Environmental sustainability indicators in India: Evidence from ecological footprint, load capacity factor, nuclear energy, and human capital

This paper investigates the role of nuclear energy in promoting ecological sustainability in India, focusing on three ecological indicators: ecological footprint (EF), CO2 emissions (CO2), and load capacity factor (LF). In addition to nuclear energy, the study considers the influence of gas consumption and other drivers of ecological sustainability using data spanning from 1970 to 2018. The analysis also takes into account the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on the model, employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and frequency domain causality approaches to assess the relationships. Unlike previous studies, this research evaluates both the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and load capacity curve (LCC) hypotheses. The ARDL results support the validity of both the EKC and LCC hypotheses in the Indian context. Furthermore, the findings reveal that nuclear energy and human capital contribute positively to ecological quality, while gas consumption and economic growth have a negative impact on ecological sustainability. The study also highlights the increasing effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on ecological sustainability. Additionally, the causality analysis demonstrates that nuclear energy, human capital, gas consumption, and economic growth can serve as predictors of long-term ecological sustainability in India. Based on these findings, the research presents policy recommendations that can guide efforts towards achieving SDGs 7 and 13.

Environmental policies typically involve the definition of a goal and the use of some policy tools to achieve this goal. As one of the most critical objectives of countries is to ensure environmental sustainability, they use effective instruments such as environmental regulations, which are important public economy instruments. This study aims to test the impact of environmental regulations on the load capacity factor and ecological footprint in Turkey using data from 1990 to 2020 and the novel Fourier augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. We categorize environmental regulations into market-based, command and control, and technology support policies. This reveals the relative effectiveness of environmental regulation components. We also question the role of renewable energy and the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypotheses. The findings indicate that market-based regulations increase environmental sustainability by improving environmental quality. Again, command and control and technology support policies have no impact on the ecological balance. Therefore, we prove that the components of environmental regulations can have different impacts on environmental quality and sustainability. Moreover, we confirm the improving role of renewable energy on environmental quality. Thus, we support the view that environmentally friendly renewable energy policies are critical for environmental sustainability. Finally, we show that the EKC and LCC hypotheses are valid in Turkey during the analyzed period. Policymakers must restructure command and control regulations and technology support policies in an incentive-based, flexible, and cost-effective manner to improve environmental quality in Turkey.Graphical abstract

Exploring the relationship between nuclear and renewable energy usage, ecological footprint, and load capacity factor: A study of the Russian Federation testing the EKC and LCC hypothesis

This study investigates the impacts of nuclear energy consumption on environmental quality from a different perspective by focusing on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, ecological footprint, and load capacity factor. In this context, the South Korea case, which is a leading country producing and consuming nuclear energy, is investigated by considering also economic growth, and the 1997 Asian crisis from 1977 to 2018. To this end, the study employs the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Different from previous literature, this study proposes a load capacity curve (LCC) and tests the LCC and environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypotheses simultaneously. The analysis results reveal that (i) the LCC and EKC hypotheses are valid in South Korea; (ii) nuclear energy has an improving effect on the environmental quality; (iii) renewable energy does not have a significant long-term impact on the environment; (iv) the 1997 Asian crisis had an increasing effect on the load capacity factor; (v) South Korea has not yet reached the turning point, identified as $55,411, where per capita income improves environmental quality. Overall, the results show the validity of the LCC and EKC hypotheses and prove the positive contribution of nuclear energy to South Korea's green development strategies.

This study examines the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability in Indonesia, focusing on the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and the impact of various factors on a country’s ecological footprint. Although extensive research has explored the connection between carbon emissions and economic growth, the specific roles of economic growth, mineral rent, forest rent, and human capital in determining the ecological footprint in Indonesia remain understudied. This study aimed to investigate two primary aspects. First, it examines the EKC hypothesis in Indonesia using a cubic representation of economic growth, which offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between environmental degradation and economic expansion than the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC curve. Second, it analyses the long-term and short-term effects of mineral rent, forest rent, and human capital on the ecological footprint using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. Data for the study variables were collected from Indonesia for the period 1991Q1-2021Q4. The ARDL findings revealed that human capital and forest rent contribute to improving Indonesia's ecological footprint. Conversely, mineral rents demonstrate the potential for reducing environmental impacts over time. The results indicate an N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve, illustrating the relationship between the ecological footprint and economic growth. This research has significant policy implications for Indonesian decision makers, emphasising the need for efficient transformation of non-renewable resources into a sustainable, eco-friendly environment. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of continuously enhancing environmental awareness and implementing educational reforms to achieve long-term sustainability benefits.

Earlier research has largely focused on the relationship between human capital and economic growth, with limited attention to its effect on the ecological footprint. This study fills that gap by investigating the impact of human capital on India’s ecological footprint during the period 1980–1981 to 2020–2021, while controlling for economic growth and renewable energy consumption. Employing advanced econometric techniques, including autoregressive distributed lag, vector error correction model Granger causality, stability tests, and decomposition analysis, the findings confirm a long-run co-integrated relationship among variables. Results indicate that a 1% increase in human capital reduces the ecological footprint by 2.70% in the long-run and 0.38% in the short-run. The study also supports the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and demonstrates a significant negative impact of renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint. Granger causality analysis reveals that human capital influences ecological footprint, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption without feedback effects. The study concludes that human capital is instrumental in reducing the ecological footprint, fostering economic growth and promoting renewable energy adoption in India. It emphasizes the need for targeted policy interventions to enhance human capital investment and drive sustainable development in India. JEL Classification Q5, J24, H52

This study investigates the interplay between economic growth and environmental sustainability by exploring the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and Environmental Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypotheses on a global scale. Leveraging panel data from 146 countries spanning 1990–2022, the research employs advanced econometric models to analyze how key factors—renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, trade openness, and population aging—affect carbon emissions and ecological resilience. The results confirm the validity of the EKC and LCC hypotheses by carbon emissions follow an inverted U‐shaped trajectory with per capita GDP, reaching an inflection point at $9239.99; the load capacity factor demonstrates a U‐shaped relationship, rebounding at $27,345.71 per capita GDP; additionally, renewable energy is shown to have a long‐run positive impact on environmental load resilience, while its carbon reduction effect is stronger for countries in earlier stages of economic development (the effects are −0.1492, −0.1332, and −0.8034). Technological innovation, although negatively correlated with load capacity before the EKC inflection point, contributes positively to environmental improvement after this point. Trade openness demonstrates a stronger emission‐reducing effect in advanced economies (the effects are −0.2014 and −0.1252), while the influence of population aging is heterogeneous—enhancing environmental outcomes in strongly decoupled countries but exacerbating degradation in non‐decoupled regions. Moreover, the research confirms the existence of a lagged coupling relationship between the inflection points of the EKC and the LCC. The decline in carbon emissions after the EKC inflection point will promote the emergence of the LCC inflection point. Finally, these targeted strategies are proposed.

As the world grapples with pressing ecological issues, this study delves into the essential concept of environmental sustainability, following the sustainable development goal (SDG) 13, aiming to uncover pathways for a greener future. For this, the study examines the effects of information & communication technology (ICT) and economic globalization (ECG) on environmental sustainability (ENS) from a new angle, focusing on three ENS proxy variables; carbon dioxide emission (CO2e), ecological footprint (EFP), and load capacity factor (LCF), for better ecological assessment. Dissimilar to prior studies, the current study simultaneously tests the load capacity curve (LCC) and environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypotheses. The study employed advanced panel data estimation techniques along with causality tests, taking into account cross‐sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity for Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, for the period 1991–2020. The long‐run empirical outcomes reveal that information & communication technology, economic globalization, renewable energy consumption, and green financial development have the potential to enhance environmental sustainability; whereas industrialization has a detrimental influence over time. Further, the LCC and EKC hypotheses are supportable in APEC economies. Considering the overall findings there is a need for a favorable policy environment, that is APEC nations should bolster up the deployment of green ICT infrastructure; promote enhanced and collective efforts with global partners for ECG; expand the adoption of renewable energy; direct green financial development to areas of greatest benefit, and well‐managed industrialization as part of their environmental policies.

Analyzing the N-shaped EKC among top nuclear energy generating nations: A novel dynamic common correlated effects approach

This study examines the relationship between biodiversity expenditures, agriculture‐forestry‐fisheries sectors, renewable energy, economic growth, ecological footprint, and load capacity factor for The Netherlands from 1995 to 2019 in the context of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and load capacity curve (LCC) hypotheses. The relationship between the variables is investigated using a novel Fourier‐based Augmented ARDL approach. Our results indicate a long‐term relationship between biodiversity expenditures, agriculture‐forestry‐fisheries sectors, green energy, economic growth, and load capacity factor. In the long run, Fourier‐based Augmented ARDL results reveal that biodiversity expenditures, agriculture‐forestry‐fisheries sectors, and renewable energy do not contribute to environmental sustainability. In other words, biodiversity, renewable energy, and agriculture‐forestry‐fisheries policies implemented in The Netherlands do not improve environmental sustainability. Again, the findings confirm that the EKC hypothesis is not valid for The Netherlands, whereas the LCC hypothesis is valid. In line with the study's findings, biodiversity, renewable energy, and agriculture‐forestry‐fisheries policies in The Netherlands need to be reviewed.

This research aimed at examining the nexus among urbanization, energy use, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, and environmental sustainability in Turkey. Time-series data from 1970 to 2017 were used in the analysis, and ecological footprint was used as an indicator for environmental sustainability. The aim was to investigate the long-run nexus among the indicators and contribute to the literature in several ways. One of these contributions is to empirically investigate this relationship with the residual augmented least squares (RALS) augmented Dickey-Fuller ADF for stationarity test and RALS-EG (residual augmented least squares-Engle and Granger) for the long-run steady-state relationship of investigated variables. Together with, fully modified OLS (ordinary least squares) model has been employed to observe the long-run effect and the significance of the investigated variables on environmental sustainability. The results revealed that the long-run relationship exists and the long-run coefficients show statistically significant effects on environmental sustainability. In the long run, urbanization and energy usage degrade the environment and reduce environmental quality, although FDI inflow and gross domestic product (GDP) growth contribute 0.22% and 8.03% to environmental sustainability in Turkey, respectively. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is not valid in this model and U-shaped relationship was found between increasing economic performance and the ecological footprint. The causality results reflect that urbanization has feedback causality with energy use. The study suggests that to achieve sustainable urbanization, policymakers in Turkey should execute well-planned urbanization programs, create an energy conservation policy, and encourage green industries to ensure a sustainable increase in environmental quality for Turkey.

Purpose With the growing concerns for environmental quality the reconciliation of economic progress with environmental sustainability has become a challenging imperative. In particular, the tension to strike a balance between the two has sparked the attention of researchers worldwide, with a focus on top-emitting nations. Towards this realm, our study aims to explore the link between the explanatory variables like economic growth, forest rents, oil price uncertainty and electricity generation from renewable sources and the response variables like carbon emission and ecological footprint (EF) for robust and comprehensive results. Design/methodology/approach Utilizing the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), this study employed the analysis on the variables from 1992 to 2021 in the top-five carbon-emitting nations. To do so, this study employs dynamic common correlated effects to investigate the long run effects of these variables on carbon emission and EF. Besides, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel causality test is run to determine direction and magnitude of relationship between variables for policy making. Findings Empirical evidence reveals that (1) EKC is valid in China, India and Japan when carbon emission is employed as a dependent variable; (2) EKC is valid in China and India when EF is employed as the dependent variable; (3) forest rents are contributing to environmental quality in Russia and China when carbon emission is a dependent variable and contributing to environmental quality in India only when EF is the dependent variable; (4) electricity generation from renewable sources is not a significant contributor in mitigating carbon emission and EF and (5) oil price uncertainty is found to be mitigating both carbon emission and EF in all countries except China. Originality/value As for as the researchers are aware, this study is a first attempt to explore the role of forest rents and oil price uncertainty on environmental performance within the EKC framework for top-five carbon-emitting nations.

The effect of nuclear and fossil fuel energy R&D expenditures on environmental qualities in Canada

IntroductionThis study examines the impact of green trade openness, natural resource rents, institutional quality, and R&D investment on environmental sustainability across OECD countries from 2007 to 2022, testing both the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypotheses.MethodsWe apply panel econometric techniques, including CS-ARDL and nonlinear NARDL models, alongside causality analysis, to assess bidirectional and asymmetric relationships among variables.ResultsGreen trade openness, institutional quality, and R&D investment significantly reduce CO2 emissions and enhance load capacity. Conversely, natural resource rents increase emissions and degrade sustainability metrics. The EKC hypothesis holds with an inverted-U shape, while the LCC demonstrates sustainability improvement beyond economic thresholds.DiscussionFindings stress the critical role of governance, innovation, and sustainable trade in ecological outcomes. Policy recommendations advocate reinvestment of resource rents into green innovation and strengthening of institutional frameworks to align economic and environmental goals.

Air pollution, global greenhouse gases (GHG), water pollution and water resources degradation are among the most serious environmental concerns that encounter the Qatar country. In nowadays, it is commonly known that the effects of environment degradation exceed its direct negative impacts on climate changes to cover its impacts on Human health, nation livelihood and cultural integrity. So, we advocate that understanding and determining factors explaining environmental degradation remain an important question of research. Moreover, by determining factors that explain environment degradation, policymakers, researchers and international institutions can help on recommending the adequate economic policies that can improve the environment quality and the live standing of inhabitants. In the empirical literature, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is the most powerful tool used to investigate the relationship between environment degradation and some macroeconomics and financial variables. Following the EKC hypothesis, the relationship between economic growth and environment degradation is inverted-U shaped. From the economic perspective, this means that initially economic growth increases environment degradation and then declines it after a threshold point of income per capita. More specifically, at initial level of economic growth, an increase in income is linked with an increase in energy consumption that raises environment degradation. After reaching a critical level of income, the spending on environment protection is increased, and hence environment degradation tend to decrease. From an econometrical or statistical perspectives, the EKC hypothesis have been firstly tested using the basic EKC equation which relies the environment degradation proxy to the real GDP and to a nonlinear term of the real GDP (the squared real GDP). If the EKC hypothesis holds then the real GDP and the squared real GDP have respectively a positive and negative signs. This EKC hypothesis has been firstly introduced by Kuznets (1955) when examining the relationship between economic growth and income inequality which shows that this relationship is inverted U-shaped. Grossman and Krueger (1995) are the first to examine this relationship between environment degradation and economic growth in their seminal paper published on the Quarterly Journal of Economics. They found that this relationship is inverted U-shaped which validates the EKC hypothesis. Empirically, until now no consensus has been reached about the true nature of the relation between real GDP and environment degradation. Evidence for the EKC hypothesis is very mixed. Overall, the results seem to depend in many factors including the specification, the pollutants and the econometrics technique used. First, empirical studies show that the results in term of positive and negative relationships as well as in term of magnitude differ significantly for the same country depend on the specification studied, linear, quadratic or cubic. Moreover, the inclusion of other factors in the right hand of the regression such as urbanization, trade openness, financial development and political stability have a significant impact on the magnitude of the income per capita variables coefficients. Second, the results differ significantly following the environment degradation proxy used. For instance, Horvath (1997) and Holtz-Eakin and Selden (1995) suggest that the use of global pollutants leads to continuously rise the levels of environment degradation or to a high levels of income per capita turning point, see also Esteve and Tamarit (2011). Third, the results also seem to depend in the econometric approach employed. In this paper, we investigate the case of the Qatar economy for several reasons. First, Qatar 2030 vision has given a high importance to questions related to air pollution, climate change and their impacts on economic sustainability. Second, the rapid increase of economic growth of the Qatar economy in the last two decades has been accompanied with an increase in energy consumption, urbanization and international trade. These factors are among the most important factors largely used in theoretical and empirical literature to explain environment degradation. Third, following the world health organization (WHO), local air pollution levels in Qatar has frequently exceeded recommended levels and are more time higher than the international standards. In fact, compared to the WHO's standards for PM10 for the 24-hour average and for the annual average concentration of 50 ug/m 3 and 20 ug/m 3 the Qatar's national air quality standards are far from these values. For instance, the values for PM10 is around 150 ug/m 3 for 24 hours average concentration and to 50 ug/m 3 for the annual average concentration. The data set used in this paper consists on macroeconomics and financial data, including CO 2 emissions, ecological foot print, real GDP per capita, energy use, urbanization, financial development and openness trade, to investigate the EKC hypothesis for the Qatar economy. All the dataset except the ecological foot print variable are collected from the world Bank's development indicators (WDI). The ecological footprint data is obtained from the National Footprint Accounts (NFAs) of the Global Footprint Network. This variable is employed as second proxy of environment quality measures. This data set used is a quarterly data and covers the period 1975Q1 to 2007Q4 for variables used for ecological footprint equation and covers the periods 1980Q1 to 2010Q4 for the CO 2 emissions equations variables. This paper contributes to the empirical literature of the EKC hypothesis in many ways. First, to our knowledge this paper is the first to consider the case of the Qatar economy as a single country to test the EKC hypothesis as well as the different directions of causality between variables. Second, in addition to the CO 2 emissions largely employed in the empirical literature, in this paper we employ also the ecological footprint as a new proxy of environmental degradation. Third, we use recent development of cointegration approach with structural breaks which is also rarely used for the case of EKC hypothesis. As tests of cointegration with shifts in the cointegration vector, we use the Gregory and Hansen (1996), Hatemi-J (2008) and to investigate the causal relationship between all variables using standard Granger causality tests. Fourth, to our knowledge this paper is the first study that uses Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model with shifts in both the intercept and the income per capita coefficient for the long run relationship between environment degradation and its key determinants. The empirical findings of this paper are useful for Qatari policymakers and especially for the ministry of environment of the Qatar government. Moreover, economic implications and economic policy are proposed and discussed. [1] P.O.Box: 2713-Doha-Qatar. Email: lcharfeddine@qu.edu.qa. Office: (+974) 4403-7764(+974) 4403-7764, Fax: (+974) 4403-5081. 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