A threshold approach to sustainable development: Nonlinear relationship between renewable energy consumption, natural resource rent, and ecological footprint

Impact of urbanization and human development on ecological footprints in OECD and non-OECD countries

Ecological footprints play a crucial role in assessing how human activities impact the environment, serving as key indicators. This study investigates the influence of urbanization and human development controlling for GDP and industrialization on ecological footprints, focusing on both OECD and non-OECD countries during the period from 1990 to 2018. The investigation employs an open-access solution framework and utilizes the Generalized Method of Moments approach for analysis. The findings highlight distinct patterns between OECD and non-OECD countries. In OECD countries, ecological footprints are increasing with urbanization and GDP growth while showcasing a negative impact of the Human Development Index (HDI) and industrialization on ecological footprint. Conversely, non-OECD countries demonstrate a positive impact of GDP and HDI on ecological footprints, while there is a negative impact of industrialization and urbanization on ecological footprints. These disparities underscore the need for tailored environmental strategies based on a country's economic and developmental status. The results underscore the importance of investing in the renewable energy sector and implementing stringent environmental policies to mitigate the environmental impact of human activities. This evidence reinforces the urgency for countries, irrespective of their OECD status, to take proactive measures to safeguard the planet from further environmental hazards.

Technological innovation, globalization and ecological quality: A disaggregated ecological footprint approach for BRICS countries

The ecological footprint (EF) has become one of the leading indicators for environmental assessments. The EF is an indicator that is at the center of researchers' interest in empirical analysis, as it simultaneously reflects air, water, and soil pollution. Analyzing the six sub-components of the EF is essential for assessing the environmental pressures from forestry, construction, fisheries, agriculture, and livestock, as well as for remediating these pressures. In this context, this study examines the impact of income, globalization, and technological progress (represented by patents) on the EF and its subcomponents for the BRICS countries over the period 1992-2020. The BRICS countries are of critical importance to this study as major countries in the global economic and environmental landscape. The study employs the panel LM cointegration test and the common correlated effects estimator. The results show that economic expansion augments ecological, carbon, and built-up land footprints and that patents have no significant impact on the EF indicators. On the contrary, globalization is a factor that reduces five of the seven EF indicators. A robustness check performed with a half-panel jackknife confirms the analysis findings. These results suggest that BRICS policymakers should harmonize economic development and ecology while making greater use of the environmental benefits of globalization.

Unpacking the environmental quality through the effects of natural resources, renewable energy consumption, banking development and industrial value addition: An empirical evidence from BRICS countries

This study explores the association between natural resources rent, industrial value addition, banking development, renewable energy consumption, total reserves and environmental quality in the dynamic context of BRICS nations from 1995 to 2019. BRICS economies are responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions and confront pressing environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss and pollution. For the dependent variable, the environmental quality, the study constructed a composite index using PCA for all environmental indicators where interdependencies among variables are prevalent. Besides this, the study incorporates two interaction terms to determine the indirect influence of natural resource rent and banking development on environmental quality through the mediating role of industrial value addition. By applying the CS-ARDL technique, the outcomes of the study reveal that natural resources rent, industrial value addition, and total reserves positively influence ENQ, indicating the adverse consequences of industrial sectors on environmental quality and continued environmental degradation due to resource-intensive industrial production, underscoring the urgency of sustainable resource management. In contrast, banking development and renewable energy consumption negatively influence ENQ, signifying the positive role of developed banking sectors in supporting eco-friendly projects and enhancing environmental quality. This study offers valuable insights for policy interventions to foster a more sustainable future.

Relationship among micro-pollutants, economic growth, renewable energy, nanotechnology and ecological foot prints of China: evidence from panel data analysis

An important concern is the availability of clean drinking water, which is an essential need for human survival. This issue arises due to the existence of hazardous micropollutants originating from various emission sources. Nanotechnology aids in the mitigation of micropollutants by assimilating and counteracting their effects, hence diminishing their influence on water and other ecosystems. The study investigates the relationship between nanotechnological progress, the adoption of renewable energy, environmental consequences, and economic growth in China, using the Environmental Kuznets Curve theory as a conceptual framework. The study employs panel cointegration tests to analyze structural breaks from 2000 to 2020. Nanotechnology is expected to reduce environmental degradation and the presence of micro-pollutants by increasing the use of renewable energy and promoting energy conservation. Nanotechnology is crucial for mitigating micro-pollutants and advancing sustainable development in this specific context. However, the literature also highlights the harmful consequences of nanoparticle emissions caused by nanotechnology on human and environmental health for a long duration, requiring more examination. This research is the first empirical inquiry into the relationship between improvements in nanotechnology, the use of renewable energy, economic growth, and ecological effect, all within the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve theory. The results confirm the successful incorporation of all components with a focus on long-term outcomes. The findings suggest that the EKC hypothesis is relevant in China. In China, advancements in nanotechnology have a moderating effect on environmental degradation. The use of renewable energy sources in China enhances environmental circumstances. Given the offered empirical evidence, it is advisable for the government to have a leading role in the development of innovative nanotechnologies that have low emissions of nanoparticles. By using this approach, it will be possible to encourage the conservation of energy and the use of renewable sources in a more secure way, hence improving the effectiveness of sustainable development initiatives.

Modeling the ecological footprint and assessing its influential factors: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Various factors have been found responsible for the increment in ecological footprint resulting difficulties in maintaining environmental sustainability. This has been noticed through a modeling perspective. Identifying the factors affecting Ecological Footprint helps policymakers to formulate policies regarding sustainability. However, studies conducted based upon systematic reviews on Ecological Footprint through modeling are still limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study intends to identify influential factors associated with ecological footprint through a systematic review.

METHODS

ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used to search literature systematically. Particular keywords and Boolean operators were applied to dig out relevant studies for the review. Peer-reviewed research articles published in the English language till September 13, 2023, were incorporated for the analysis. Following the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), 1011 articles were identified from four different databases and only 37 research papers were eligible for this study. These articles were assessed and relevant information was extracted and then amalgamated into the systematic review.

RESULTS

Gross domestic product, urbanization, energy consumption, renewable energy, non-renewable energy, natural resources, bio-capacity, human capital, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and financial development were observed as key factors of the ecological footprint.

CONCLUSION

Factors known to influence ecological footprint need to be addressed properly for environmental sustainability including widespread use of renewable energy.

Renewable energy and ecological footprint nexus: Evidence from dynamic panel threshold technique

The escalating phenomenon of environmental degradation is an urgent global concern, imperiling ecosystems and hindering the prospects for sustainable development on a planetary scale. Therefore, this study aims to explore the intricate interplay between renewable energy (RE) and ecological footprint (EF), considering the conditional impact of fiscal capacity (FIC), human development (HDI), institutional quality (IQI), and population density (PDN). Drawing on panel data encompassing 74 developing countries from 2000 to 2022, the study employs a dynamic panel threshold regression method, both with and without an instrumental variable approach. The findings unveil a non-linear nexus between RE and EF, revealing significant threshold values for FIC (1.870), HDI (0.736), and IQI (0.311), above which RE showcases its efficacy in mitigating EF. Conversely, when these predictors dip below the thresholds of FIC (1.391), HDI (0.655), and IQI (0.2545), the impact of RE on FE becomes insignificant. Moreover, the study introduces PDN as an additional threshold variable in the analysis, pinpointing that the effectiveness of RE in reducing EF hinges on PDN being below a threshold value of 263.144; however, above a threshold value of 276.98, the influence of PDN on the RE-FE nexus diminishes. The findings underscore the complexity of policy landscapes in developing countries. They suggest that while promoting renewable energy is pivotal for environmental sustainability, it is equally imperative to bolster existing environmentally friendly fiscal capacity, advance human capital, enhance institutional quality, and craft effective population distribution policies.

Alternative splicing plays a nonredundant role in greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) in acclimation to ambient salinity fluctuations

Alternative splicing (AS) is an important post-transcriptional mechanism for adaptation of fish to environmental stress. Here, we performed a genome-wide investigation to AS dynamics in greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili), an economical marine teleost, in response to hypo- (10 ppt) and hyper-salinity (40 ppt) stresses. Totally, 2267-2611 differentially spliced events were identified in gills and kidney upon the exposure to undesired salinity regimes. In gills, genes involved in energy metabolism, stimulus response and epithelial cell differentiation were differentially spliced in response to salinity variation, while sodium ion transport and cellular amide metabolism were enhanced in kidney to combat the adverse impacts of salinity changes. Most of these differentially spliced genes were not differentially expressed, and AS was found to regulate different biological processes from differential gene expression, indicative of the functionally nonredundant role of AS in modulating salinity acclimation in greater amberjack. Together, our study highlights the important contribution of post-transcriptional mechanisms to the adaptation of fish to ambient salinity fluctuations and provides theoretical guidance for the conservation of marine fishery resources against increasingly environmental challenges.

Trade openness, human capital, natural resource, and carbon emission nexus: a CS-ARDL assessment for Central Asian economies

There is a call for global efforts to preserve the ecological systems that can sustain economies and people's lives. However, carbon emission (CEM) threatens the sustainability of humanity and ecological systems. This analysis looked into the influence of energy use (ERU), human capital (HCI), trade openness (TOP), natural resource (NRR), population, and economic growth (ENG) on CEM. The paper gathered panel data from the Central Asia region from 1990 to 2020. The CS-ARDL was applied to establish the long-term interaction among the indicators. The paper's findings indicated the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the Central Asia regions. Also, the empirical evidence highlighted that energy use, natural resources, and trade openness cause higher levels of CEM. However, the research verified that CEM can be improved through human capital and urban population growth. The study also found that HCI moderates the interaction between NRR and CEM. The causality assessment indicated a one-way interplay between ENG, ERU, NRR, and CEM. The study proposes that to support ecological stability in these regions, policy-makers should concentrate on developing human capital, investing in renewable energy sources, and utilizing contemporary technologies to harness natural resources in the economies of Central Asia.

Natural resources-environmental technology-ecological footprint nexus: Does natural resources rents diversification make a difference?

Researchers have shown a growing interest in investigating the environmental consequences of energy exploitation and green technologies, particularly in light of the escalating severity of climate change issues in recent times. However, these researches remain incomplete in terms of the various elements and mechanisms of impact. By assessing the novel facet of resource diversification, this study has assessed the direct and indirect effects of this feature on environmental quality. This study used the Moment quantile Regression technique to examine data from 31 OECD nations spanning the time frame of 2009-2019. The findings indicate that resource diversification has an adverse effect on environmental quality, however this effect is not homogeneously observed across all countries. Countries with favorable environmental conditions will encounter a more pronounced influence from the diversification of natural resources extraction. This study further demonstrates that expanding the variety of natural resource exploitation will amplify the negative effects of resource exploitation on environmental quality. Furthermore, the degree of environmental technology exerts a beneficial impact on environmental quality across various degrees of environmental quality. Our findings offer several insightful policies for natural resources management in the context of the ongoing industrial revolution.

The impact of geopolitical risk, institutional governance and green finance on attaining net-zero carbon emission

This research investigates the impact of geopolitical risk, institutional governance and green finance on environmental outcomes, specifically focusing on carbon emissions and ecological footprint. Utilizing the dynamic CS-ARDL method and aggregated mean group analysis on a panel dataset covering 21 nations from 2000 to 2021, our findings reveal that heightened geopolitical risk leads to both short and long run increases in carbon emissions and the ecological footprint. Our study finds both a direct as well as indirect connection between governance, green finance and environmental outcomes in both the short and long run, highlighting the nuanced impact of governance on the formulation of environmental policies and regulatory frameworks. The results emphasize the need for targeted strategies, including focused investments and incentives for sustainable finance, particularly in conflict-affected regions. Furthermore, our research underscores the enduring impact of historical events, such as wars, on contemporary environmental indicators, emphasizing the importance of proactive conflict prevention measures. Our research suggests that policymakers should adopt comprehensive strategies that prioritize emission reduction during short-run spikes in geopolitical risk while maintaining a steadfast commitment to long-run sustainability.

Revisiting the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality- can ICT break the "resource curse" in the environment?

Despite the prevalence of discussions on the "resource curse", the impact of natural resources on environmental quality for better or for worse has not been clearly answered, this study aims to answer the question by introducing the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). To that end, by using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments (IV GMM) estimator and a sample of 102 developing and emerging economies from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of ICT on the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality. Specially, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) captures the environmental quality. The results show that natural resources have a significant negative effect on EPI, specially, EPI decreases by one unit with a 1% increase in natural resource rents. ICT significantly mitigates this adverse effect, and marginal effects analysis further confirms its positive moderate effects. The results proved to be robust by Lewbel 2SLS and Driscoll-Kraay techniques or other robust tests. It is noteworthy that the adverse effect of natural resources on EPI is greater and the mitigating effect of ICT is more pronounced in low-income countries and lower-middle income countries. Overall, these results remind resource-based countries to vigorously develop ICT, and apply intelligent exploration, digital monitoring, or other digital technologies to realize the high-efficiency use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution and ecological damage.

Linking clean energy consumption, globalization, and financial development to the ecological footprint in a developing country: Insights from the novel dynamic ARDL simulation techniques

Developing countries have been facing economic difficulties for over three and a half decades due to numerous factors, including fossil fuel consumption and dwindling biocapacity. It is necessary to pinpoint the factors that may be culpable for poor environmental quality leading to a rising ecological footprint (EFP). This study explores the effect of clean energy, financial development (FDV), and globalization on the EFP in a developing country using the novel dynamic ARDL simulation techniques and the bootstrap causality test. The findings suggest that green energy has no meaningful impact on the EFP. Globalization and FDV significantly reduce the EFP by 0.25% and 0.08%, respectively. Besides, the findings confirm the existence of the EKC hypothesis. Furthermore, the causality results affirm a unidirectional causality from globalization and FDV to EFP, while economic growth drives globalization. Also, a one-way causality flows from globalization to FDV, just as FDV Granger causes green energy. In line with the findings, the study recommends that public policies focus on funding environmental-friendly technologies and green innovations. The funding must be on recently developed energy-saving technologies that can ensure complementarity between increased economic growth and environmental deterioration.

Determinants of ecological footprint in European countries: Fresh insight from Bayesian model averaging for panel data analysis

This study examines the determinants of the ecological footprint of production in European countries from 1992 to 2020. Using partial and semipartial correlation analyses and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach for the first time, the research identifies key variables affecting ecological footprint. Using Bayesian methods, posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs) were calculated for each variable's coefficient estimates, revealing their relative importance. Biocapacity, energy consumption, industrialization, financial development, life expectancy, and globalization displayed notably high PIPs, indicating their strong influence on the ecological footprint. In addition, the study employs cointegration tests to examine the long-run relationship between ecological footprint and explanatory variables. The results indicate significant cointegration between these variables across panels, supported by various test statistics. In the Weighted Pooled DOLS estimation, biocapacity, energy consumption, and life expectancy significantly influence the ecological footprint, while industrialization, financial development, and globalization exert a comparatively smaller impact. Researchers and policymakers should consider these determinants for effective sustainable development planning. These findings underscore the intricate interplay of factors shaping the ecological footprint and offer insights for effective policy interventions towards sustainable development.

How do energy consumption, globalization, and income inequality affect environmental quality across growth regimes?

This paper investigates the impacts of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption, income inequality, and globalization on the ecological footprints of 49 countries for the period of 1995-2018. Panel cointegration test reveals a long-run relationship between the variables. Long-run parameter estimates derived from AMG and CCEMG, increasing income and nonrenewable energy consumption, have a significant positive impact on the ecological footprint, while countries that consume more renewable energy have seen an improvement in the quality of the environment. Conversely, neither income inequality nor globalization has a significant effect on national EFs. Evidence from the estimation of the panel threshold error correction model, where GDP growth is used as the transition variable, indicates a significant threshold effect, which supports a nonlinear relationship among the variables by identifying two distinct growth regimes: lower and upper. For the estimation sample, the positive and significant parameter estimates for economic growth in both growth regimes do not support the EKC hypothesis. The results indicate that renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption has a larger impact on the EF in the upper than lower growth regime. The threshold estimates are in line with the linear long-run estimates that do not indicate that income inequality has a significant impact on ecological footprint. However, globalization appears to negatively affect environmental quality in the lower growth regime.

The impact of informality and institutional quality on environmental footprint: The case of emerging economies in a comparative approach

The endeavor to implement the 2030 Agenda of national and international stakeholders became increasingly impetuous, considering the wide range of uncertainties and risks. The new humans-centered development model built on the prominence of environmental and social values seeks to reinforce communities' resilience and mitigate environmental risks, leaving no one behind. For this to happen, solid and effective institutions, the right environmental policies, and a safe statutory labor framework are the sine qua non. In this study, we evaluated the effects of informality, institutional quality, and renewable energy consumption on ecological footprint of two groups of emerging countries from Europe and Asia from 2002 to 2018. Our results by PMG-ARDL approach highlight dissimilarities between the two groups, showing greater heterogeneity. In this sense, informality is found to have positive and significant effects on ecological footprint in the long run in emerging European countries. In contrast, the effect is negative for emerging Asian countries. In the short run, the effects are less critical in the studied countries between the two groups. Institutional quality variables impacted environmental quality differently. In this sense, it is detrimental for policymakers to consider concerted measures to decrease institutional vulnerabilities and reduce the level of the informal economy. The outcome of this study concurs with a complete awareness of the importance of informality and institutional quality to mitigate social and environmental risks conjunctively.

On the link between shadow economy and carbon dioxide emissions: an analysis of homogeneous groups of countries

In the framework of an environmental Kuznets curve, the linkage between shadow economy and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions was evaluated for 145 countries from 1991 to 2017. In assessing the effect of the shadow economy on CO2 emissions, we used panel quantile regression, panel fixed effects, and panel smooth transition regression as estimation methods. In addition, to deal with parameter heterogeneity, we resorted to the procedure of Lin and Ng (2012). We found two country groups that share homogeneous parameters. No environmental Kuznets curve was found for the set of all countries. Nevertheless, one was found for each of the homogeneous parameter country groups. This result supports different turning points for different groups of countries. Shadow economy contributed to reducing CO2 emissions in group 1 and aggravated it in group 2. Manufacturing was revealed to be statistically significant for the countries of group 1. Fossil fuel rents increased the CO2 emissions, mainly in group 2. Urbanization contributed to the hike of CO2 emissions in both country groups but much more intensely for group 1. Evidence of a tendency for decreasing CO2 emissions was also found, reflecting the efficiency gains over time.

Green economic revival acquisition: evaluating impact of digital finance and natural resource development

Digital financing is an emerging source after COVID-19 to address novel problems of economies and different industries. With the growing concern about the sustainability of the global environment, developing countries are now moving toward unprecedented economic development. This research analyzes the impact of digital finance and economic growth on environmental sustainability in China from 1995 to 2020, focusing on natural resource management. To include asymmetric patterns and handle socioeconomic shocks during the last three decades, the research uses the cutting-edge ordinary least square (O.L.S.) methodology. The O.L.S. helps the research findings and illustrated patterns of ecological sustainability dependency across various data distributions. According to the empirical results, N.R., F.D.P., and G.D.P. all benefited from carbon emissions at higher and lower emissions quantiles. Green technology innovation, on the other hand, considerably reduces emissions across all quantiles. Notably, the effect of each repressor significantly changed for lower, medium, and higher emissions quantiles, showing a thorough understanding of China's resource scarcity and sustainable growth.

Does renewable energy improve environmental quality? Evidence from RECAI countries

Since 1990, the ecological footprints have been increasing significantly with a continuous increase rate, which led to challenges to environmental quality. The basis for economic growth was said to be the shift of energy and environmental strategies toward a sustainable future. Indeed, it became a matter of proclaimed acceptance that environmental challenges nurtured expansion, innovation, and competitiveness. Climate change is the most pressing issue being faced by the world due to an increase in ecological footprint from 7.0 billion to 20.6 billion GHA. It indicates the seriousness of environmental degradation; therefore, nations need to ensure environmental sustainability. Keeping this in mind, the present research mainly aims to examine the impact of renewable energy utilization on the ecological footprints of RECAI economies, spanning the period from 1990 to 2020. To significantly achieve the research objective, we utilized panel econometric methods for empirical analysis. The results of long-run elasticities indicate that both renewable energy utilization as well as trade openness significantly controls the ecological footprints, while higher conventional energy utilization and economic growth significantly impede environmental sustainability. The empirical findings provide new insights for policymakers on renewable energy for the betterment of environmental quality in RECAI countries.

Exploring the relationships between attitudes toward emission trading schemes, artificial intelligence, climate entrepreneurship, and sustainable performance

The research objective of this research paper is to examine the relationships between organizational commitment to emission trading schemes, artificial intelligence, and climate entrepreneurship, as well as their impact on sustainable performance, i.e., environmental and organizational performance in organizations. This study aims to identify the key drivers and barriers to the adoption of these factors and to understand how they influence environmental and organizational performance. The study utilizes a cause-and-effect design on the sampled size of 387 subjects and employs the Smart PLS version 4.0 statistical tool to estimate the interactions between all constructs in the structural equation modeling. The research questions aim to explore the key drivers and barriers to the adoption of these factors in organization and their impact on sustainable performance, i.e., environmental and organizational performance. The study hypothesizes that organizational commitment to emission trading schemes, AI, and climate entrepreneurship has a positive impact on sustainable performances such as environmental and organizational performance. The findings suggest that attitudes toward AI and emission trading schemes have a direct impact on climate entrepreneurship, environmental performance, and organizational performance. By considering these factors together, the study seeks to uncover the synergistic effects and potential interactions between them and sheds light on their combined influence on environmental and organizational performance. Organizations can enhance environmental and organizational performance by prioritizing their attitudes toward emission trading schemes, AI, and climate entrepreneurship through resource allocation, technology investment, and fostering a climate entrepreneurship mindset. The research concludes that businesses that demonstrate high organizational commitment, positive attitude toward the ETS, and a focus on climate entrepreneurship experiences improved environmental and organizational performance.

Exploring the impact of natural resources and energy transition on CO2 intensity in China

As reported at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), worsening climate situation has led to frequent extreme weather events around the world. The main cause of climate change is carbon emissions from human activities. While realizing rapid economic development, China has become the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, it should reasonably use natural resources (NR) and promote energy transition (ET). In this study based on panel data on 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2020, second generation panel unit root tests were performed after validating slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency. Mean group (MG) estimation and error correction model were used to empirically test the impact of natural resources and energy transition on CO2 intensity (CI). The results show that natural resources exerted adverse effects on CI, whereas ET, economic growth and technological innovation were beneficial to CI. Analysis of heterogeneity indicates that natural resources exerted the greatest impact on CI in central China, followed by west China. Its impact in east China was positive but did not pass significance test. West China achieved the best result in carbon reduction through ET, followed by central China and east China. The robustness of the results was checked with augmented mean group (AMG) estimation. Our policy suggestions are to urge reasonable development and utilization of natural resources, accelerate ET to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, and implement differentiated policies on natural resources and ET based on regional characteristics.

The asymmetric relationship between public-private partnerships investment in energy and environmental degradation for sustainable development: new evidence from quantile-on-quantile regression approach

According to the United Nations Agenda, the 2023 sustainable environment is necessary to secure this planet's future; public-private partnerships investment in energy is crucial to sustainable development. The research examines the quantile association between public-private partnership ventures in energy and environmental degradation in ten developing nations, and data is used from January 1998-December 2016. The advanced econometrics quantile-on-quantile regression approach is used to control the issues of heterogeneity and asymmetric relationship. According to the quantile-on-quantile approach, there is a strong positive association between public-private partnerships in energy and environmental degradation in Argentina, Brazil, Bangladesh, and India. But the negative relationship is observed on different quantiles of China, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and the Philippines. The findings suggest that the world needs to act as a single community and divert its resources toward renewable energy sources to control climate change; also, to accomplish the UN 15-year road map of Agenda 2023 with 17-SDGs; out of these 17 sustainable goals, SDG-7 is related to affordable and clean energy, SDG-11 is about sustainable cities and communities, and SDG-13 focuses on climate action for sustainable development.

The influence of shadow economy, environmental policies and geopolitical risk on renewable energy: A comparison of high- and middle-income countries

Given the alarming rate of climate change and environmental degradation, major countries are seeking ways to curtail environmental damage and attain sustainability in the future. In the quest for a green economy, countries are motivated to adopt renewable energy that can assist in resource conservation and efficiency. Accordingly, this study examines the diverse effects of the underground economy, environmental policy strictness, geopolitical risk, gross domestic product, carbon emissions, population, and oil prices on renewable energy for 30 high- and middle-income countries from 1990 to 2018. The empirical outcomes based on quantile regression document significant variations across two country groups. For instance, for high-income countries, the shadow economy has a detrimental effect across all quantiles but it is statistically significant at the top quantiles. Nonetheless, the effect of the shadow economy on renewable energy is detrimental and significant statistically across all quantiles for middle-income countries. In the context of environmental policy stringency, the effect is positive across both country groups, though there is heterogeneity in outcomes. Geopolitical risk has a positive influence on the deployment of renewable energy for high-income countries but negatively impacts renewables for middle-income countries. As far as policy suggestions are concerned, the policymakers of both high- and middle-income countries need to take steps to constrain the growth of the shadow economy by adopting effective policy strategies. Policies need to be implemented for middle income-countries to reduce the unfavorable effect of geopolitical uncertainty. The findings of this study contribute to a better and more precise understanding of factors shaping the role of renewables whereby the energy crisis would be mitigated.

Threshold nonlinear relationship between renewable energy consumption and agriculture productivity: the role of foreign direct investment and financial inclusion

Global warming is a life-threatening risk to mankind and its survival; to combat this risk, the considerable contribution of renewable energy cannot be overlooked for sustainable growth globally. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the threshold level and asymmetric connection among renewable energy consumption, foreign direct investment, financial inclusion, and agricultural productivity in dissimilar regimes of the different income levels of 123 countries from 1995 to 2019 by applying an advance technique PSTR (panel smooth transition regression) model. The PSTR model results imply that the connection between renewable energy consumption and agricultural productivity at all the estimates is non-linear. Moreover, in all countries, there is a positive and significant connection among renewable energy consumption, foreign direct investment, financial inclusion, and agricultural productivity in both low and high regimes, except the carbon emission, which has a negative and significant impact on agricultural productivity. Based on the results of this study, the recommendations are as follows: (i) to increase renewable energy consumption, efficient-energy resources should be used by farmers for the agricultural process; (ii) the dependence on non-renewable energy resources should be minimized and shifted towards natural and renewable resources.

Heterogeneous effects of energy consumption structure on ecological footprint

Attention to environmental sustainability has increased among nations, especially after the Paris Agreement and COP26 of 2021. Considering that fossil fuel consumption is one of the main factors causing environmental degradation, altering the energy consumption patterns of nations toward clean energy can be a suitable solution. For this purpose, this study investigates the impact of energy consumption structure (ECS) on the ecological footprint from 1990 to 2017. This research includes three steps: First, the energy consumption structure is calculated using the Shannon-Wiener index. Second, from 64 countries with middle- and high-income levels, the club convergence method is used to identify countries with similar patterns in an ecological footprint over time. Third, using the method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR), we examined the effects of ECS in different quantiles. The results of club convergence show that the two groups of countries with 23 and 29 members have similar behavior over time. The results of the MM-QR model show that for club 1, the energy consumption structure in quantiles of 10th, 25th, and 50th has positive effects on the ecological footprint, while in 75th and 90th are negative. The results of club 2 indicate that the energy consumption structure has positive effects on the ecological footprint in quantiles 10th and 25th, but negative effects on 75th. Also, the results show that GDP, energy consumption, and population in both clubs have positive effects, and trade openness has negative effects on ecological footprint. Considering that the results indicate that changing the structure of energy consumption from fossil fuels to clean energies improves the environmental quality, so governments should use incentive policies and support packages for the development of clean energy and reduce the costs of installing renewable energy.

Impact of coal rents, transportation, electricity consumption, and economic globalization on ecological footprint in the USA

Over the last three decades, the world has been facing the phenomenon of the ecological deficit as the ecological footprint is continuously rising due to the persistent decline of the per-capita bio-capacity. Moreover, there is a substantial increase in globalization and electricity consumption for the same period, and transportation is contributing to economic prosperity at the cost of environmental sustainability. Understanding the determinants of ecological footprint is thus critical for suggesting appropriate policies for environmental sustainability. As a result, this study analyzes the impacts of economic globalization, transportation, coal rents, and electricity consumption in ecological footprint in the context of the USA over the period 1995 to 2018. The data have been extracted from "Global Footprint Network," "Swiss Economic Institute," and "World Development Indicators." The current study has also applied the flexible Fourier form nonlinear unit root test to examine the stationarity among variables. For the empirical estimation, a novel technique, the "quantile auto-regressive distributive lag model," is applied in the study to deal with the nonlinear associations of the variables and to evaluate the long-term stability of variables across quantiles. The study's findings indicate that coal rents, transportation, and globalization significantly and positively contribute to the deterioration of ecological footprints at different quantile ranges in the short and long run. Electricity consumption is found to have a positive and significant impact at lower quantile ranges in the long run but not have a significant impact in the short run. The study suggested that lowering the dependence of the transport sector on fossil fuels, more use of hydroelectricity, and stringent strategies to curb coal consumption would be helpful to reduce the positive influence of these variables on ecological footprints in the USA.

Asymmetric effects of economic policy uncertainty and environmental policy stringency on environmental quality: evidence from China and the United States

The importance of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental policy stringency (EPS) in affecting environmental quality is gaining great attention in the literature. However, none of the existing studies has thought to investigate their combined effects on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Additionally, the individual investigations into the nexuses EPU-emissions and EPS-emissions primarily took a symmetric assumption between these variables into consideration. The current paper is an early attempt to close these gaps by examining the combined effects of economic policy uncertainty and environmental policy stringency on CO2 emissions within asymmetric (nonlinear) frameworks in China and the United States (US). The empirical findings indicate that an improvement in EPU degrades the environmental quality in both countries. However, a negative shift in EPU decreases emissions in China while increasing them in the US. In terms of EPS, the estimates in the two nations led to similar results. A positive change in EPS is conducive to fewer emissions, whereas a negative change worsens environmental damage. These findings still hold with the sensitivity analysis using ecological footprint as an alternative gauge of environmental destruction. This study, therefore, suggests that both nations adopt stricter environmental policies. Additionally, Chinese policymakers should work to lessen uncertainty shocks, while the US government should promote more transparent economic policies.

The impact of natural resource rent, financial development, and urbanization on carbon emission

There is a shred of evidence of environmental degradation in the form of carbon emissions to behave differently when tested with different macroeconomic variables. This paper aims to examine the long-run and short-run association between natural resource rent, financial development, and urbanization on carbon emission from the context of the USA during 1995-2015 with the help of a contemporary and innovative approach named quantile autoregressive distributed lagged model (QARDL). The stated approach is applied due to the fact that non-linearity is observed for the study variables. The findings indicated that the higher financial development (0.304), natural resource rent (0.102), and urbanization (0.489) have a positive impact on the environmental degradation in the region of USA during long-run estimation in the stated quantiles of the study. This would indicate that higher financial development, urbanization, and natural resources are putting more environmental pressure on the economy of the USA. Similarly, the findings under short-run estimation confirm that past and lagged values of carbon emission, financial development, natural resource rent, and urbanization are significantly determining the current values of the carbon emission. For this reason, it is suggested that the government requires some immediate steps of the USA to control the harmful effect of such financial development, more urbanization, and higher natural resource rent as well. This would indicate the reflection of some green strategies in all three explanatory variables to generate some fruitful environmental outcomes.

Re-examining the tourism-led growth nexus and the role of information and communication technology in East Asia and the Pacific

This study revisits the tourism-led growth discourse and differs from the existing literature to examine if information and communications technology (ICT) moderates the relationship between tourism and economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific. Using data on 33 selected countries, the study deploys the Driscoll and Kraay (1998) [1] panel spatial correlation consistent (PSCC) approach, Machado and Santos Silva (2019) [2] method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) and Arellano and Bond (1991) [3] generalized method of moments (GMM) technique. Using a composite ICT index on four indicators ((mobile phones, fixed telephones, fixed broadband, and secured internet servers) derived from the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the results which are mostly consistent across the three estimation methods reveal, among others, that (1) ICT moderates the tourism-growth path and the effect is positive and statistically significant; (2) the moderation effect is consistently positive across all quantiles of Q_0.25, Q_0.50 and Q_0.75; (3) the results are sustained when omitted variables (growth enablers) - institutions, R&D, and human capital - are accounted for. Policy recommendations are discussed.

Dynamic decomposition and regional differences of urban emergy ecological footprint in the Yangtze River Delta

Maintaining the balance between the economy and the environment and further realizing sustainable economic development has become an important topic. The existing research has not used the emergy ecological footprint model to calculate the ecological footprint of the Yangtze River Delta, nor have they used the factor decomposition method to analyze the influencing factors affecting the ecological footprint change. The differences in the emergy ecological footprint among different provinces and cities have not been studied. This study reported the emergy ecological footprint in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2008 to 2020. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index model (LMDI) was constructed to decompose the change of emergy ecological footprint into the land structure, technology, economy, and population factors to screen the main influencing factors. Gini coefficient and Theil index were used to further analyze the main influencing factors which caused the differences in the footprints at regional and intra-regional levels. The results show that: (1) The fluctuation of the per capita emergy ecological footprint in the Yangtze River Delta region has decreased, while the fluctuation of the per capita emergy ecological carrying capacity has increased. However, the per capita emergy ecological deficit is still high, where the sustainable development of the regional economy is not optimistic. (2) Technology and economy are the main factors affecting the emergy ecological footprint of the Yangtze River Delta. (3) Regional differences refer to the differences between different provinces, while intra-regional differences refer to the difference between cities within the province. In the Yangtze River Delta region, the intra-regional differences are the main reasons causing the technical differences, while the regional differences are the main reasons causing the economic differences. The significance of the study is that scientific analysis of the sustainable development status and utilization degree of resources and environment are vital for realizing the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Delta region. By decomposing the factors affecting sustainable development, the regional differences of these factors could be analyzed and serve as a theoretical basis for local governments to formulate policies to minimise the emergy ecological footprint of a targeted region.

Exploring the association between resource dependence and haze pollution in China: the mediating effect of green technology innovation

Haze pollution has been addressed in extensive studies over the last few years. However, the relationship between resource dependence and haze pollution has not been fully investigated. This study focuses on addressing this problem while considering the mediating role of green technology innovation. A panel dataset of 263 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2018 is used for the analysis. The results show the following: (1) the two-way fixed-effect model reveals that resource dependence contributes significantly to haze pollution, and this finding remains robust across a series of robustness tests. (2) A mediation analysis indicates that resource dependence is unfavorable for green technology innovation, indirectly affecting the alleviation of haze pollution. (3) The results of panel threshold regression suggest that green technology innovation promotes haze reduction in the weak and medium resource dependence stages, whereas this optimization effect disappears in the strong resource dependence stage due to rebound effects. (4) The results of regional heterogeneity demonstrate that the positive effects of resource dependence on haze pollution exist in eastern and western China but not in central China. Based on these results, policy implications are given to reduce haze pollution.

On the convergence of ecological footprint in African countries: New evidences from panel stationarity tests with factors and gradual shifts

Convergence of the environmental indicators has been one of the significant research areas for researchers since the study of Strazicich and List (2003) was published. Earlier papers have concentrated on investigating the existence of the convergence of indicators of the environment by using carbon emissions as a pollution indicator. However, some researchers have criticized the use of carbon emission as a one-dimensional indicator and proposed using ecological footprint as a more comprehensive indicator. The primary aim of this paper is to examine whether stochastic convergence of ecological footprint exists in 49 African countries from 1973 to 2018 by employing a battery of traditional stationarity methods and a newly proposed stationary method with smooth shifts and a combination of p-values. The empirical results show that panel findings of the conventional stationarity test with no structural shifts reveal that ecological footprint follows a stationary process. In contrast, panel findings of the traditional stationarity method with sharp and smooth changes and the newly developed stationary method with smooth shifts and a combination of p-values reveal that ecological footprint follows a non-stationary process. Moreover, the majority of individual results show that the ecological footprint follows a convergent pattern in 38 African countries, whereas it follows a divergent pattern in the remainder. Therefore, the main finding indicates the stochastic convergence of ecological footprint in African countries is validated. The policy outcomes of the empirical results are given in the body of the paper.

The relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation: could West African countries benefit from EKC hypothesis?

There are growing concerns about environmental degradation and economic expansions in West Africa. Although there are several growth-environmental studies in Africa, there is limited empirical research exploring West African countries' potential of benefiting from the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, with the few studies on this subject reporting diverse results based on selected West African countries. To fill this gap, this study explored the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation within the EKC framework using 16 West African countries sub-grouped into low-income countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) between 1990 and 2018. This study implemented second-generation panel econometric estimators that are robust to cross-sectional dependent and parameter heterogeneity. The empirical results revealed that the data is cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, integrated of order one, 1(1), and cointegrated. Controlling for other environmental determinants, panel estimates from the Augmented Meant Group and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group estimators revealed that economic growth accelerates environmental degradation in West African countries, with a greater impact on LMICs, followed by LICs in West Africa. The results also showed that West African countries especially LMICs could benefit from the EKC hypothesis. On the other hand, growth-environmental degradation among LICs in West Africa shows a monotonous increasing relationship. We found strong evidence to support for feedback hypothesis between economic growth and environmental degradation in LMICs, LICs, and West Africa as a whole. Based on the findings, policy recommendations that consider both LMICs and LICs and West Africa as a whole were offered to policymakers.

Carbon Neutrality in the Middle East and North Africa: The Roles of Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, and Government Effectiveness

Carbon neutrality is a 21st-century priority area, with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries making significant investments in renewable energy and climate mitigation initiatives to attain it. However, carbon neutrality research in the MENA region is under-developed, particularly when considering the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and effectiveness of government. To address this gap, this research investigates the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and government effectiveness toward the MENA region's carbon neutrality goal. We implemented heterogeneous and second-generation panel data techniques that are resilient to cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity to panel data spanning 16 MENA countries from 1996 to 2018. We discovered that MENA data are cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, and cointegrated. We found that government effectiveness and renewable energy bring carbon neutrality closer, but economic growth initially delays it. We detected Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the MENA region, specifically in the High-Income Countries. Although there were signs of EKC in the Middle-Income Countries, this was not significantly validated. Finally, we found a one-way causal link from government effectiveness and renewable energy to carbon neutrality but a feedback mechanism between economic growth and carbon neutrality in the MENA region. As a result of these findings, it is recommended that the MENA region's policymakers prioritize renewable energies and improve the effectiveness of government to drive economic growth toward the carbon neutrality goal.

Green investments, financial development, and environmental quality in Ghana: evidence from the novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach

Numerous studies have examined the influence of macroeconomic factors on environmental quality in Ghana. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no study on the connection between green investments, financial development, and environmental quality in the context of this Sub-Saharan African country. This study was therefore conducted to help fill this gap using annual frequency time series data ranging from 1970 to 2018. In attaining the objectives of this study, robust econometric techniques were employed. From the results, all the variables were first differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long run. The dynamic ARDL simulations technique with the support of the ARDL estimator was employed to examine the elastic effects of the predictors on the response variable, and from the discoveries, green investments improved environmental quality in Ghana both in the long and the short run via carbon dioxide mitigations. However, in both the long and the short run, financial development and energy utilization had a detrimental influence on environmental quality due to their positive influence on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, the N-shaped association between national income and environmental pollution was validated for Ghana. On the causal directions amidst the variables, there was no causality between green investments and environmental degradation was evidenced; however, a bidirectional causality between financial development and environmental pollution was also discovered. Also, unidirectional causalities running from national income and energy consumption to environmental degradation were discovered. Based on the findings, the study recommend that investments in green sources should be intensified to help improve environmental quality in Ghana. Furthermore, improving developments in the financial sector is a vital means through which the country could attain its sustainable development goals.

Spatial and Temporal Evolution of the Chinese Artificial Intelligence Innovation Network

Sustainable development has become a concern of all countries globally, and Artificial Intelligence technology emerges at this historic moment. However, few researchers have studied the innovation activities of the Artificial Intelligence industry from the macro-level. This paper focuses on the topological structure and the spatial pattern of the AI patent citation network in China over from 2000–2016. Our main research results are as follows: The network has experienced a striking growth in terms of the size and the number of linkages since 2000, but it has also developed unequally across regions. In the later stages, the network has formed a scale-free network that exhibits small-world property. The network nodes have shown an assortative trait property while weighted preferential attachment has not been significant. In addition, the high values of centrality and numerous linkages between nodes concentrate in the eastern part of China, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Bohai Rim. Our results suggest that the AI innovation policies should expand the targets of technological exchange and cultivate more nodes as intermediaries of local knowledge transmission necessary to expand the network and develop the AI industry.

When would the dark clouds of financial inclusion be over, and the environment becomes clean? The role of national governance

On one side, the rapid progress in financial development boosts economic growth. On the other hand, it forces both the developed and emerging countries to play the role of good governance that help save the environment. The current study aims to identify the role of national governance in the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprints. To attain the study's objective, we use a novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) on a panel data set of 65 countries from 2004 to 2017. The empirical outcomes reveal that financial inclusion has a significant positive and heterogeneous impact on ecological footprints. This effect varies across quantiles, and when moving from lower to upper quantiles, the impact of financial inclusion on environment escalates. National governance plays an important role to moderate the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprint negatively. Moreover, GDP and REC display a significant positive and negative influence on ecological footprints, respectively. We obtain similar and robust findings from the alternative panel estimation techniques, including FMOLS, FEOLS, and DOLS. The policy implications from this research can be considered to achieve sustainable and eco-friendly environmental goals.

Do Higher Education and Financial Institutions Improve Health in China? A New Perspective

The importance of human wellbeing is documented in the literature of development economics because of its intensifying impacts on economic growth and productivity of labor in the long-run. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no empirical study has examined the symmetric association between China's financial institutional development, education, and health outcomes. Thus, our study aims to fill this vacuum by employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to explore the impact of financial institutional development and education on life expectancy and infant mortality rate from 1990 to 2020. The empirical analysis reveals that financial institutional development and education report a significant increase in life expectancy and meaningful reduction in mortality rate in the long-run. Based on these findings, the study may deliver intuitive policy implications regarding improvement in health conditions that are imperative for promoting economic growth in the long-run.

Spatial-temporal collaborative relation among ecological footprint depth/size and economic development in Chengyu urban agglomeration

This is the first attempt to simultaneously apply an improved three-dimensional ecological (EF_3D) model and multivariate spatial-temporal collaborative relation model for evaluating the inter-regional ecological sustainability. Capital flow consumption and capital stock depletion can be tracked based on identification of variations in ecological footprint size (EF_size) and depth (EF_depth). Results display an unsustainable natural capital stock utilization in Chengyu urban agglomeration, especially in Neijiang, Chengdu, and Deyang with EF_depth higher than 35. There exists an obvious regional complementarity between EF_size and EF_depth, where cities with rich resources (or poor resources) are generally characterized as high EF_size and low EF_depth (or low EF_size and high EF_depth). The EF_3D is slightly lower than traditional ecological footprint in value owing to its more concerns of intergenerational fairness and intrageneration fairness. Moreover, the spatial-temporal binary collaborative relation among EF_size, EF_depth, and GDP is generally higher than 0.6 with a medium level. Their temporal multivariate collaborative relation mostly lies in the intervals [0.30, 0.50] with an annual change rate of 10.22%, while slight variations exist in their spatial multivariate collaborative relation. GDP has a significant impact on the temporal collaborative relation of EF_size and EF_depth in Dazhou, Leshan, Luzhou, Mianyang, and Nanchong. There are slight impacts of EF_depth on the temporal collaborative relation of EF_size and GDP; meanwhile, GDP has a less effect on the spatial collaborative relation of EF_size and EF_depth. Findings can provide a reference for the coordinated development of social economy and ecological environment.

Effect of Agricultural Employment and Export Diversification Index on Environmental Pollution: Building the Agenda towards Sustainability

Agricultural activities have a significant impact on environmental quality, because they generate waste that pollutes water and soil. In parallel, the supply of products has diversified in recent years to meet growing demand, exerting strong pressure on nature’s capacity for regeneration and absorption of waste. This research aims to examine the impact of agricultural employment and the export diversification index on ecological footprints, using advanced techniques of panel data econometrics. This relationship is moderated by population density and real per capita product. Cross-section dependence and slope homogeneity were included in the econometric models. The cointegration and causality analysis was reinforced by estimating the short- and long-term elasticities, using the AMG, CCE-MG, FMOLS, and DOLS models. Using annual data for 96 countries, we found a heterogeneous impact of agricultural employment and the export diversification index on ecological footprint, between the short and long term. The findings reveal that the increase of the product increases the pressure on the ecological footprint. The achievement of SDGs must include joint efforts between countries, and not in isolation. Those responsible for environmental policy should promote the idea that production must be friendly to the environment and promote the green growth of countries. The adoption of new technology, higher productivity agricultural employment, and the regulation of exports of sustainable products can contribute to achieving environmental sustainability.

Factors Influencing the Renewable Energy Consumption in Selected European Countries

The overcoming of the issues on energy crisis and inequality have become the priorities as far developing as developed countries are concerned. Moreover, energy inequality has increased due to the shortage of natural gas and rising energy prices in retaliation to the economic recovery affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to verify the linkage between the growth of renewable energy consumption and the country’s economic advancement. In this context, this paper determines the main driving forces of renewable energy consumption in European countries during 2000–2018. The annual data for panel regression analysis are retrieved from the OECD. Stat and World Bank Open Data. This empirical analysis employed a set of estimation procedures such as the panel unit root test (Levin, Lin & Chu; Im, Pesaran, Shin W-Stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square methods), the Pearson correlation, fixed- and random-effects models, generalized method of moments (GMM), Hausman and the robustness tests. The results from the Hausman test ratified that the fixed-effects regression model is more suitable for involved panel balanced data. The results of fixed-effects regression and GMM identified the statistically significant and positive relationship between the share of renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption, GDP per capita, and CO2 emissions per capita for the overall sample. In turn, the total labor force, the gross capital formation, and production-based CO2 intensity are inversely related to renewable energy consumption. The identified effects could provide some insights for policymakers to improve the renewable energy sector towards gaining sustainable economic development.

The Energy Mix Dilemma and Environmental Sustainability: Interaction among Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Nuclear Energy, Urban Agglomeration, and Economic Growth

In this paper we examined the interaction between greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear energy, coal energy, urban agglomeration, and economic growth in Pakistan by utilizing time series data during 1972–2019. The stationarity of the variables was tested through unit root tests, while the ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) method with long and short-run estimations was applied to reveal the linkages between variables. A unidirectional association between all variables was revealed by performing a Granger causality test under the vector error correction model (VECM) that was extracted during the short-run estimate. Furthermore, the stepwise least squares technique was also utilized to check the robustness of the variables. The findings of long-run estimations showed that GHG emissions, coal energy, and urban agglomeration have an adversative association with economic growth in Pakistan, while nuclear energy showed a dynamic association with the economic growth. The outcomes of short-run estimations also show that nuclear energy has a constructive association with economic growth, while the remaining variables exposed an adversative linkage to economic growth in Pakistan. Similarly, the Granger causality test under the vector error correction model (VECM) outcomes exposes that all variables have unidirectional association. Furthermore, the outcomes of the stepwise least squares technique reveals that GHG emissions and coal energy have an adverse association with economic growth, and variables nuclear energy and urban agglomeration have a productive linkage to the economic growth in Pakistan. GHG emissions are no doubt an emerging issue globally; therefore, conservative policies and financial support are needed to tackle this issue. Despite the fact that Pakistan contributes less to greenhouse gas emissions than industrialized countries, the government must implement new policies to address this problem in order to contribute to environmental sustainability while also enhancing economic development.