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Military spending is required for national sovereignty, but it comes at a cost. The ecological consequences of military activities remain insufficiently investigated, especially in developing countries, where military spending is on the rise due to terrorism and civil unrest created by different secessionists' groups. As such, this study has a maiden attempt to address this gap by exploring the effects of military spending on the ecological footprint (EF) using the bootstrap causality test and the Maki (2012) cointegration test under multiple structural breaks. The findings suggest that military spending increases the EF. Also, while energy consumption and economic growth degrade the environment, financial development enhances environmental wellbeing by reducing the ecological footprint. The causality results suggest a unidirectional causality from military spending to EF, while feedback causality exists between military spending and economic growth. The result of this study affirms the existence of destruction theory and also provides a better understanding of the links behind environmental degradation and is applicable for the design and implementation of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism contributes approximately one‐fifth to total global employment. However, growth in tourism can promote an increase in transportation, energy consumption, natural resource exploration, and consequential ecological distortions. This study applies a battery of second‐generation econometric techniques to investigate the influence of tourism development and natural resource on a comprehensive environmental indicator; the ecological footprint (EF), in the ten most visited destinations. The findings show that tourism receipts have an increasing effect on EF, while tourism arrivals have a reducing effect on EF. The country‐wise results reveal that tourism receipts increase the EF in China, Italy, Spain, and the UK, while the reverse holds true for France, Germany, Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, and the US. The influence of natural resource on the EF is mixed. Natural resource increases the EF in China, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. A feedback causality exists among EF, natural resource, and tourism development. Policy directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are increasing debates on the relationship between economic complexity and environmental degradation. This study deepens our understanding of this nexus in 11 emerging economies given the moderating role of energy consumption while controlling for economic development, trade openness and population growth. The findings from the quantile regression technique reveal that emerging economies are characteristic of low energy consumption, leading to insignificant contributions of economic complexity to environmental degradation across the spectrum as they also have very low-trade openness. Further results show the invalidity of the EKC between energy use (such as fossil fuels) and environmental degradation in emerging economies. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) between economic development and environmental degradation is valid especially for those countries in the low and median quantiles (Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam). Also, the EKC hypothesis between population and environmental degradation is valid only for countries in the high and highest quantiles (Korea Republic, Turkey, Mexico and Iran). Finally, the results revealed that trade openness strictly reduces environmental degradation across the spectrum. Policy implications, limitations of the study and direction for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many studies on the relationship between energy consumption and various environmental indicators in Africa, and SANE countries in particular. However, there is a dearth of studies that relate external debt to CO2 emissions, and even the ecological footprint, which is a more comprehensive environmental indicator. As such, this paper applies advanced estimation techniques to explore the role of external debt in the famous energy-growth-environmental nexus in SANE countries from 1970 to 2018. The findings from the Augmented Mean Group estimator indicate that economic growth and energy consumption increase environmental pressure in the SANE countries. On country-level results, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, monotonic increase, and monotonic decrease for ecological footprint holds in South Africa, Algeria, and Nigeria, respectively. Also, the results reveal that external debt increases the ecological footprint in South Africa and Algeria. Furthermore, the Kónya (2006) bootstrap country-level Granger causality test shows that ecological footprint is sensitive to economic growth and energy consumption in South Africa and Nigeria, while economic growth is sensitive to the ecological footprint in both Algeria and Nigeria. This study argues that stringent policy suggestions should be centred on reducing the overdependence on non-renewable energy sources since it underscores the major deteriorating state of environmental quality across SANE countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have witnessed significant growth over the years amidst increase energy consumption, dwindling biocapacity, and increasing ecological footprint (EF). However, while the influence of energy consumption, globalization, and economic growth on EF has been previously examined, the literature is silent as regards the association between the level of skills and knowledge needed in the creation of exported goods and the EF, particularly in the ASEAN region. The current study is a maiden attempt to explore the impact of economic complexity on EF and CO2 emissions in the said region while considering heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence among countries. From the findings, economic complexity, energy consumption, and economic growth increase EF and CO2 emissions. Globalization reduces the EF, but its impact on CO2 emissions remains unclear. Economic complexity has a more devastating impact in Indonesia, but less severe in Singapore. The direction of causality flows from economic growth, economic complexity, and energy consumption to EF. A feedback causality exists between globalization and EF, and between energy consumption, globalization, and CO2 emissions. The limitations of the study and directions for future research have been highlighted along with relevant policy directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have investigated the energy-environment nexus for Indonesia using carbon emissions to proxy environmental quality, while totally ignoring ecological footprint which is a more reliable measure of environmental quality. Factors like urbanization and energy consumption may increase the ecological footprint since ecological distortions are mainly human-induced. This study explores the effect of energy use, urbanization, trade, and economic growth on the environment which is captured by ecological footprint. The findings indicate that urbanization, economic growth, and energy consumption increase environmental degradation, while trade deteriorates it in the long run. Trade reduces environmental quality in the short run, while economic growth, energy use, and urbanization show consistent result with their long-run outcomes. Further findings reveal a unidirectional causality from economic growth to ecological footprint, and from urbanization to energy use. Therefore, policies to abate emissions, curtail urban anomaly and uphold a sustainable environment are extensively discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistent dwindling of the biocapacity has caused the ecological footprint (EF) to keep increasing in the top ten tourist destinations over the last three decades. Moreso, economic growth, natural resource rent, and urbanization substantially increased for the same period. Tourism contributes to economic prosperity. However, growth in tourism promotes an increase in energy consumption, natural resource exploration, transportation, and consequential ecological distortions. It is important to understand the predictors of EF to suggest suitable policies for environmental sustainability. Hence, this study examines the predictors of EF by considering factors that could influence EF. More precisely, the study analyzes the linkage among economic growth, natural resource rent, urbanization, energy intensity, and tourism using some of the most advanced and reliable econometric techniques, such as Westerlund's (J Appl Econ 23(2):193-233, 2008) cointegration technique, and the continuously updated full modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC), long-run estimators. The outcomes of the analysis indicate that EF has a negative association with urbanization and natural resources, which implies that an abundance of natural resources and increasing urban population can help to reduce environmental degradation. Likewise, energy intensity helps in decreasing EF, while economic growth adds to EF. Tourist arrival and tourist receipt also add to EF and, therefore, negatively affect environmental quality. Finally, policy directions are discussed to reduce environmental degradation without reducing economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is the largest emitter of CO2 and arguably the most developed and urbanised country in Africa. The country currently harbours an ecological deficit territory which could be the outcome of economic expansion, urban explosion, unsustainable resource exploration and a low level of human development. After all, environmental distortions are mainly the outcome of human activities. This study is a maiden attempt to examine the linkage between urbanisation, human capital, natural resources (NR) and the ecological footprint (EF) in South Africa. Unlike previous studies, this study employs positivist and relevant environmental indicators that accommodate built-up land, forest land, carbon footprint, ocean, grazing land and cropland. Findings from the long-run results suggest that urbanisation, economic growth and NR increase the EF, whereas human capital ensures environmental sustainability. The interaction between urbanisation and human capital mitigates environmental degradation by reducing the EF. The canonical cointegrating regression (CCR), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) results further confirm the nature of the relationships and linkages existing with respect to NR, urbanisation, economic growth and the EF. A bidirectional causality exists between human capital, economic growth and the EF. Policies related to NR and urban sustainability, the limitations of the study, as well as possible directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the quest for a clean and sustainable environment, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 stipulates the need to reduce carbon emissions, decarbonize the energy system, improve energy consumption and ensure the attainment of sustainable energy. In the same vein, SDG 9 pertains to the prevention of environmental degradation, promoting biodiversity and preserving the ecosystem to support inclusive human and economic development. Given the hazardous impact of carbon emissions, if left unabated, and the benefits of preserving nature's ecosystem, the motivation for this study hinges on analyzing factors that threaten a sustainable environment using two proxies of environmental degradation: carbon emissions and ecological footprint. With a battery of static and dynamic econometric techniques on a sample of 44 selected African countries from 1992 to 2016, findings reveal the following: (1) energy usage deteriorates the environment, and (2) urbanization has asymmetric effects on the environment. Controlling for per capita GDP, financial development and gross fixed capital formation, evidence suggests that per capita GDP has an asymmetric impact, financial development accelerates environmental degradation, while gross fixed capital formation intensifies a sustainable environment. Policy outcomes and implications for sustainability are discussed. • Various determinants of CO 2 emissions and ecological (EF) footprint are explored. • Financial development increases CO 2 emissions and EF. • Energy consumption adds to the EF. • Gross fixed capital formation exacerbates CO 2 emissions, but declines the EF. • Urbanization has asymmetric effects on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]