Does technological advancement impede ecological footprint level? The role of natural resources prices volatility, foreign direct investment and renewable energy in China

The relation among technological advancement and ecological footprint level hold critical implications for the development of sound environmental policies. However, as critical this phenomenon is, it has not got proper attention from the scholars, the available results in this matter are still unclear. In addition, the explicit role of natural resources price volatilities toward shaping ecological footprint level is also ignored by the existing research. Therefore, considering the critical nature of the matter which can provide foundations for policy making, the study aims to explore to what extent technological advancement impede or expediate ecological footprint level in China. Further, the study also tries to determine the role of natural resources prices volatility, foreign direct investment, and renewable energy toward ecological footprint level. Drawing the data from WDI and ecological footprint network over the period of 1990-2017, we applied FMOLS, DOLS, CCR and spectral causality techniques to estimate results of this paper. The findings from the comprehensive analysis reveal that technological advancement impede ecological footprint level in the long run. Whereas, in the short and medium term, the results were found insignificant. Natural resources and renewable energy use also impede ecological footprint level in the long run. However, the results have shown that FDI positively influence the ecological footprint level, in other words, FDI expediate ecological footprint level in China. Based upon the findings of this paper, several policy implications have been discussed.

Automated summary

The study explores the relationship between technological advancement, ecological footprint level, and other factors in China. The findings show that technological advancement hinders ecological footprint level in the long run, while natural resources and renewable energy use also have negative effects. On the other hand, foreign direct investment has a positive influence on ecological footprint level.