Determinants Of Environmental Degradation Research Articles

Shaping a greener future: The role of geopolitical risk, renewable energy and financial development on environmental sustainability using the LCC hypothesis

The recent progress report of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2023 highlighted the extreme reactions of environmental degradation. This report also shows that the current efforts for achieving environmental sustainability (SDG 13) are inadequate and a comprehensive policy agenda is needed. However, the present literature has highlighted several determinants of environmental degradation but the influence of geopolitical risk on environmental quality (EQ) is relatively ignored. To fill this research gap and propose a inclusive policy structure for achieving the sustainable development goals. This study is the earliest attempt that delve into the effects o of geopolitical risk (GPR), financial development (FD), and renewable energy consumption (REC) on load capacity factor (LCF) under the framework of load capacity curve (LCC) hypothesis for selected Asian countries during 1990–2020. In this regard, we use several preliminary sensitivity tests to check the features and reliability of the dataset. Similarly, we use panel quantile regression for investigating long-run relationships. The factual results affirm the existence of the LCC hypothesis in selected Asian countries. Our findings also show that geopolitical risk reduces environmental quality whereas financial development and REC increase environmental quality. Drawing from the empirical findings, this study suggests a holistic policy approach for achieving the targets of SDG 13 (climate change).

Investigating the research trends on the determinants of Environmental degradation: A bibliometric analysis

Investigating the research trends on the determinants of Environmental degradation: A bibliometric analysis

Industrialization, globalization, ICT, and environmental degradation in Malaysia: A frequency domain analysis

This paper examines the causal relationship between industrialization, globalization, information communication technology (ICT) and environmental degradation in Malaysia during 1970–2019. It uses two indicators of environmental degradation (carbon emissions and ecological footprint), three dimensions of globalization (political, social, and economic) and three indicators of ICT (users of internet, mobile cellular, and fixed telephone subscriptions). It utilizes Granger causality technique in frequency domain which differentiates between permanent and temporary causality, Vector Error Correction approach as well as Variance Decompositions. The bound test shows that the variables have cointegration relationship. It reveals joint long-run and short-run causality from industrialization, globalization, and ICT to carbon emissions, albeit the causality to ecological footprint is tenuous. It indicates that industrialization, globalization, and ICT significantly predict carbon emissions at high frequency than at low frequency. A substantial percentage of the forecast error variance in environmental degradation are explained by industrialization, globalization, and ICT. The robustness of the empirical outcomes is confirmed by the alternative proxies of the variables. Our study implies that industrialization, globalization, and ICT are determinants of environmental degradation. Therefore, policies to mitigate environmental problem should prioritize these variables to attain green economy.

Do natural resources affect environmental quality in MINT Economies? The role of tourism and financial development.

With the growing nature of the ecological footprint, research studies focus on exploring new determinants of environmental degradation. Moreover, the role of natural resources and energy consumption in environmental quality has gained much attention in the literature. However, tourism raises the demand for energy consumption and extraction of natural resources. This research study investigates the influence of natural resources, tourism, and renewable energy in MINT countries, using novel Cross-Sectional Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (CS-ARDL) methodological techniques and employing yearly data from 1995 to 2018. The study also applied recently developed Kónya (Econ Model 23:978-992, 2006) causality to identify the causal relationship between the variables of the heterogenous panel. The result shows that tourism, natural resources, and economic growth are positively associated with the ecological footprint in the long-run. However, renewable energy consumption negatively impacts ecological footprint in both in short-run and the long-run. Further, the study explored a bidirectional causality between economic growth and ecological footprint in MINT countries. Finally, based on the empirical results, the study recommends that the authorities in MINT countries revisit their tourism, natural resources, and economic activities policies to enhance the environmental quality and reduce the ecological footprint.

Identifying the roles of energy and economic factors on environmental degradation in MINT economies: a hesitant fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.

Globally, research communities have been studying the different determinants of environmental degradation or pollution using different contexts and methods. In this study, we identify several energy and economic factors, such as energy consumption (EC), gross domestic product (GDP), energy production (EP), urbanization (URB), and foreign direct investment (FDI) as the most effective factors of environmental degradation by obtaining several environmental researchers' opinions and using the hesitant fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. In the later stage of the analysis, we use these variables as regressors of the ecological footprint (EF) as a proxy for environmental degradation. Since we find evidence of cross-sectional dependence among the members of the variables, we use second-generational panel tests. First, we test the stationarity of the variables using the cross-sectionally augmented IPS (CIPS) panel unit test. The results show that the regressors have different orders of integration. So, we employ the Durbin-Hausman panel cointegration test to test the existence of a long-run relationship between the variables. Having found a long-run relationship, we estimate the long-run coefficients using the common correlated effects mean group estimator, which reveals that energy consumption has an increasing effect on the EF in Indonesia and Turkey, while energy production has a negative impact in Mexico and Turkey. While GDP has an increasing effect in all countries, FDI has a similar effect in only Indonesia. Moreover, URB decreases the ecological footprint in Nigeria, while it increases in Turkey. Our approach to the evaluation of environmental degradation can be generalized to other regions as well as where there is a significant need to understand the roles of different drivers on environmental degradation or pollution.

Asymmetric effect of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa

PurposeWhile there are enormous studies on the determinants of environmental degradation, empirical studies on the effect of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on the environment remain limited. The purpose of this paper is to examine the asymmetric effect of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation in 31 selected sub-Saharan African countries spanning from 1990 to 2018.Design/methodology/approachTo examine possible asymmetric effects of the exogenous variables on environmental degradation, we used the panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach and secondary data was sourced from the World Bank (2021).FindingsThe cointegration test results suggest that there is a long-run cointegration among the variables whereas our main findings indicate that environmental degradation responds asymmetrically to changes in renewable energy consumption and economic growth. The results further reveal that both positive and negative shocks in renewable energy consumption reduce environmental degradation. On the other hand, positive and negative shocks in economic growth increase environmental degradation in the long run.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications of this study include the need for policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa to encourage the utilization of renewable energy as it reduces environmental degradation. Also, governments in the subregion should gradually replace the usage of fossil fuels by adapting renewable energy sources so as to achieve higher economic growth.Originality/valueThe positive and negative shocks of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation are examined to ascertain their asymmetric relationships.

Understanding the Role of Technology in Asian Economies: The Environmental Impact of Remittances and Economic Complexity.

In recent years, scholars have determined various determinants of environmental degradation using the panel and time-series studies. However, technological innovations (TI) and remittances, among the financial system's essential components, are relatively ignored. In addition, nations' economic progress and environmental performance also depend upon the nature of their economic structure. This empirical research investigates the effects of TI, remittances and economic complexity (EC) on CO2 controlling economic growth and trade openness (TR) in the selected 15 Asian nations. The study collected panel data of 15 Asian countries from 1990 to 2019 and employed the panel quantile regression and augmented mean group methods to unveil the impacts of variables on CO2 emissions. The empirical findings established that remittances are negatively linked with CO2 emissions. Similarly, EC reduces CO2 emissions in the context of Asian countries. In addition, EC and remittances Granger cause CO2 emissions. These findings indicate that remittances and EC positively contribute to environmental quality in Asian countries. Conversely, TI, economic growth, and TR intensify CO2 emissions in Asian countries. Finally, the study recommended policies to enhance remittances and EC in Asian countries to curb environmental degradation.

HOW DO CONSUMING ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES AND REMITTANCE INFLOWS IMPACT EGYPT’S ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT?

This research examines how the determinants of environmental degradation -including (combustible and non-combustible) alternative energy consumption and remittance inflows- impact Egypt’s ecological footprint for the 1977-2014 period. After confirming the co-integration among the selected variables, the short-run and the long-run coefficients are estimated by the autoregressive distributed lag method. The long-term findings indicate that the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is not accepted for Egypt, as income has a U-shape impact on ecological footprint. Moreover, fossil-fuel consumption and financial development worsen ecological footprint in the long-run. In addition, while non-combustible alternative energy utilization does not significantly impact ecological footprint in Egypt, combustible alternative energy usage and trade globalization decrease it in the long-run. The results further reveal that remittance inflows to Egypt increase ecological footprint in both the short-run and the long-run. Pursuant to the findings, some policy conclusions and suggestions are propounded.

Geopolitical risk and environmental degradation in BRICS: Aggregation bias and policy inference

Currently, the high incidence of environmental degradation is widely quoted as one of the key global concerns. Previous literature has examined various determinants of environmental degradation, yet, there is an inadequacy of studies on geopolitical risks (GPR) and environmental degradation nexus. Additionally, an issue of concern on aggregate estimations is aggregation bias which may cause the wrong estimation of the aggregate relationships, and mislead policymakers. This paper, therefore, investigates the impact of GPR on the environment of BRICS to assess the existence or otherwise of aggregation bias. The findings which emanate from a robust empirical estimation indicate that the relationship is positive at aggregate level while negative at disaggregated level, hence, the existence of aggregation bias in the estimation of GPR-environmental degradation relationship at the aggregate level. The results further show that the disaggregated level result does not support the aggregated level environment-GPR findings. Consequently, policy implications of aggregation bias in estimations may be drawn as follows: Since the aggregation bias may lead to a wrong environment-GPR postulation, policymakers could be misinformed by the incorrect evidence to give wrong policies about environmental concerns. Also, policymakers should consider the environment-GPR nexus at both aggregate and country-specific levels when making environmental policies.

Does renewable energy consumption affect ecological footprints in Saudi Arabia? A bootstrap causality test

This paper investigates the relationship between renewable energy consumption and ecological footprint in Saudi Arabia by considering the important role of economic growth in the environmental function during 1980–2017 periods. Capital and trade openness are determinants of environmental degradation. To determine the cointegration between the variables, we relied on the bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test. We also used the Granger causality based on the bootstrap ARDL approach to identify causal relationships between the factors of environmental degradation in the presence of structural break. The empirical results show the presence of cointegration between variables with a structural break. Furthermore, the results of the ARDL model state that an increase in human capital and renewable energy consumption improves environmental quality (decreasing the ecological footprint), while an increase in trade openness and GDP deteriorates environmental quality (increasing the ecological footprint). In the short run, the results of the VECM model show the existence of a bidirectional causal relationship between human capital and trade openness. GDP causes the ecological footprint, while human capital causes renewable energy consumption. Moreover, there is a causal relationship from GDP and renewable energy consumption to trade openness. In the long run, all variables cause renewable energy consumption on the one hand, and trade openness on the other. In view of these results, policy makers have an interest in implementing favorable measures that reduce the ecological footprint and improve the quality of the environment by using renewable energy consumption as an economic tool.

How critical are resource rents, agriculture, growth, and renewable energy to environmental degradation in the resource-rich African countries? The role of institutional quality

Although the literature is being increasingly flooded with studies on the determinants of environmental degradation, the peculiarities of some countries in some regions have been substantially overlooked. Yet, these unique peculiarities either instigate or hinder some factors which matter for environmental quality. This study therefore puts the resource richness of African countries into consideration in the examination of the impacts of resources rents, agriculture, growth, and renewable energy consumption on environmental degradation. Additionally, the influence of institutional quality is uniquely examined in the nexus. The baseline model reveals that environmental degradation is respectively reduced and worsened by renewable energy consumption and growth in both the short- and the long-run. The impacts of agriculture and resources rents vary across the periods, although they both raise the level of environmental degradation. Considering the moderating role of institutional quality, its influence is stronger in the long-run. It reverses the favourable influence of renewable energy, but strengthens the adverse impact of growth. Also, it aids the ability of agriculture and resources rents to reduce degradation. Finally, the threshold results show that the impacts of the indicators on environmental degradation are sensitive to institutional quality levels. Improved institutional quality only changes the size of the impacts of renewable energy use and growth. However, contrary to poor institutional quality, an improved institution results in the ability of agriculture to reduce degradation and militates against the adverse impact of resources rents.

Nexus between export variety and carbon emissions in Pakistan: The role of FDI and technological development

Carbon emissions constitute a large portion of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming and climate change. This study examines the impact of export variety on carbon emissions along with foreign direct investment (FDI) and technological development as determinants of environmental degradation in Pakistan. Moreover, this study is conducted in the context of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC). This study applies dynamic ordinary least squares and error correction models for long-term and short-term estimates, respectively. The results indicate that the EKC hypothesis is valid in the long term. This implies that Pakistan’s economy reached the threshold level of income, after which an increase in income was not responsible for environmental degradation. Export variety restrains environmental degradation in the short term and is not a significant factor in the long term. Energy consumption has aggravated environmental degradation, while FDI and technological development are restraining environmental degradation. Policy measures are recommended to curb environmental degradation in Pakistan.

Modeling the effect of disaggregated renewable energies on ecological footprint in E5 economies: Do economic growth and R&D matter?

In recent decades, environmental degradation due to economic activities has become a severe concern for policymakers. Therefore, emerging economies do not exclude from this issue. The analysis about determinants of environmental degradation has become an increasing research direction, but researchers have not yet answered clearly. The present study provides novel empirical analysis to fill this gap by considering the impact of production-side disaggregated renewable energies with growth and R&D expenditure on ecological footprint. This study adopts the panel dynamic Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) alongside Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) to estimate the long-term association among selected variables in selected five emerging economies over the period of 1990 to 2019. The empirical result shows a positive and significant impact of economic growth on environmental degradation (ED). Subsequently, the outcomes indicate that increasing production of geothermal and hydro energy causes to rise in ED. Moreover, it finds that increasing energy production by nuclear and wind sources reduced the ED. Such outcomes are fascinating when energies have different behavior with ED due to some hurdles, i.e., its cost and R&D. Additionally, this study finds that expenditures on R& D have a positive and significant impact on the ecological footprint in selected economies as a 1% rise in R&D expenditures declines the environment quality by 0.075% and 0.082%. The estimated results also provide important policy implications for the selected and the other emerging economies in designing an appropriate way forward to a sustainable environment.

Determinants of environmental degradation: Evidenced-based insights from ASEAN economies

This paper examines the effect of per capita income, trade openness, energy consumption, and financial development on the ASEAN region's environmental degradation. We obtained data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) during the years 2001–2020 to test our research model. For analysis, we applied panel data techniques such as pooled least squares, fixed effects, generalized least squares (GLS), and two stages least squares (2SLS). We also conducted the causality analysis to determine the direction of the relationship among the models' variables. Our models' results show the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the ASEAN region as per capita income and its square term possess positive and negative coefficients. The results also show the presence of an N-shaped EKC in ASEAN region a deviation from the conventional literature. Moreover, the results illustrate that increasing energy consumption, trade openness, and financial development positively contribute to environmental degradation in ASEAN economies. The causality analysis shows a two-way causality between trade openness and financial development, and environmental degradation and trade openness. We observed oneway causality, running a) from energy consumption and per capita income towards financial development, b) from per capita income towards trade openness, and c) from financial development towards environmental degradation. The study's results contribute to the environmental degradation literature and provide a better understanding of environmental degradation for policymakers in ASEAN economies.

Sustainability of the Moderating Role of Financial Development in the Determinants of Environmental Degradation: Evidence from Turkey

One of the questions that remain unanswered in the literature on determinants of carbon emissions is the moderating effect of “financial development”. This becomes imperative, owing to the connection of carbon emissions to environmental degradation, which is considered to be one of the main challenges to sustainable development. Thus, this study investigated the moderating role of financial development in the determinants of carbon emissions for Turkey during the period of 1960 to 2016. Zivot–Andrew and Lee–Strazicich “unit root tests” were utilized to investigate the stationarity properties of the series. The cointegration among the variables employed was examined by utilizing the ARDL bounds test and Bayer–Hanck cointegration test. In contrast, the long-run causal relationship of the variables with carbon emissions was examined by using fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR). The empirical findings reveal the significance of “economic growth”, “capital formation”, “energy consumption”, “urbanization”, and “financial development” as determinants of environmental degradation in Turkey. The study also found the significant moderating role of “financial development” in the relationship between “economic growth” and carbon emissions, capital formation and carbon emissions, and urbanization and carbon emissions. The environmental–financial related policies were suggested for the policymakers in Turkey to aid the reduction of carbon emission with the view of improving environmental quality.

An empirical analysis of the determinants of CO2 emissions in ‎GCC countries

ABSTRACT Sustainable development has recently attracted growing attention on behalf of scientists and policymakers. One of the main pillars to achieve sustainable development goals is decidedly linked to the environment. This paper contributes to the existing literature by shedding light on the determinants of environmental degradation in Gulf ‎Cooperation Council countries between 1980 and 2017. More specifically, the effects of per capita ‎GDP, energy consumption, urbanization, international trade and foreign direct investments on CO2 ‎emissions are investigated. Using the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, ‎and Technology (STIRPAT) model and the PMG-ARDL approach, findings suggest the validity of ‎the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in GCC countries. Moreover, the income threshold ‎level is equal to US$56,350.928. It has been also revealed that energy consumption and foreign ‎direct investments led to more environmental degradation in the long run, while urbanization has a ‎positive impact on the environment. In the short-run, results show the validity of the Pollution Halo ‎Hypothesis, since more foreign direct investments flows have been associated with less ‎environmental pollution. Finally, while the estimation of country-specific error correction models ‎reveals the heterogeneity of results, the most important factor affecting the environment in the short-run is energy ‎consumption. The impact of international trade and foreign direct investment is mixed, while ‎urbanization has no significant impact. In the light of these findings, some policy recommendations ‎are designed.

Determinants of environmental degradation: reflections on the impact of identified economic variables on the environment

The authors would like to thank Taylor’s University for funding this research project (Source of funding: TRGS (Taylor’s Research Grant Scheme); Grant Project Code: TRGS/ERFS/1/2018/TBS/009).

Determinants of Environmental Degradation and Empirical Investigation of Kuznets Curve: A Comparative Study of India and Bangladesh

This paper investigates the factors responsible for Environmental degradation in terms of higher Carbon dioxide and Nitrous oxide emission over the period 1981 – 2011 for Bangladesh and India from data of World development indicator. Industrialization and greenhouse gas are major contributing factors identified for deteriorating the air quality in Bangladesh and India respectively. Concentration of population in urban areas increases carbon emission and economic globalization reduces Nitrous oxide emission in both economies. Estimation results of reduced from equation for CO2 emission provides support in favour of inverted U and N shaped Kuznets curve for India which is robust to using dynamic specification. For Bangladesh the shape is Inverted U but this is not robust to using dynamic model. In quadratic approach to Kuznets curve energy consumption does play an important role for increased carbon emission in India but not in Bangladesh.

The effects of trade liberalization on environmental degradation

This paper uses a threshold model to estimate the regime-specific marginal effect of trade liberalization and other determinants of environmental degradation in regimes with different levels of corruption. The results show that increasing trade liberalization leads to an increase in carbon dioxide (\(\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}\)) emissions in countries with a high level of corruption but to an decrease in countries with low corruption. A U-shaped relationship between \(\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}\) emissions and income exists in low-corruption countries but not in high-corruption countries. Our results also show that an increase in energy use per $1,000 in gross domestic product and fossil-fuel energy consumption will increase \(\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}\) emissions in any country. Moreover, increases in agricultural value and foreign direct investment can decrease environmental degradation in any country.

Do Foreign-Owned Plants Pollute More?: New Evidence from the U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory

Critics of globalization and capitalist expansion suggest that foreign-owned plants pollute more than domestically owned ones. Using the U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory, we test the effects of foreign ownership on the environmental performance of chemical plants in the United States. Results suggest that net of other factors, foreign ownership has a negligible impact on the environmental performance of chemical plants. Implications for research on the organizational determinants of environmental degradation are discussed.