• Energy Research

The world is in a clash between the perspectives of economic expansion and sustainable environment. The high pace of technological progress opens space for fostering economic growth but at the same time, it creates a big dilemma for humans in protecting the environmental quality. The environmentally specific technologies are expected to help human beings to achieve dual objectives of economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Despite its importance, attention to the role of environmental-related technologies in reducing environmental degradation is limited. This paper, therefore, intends to discover the impact of environmental-related technologies on the ecological footprint for 20 OECD from 1990 to 2015. The results endorse a long-run relationship between ecological footprint and green technologies, renewable energy, international trade, energy intensity, and real income. Environmental-related technologies and renewable energy consumption are found to be impetuous to sustainable development. The study provides relevant implications for policymakers to support the development and adoption of green technologies.

The world is in a clash between the perspectives of economic expansion and sustainable environment. The high pace of technological progress opens space for fostering economic growth but at the same time, it creates a big dilemma for humans in protecting the environmental quality. The environmentally specific technologies are expected to help human beings to achieve dual objectives of economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Despite its importance, attention to the role of environmental-related technologies in reducing environmental degradation is limited. This paper, therefore, intends to discover the impact of environmental-related technologies on the ecological footprint for 20 OECD from 1990 to 2015. The results endorse a long-run relationship between ecological footprint and green technologies, renewable energy, international trade, energy intensity, and real income. Environmental-related technologies and renewable energy consumption are found to be impetuous to sustainable development. The study provides relevant implications for policymakers to support the development and adoption of green technologies.

Environmental regulation is an important tool for policymakers to achieve environmental goals. To better understand the role of environmental regulation in protecting the ecosystem, this paper offers a new perspective on exploring the heterogeneous impact of environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint in 27 OECD countries during the period 1990-2015. An advanced economic method, panel quantile regression, is conducted to deal with the non-normality and unobserved individual heterogeneity across countries. The estimation outcomes indicate that the environmental effect of policy stringency is heterogeneous along the quantiles and different between the ecological footprint of consumption and production. The beneficial role of environmental regulation in reducing consumption ecological footprint is achieved at quantiles under 80th but the harmful effect starts occurring at extreme high quantiles. In contrast, environmental policy stringency plays a consistently useful role in mitigating production ecological footprint. In addition, the results disclose that the effects of other driving factors such as international trade, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and income are heterogeneous at different quantiles of ecological footprint. These findings help explain the inconsistencies in previous empirical studies on the nexus between environmental regulation and environmental quality in OECD countries. Finally, the current study gives policymakers useful recommendations on how to strengthen the beneficial impacts of environmental policies on the ecosystem.

Environmental regulation is an important tool for policymakers to achieve environmental goals. To better understand the role of environmental regulation in protecting the ecosystem, this paper offers a new perspective on exploring the heterogeneous impact of environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint in 27 OECD countries during the period 1990-2015. An advanced economic method, panel quantile regression, is conducted to deal with the non-normality and unobserved individual heterogeneity across countries. The estimation outcomes indicate that the environmental effect of policy stringency is heterogeneous along the quantiles and different between the ecological footprint of consumption and production. The beneficial role of environmental regulation in reducing consumption ecological footprint is achieved at quantiles under 80th but the harmful effect starts occurring at extreme high quantiles. In contrast, environmental policy stringency plays a consistently useful role in mitigating production ecological footprint. In addition, the results disclose that the effects of other driving factors such as international trade, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and income are heterogeneous at different quantiles of ecological footprint. These findings help explain the inconsistencies in previous empirical studies on the nexus between environmental regulation and environmental quality in OECD countries. Finally, the current study gives policymakers useful recommendations on how to strengthen the beneficial impacts of environmental policies on the ecosystem.

The global debate among policy makers and environmentalists concerns how environmental degradation can be minimized without impeding economic growth. Because of intensification of geopolitical uncertainty, achieving this balance has become difficult. To contribute to breaking this “deadlock”, our research explores the interlinkage among financial development, geopolitical risk, and the environmental footprint in 40 high- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2018. The estimated results obtained from a novel quantile regression show the heterogeneous environmental impacts of bank credit, the stock market, and geopolitical uncertainty across the quantile distribution of the environmental footprint and two country groups. Although the credit market tends to reduce the environmental footprint in high-income countries with moderate environmental quality, it exacerbates environmental degradation in middle-income countries. Similarly, stock market development improves the environment in high-income countries but harms it in middle-income countries that have extremely good and poor environmental quality. Geopolitical risk is found to escalate environmental degradation in both high- and middle-income countries. In addition, the empirical outcomes confirm the moderating role of geopolitical risk on the linkage between financial development and environmental footprint. In high-income countries, escalating geopolitical risk has two contrasting effects on the environmental impact of financial development. Whereas high geopolitical uncertainty reduces the harmful impact of bank credit on the environment, it magnifies the harmful impact of the stock market. In middle-income countries, high geopolitical risk reduces the harmful impact of both bank credit and the stock market on environmental sustainability. These complex relationships offer new implications for policy makers in the transition to a sustainable environment.

The global debate among policy makers and environmentalists concerns how environmental degradation can be minimized without impeding economic growth. Because of intensification of geopolitical uncertainty, achieving this balance has become difficult. To contribute to breaking this “deadlock”, our research explores the interlinkage among financial development, geopolitical risk, and the environmental footprint in 40 high- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2018. The estimated results obtained from a novel quantile regression show the heterogeneous environmental impacts of bank credit, the stock market, and geopolitical uncertainty across the quantile distribution of the environmental footprint and two country groups. Although the credit market tends to reduce the environmental footprint in high-income countries with moderate environmental quality, it exacerbates environmental degradation in middle-income countries. Similarly, stock market development improves the environment in high-income countries but harms it in middle-income countries that have extremely good and poor environmental quality. Geopolitical risk is found to escalate environmental degradation in both high- and middle-income countries. In addition, the empirical outcomes confirm the moderating role of geopolitical risk on the linkage between financial development and environmental footprint. In high-income countries, escalating geopolitical risk has two contrasting effects on the environmental impact of financial development. Whereas high geopolitical uncertainty reduces the harmful impact of bank credit on the environment, it magnifies the harmful impact of the stock market. In middle-income countries, high geopolitical risk reduces the harmful impact of both bank credit and the stock market on environmental sustainability. These complex relationships offer new implications for policy makers in the transition to a sustainable environment.

Abstract This study explores the environmental impacts of economic policy uncertainty, economic complexity, renewable energy, and energy intensity for G7 countries. To this end, the study employs Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares and fixed effect model with Driscoll and Kraay (1998) robust standard errors for a panel dataset from 1997 to 2015. The findings demonstrate a long-term relationship between interested variables and carbon dioxide emissions and ecological footprint. Specifically, high energy intensity propels environmental pollution while economic policy uncertainty and renewable energy prove effective in controlling environmental degradation. The environmental Kuznet curve of economic complexity and environmental quality holds for G7 countries. Moreover, economic policy uncertainty strongly moderates the environmental effect of renewable energy, economic complexity, and energy intensity. While economic policy uncertainty amplifies the beneficial environmental effects of renewable energy and economic complexity, it magnifies the harmful effect of energy intensity on environmental quality. These empirical outcomes allow us to draw useful implications for policymakers to mitigate the environmental degradation.