Abstract
The study empirically examines the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypotheses by investigating the relationship between ecological footprint, economic growth, energy consumption, and population growth. The study uses ecological footprint as a measurement of environmental degradation which is a more comprehensive indicator and considers all factors responsible for environmental degradation. Kee** in view the problem of cross-sectional dependence, a more efficient estimation tools like pooled mean group and augmented mean group have been used to estimate the long-run parameters for 22 European countries from 1995 through 2015. Results of the study found a quadratic relationship between income growth and ecological footprint and support validity of EKC. Energy consumption positively contributes to ecological footprint, while population growth plays no significant role in determining environmental quality. The long-run estimates of the study are validated through robustness analysis by employing dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) techniques. Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel non-causality test indicated that there is a unidirectional causality running from GDP to ecological footprint while bidirectional causality running between energy consumption and ecological footprint. The study identified that population growth in European region is not a severe issue as compared to intensive energy consumption. Policies which restrict emission, deforestation, and water pollution should be adopted for sustainability of environment.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The authors are grateful to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for providing scholarship for the whole study duration of corresponding author. The valuable suggestions of Houda Hafidi, Centre for Environmental Economics Montpellier, were quite helpful in improving the quality of this study.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. This study is the part of doctoral theses by Muhammad Saqib and is supervised by Francois Benhmad. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Muhammad Saqib and Francois Benhmad. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Muhammad Saqib, and Francois Benhmad commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Saqib, M., Benhmad, F. Does ecological footprint matter for the shape of the environmental Kuznets curve? Evidence from European countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 13634–13648 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11517-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11517-1