study examines the effect of economic complexity, high‐tech industries, renewables, natural resource abundance, and financial globalization on CO2 and ecological footprint for 10 selected newly industrializing countries for the period 1990 to 2018. We use Common Correlated Error Mean Group, Augmented Mean Group, panel causality, and Westerlund Error Correction Model of cointegration techniques that account for short‐run, and long‐run relationships across cross‐sectionally dependent and heterogeneous countries. The findings reveal long‐run interrelationships across the series of underlying observations. The long‐run empirical results show the development of high‐tech industries has statistically significant environmental welfare‐enhancing impact, whereas renewables and natural resource exploitation mitigate environmental challenges. However, economic complexity and financial globalization increase emissions and ecological footprint (ECF). The results confirm unidirectional causality from renewable energy to CO2 and ECF and further from natural resources to CO2 and ECF. Additionally, there exists bidirectional causality between financial globalization and ECF. Based on these findings, we suggest that these countries should revise their energy policies in order to allocate more funds for the renewable energy technologies so that environmental problems can be mitigated. Along with renewable energy, further investments should be made in high‐tech sector but economic complexity and financial globalization should be carefully handled.

The airline and railway industry contribute immensely to economic development, however, its role in environmental pollution requires attention. Here, this study builds on the theoretical pedigree of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis to explore the contribution of the air and railway transportation sector and urbanization to the emission-growth argument. We utilized annual time-frequency data from 1995 to 2014 for a panel of top 10 air passenger carrier countries using robust panel estimators that control for cross-section dependence. The empirical analysis shows a positive significant relationship between emissions and economic growth, thus, economic growth is emission-embedded with limited green growth. The existence of the EKC phenomenon is affirmed for the investigated blocs — where economic growth is prioritized over environmental quality. Additional, while air transportation drives pollution, railway transportation and urbanization decline emission over the sampled period. The results underscore the need for clean and environmentally friendly energy sources for air sector operations.

The critical role of electricity consumption in influencing and reshaping the economic and environmental landscape of the global economy cannot be underestimated. Electricity is the most beneficial and commonly transformed energy source; however, the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of its consumption require scientific scrutiny. This study investigates electricity-led growth hypothesis vis-à-vis its impact on economic growth and environmental quality of Turkey. The annual time series data set from 1970 to 2014 were employed in the analysis with a battery of unit root and stationary tests. The equilibrium relationship in the study is explored using Maki and Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration tests under multiple structural breaks along with the Pesaran's ARDL bounds test procedure for robust check. The study confirms the existence of cointegration relationship between electricity consumption, economic growth, capital, labour and ecological footprint. To detect the direction of causal relations, the VECM Granger causality test is employed. The causality analysis provides empirical evidence that supports the electricity-induced growth hypothesis in Turkey. This implies that embarking on conservative energy-efficient policies will slow down Turkey's economic growth. Thus, precautionary measures that ensure adequate policy on energy mix to guarantee availability and accessibility to modern electricity will sustain economic growth and improve environmental sustainability.

Achieving economic development is one of the most important economic goals of every country. Identifying the determinants of economic growth, is a useful tool for adopting appropriate economic policies. This study, therefore, empirically examines the impact of trade openness, foreign direct investment, and financial development on economic growth, across 62 countries over the period 1995–2016. These countries are divided into two groups: low-income and high-income countries. We employ the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) estimation techniques on the cross-country panel data. The findings show a positive long run association between trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development, labor, government expenditure, and economic growth in low-income countries, with a positive and negative short run effect from capital and government expenditures, respectively. For high-income countries, a positive long run association between trade openness, FDI, capital, and economic growth exist. The short run estimates indicate a positive effect on trade openness and capital as well as a negative effect on government expenditure. Our study shows that the adoption of policies that improves access to skilled labor and international trade, affect the attainment of a sustainable economic development.

Abstract Renewable energy technologies are promising, yet, very little is known about its role as a limiting factor in fossil fuel-attributable environmental degradation — especially in high-income countries. This study investigated the dynamic effect of renewable energy consumption, economic growth, biocapacity and trade policy on environmental degradation in the United States from 1985Q1 to 2014Q4. To achieve this objective, the study applied an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to obtain the long-run and short-run dynamic coefficients. Toda-Yamamoto causality test was used to examine the direction of causality while Cholesky decomposition test was for innovative accounting to validate the estimated models. The empirical results divulged that a decline in environmental degradation can be attributed to an increase in renewable energy consumption through its negative effects on ecological footprint. Economic growth and biocapacity were found to exert upward pressure on ecological footprint; however, trade policy exerts downward pressure on ecological footprint. A two-sided causal relationship was established between economic growth and ecological footprint as well as economic growth and biocapacity. In contrast, a one-way causality was confirmed running from trade policy to renewable energy consumption and from renewable energy consumption to biocapacity. The innovative accounting revealed that 14.79% and 8.41% of renewable energy consumption and trade policy caused 0.60% and 9.88% deterioration in the environment. Hence, country-specific energy policies that increase the share of renewable energy in the energy portfolio are recommended.

One of the European Union’s (EU) membership conditions includes an ambitious energy policy objective such as energy security, environmental protection and diversification using renewables. However, the impact of the energy policy on environmental sustainability is yet to be assessed. In line with EU energy policy, we investigate the nexus between energy generation and CO2 emissions in three blocs of countries namely Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and New Member States (NMS) from 1992–2014. The experimental exercise was conducted using the Generalized Method of Moment. The empirical results show that a 1% increase in renewable energy generation increases CO2 emissions in CIS countries by 0.04% and CEE countries by 0.02% respectively, but decreases CO2 emissions by 0.02% in NMS countries. Both subsamples of NMS and CIS countries conform to the inverted U-shape of the EKC hypothesis. However, the results of the subsample of CEE countries do not uphold the EKC hypothesis. This, suggests that environmental consequences of sustained economic growth in CEE countries does not increase pollutant emissions. Thus, we conclude that there exists a difference in the level of environmental degradation across the blocs. This study highlights the need to embark on decarbonized economic agenda that prioritizes clean environment.

The discovery of natural gas in the 20th century has increased aggregate energy consumption while spurring economic development. However, very little attention has been given in the energy economics literature, especially in Malaysia. As such, this paper primarily revisited the natural gas — economic growth nexus hypothesis in the case of Malaysia. The study was conducted with data from 1980 to 2014 in a multivariate framework with the inclusion of capital formation, globalization, and CO2 emissions to avoid omitted variable bias. We investigated the stationarity properties with a method that accommodates a single structural break. Subsequently, the novel combined co-integration test in conjunction with several techniques were used to assess the magnitude of the long-run equilibrium relationship. The empirical findings trace the long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables over the sampled period. The Granger causality test analysis confirmed the growth-energy driven hypothesis in Malaysia. The findings call for the adoption of cleaner and environmentally friendly energy sources in the Malaysian energy mix. We highlight the need for pragmatic strides from both private and public energy sector stakeholders to prioritize clean and accessible energy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.