Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption – Ecological footprint nexus in net-oil exporting and net-oil importing countries: Policy implications for a sustainable environment

Abstract

Despite the numerous studies on the role of energy consumption in environmental degradation, there is scarcity of comparative empirical information on the net oil-importing and net oil-exporting countries. Using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) that is robust to cross-sectional dependence, non-stationarity, heterogeneity and structural breaks to comparatively assess the impact of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption on ecological footprint, we find that non-renewable energy consumption in both country groups significantly contributes to environmental degradation. However, the impact is greater for the net oil-exporting countries due to their high level of dependence on crude oil, poor development and consumption of renewable energy, and energy inefficiency. On the other hand, renewable energy consumption is found to be significant only for the net oil-importing countries. The coefficient is expectedly negative, suggesting a reduction in environmental degradation. Its insignificance in the net oil-exporting countries also lends credence to its poor development and consumption due to the huge reliance on oil.