RESUMO
This study attempts to unveil an additional dimension to economic freedom within the framework of the environmental Kuznet curve (EKC) hypothesis using the panel data for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) economies over the period 1995-2018. Firstly, the study found that the EKC hypothesis is valid only in the long run for the panel countries. Secondly, we found that economic freedom mimics the pattern of economic output. Thus, when economic freedom is employed in lieu of economic growth, the EKC hypothesis is also validated only in the long run. Importantly, when both economic freedom and output are employed alongside, they produce the same carbon mitigation effect in each of the short-run and long-run periods. Thirdly, the country-specific evidence of the role of economic freedom and output in environmental quality is not less of a U-shaped relationship in the short run. Lastly, the impact of the bloc's energy mix (coal, natural gas, and oil energy utilization) on environmental quality is undesirable in both the short and long run; only in South Africa natural gas has the potential to mitigate carbon emissions. Overall, the study offers relevant policy measures for attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target to combat climate change and its impacts.
Assuntos
Dióxido de Carbono , Desenvolvimento Econômico , Brasil , Dióxido de Carbono/análise , China , Liberdade , Índia , Energia Renovável , Federação Russa , África do SulRESUMO
The objective of this study is to investigate the role of democracy, ecological footprint, economic growth, and globalisation in enhancing sustainable electricity consumption in an ecological reserve-based country of Brazil over the period 1971-2014. To achieve this objective, the minimum Lagrange multiplier (LM) unit root and Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration tests are applied. The model is estimated using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FM-OLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimation procedures. The empirical results suggest that all the variables have a positive and significant effect on electricity consumption. This implies that increasing the level of these variables would stimulate electricity consumption. The long-run causality results indicate a one-way causality running from ecological footprint, democracy, and globalisation to electricity consumption. The results further discover that causality flows from ecological footprint, democracy, and globalisation to economic growth. In addition, a long-run bidirectional causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth is uncovered. In the short run, the result validates a bidirectional causality between ecological footprint and electricity consumption. More so, electricity consumption causes economic growth and democracy, whilst economic growth causes globalisation. The results are validated by the innovation accounting tests. The policy implication of the findings is that ecological-based conservation policies could have negative consequences on economic growth and electricity consumption because of a significant dependence of these two variables on the ecological footprint. Therefore, to guarantee sustainable electricity consumption, sufficient and sustainable green energy and optimum energy mix should be encouraged by the stakeholders.