Does sustainable growth, energy consumption and environment challenges matter for Belt and Road Initiative feat? A novel empirical investigation

The concept of modernization and globalization urges a tendency of bilateral cooperation and strategical relationships among the nations. Recently, China has taken the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 to articulate the slogan of Going global strategy. The primary objective of the current study is to explore the nexus between energy consumption, economic growth, population growth, financial development and carbon emission (CO2) for the panel of 65 BRI countries over the period of 1981-2016. Empirical results show that energy consumption, high-tech industry, and economic growth deteriorate environmental quality but financial development and renewable energy consumption have a favorable effect for the environment. The energy consumption is positively and significantly affecting the environmental quality for all regions except the South Asian region. The overall outcomes postulate a weak association of economic indicators with carbon emissions in the long run except for Europe, MENA, and Southeast Asian regions. This present study serves as a blueprint to experts, policymakers and BRI listed government officials suggesting that they should advise the masses and industries to shift towards renewable energy sources. Furthermore, the need to install the water treatment plants near to industrial zones is pertinent. Moreover, the environment monitoring organizations and portfolio investors should arrange awareness campaigns for green investments and renewable energy dependency to accomplish visionary BRI feat. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.