article · Sustainable Development
An empirical investigation across ten emerging economies examined how political, financial, institutional, and structural factors related to environmental pressure between 2000 and 2024. The study evaluated data from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates using an ecological footprint metric. Using econometric models that account for cross-country differences and interdependencies, the findings reveal contrasting drivers of environmental impact. Higher geopolitical risk, foreign direct investment, and urbanisation were linked to increases in ecological footprint across both short- and long-term horizons. In contrast, greater financial development and stronger economic freedom were associated with reductions in ecological pressure. The results demonstrate that ecological strain in these major emerging markets connects to international instability and urban growth, alongside institutional frameworks and financial mechanisms that guide resource consumption and production systems.
Understanding the drivers of resource consumption is critical as major emerging markets balance growth with environmental limits. By demonstrating that institutional freedom and financial maturity correspond with reduced environmental stress, while geopolitical conflict and rapid urbanisation intensify it, this analysis helps explain how broader geopolitical and institutional conditions influence long-term ecological sustainability.
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ABSTRACT This study examines the associations among geopolitical risk, financial development, economic freedom, foreign direct investment, urbanization, and ecological footprint in a BRICS‐10 sample comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates over the period 2000–2024. Guided by a STIRPAT‐informed framework, it uses ecological footprint as a broad indicator of environmental pressure to assess how geopolitical, financial, institutional, external, and structural factors are associated with ecological outcomes in a heterogeneous emerging‐economy setting. Empirically, the analysis applies the cross‐sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS‐ARDL) model to estimate short‐run and long‐run associations while accounting for cross‐sectional dependence and heterogeneity, and it employs augmented mean group (AMG) and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimators as robustness checks. The results show that geopolitical risk, foreign direct investment, and urbanization are positively associated with ecological footprint, whereas financial development and economic freedom are negatively associated with it. Overall, the findings suggest that ecological pressure in the BRICS‐10 economies is linked not only to external instability and urban expansion but also to the ways in which finance, institutions, and investment conditions shape production and resource use.
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DOI: 10.1002/sd.71625
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