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The role of ecological footprint and the changes in degree days on environmental sustainability in the USA

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Abstract

In addition to the adverse effect of extreme weather and weather variation across the globe, the ecological deficit accounting associated with the USA is perceived to have further worsen the country’s environmental quality. Considering the aforementioned motivation, this study examined the effects of cooling degree days, heating degree days and ecological footprint on environmental degradation in the USA over the period of 1960 to 2016. While employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Bounds testing to cointegration approaches, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is further incorporated in the estimation model to avoid estimation bias thus enhancing a robust estimate. The result overwhelmingly found that the cooling degree days, the heating degree days and the ecological footprint accounting aggravates the country’s environmental degradation. Worse still, the study further presents that there is short-run adverse impacts of the heating and cooling degree days, and the short-run and long-run ecological footprint on the country’s environmental sustainability. Moreover, there is statistical evidence that the income growth in the USA especially in the long run will not also improve the environmental quality. Irrespective of the income-environmental degradation long-run relationship, the relieving impact of income growth on environmental degradation is observed in the short run. In general, the study presents relevant policy pathway for implementation.

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Notes

  1. The cooling and heating degree days for the USA (from the aggregate of 48 states, available in https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heating-and-cooling-degree-days).

  2. Dietz and Rosa (1994, 1997) had presented the determinants of carbon emissions in the framework of STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model. However, Ehrlich and Holdren (1971) initially proposed the IPAT model to study the nexus of economic growth and environmental resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Development, Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria

    Seyi Saint Akadiri

  2. Department of Economics, Faculty of Administrative and Social Science, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Andrew Adewale Alola

  3. Department of Financial Technologies, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia

    Andrew Adewale Alola

  4. Department of Tourism Guidance, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Uju Violet Alola

  5. School of Economics and Management, South Ural State University, Lenin prospect 76, Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation, 454080

    Uju Violet Alola

  6. Department of Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University, KKTC, Turkey

    Chioma Sylvia Nwambe

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  1. Seyi Saint Akadiri
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  2. Andrew Adewale Alola
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  3. Uju Violet Alola
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  4. Chioma Sylvia Nwambe
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Correspondence to Andrew Adewale Alola.

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Akadiri, S.S., Alola, A.A., Alola, U.V. et al. The role of ecological footprint and the changes in degree days on environmental sustainability in the USA. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 24929–24938 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08884-0

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