IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v30y2022i4p595-605.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and ecological footprint: Exploring the role of environmental regulations and democracy in sustainable development

Author

Listed:
  • Zahoor Ahmed
  • Mahmood Ahmad
  • Husam Rjoub
  • Olga A. Kalugina
  • Nazim Hussain

Abstract

Countries enact environmental regulations to achieve sustainable development and ecological sustainability. However, environmental regulations do not guarantee environmental sustainability unless implemented efficiently. Furthermore, political institutions play a key role in the formulation and management of environmental regulations. This research examines the relationship between democracy, environmental regulations, economic growth, and ecological footprint (EF) in the panel of G7 nations from 1985 to 2017. Second generation econometric techniques are used to analyze the data. The empirical evidence indicates that economic growth enhances EF while democracy and environmental regulations positively contribute to ecological sustainability by reducing EF. The causal outcomes reveal that democracy Granger causes EF and renewable energy indicating that democracy curbs environmental degradation and stimulates the share of renewables. Further, democracy and environmental regulations Granger cause each other. Lastly, the implication of these findings for sustainable development and ecological sustainability are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Zahoor Ahmed & Mahmood Ahmad & Husam Rjoub & Olga A. Kalugina & Nazim Hussain, 2022. "Economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and ecological footprint: Exploring the role of environmental regulations and democracy in sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 595-605, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:30:y:2022:i:4:p:595-605
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2251
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2251
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2251?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joakim Westerlund, 2008. "Panel cointegration tests of the Fisher effect," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 193-233.
    2. Zahoor Ahmed & Muhammad Mansoor Asghar & Muhammad Nasir Malik & Kishwar Nawaz, 2020. "Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China," Post-Print hal-03557938, HAL.
    3. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    4. Panagiotis Fotis & Michael Polemis, 2018. "Sustainable development, environmental policy and renewable energy use: A dynamic panel data approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 726-740, November.
    5. Wu Xiaoman & Abdul Majeed & Dinara G. Vasbieva & Claire Emilienne Wati Yameogo & Nazim Hussain, 2021. "Natural resources abundance, economic globalization, and carbon emissions: Advancing sustainable development agenda," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 1037-1048, September.
    6. Haibo Sun & Zhonglu Liu & Yingchao Chen, 2020. "Foreign direct investment and manufacturing pollution emissions: A perspective from heterogeneous environmental regulation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1376-1387, September.
    7. Mahmood, Ahmad & Zahoor, Ahmed & Xiyue, Yang & Nazim, Hussain & Sinha, Avik, 2021. "Financial development and environmental degradation: Do human capital and institutional quality make a difference?," MPRA Paper 110039, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    8. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Vanessa Smith, L. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2013. "Panel unit root tests in the presence of a multifactor error structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(2), pages 94-115.
    9. Yongming Huang & Lian Xue & Zeeshan Khan, 2021. "What abates carbon emissions in China: Examining the impact of renewable energy and green investment," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 823-834, September.
    10. Bai, Jushan & Kao, Chihwa & Ng, Serena, 2009. "Panel cointegration with global stochastic trends," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 149(1), pages 82-99, April.
    11. Wang, Huiqing & Wei, Weixian, 2020. "Coordinating technological progress and environmental regulation in CO2 mitigation: The optimal levels for OECD countries & emerging economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Zhao, Jun & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Kangyin, 2020. "Would environmental regulation improve the greenhouse gas benefits of natural gas use? A Chinese case study," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Axel Dreher, 2006. "Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(10), pages 1091-1110.
    14. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    15. Ahmed, Zahoor & Asghar, Muhammad Mansoor & Malik, Muhammad Nasir & Nawaz, Kishwar, 2020. "Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    17. Al-Mulali, Usama & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "The effect of energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness, industrial output, and the political stability on the environmental degradation in the MENA (Middle East and North African) region," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 382-389.
    18. Farzin, Y. Hossein & Bond, Craig A., 2006. "Democracy and environmental quality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 213-235, October.
    19. Abid Rashid Gill & Sallahuddin Hassan & K Kuperan Viswanathan, 2019. "Is democracy enough to get early turn of the environmental Kuznets curve in ASEAN countries?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(8), pages 1491-1505, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Waleed Kalf Al-Zoubi, 2024. "How Sustainable is Environmental Economics? A Review of Research Trends and Implications," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(2), pages 319-334, March.
    2. Feng, Yanchao & Hu, Jin & Afshan, Sahar & Irfan, Muhammad & Hu, Mingjun & Abbas, Shujaat, 2023. "Bridging resource disparities for sustainable development: A comparative analysis of resource-rich and resource-scarce countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    3. Licong Xing & Bisharat Hussain Chang & Salem Hamad Aldawsari, 2024. "Green Finance Mechanisms for Sustainable Development: Evidence from Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Laura Trueba‐Castañeda & Francisco M. Somohano‐Rodríguez & Begoña Torre‐Olmo, 2024. "Does digitalisation enable small and medium‐sized enterprises to become more sustainable?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4893-4909, September.
    5. Ahmad, Mahmood & Pata, Ugur Korkut & Ahmed, Zahoor & Zhao, Ruiqi, 2024. "Fintech, natural resources management, green energy transition, and ecological footprint: Empirical insights from EU countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    6. Zhao, Xin & Shang, Yuping & Magazzino, Cosimo & Madaleno, Mara & Mallek, Sabrine, 2023. "Multi-step impacts of environmental regulations on green economic growth: Evidence in the lens of natural resource dependence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    7. Uzma Ghafoor & Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh & Afsheen Baqir, 2023. "Green Growth, Environmental Quality, Energy Consumption Nexus in OECD Countries," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 12(4), pages 409-418.
    8. Guo, Wen & Yang, Bo & Ji, Jiong & Liu, Xiaorui, 2023. "Abundance of natural resources, government scale and green economic growth: An empirical study on urban resource curse," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    9. Liu Junsong & Ridwan Lanre Ibrahim & Abubakar Mohammed & Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan, 2024. "Exploring the heterogeneous effects of technological innovations on environmental sustainability: Do structural change, environmental policy, and biofuel energy matter for G7 economies?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(4), pages 1818-1849, June.
    10. Lau, Chi Keung & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Rather, Kashif Nesar & Gozgor, Giray, 2023. "The impact of green quality of the energy consumption on carbon emissions in the United States," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 850-860.
    11. Abdul Haseeb & Enjun Xia & Shah Saud & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Umer Quddoos, 2023. "Unveiling the liaison between human capital, trade openness, and environmental sustainability for BRICS economies: Robust panel‐data estimation," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(2), pages 229-256, May.
    12. Mahvish Muzaffar & Ghulam Ghouse & Fahad Abdulrahman Alahmad, 2024. "Assessing the Interplay of Financial Development, Human Capital, Democracy, and Industry 5.0 in Environmental Dynamics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-30, August.
    13. Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Arfaoui, Nadia & Cheong, Calvin W.H., 2023. "Exploring the time-varying asymmetric effects of environmental regulation policies and human capital on sustainable development efficiency: A province level evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. Lin, Shu & Razzaq, Asif & Yi, Kefu, 2023. "Heterogenous influence of productive capacities pillars and natural resources on ecological sustainability in developing Belt and Road host countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    15. Claudia Diana Sabău-Popa & Alexandra Maria Bele & Adrian Negrea & Dorin Cristian Coita & Adriana Giurgiu, 2024. "Do Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emissions Significantly Influence Green Tax Levels in European Countries?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-23, May.
    16. Uzar, Umut, 2024. "The dynamic effect of income distribution, natural resources, and freedom of press on ecological footprint: Theory and empirical evidence for emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Dai, Jiapeng & Ahmed, Zahoor & Sinha, Avik & Pata, Ugur Korkut & Alvarado, Rafael, 2023. "Sustainable green electricity, technological innovation, and ecological footprint: Does democratic accountability moderate the nexus?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Zhang, Shaohui & Chen, Kenjie, 2023. "Green finance and ecological footprints: Natural resources perspective of China’s growing economy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    19. Ma, Fenfen & Saleem, Hummera & Ding, Xueting & Nazir, Sidra & Tariq, Salman, 2024. "Do natural resource rents, green technological innovation, and renewable energy matter for ecological sustainability? Role of green policies in testing the environmental kuznets curve hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abdullah Emre Caglar & Bulent Guloglu & Ayfer Gedikli, 2022. "Moving towards sustainable environmental development for BRICS: Investigating the asymmetric effect of natural resources on CO2," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1313-1325, October.
    2. Ahmad, Mahmood & Ahmed, Zahoor & Khan, Sana Akbar & Alvarado, Rafael, 2023. "Towards environmental sustainability in E−7 countries: Assessing the roles of natural resources, economic growth, country risk, and energy transition," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Wu Xiaoman & Abdul Majeed & Dinara G. Vasbieva & Claire Emilienne Wati Yameogo & Nazim Hussain, 2021. "Natural resources abundance, economic globalization, and carbon emissions: Advancing sustainable development agenda," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 1037-1048, September.
    4. Usman, Muhammad & Jahanger, Atif & Makhdum, Muhammad Sohail Amjad & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Bashir, Adnan, 2022. "How do financial development, energy consumption, natural resources, and globalization affect Arctic countries' economic growth and environmental quality? An advanced panel data simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    5. Liu, Haiying & Saleem, Muhammad Mansoor & Al-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh & Khan, Irfan & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif, 2022. "Impact of governance and globalization on natural resources volatility: The role of financial development in the Middle East North Africa countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Aladejare, Samson Adeniyi, 2022. "Natural resource rents, globalisation and environmental degradation: New insight from 5 richest African economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Muhammad Zahid Rafique & Abdul Majeed Nadeem & Wanjun Xia & Majid Ikram & Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib & Umer Shahzad, 2022. "Does economic complexity matter for environmental sustainability? Using ecological footprint as an indicator," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4623-4640, April.
    8. Chien‐Chiang Lee & Godwin Olasehinde‐Williams & Bright Akwasi Gyamfi, 2023. "The synergistic effect of green trade and economic complexity on sustainable environment: A new perspective on the economic and ecological components of sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 976-989, April.
    9. Jahanger, Atif & Usman, Muhammad & Kousar, Rakhshanda & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel, 2023. "Implications for optimal abatement path through the deployment of natural resources, human development, and energy consumption in the era of digitalization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    10. Majeed, Abdul & Wang, Lijun & Zhang, Xiaohui & Muniba, & Kirikkaleli, Dervis, 2021. "Modeling the dynamic links among natural resources, economic globalization, disaggregated energy consumption, and environmental quality: Fresh evidence from GCC economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Saud, Shah & Haseeb, Abdul & Haider Zaidi, Syed Anees & Khan, Irfan & Li, Huiyun, 2024. "Moving towards green growth? Harnessing natural resources and economic complexity for sustainable development through the lens of the N-shaped EKC framework for the European Union," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Recep Ulucak & Ali Gökhan Yücel & Salih Çağrı İlkay, 2020. "Dynamics of tourism demand in Turkey: Panel data analysis using gravity model," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(8), pages 1394-1414, December.
    13. Jintian Wang & Shouchang You & Ephraim Bonah Agyekum & Clement Matasane & Solomon Eghosa Uhunamure, 2022. "Exploring the Impacts of Renewable Energy, Environmental Regulations, and Democracy on Ecological Footprints in the Next Eleven Nations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-13, September.
    14. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Qasim Raza Syed & Hooi Hooi Lean & Andrew Adewale Alola & Munir Ahmad, 2021. "Do Economic Policy Uncertainty and Geopolitical Risk Lead to Environmental Degradation? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    15. Najia Saqib & Ivan A. Duran & Nazia Hashmi, 2022. "Impact of Financial Deepening, Energy Consumption and Total Natural Resource Rent on CO2 Emission in the GCC Countries: Evidence from Advanced Panel Data Simulation," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(2), pages 400-409, March.
    16. Zhang, Xuan & Hasan, Mohammad Maruf & Waris, Umra, 2024. "Assessing the nexus between natural resources and government effectiveness: Role of green innovation in shaping environmental sustainability of BRICS nations," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. Abdul Haseeb & Enjun Xia & Shah Saud & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Umer Quddoos, 2023. "Unveiling the liaison between human capital, trade openness, and environmental sustainability for BRICS economies: Robust panel‐data estimation," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(2), pages 229-256, May.
    18. Seyfettin Erdoğan & Nigar Demircan Çakar & Recep Ulucak & Danish & Yacouba Kassouri, 2021. "The role of natural resources abundance and dependence in achieving environmental sustainability: Evidence from resource‐based economies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 143-154, January.
    19. Huang, Lingyun & Zou, Yanjun, 2020. "How to promote energy transition in China: From the perspectives of interregional relocation and environmental regulation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Dogah, Kingsley E. & Aluko, Olufemi Adewale, 2022. "The contribution of human development towards environmental sustainability," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:30:y:2022:i:4:p:595-605. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.