Bridging the divide: Exposing the intriguing link between international reserves and environmental status through the inverted U-shaped relationship

The BRICS countries have a significant influence on global environmental issues, ranking among the world's top polluters. Similarly, they possess the world's largest foreign exchange reserves. Nevertheless, this intriguing intertwining has not been investigated. This research gap inspired the study to examine how environmental conditions react to the accumulation of international reserves and to explore the potential existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between 1993 and 2020. The empirical findings using Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between international reserves and environmental degradation in the BRICS countries. Initially, reserve accumulation is harmful to the environment, suggesting a prioritization of reserve accumulation over environmental sustainability. However, once a certain level is reached, reserves start to help protect the environment. Additional findings reveal that nonrenewable energy consumption, GDP, and population negatively affect the environment, whereas exports have a positive influence. The impact of FDI, however, is inconsistent and frequently lacks significance over time. Furthermore, the causality analysis supports all of the aforementioned findings.