Towards sustainability path in Argentina: the role of finance, energy mix, and industrial value-added in low or high carbon emission-application of DARDL simulation.

Abstract

The interconnection between environmental protection and sustainable development is at the heart of discussion among all the intergovernmental agencies around the globe. Such discussion is considered highly important considering the role of finance, an abundance of fossil fuel and industrial value-added on economic activities and environmental issues. Meanwhile, few empirical studies in this line of discussions have documented policy options for projecting the path towards sustainable development in Argentina from 1971 to 2018. To contribute to the extant literature in filling this gap, this study examines whether finance can escalate a long-lasting economic shift that will change the path of carbon emission in Argentina using the novel econometric technique, dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag simulations. The modelling protocol incorporates the impact of the following economic agents such as population, economic growth, trade openness, and government consumption expenditure. Our result suggests that all the variables are cointegrated under the ARDL-bounds testing framework. The long and short-term estimates from the dynamic ARDL simulation show that finance and industrial value added interestingly offer policy options for CO2 mitigation in Argentina. Fossil fuel, population, economic growth, and government consumption expenditure have increasing an impact on CO2 emissions, exacerbating sustainability challenges in Argentina. In sum, improved finance and industrial restructuring are needed economic acumen that can accelerate a quick transition to a low-carbon development in Argentina, while fossil fuel, population, economic growth, and government consumption expenditure generate environmental challenges. Policy options in consideration of investors' safety in carbonated companies in Argentina, these companies owe shareholders an obligation to invest in a resilient carbon capture and storage technology in a bid to decrease environmental degradation and align with environmental goals set by the Argentine government.