article · Sustainability
Fossil fuel reliance often forces developing nations to balance economic expansion against environmental harm. An econometric evaluation of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka examines how renewable energy adoption affects ecological footprints. The findings demonstrate that consuming renewable energy lessens ecological footprints, whereas non-renewable energy consumption expands them. The analysis confirms both the environmental Kuznets curve and the pollution haven hypothesis across these South Asian economies. Inflows of foreign direct investment are associated with heightened environmental degradation, while superior institutional quality supports environmental preservation. Furthermore, evidence shows unidirectional causal links running from total energy consumption, economic expansion, and institutional quality to ecological footprints, alongside a bidirectional relationship between foreign investment and environmental impact. Overall, curtailing non-renewable energy reliance, screening foreign investments, and strengthening institutional standards emerge as vital mechanisms for regional sustainability.
Rapid economic growth across developing regions frequently causes environmental harm. By demonstrating that renewable energy and strong institutional governance reduce ecological footprints, these findings provide evidence for policymakers seeking to decouple economic expansion from ecological damage. The research also underscores the necessity of monitoring foreign investment to avoid becoming a destination for polluting industries.
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Fossil fuel-dependency has induced a trade-off between economic growth and environmental degradation across the developing nations in particular. Against this backdrop, this study aims to evaluate the impacts of renewable energy use on the ecological footprints in the context of four South Asian fossil fuel-dependent nations: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The econometric analysis involves the use of recently developed methods that account for cross-sectional dependency, slope heterogeneity, and structural break issues in the data. The results reveal that renewable energy consumption reduces the ecological footprints while nonrenewable energy use boosts the ecological footprints. The results also confirm the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve and pollution haven hypotheses for the panel of the South Asian nations. Besides, foreign direct investment inflows are found to degrade the environment while higher institutional quality improves it. Furthermore, unidirectional causalities are run from overall energy use, economic growth, and institutional quality to ecological footprints. At the same time, bidirectional associations between foreign direct investment inflows and ecological footprints are also ascertained. The overall findings highlight the pertinence of reducing fossil fuel-dependency, enhancing economic growth, restricting dirty foreign direct investment inflows, and improving institutional quality to ensure environmental sustainability across South Asia.
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DOI: 10.3390/su13041613
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