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Renewable Energy Use and Ecological Footprints Mitigation: Evidence from Selected South Asian Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Lian Xue

    (School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Mohammad Haseeb

    (Institute for Region and Urban-Rural Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Haider Mahmood

    (Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 173, Alkharj 11942, Saudi Arabia)

  • Tarek Tawfik Yousef Alkhateeb

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh 33511, Egypt)

  • Muntasir Murshed

    (School of Business and Economics, North South University, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
    Bangladesh Institutee of Development Studies (BIDS), Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh)

Abstract

Fossil fuel-dependency has induced a trade-off between economic growth and environmental degradation across the developing nations in particular. Against this backdrop, this study aims to evaluate the impacts of renewable energy use on the ecological footprints in the context of four South Asian fossil fuel-dependent nations: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The econometric analysis involves the use of recently developed methods that account for cross-sectional dependency, slope heterogeneity, and structural break issues in the data. The results reveal that renewable energy consumption reduces the ecological footprints while nonrenewable energy use boosts the ecological footprints. The results also confirm the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve and pollution haven hypotheses for the panel of the South Asian nations. Besides, foreign direct investment inflows are found to degrade the environment while higher institutional quality improves it. Furthermore, unidirectional causalities are run from overall energy use, economic growth, and institutional quality to ecological footprints. At the same time, bidirectional associations between foreign direct investment inflows and ecological footprints are also ascertained. The overall findings highlight the pertinence of reducing fossil fuel-dependency, enhancing economic growth, restricting dirty foreign direct investment inflows, and improving institutional quality to ensure environmental sustainability across South Asia.

Suggested Citation

  • Lian Xue & Mohammad Haseeb & Haider Mahmood & Tarek Tawfik Yousef Alkhateeb & Muntasir Murshed, 2021. "Renewable Energy Use and Ecological Footprints Mitigation: Evidence from Selected South Asian Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1613-:d:492444
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