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Environmental degradation has become a severe concern across South Asia. Hence, it is imperative to model the macroeconomic determinants of environmental quality across this region. The traditional fossil fuel dependency of the major South Asian nations is alleged to have persistently deteriorated the quality of the environment across this region. Under such circumstances, it can be hypothesized that intra-regional trade within South Asia can facilitate renewable electricity trade to enhance environmental well-being. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate the impacts of intra-regional trade integration, renewable energy transition, economic growth, and foreign direct investment inflows on the ecological footprints of selected South Asian economies. The econometric methods used in this study are suited for handling cross-sectionally dependent heterogeneous panel datasets. The overall results reveal that promoting intra-regional trade, stimulating renewable energy transition, expediting economic growth, and impeding inflows of dirty foreign direct investments are imperative for reducing the ecological footprint figures of the South Asian nations of concern. Besides, the results also verify the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for the South Asian panel as well as for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan but not for India and Pakistan. Moreover, the pollution haven hypothesis is also verified for both the panel and the individual South Asian countries. In line with these findings, several environmental welfare improvement-related policies are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of economic sectors’ foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth by validating the resource curse hypothesis in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Applying OLS (Fixed and Random effects), Instrumental Variables (IV) and Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML) estimations, empirical results indicate that resource-FDI inflows hinder economic growth in the GCC economies, while non-resource FDI has an insignificant effect on growth. Moreover, the total Greenfield FDI inflows deter economic growth in GCC economies. These results give evidence on the crowding-out effect of resource-FDI. This paper opens new insights for policymakers in designing a comprehensive policy on direct FDI inflows (resource and non-resource) to stimulate growth for attaining sustainable economic development for the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the dynamic effect of non-renewable energy, renewable energy, economic growth, and foreign direct investment on environmental degradation in twenty selected African countries over the period 2000–2015. We have adopted Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis and the Pollution Haven/Halo hypothesis simultaneously. In the first stage, this paper performs cross-independence test and found cross-sectional dependence in carbon emissions, non-renewable energy, and renewable energy. In the second stage, it applies first generation and second generation unit root tests for panel data and found that all concerning variables are I(1) except for economic growth which is found I(0). Therefore, we used the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach using Pooled Mean Group, Mean Group, and Dynamic Fixed Effect estimators. The results indicate that all independent variables are significant and positive to CO 2 emissions except for renewable energy found significant and negative to CO2 emissions, and foreign direct investment found significant and positive only in the long term. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis did not hold in our sample, while we found strong evidence for the Pollution Haven hypothesis in selected African countries. • non-renewable energy, renewable energy, economic growth, and foreign direct investment-CO 2 emissions relationship is investigated. • Positive effect of non-renewable energy and negative effect of renewable energy are found. • The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis does not hold. • The Pollution Haven hypothesis is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sectors contribute differently to the total level of CO 2 emissions per capita, since they are heterogeneous in terms of GDP structure. This work investigates the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis considering a set of twelve of the fourteen OPEC countries. It contributes to previous literature exploring the Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship by analysing how economic activity sector diversification impacts the relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions, addressing an important identified gap. To address this gap, annual data from 1992 to 2015 is used. A panel cross-section analysis is provided between countries, and for the seven considered sectors, is estimated through panel corrected standard errors and convergence estimations are presented. Conclusions point to the relocation of pollution-intensive sectors to almost all of the OPEC countries. For all countries, a U-shaped relationship is evidenced, implying that economic growth in oil-producing and exporting countries increases environmental degradation. While energy consumption increases environmental damage, trade openness seems to have a significant and negative effect over emissions, leading to environmental improvements. This study points out that OPEC countries will have increased challenges facing them in terms of environmental degradation and only a few economic activity sectors can conduct environmental improvements through growth. The inclusion of oil prices increased coefficients magnitude. Probably these sectors are already allocating more labour and capital in projects and investments on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy savings, substituting fossil fuels like oil. • Economic activity sectors diversification influences EKC hypothesis?. • Different degrees of environmental awareness are evidenced by sector. • Trade openness reveals to have a significant and negative effect over emissions. • Deterministic and stochastic convergence differences in sectors and countries. • Relocation of pollution-intensive sectors to almost all of the OPEC countries needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]