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[Display omitted] • The drivers of ecological footprint are investigated in G-7 nations. • Air transportation increases environmental pollution. • Green technology, environmental tax and globalization curb emissions. • Interaction between air transportation and green technology reduces the emission level. Attaining sustainability has become one of the central goals, and environmental sustainability has received wider attention from policymakers due to its apparent significance. To attain environmental sustainability, developed nations have adopted various pro-environmental interventions, aiming to curb emissions intensities across all sectors directly or indirectly entangled with the environment. In this milieu, the air transportation sector, which is believed to exert a perilous impression on environmental integrity, has received scant attention from scholars. Moreover, the scholarship on the emissions-mediating role of environmental innovation in the air transportation sector is still very nascent. Given that the transportation sector, specifically air transport, plays a crucial role in making commuting easy, the curtailment of the emissions intensities in this sector could have an astounding positive impression on environmental sustainability. Adopting eco-friendly innovations can be a potent way to attain green transportation in the air transportation sector. Thus, the present study investigates the impact of air transportation, globalization, environmental tax, and green innovation on the ecological footprint in the G7 countries from 1994 to 2020 using the novel MMQR approach. Findings reveal that environmental tax, green innovation, and globalization play a key role in mitigating environmental pollution while air transportation accelerates emissions. Furthermore, the interaction of air transportation and green innovation was found to significantly mitigate environmental contamination, thereby proving an effective way to decarbonize the air transportation sector in the G7 countries. The findings suggest the need to invest extensively in eco-friendly technologies, especially in the air transportation sector, support globalization, and consolidate the existing environmental tax system to meet the ecological sustainability target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity consumption is a crucial factor in the environmental pollution process, and therefore, its impact needs to be carefully considered by policymakers. This study investigates the relationship between energy consumption, electricity generation, natural resource utilization, and environmental pollution in BRICS nations, which have a substantial share in global resource consumption. To this end, we employed a novel methodology, namely the Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR), for the time period between 1990 and 2018, within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory. The study's outcome shows that natural resources and renewable energy are efficacious and significant in curbing environmental degradation among the sample countries. The investigation reveals a positive correlation between electricity consumption and environmental degradation, thereby highlighting this vital resource's role in exacerbating the BRICS nations' ecological footprint. The findings from this research can provide crucial insights for policymakers to achieve sustainable development and carbon neutrality in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Macroeconomic determinants of ecological footprint in top nuclear energy nations. • Nuclear energy, military expenditure and human capital help to reduce the environmental decay. • The N shaped EKC hypothesis is valid for the top nuclear energy nations. Regardless of the ongoing debate, the shape of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis plays a critical role in determining the dynamic relationship between environmental sustainability and economic activities across different nations of the world. It is widely accepted that with cleaner fuel options (i.e., nuclear and renewables), economic amelioration will have the least negative environmental externalities. Banking on this matter, it is anticipated that the top nuclear energy-producing nations might have obtained environmental sustainability amid the eye-catching incessant economic amelioration. In other words, we expect that there exists an inverted U-shaped EKC among these nuclear energy-rich nations. However, the hypothesis that an N-shaped EKC does not exist among these nations is yet to be scrutinized. To address this research gap, we have deployed annual time-series data from 1990 to 2018 and adopted the novel Dynamic Common Correlated Effects Approach. The results unearth that the N-shaped EKC hypothesis is valid in the case of the top nuclear energy-producing nations, revealing that the energy sector that is fueling the economic growth among these nations is still highly dependent on fossil-based sources. We also noted that nuclear energy generation ameliorates environmental quality among the designated countries. Additionally, the empirical results further delineate that military spending and human capital are negatively associated with ecological footprint among the selected nations, revealing that national security and education can help reshape, rebound and restore the biocapacity surplus among the designated countries. We propose that the chosen nations develop a more biased energy mix structure with more nuclear and renewable energy sources in the basket to keep the growth process untapped. By doing this, the N-shaped EKC can be avoided. Further policy insights have been made in the relevant section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The G-7 economies comprise a few of the global, mainly economically developed countries. On the other hand, in conjunction with these high economic development performances, the ecological behaviors in G-7 anions have concurrently provoked to elevate deep apprehensions among the stakeholders. Therefore, the present research aims to empirically investigate the environmental influences of nuclear energy, industrialization, fossil fuel energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the G-7 nations between 1991 and 2018. After checking the cross-sectional dependency, this study employed the first-generation ((full modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS)) and second-generation (Driscoll and Kraay (D-K), feasible generalized least square (FGLS)) approaches for robust and reliable findings. The findings explore that nuclear energy production is ineffective in curbing the figure of ecological footprints in the long-run. Moreover, the industrialization process and fossil fuel energy consumption reduce environmental quality in the G-7 economies. More to the point, the empirical findings recommend that these nations can renovate their industrial production procedures in an eco-friendly behavior they can experience an unsoiled deployment of the energy transition. Similarly, the FDI also degrades environmental eminence in the long-run. This validates the pollution haven hypothesis in the G-7 countries. Based on these results, this study suggests the G-7 nations should reduce the production of nuclear energy levels, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy production in the industrial sector, reduce fossil fuel-based foreign investment, and assimilate ecological welfare strategies within their development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question still remains whether financial development, natural resources, and energy consumption can successfully alleviate environmental pollution during the mode of globalization. In this regard, this study presents empirical evidence of supporting this theoretical argument, exploring the influence of financial development, natural resources, globalization, non-renewable and renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint in financially resource-rich countries from 1990 to 2018. The empirical findings confirm the strong cross-sectional dependence across cross-sections. Therefore, the second-generation panel data approach is applied to produce more robust and reliable results. The results explore that financial development, natural resources, and non-renewable energy positively affect the ecological footprint, while globalization and renewable energy reduce the ecological footprint in these countries. Similarly, the interaction between financial development integration with globalization and renewable energy usage with natural resources is confirmed to reduce environmental deterioration. Additionally, bidirectional causality discovers between financial development, non-renewable energy, renewable energy, and ecological footprint; however, unidirectional causality is significantly running from natural resources towards ecological footprint and ecological footprint towards globalization. Therefore, these countries require improving financial and natural resource structures and further upgrading of renewable energy consumption. Moreover, globalization plays a vital role in reducing ecological deterioration and requires instantaneous policy reactions in these countries. • We used the dynamic process of globalization in the V-finite lag distribution structure. • Renewable energy significantly reduces the level of environmental pollution. • Interaction between globalization and financial development reduces the emission level. • Natural resources, non-renewables and financial development increase environmental pollution. • Growth hypothesis exists between natural resources and ecological footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]