Do pro-environmental interventions matter in restoring environmental sustainability? Unveiling the role of environmental tax, green innovation and air transport in G-7 nations

Abstract

Attaining sustainability has become one of the central goals, and environmental sustainability has received wider attention from policymakers due to its apparent significance. To attain environmental sustainability, developed nations have adopted various pro-environmental interventions, aiming to curb emissions intensities across all sectors directly or indirectly entangled with the environment. In this milieu, the air transportation sector, which is believed to exert a perilous impression on environmental integrity, has received scant attention from scholars. Moreover, the scholarship on the emissions-mediating role of environmental innovation in the air transportation sector is still very nascent. Given that the transportation sector, specifically air transport, plays a crucial role in making commuting easy, the curtailment of the emissions intensities in this sector could have an astounding positive impression on environmental sustainability. Adopting eco-friendly innovations can be a potent way to attain green transportation in the air transportation sector. Thus, the present study investigates the impact of air transportation, globalization, environmental tax, and green innovation on the ecological footprint in the G7 countries from 1994 to 2020 using the novel MMQR approach. Findings reveal that environmental tax, green innovation, and globalization play a key role in mitigating environmental pollution while air transportation accelerates emissions. Furthermore, the interaction of air transportation and green innovation was found to significantly mitigate environmental contamination, thereby proving an effective way to decarbonize the air transportation sector in the G7 countries. The findings suggest the need to invest extensively in eco-friendly technologies, especially in the air transportation sector, support globalization, and consolidate the existing environmental tax system to meet the ecological sustainability target.