Samira Shayanmehr

Rapid industrialization and modernization have drastically impaired ecological sustainability and increased ecological footprint (EFP). Despite the vital relevance of renewable energy (REC) and green technological innovation (GTI), in many facets of life, the part played by these factors and their spatial spillover effects in exploring ecological sustainability in EU countries has yet to be well studied. Thus, using a spatial panel econometric technique, this research investigates the direct and spillover effects of GTI and REC on ecological sustainability in 20 selected EU nations between 1995 and 2018. First, the empirical results affirm a positive spatial connection of EFP across nations, implying that employing spatial models can provide more trustworthy results than traditional econometric approaches. Second, both GTI and REC tend to significantly promote domestic ecological sustainability. Third, the environmental quality of EU countries benefit from the high GTI, REC, and human capital of their neighboring nations. Fourth, economic growth and financial globalization (FG) have a negative and significant effect on environmental quality. Other empirical analyses indicated that the indirect effect of FG on EFP is positive and significant. With a focus on the EU countries, this paper assists policymakers in developing a comprehensive strategy for enhancing ecological responsibility via renewable energy and green technology innovation.

The recent COP27 has propelled nations towards achieving reduced environmental degradation. Governments are, therefore, required to develop effective policy tools to improve their environmental sustainability plans. In line with this, an empirical study is required to explore the all-inclusive effect of ecological sustainability policy on ecological footprint (EFP) among the world’s top renewable energy consumption countries from 1994 to 2018. Recent studies on environmental degradation have focused on renewable energy while neglecting the role of environmental tax. Thus, the current study fills this gap by exploring the role of environmental tax on ecological footprint. Furthermore, the study evaluates the direct and indirect impact of environmental tax and renewable energy on different levels of EFP using the method of moment quantile regression (MMQR). The DOLS, FMOLS, and panel GMM techniques are also applied to check the robustness of the MMQR results. The empirical results indicate that environmental tax and renewable energy directly and significantly reduce the EFP; however, these impacts are insignificant in countries with lower levels of environmental pollution. Furthermore, the findings indicate that environmental tax plays a leading role in changing the energy structure towards environmentally friendly energies. The results also show that economic globalization and human capital impact ecological footprint negatively. Finally, the results suggest that GDP and nonrenewable energy aggravates ecological footprint. The study results propose insights for policymakers to mitigate environmental degradation by boosting environmental tax to deter polluters and investing more in renewable energy development.

Achieving sustainable economic development is always considered one of the main economic goals of countries. Therefore, researchers are interested in presenting new econometric models for more accurate identification of factors affecting economic growth. The current study evaluates the impact of various aspects of freedom (economic freedom, press freedom, civil freedom, and political rights) and an aggregated freedom index on economic growth in European countries from 2000 to 2019 using spatial panel econometric techniques. In addition, the effects of variables such as FDI, financial development (FD), human capital (HC), and capital stock on economic growth are examined. The findings of this research confirm the existence of spatial autocorrelation in economic growth. The results reveal that civil liberties, economic and press freedom, and aggregated freedom boost economic growth, whereas political rights have no significant effect on economic growth. Furthermore, the econometric model results indicate that FDI, FD, HC, and capital stock are positively and significantly associated with economic growth. This research is expected to provide policymakers with a thorough understanding of how to implement the best policies in European countries to achieve sustainable economic development.

Achieving economic development is one of the most important economic goals of every country. Identifying the determinants of economic growth, is a useful tool for adopting appropriate economic policies. This study, therefore, empirically examines the impact of trade openness, foreign direct investment, and financial development on economic growth, across 62 countries over the period 1995–2016. These countries are divided into two groups: low-income and high-income countries. We employ the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) estimation techniques on the cross-country panel data. The findings show a positive long run association between trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development, labor, government expenditure, and economic growth in low-income countries, with a positive and negative short run effect from capital and government expenditures, respectively. For high-income countries, a positive long run association between trade openness, FDI, capital, and economic growth exist. The short run estimates indicate a positive effect on trade openness and capital as well as a negative effect on government expenditure. Our study shows that the adoption of policies that improves access to skilled labor and international trade, affect the attainment of a sustainable economic development.

Human progress has become detrimental to the environment. Moreover, the failure to mitigate pollution would eventually impact negatively on the economy. This study investigates the influence of technological innovation, research and development, and quality of governance on carbon emissions for the European Union countries while controlling for industrialization, renewable energy, trade openness and foreign direct investment from 1996 to 2018 by employing the method of moment quantile regression technique. The result revealed that renewable energy, trade openness, and quality governance boost environmental quality, while technological innovation and industrialization increase carbon emissions. Also, the interaction between technological innovation and quality governance, research and development and quality governance as well as industrialization and quality governance decreases carbon emission while that of foreign direct investment and quality governance increases carbon emission. From the causality analysis, there is a bidirectional relationship between research and development and carbon emission, technology innovation and carbon emission, renewable energy and carbon emission, trade openness and carbon emission as well as industrialization and carbon emission. Moreover, a unidirectional connection was obtained between foreign direct investment and carbon emission, as well as quality governance and carbon emission. Based on the outcomes, comprehensive policy directions are suggested for policymakers in these countries.

Most emerging economies and the South American Countries are no exception to the negative consequences of trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability decisions. This study draws strength from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs-7, 11, 12, and 13). Therefore, this study examines the environmental nexus between economic growth, globalization, renewable, and non-renewable energy, in South America from 1995 to 2020. We deployed the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effects (DFE). Cross-sectional dependence, panel unit root, and cointegration tests were performed. Finally, we used the Dumitrescu and Hurlin test of causality to determine the long-run association between variables. The finding indicates that while environmental pollution increases with increasing economic growth, it decreases with increasing renewable energy both in the short and long term. Whereas economic globalization positively affects environmental pollution in the long term, social globalization and the moderation effect between political globalization and renewable energy improves environmental quality in the long run. Finally, a bidirectional causality was found between economic growth and environmental pollution, with a unidirectional causality running from economic, political, and social globalization, renewable, and non-renewable energy to environmental pollution. Given these findings, we discussed potential policy measures.

This study used panel simultaneous equations models with a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator to examine the three-way linkages between ecological footprint (EFP), renewable energy consumption (REC), and income in the Group of Seven (G7) countries over the period 1990–2018. The outcomes of this study demonstrate a two-way association between gross domestic product (GDP) and renewable energy. The findings confirm the presence of a bidirectional link between outcome and ecological footprint, as well as between EFP and renewable energy. The results of this study demonstrate that improving human capital positively and significantly effects income, environmental quality, and REC. Ecological footprint is not significantly impacted by economic and social globalization, whereas the impact of financial globalization is negative and significant. Trade openness is positively and significantly connected with REC and income, which could contribute to reducing environmental deterioration. In conclusion, we make policy recommendations that are based on the findings of the study.