Greening mineral resources extraction: A pathway to carbon neutrality through energy productivity and institutional reform

Climate change poses a significant challenge, and exploring the role of natural resources for sustainable development initiatives in emerging economies has become an important area of research. Thus, this study explores the influence of natural resource rents (NR), energy productivity (EPY), and institutional quality (IQ) on carbon emissions (CE) for the emerging seven economies. Using the method of moment quantile regression, the results show that NR decreases carbon emissions across all quantiles, exhibiting a declining trend from lower to higher quantiles with a coefficient of −0.124 in the 25th quantile to −0.0387 in the 90th quantile. The study reveals that both energy productivity and renewable energy consumption play crucial roles in mitigating carbon emissions across all quantiles. The results reveal that IQ significantly reduces CE only in the 25th and 50th quantiles. The findings also show that renewable energy consumption's impact in reducing CE increases across quantiles (with a coefficient value of 0.506 in the 25th quantile and 0.595 in the 90th quantile), whereas the influence of energy productivity on emission reduction lessens from lower (−0.590 in the 25th quantile) to higher quantiles (−0.324 in 90th quantile). In contrast, the results reveal that GDP growth enhances carbon emissions across all quantiles, although this trend weakens at higher quantiles. These findings highlight the complex linkage between economic variables and their effects on the environment in the E−7 economies, underlining the significance of sustainable energy practices.