The effects of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint: the role of environmental policy in BRICS countries

This study aims to investigate the impact of economic growth, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, industrialization, and environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint in the BRICS countries over the period of 1995-2016. Series of the advanced econometric method, such as the novel dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) method and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality tests, are employed for scrutinizing the estimations of the long-run and causal relationships among variables. The results suggested that the economic growth, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, and industry have a positive relationship to the ecological footprint, while environmental policy stringency has been described in the BRICS countries as having a negative relationship with the ecological footprint. In addition, the bidirectional relationship is found between (i) the ecological footprint and economic growth and (ii) the ecological footprint and renewable energy consumption.

Automated summary

The study found that economic growth, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, and industry have a positive relationship with the ecological footprint, while environmental policy stringency has a negative relationship with the ecological footprint. Additionally, a bidirectional relationship was found between the ecological footprint and economic growth, and the ecological footprint and renewable energy consumption.