The influence of nuclear energy research and development investments on environmental sustainability: evidence from the United States and France

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) reports have highlighted the inadequacy of environmental sustainability efforts. Thus, it is clear that current efforts towards environmental sustainability (SDG 13) and affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) policies are insufficient and a comprehensive policy agenda is needed. Existing literature limitedly addresses the determinants of environmental sustainability but relatively ignores the impact of nuclear energy research and development investments (NCI) and green environment on environmental quality. The motivation of this study is to fill this research gap and propose an overarching policy structure to achieve SDGs. In this context, this study investigates the effects of green environment, economic growth, human capital, and NCI on environmental sustainability comparatively for the United States and France through the Asymmetric Autoregressive Distributed Lag, which considers structural break. Based on the empirical analysis results, economic growth and trade openness harm environmental sustainability, while positive shocks in NCI improve environmental quality in both countries. Negative NCI shocks deteriorate environmental quality in the United States but not France. In conclusion, this study provides detailed environmental sustainability policies for the United States and France.