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Energy and Ecological Sustainability: Challenges and Panoramas in Belt and Road Initiative Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Abdul Rauf

    (School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, Jiangsu, China)

  • Xiaoxing Liu

    (School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, Jiangsu, China)

  • Waqas Amin

    (School of Economics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Ilhan Ozturk

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Cag University, Tarsus/Mersin 33800, Turkey)

  • Obaid Ur Rehman

    (School of Business and Management, Agriculture University, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan)

  • Suleman Sarwar

    (School of Economics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

Abstract

Innovation and globalization fosters a tendency towards multiparty collaboration and strategic contacts among nations. A similar path was followed by the Chinese administration in 2013, with its “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). The most important objective of the present fact-finding study was to demonstrate the links between economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization, gross fixed capital formation, trade openness, financial development and carbon emissions (ecological degradation) from a panel of 47 BRI economies, over a time span of 1980 to 2016. Dynamic panel estimations (dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS)) were engaged to examine the long-run links between the subjected variables. Synchronized outcomes for the full panel show that energy consumption, gross fixed capital formation, economic growth, financial development, and urbanization unfavorably led to environmental degradation ( CO 2 emissions). However, trade openness is negatively correlated with emissions. Furthermore, pairwise panel Granger causative estimations justified bi-directional links from all regressors towards CO 2 emissions, except for trade openness, which had unidirectional ties with environmental quality. In cross-country, long-run assessments, different results were found, with CO 2 emissions being greatly increased by economic growth in all countries and energy consumption in 30 countries; other predictors testified to some mixed interactions with CO 2 emissions in the country-level examination. The reported investigation provides some noteworthy guiding principles and policy inferences aimed at governments and ecological supervisory administrations, suggesting assertive moves towards truncated used of carbon fossil fuels and dependency on renewable energy, establishing waste and water treatment plants, familiarizing themselves with the concept of a green economy, and making the general public aware of eco-friendly investments in BRI economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdul Rauf & Xiaoxing Liu & Waqas Amin & Ilhan Ozturk & Obaid Ur Rehman & Suleman Sarwar, 2018. "Energy and Ecological Sustainability: Challenges and Panoramas in Belt and Road Initiative Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2743-:d:161812
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