• Energy Research

The present study is motivated by the need to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation given the new wave of chase for higher economic growth trajectories comes with its environmental cost implications, especially among developing blocs like the Emerging 7 (E7) countries. There is a consistent trade-off between economic growth versus environmental quality. Government apparatus are perpetually on the chase for low-carbon emission policies via the pursuit for green economy. To this end, this present study extends the conventional environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) argument by incorporating the role of institution in emerging industrialized economies (E7) and using second-generation panel analysis methods like mean group (MG), augmented mean group (AMG), common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG), and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test for more robust estimates and inferences. To this end, we explore the long-run and causality relationship between economic growth, quadratic form of economic growth, institutional quality, trade flow, investment in energy sector, and financial development in an EKC environment. Empirical analysis established a long-run equilibrium relationship among the outlined variables over the study period. The long-run regression shows the presence of EKC in the E7. Thus, suggesting the preference for GDP growth over environmental quality at the earlier stage of growth curve. Interestingly, investment in energy, trade flow dynamics across the blocs, and financial development dampens the detrimental effect of environmental pollution as we observed negative relationship with the ecological footprint. On the contrary, quality of institution is weak as institutional quality increase (worsen) the quality of environment in the E7 economies. From a policy perspective, this current study proposed the need for more stringent environmental treaties and regulations and promotion of green economy without compromising economic growth. In the conclusion part of the study, more details and specifics about the policy blueprint are presented.

Anthropogenic activities in search of livelihood come with its environmental implications. This is in line with the current crusade of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) target 7 and 13 for effective clean energy access and mitigating the adverse effect of climate change issues. Since the seminal study of Kraft and Kraft (1978) on the nexus between energy and gross national product, there has been no consensus in the extant literature in the last four decades. To this end, the current study applies recent data for the case of Nigeria from 1970 to 2017 on an annual frequency. Modified Wald causality test of Toda-Yamamoto is in conjunction with the recent gradual shift causality test with Fourier approximation for robustness and precision of analysis. Empirical results show the pollutant driven economy as one-way causality is seen running from pollutant emission to economic growth. This suggests that economic growth is driven by dirty energy sources that are from non-renewable energy sources. This is further validated in the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) confirmed in the study by the causality seen running from foreign direct investment and carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, the exploration of natural resources also engenders economic expansion in Nigeria. Based on the current study findings, a couple of submissions are made such as the need for a paradigm shift to cleaner energy sources. More so, the need for the adoption of cleaner, eco-system friendlier innovations, and technologies will aid in the attainment of the SDGs of mitigating climate and pollution issues.

Environmental degradation caused by various human activities has been a subject of attention over the globe. There is a concern on how to maintain a clean environment and at the same time achieve optimum production of food and non-food products amidst global energy demand. To this end, this study examines the impact of agricultural development, energy use, and economic growth on CO2 emissions in the emerging seven countries that comprises China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, and Turkey for the annual time frequency from 1990 to 2016. The study uses a battery of econometrics techniques for soundness of analysis the consist of pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag methodology, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least squares as estimation techniques alongside Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test for the direction of causality analysis. Empirical results revealed that value-added agriculture and economic growth are drivers of CO2 emission in the E7 countries, and the rise in renewable energy causes a reduction in CO2 emissions, while in the short run, economic growth has a positive impact on emissions in the focus countries. Causality analysis shows that there is a feedback causality between economic growth and emissions, between value-added agriculture and energy usage, between emission and value-added agriculture, and between economic growth and agricultural development. Furthermore, energy use does not cause emissions directly; it causes economic growth and value-added agriculture which causes emissions. This position aligns with the advocacy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN-SDG) Targets 7 and 13 of clean energy access and mitigation of climate changes issues.

This study analyzes comprehensively the role of green technology, environmental taxes, and green energy toward a sustainable environment in 5 sovereign Nordic countries by also considering income and population. For this purpose, annual data of Nordic countries from 1995 to 2020 is extracted and the cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) technique is applied to test short-run and long-run compatibilities of the indicators on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Moreover, Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) approaches are applied for robustness checks. The empirical results reveal that (i) green technology, environmental taxes, and green energy have a negative association with CO2 emissions in the both short-run and long-run; (ii) income and population have a positive association between CO2 emissions in the both short-run and long-run; (iii) AMG and CCEMG approaches report similar findings with the CS-ARDL and validate the robustness in turn. Thus, the empirical results confirm the contributing role of green technology, environmental taxes, and green energy toward a sustainable environment in 5 sovereign Nordic countries. Moreover, policy implications are discussed. © 2023 International Association for Gondwana Research

AbstractGlobally, the need for ecological well‐being and sustainable development attracted research and policy attention over the years. However, issues concerning the nexus between globalization and ecological safety remain contentious and unresolved. Therefore, this study contributes to the discourse by evaluating the impact of economic globalization on ecological footprints in seven emerging economies (E7) while accounting for other drivers of environmental degradation in the outlined bloc for the period of 1990–2021. The present study leverages on panel data econometric techniques to achieve the study objectives. The findings shows that economic globalization and increase in economic activities drive a higher ecological footprint and thus reduce environmental quality in emerging economies. This study concludes that the economic progress of emerging economies and the increasing wave of their economic integration is detrimental to environmentally sustainable development. Therefore, this study recommends, among other insightful policy inferences, that the global agenda on sustainable development should be prioritized, environment‐friendly integration among emerging economies should be pursued. Environmental regulations should be strictly observed by the countries in their bid for economic development and integration.

The issue of increased renewable energy consumption has been widely debated, and this has become a central energy policy concern for developing and developed countries. The existing literature prov...

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between energy efficiency and production-and -consumption based carbon emissions by assessing the impact of population size, income, and clean energy on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions function. Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) and Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimators are applied to observe long-term associations between the variables, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) Ganger causality test is used to identify the direction of causality. Findings reveal that, across all specifications, energy intensity and population size have positive (increasing) impact on both estimates of CO2 emissions while renewable energy use has a negatively significant impact and stronger on consumption -based estimates. The presence of an inverted U-shaped curve in the relationship between per capita income and CO2 emissions, as predicted by the Environment Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, only exists when CO2 emissions are calculated based on production pattern. Further empirical analysis based on DH causality tests show a bidirectional causality between energy intensity and production-based CO2 emissions, population size and consumption-based CO2 emissions, per capita income and consumption-based CO2 emissions, and energy in-tensity and renewable energy use. In addition, a unidirectional causality runs from per capita income to production-based CO2 emissions, and from energy intensity and renewable energy use to consumption-based CO2 emissions. This analysis outlines a paradigm for the formulation of a green development strategy in developing economies via energy and environmental resources.

This study examines the symmetric (linear) and asymmetric (nonlinear) impact of economic growth (EG), capital formation (CF), renewable and non-renewable energy (NRE) consumption on CO2 emissions and ecological footprint (EF) of seventeen OECD countries spanning data from 1970 to 2016. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used to examine the symmetric impact and the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model is employed to explore the asymmetric impact of the variables on the environment. The results indicate that economic growth and gross capital formation dampens environmental quality in the OECD region over the sampled period. Our estimation using the ARDL model shows that a 1% increase in renewable energy (RE) is projected to reduce CO2 emission by 0.2% and a 1% increase in NRE is estimated to increase CO2 emission by 1.08%. Similarly, a 1% rise in EG and NRE is expected to increase ecological footprint (EF) by 0.10% and 0.53%, respectively. Estimation using NARDL decomposed EG with positive (negative) shocks shows that a 1% increase (decrease) in EG is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 0.4% (0.16%). Similarly, 1% positive (negative) shock in RE is expected to decrease CO2 emission by 0.5%. The findings indicate that conventional energy obtained from fossil fuels is observed to worsen the environment. Interestingly, renewable energy consumption enhances environmental quality for both fitted models with CO2 emission and ecological footprint. This is insightful for stakeholders and government administrators in the region. This demonstrates the importance of a paradigm shift towards renewable energy consumption in the OECD countries to improve economic growth and productive capital stock. This finding also aligns with the non-linear investigation of the pivotal role of renewable energy consumption for a cleaner environment.