Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The influence of energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation in BRICS countries: an application of the ARDL model and decoupling index

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The multi-dimensional pollutions in the earth zone due to the degradation of the environmental levels have been emerging as an urgent issue in the developing economies. The BRICS group of countries holds a unique position in the emerging economies, playing a leading role in reinforcing political power globally and domestically. This study examines the annual time series over the period of 1971–2017 for Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, and 1990–2017 for Russia, to explore the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth in correspondence with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis as well as the Decoupling Index (DI). The presence of an EKC strongly supports any of the individualistic environmental determinants effected in the long run by Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), building linkage with the approach of the co-integration and the DI, which brings about economic growth as well as CO2 emission and environmental degradation simultaneously. A short-run relationship and presence of the EKC hypothesis are observed in Brazil, Russia, and India with 92%, while China’s (55%) and South Africa’s (79%) have a slower speed of adjustment to long-run equilibrium. This study concludes that economic expansion and environmental degradation are interrelated in the long run. Environment degradation (CO2 emission) can be eradicated by continuous economic growth, management of energy demands and energy crises, implementation of environmentally sustainable policies, application of green technologies for the use of natural resources, and controllability of urban population growth with immediate and effective actions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Aboagye S (2017) Economic expansion and environmental sustainability nexus in Ghana. African Dev Rev 29:155–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Mulali U, Sab CNBC (2012) The impact of energy consumption and CO2 emission on the economic growth and financial development in the Sub Saharan African countries. Energy 39:180–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Mulali U, Ozturk I, Lean HH (2015) The influence of economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, financial development, and renewable energy on pollution in Europe. Nat Hazards 79:621–644

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreoni J, Levinson A (2001) The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve. J Public Econ 80:269–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Antweiler W, Copeland BR, Taylor MS (2001) Is free trade good for the environment? Am Econ Rev 91:877–908

    Google Scholar 

  • Arouri MEH, Ben YA, M’henni H, Rault C (2012) Energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions in Middle East and North African countries. Energy Policy 45:342–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Baek J (2015) Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: the case of Arctic countries. Energy Econ 50:13–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Baek J, Cho Y, Koo WW (2009) The environmental consequences of globalization: A country-specific time-series analysis. Ecol Econ 68:2255–2264

    Google Scholar 

  • Baloch MA, Ozturk I, Bekun FV, Khan D (2021) Modeling the dynamic linkage between financial development, energy innovation, and environmental quality: Does globalization matter? Bus Strateg Environ 30:176–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Balsalobre-Lorente D, Driha OM, Leitão NC, Murshed M (2021) The carbon dioxide neutralizing effect of energy innovation on international tourism in EU-5 countries under the prism of the EKC hypothesis. J Environ Manage 298:113513

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bello MO, Solarin SA, Yen YY (2018) The impact of electricity consumption on CO2 emission, carbon footprint, water footprint and ecological footprint: the role of hydropower in an emerging economy. J Environ Manage 219:218–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben Jebli M, Ben Youssef S, Ozturk I (2015) The role of renewable energy consumption and trade: Environmental kuznets curve analysis for sub-saharan Africa countries. African Dev Rev 27:288–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattarai GR, Hite D, Hatch LU, Thompson H (2003) Endogenous Growth Models And The Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Analysis Of Global Environmental Sustainability. (No. 376-2016-20403)

  • Boopen S, Vinesh S (2011) On the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth: the Mauritian experience. In: University of Mauritius, Mauritius Environment Outlook Report, http://www. csae. ox. ac. uk/conferences/2011-EDiA/papers/776-Seetanah. pdf. p 2015

  • Charfeddine L, Kahia M (2019) Impact of renewable energy consumption and financial development on CO2 emissions and economic growth in the MENA region: a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) analysis. Renew Energy 139:198–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole MA, Neumayer E (2004) Examining the impact of demographic factors on air pollution. Popul Environ 26:5–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Costantini V, Martini C (2010) The causality between energy consumption and economic growth: A multi-sectoral analysis using non-stationary cointegrated panel data. Energy Econ 32:591–603

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmawazini K, Manga P, Nwankwo S, AlNaser B (2019) Health gap between developed and developing countries: Does globalization matter? Econ Chang Restruct 52:123–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Farhani S, Shahbaz M, Arouri MEH (2013) Panel analysis of CO2 emissions, GDP, energy consumption, trade openness and urbanization for MENA countries. 2013:1-19

  • Gao J, Zhang L (2014) Electricity consumption–economic growth–CO2 emissions nexus in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from panel cointegration. African Dev Rev 26:359–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassan ST, Xia E, Khan NH, Shah SMA (2019) Economic growth, natural resources, and ecological footprints: evidence from Pakistan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:2929–2938

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossain S (2012) An econometric analysis for CO 2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, foreign trade and urbanization of Japan. Vol. 3 No. 3A (2012) , Article ID: 25022 , 4 pages DOI:https://doi.org/10.4236/lce.2012.323013

  • Hu J, Gui S, Zhang W (2017) Decoupling analysis of China’s product sector output and its embodied carbon emissions—an empirical study based on non-competitive IO and Tapio decoupling model. Sustainability 9:815

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkıns HP, Katırcıoglu ST (2010) The bounds test approach for cointegration and causality between financial development, international trade and economic growth: the case of Cyprus. Appl Econ 42:1699–1707

    Google Scholar 

  • Jevrejeva S, Moore JC, Grinsted A (2010) How will sea level respond to changes in natural and anthropogenic forcings by 2100? Geophys Res Lett 37(7)

  • Kaushal LA, Pathak N (2015) The causal relationship among economic growth, financial development and trade openness in Indian economy. Int J Econ Perspect 9:5–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Khoshnevis Yazdi S, Golestani Dariani A (2019) CO 2 emissions, urbanisation and economic growth: evidence from Asian countries. Econ Res istraživanja 32:510–530

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau LC, Tan KT, Lee KT, Mohamed AR (2009) A comparative study on the energy policies in Japan and Malaysia in fulfilling their nations’ obligations towards the Kyoto Protocol. Energy Policy 37:4771–4778

    Google Scholar 

  • Lise W, Van Montfort K (2007) Energy consumption and GDP in Turkey: Is there a co-integration relationship? Energy Econ 29:1166–1178

    Google Scholar 

  • Marques AC, Fuinhas JA, Leal PA (2018) The impact of economic growth on CO 2 emissions in Australia: the environmental Kuznets curve and the decoupling index. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:27283–27296

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McMichael AJ, Campbell-Lendrum D, Kovats S, et al (2004) Global climate change

  • Mehrara M (2007) Energy consumption and economic growth: the case of oil exporting countries. Energy Policy 35:2939–2945

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohsin M, Zhu Q, Naseem S et al (2021) Mining Industry Impact on Environmental Sustainability, Economic Growth, Social Interaction, and Public Health: An Application of Semi-Quantitative Mathematical Approach. Processes 9:972

    Google Scholar 

  • Murshed M (2020a) Are Trade Liberalization policies aligned with Renewable Energy Transition in low and middle income countries? An Instrumental Variable approach. Renew Energy 151:1110–1123

    Google Scholar 

  • Murshed M (2020b) An empirical analysis of the non-linear impacts of ICT-trade openness on renewable energy transition, energy efficiency, clean cooking fuel access and environmental sustainability in South Asia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:36254–36281

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Murshed M, Alam MS (2021) Estimating the macroeconomic determinants of total, renewable, and non-renewable energy demands in Bangladesh: the role of technological innovations. Environ Sci Pollut Res:1–21

  • Murshed M, Rahman MA, Alam MS et al (2021) The nexus between environmental regulations, economic growth, and environmental sustainability: linking environmental patents to ecological footprint reduction in South Asia. Environ Sci Pollut Res:1–22

  • Naseem S, Fu GL, Mohsin M et al (2020) Semi-Quantitative Environmental Impact Assessment of Khewra Salt Mine of Pakistan: an Application of Mathematical Approach of Environmental Sustainability. Mining, Metall Explor 37:1185–1196

    Google Scholar 

  • Naseem S, Mohsin M, Hui W et al (2021) The investor psychology and stock market behavior during the initial era of COVID-19: a study of China, Japan, and the United States. Front Psychol 12:16

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuroglu E, Kunst RM (2018) Kuznets and environmental Kuznets curves for developing countries. Ind policy Sustain Growth Sustain Dev. Springer, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Omri A, Daly S, Rault C, Chaibi A (2015) Financial development, environmental quality, trade and economic growth: What causes what in MENA countries. Energy Econ 48:242–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Onafowora OA, Owoye O (2014) Bounds testing approach to analysis of the environment Kuznets curve hypothesis. Energy Econ 44:47–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyinlola MA, Adedeji A (2019) Human capital, financial sector development and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Econ Chang Restruct 52:43–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozturk I, Acaravci A (2013) The long-run and causal analysis of energy, growth, openness and financial development on carbon emissions in Turkey. Energy Econ 36:262–267

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozturk I, Al-Mulali U, Saboori B (2016) Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of tourism and ecological footprint. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23:1916–1928

    Google Scholar 

  • Pata UK (2018) Renewable energy consumption, urbanization, financial development, income and CO2 emissions in Turkey: testing EKC hypothesis with structural breaks. J Clean Prod 187:770–779

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran B, Pesaran MH (2010) Time series econometrics using Microfit 5.0: A user’s manual. Oxford University Press, Inc.

  • Phimphanthavong H (2013) The impacts of economic growth on environmental conditions in laos. Int J Bus Manag Econ Res 4:766–774

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasoulinezhad E, Saboori B (2018) Panel estimation for renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, CO 2 emissions, the composite trade intensity, and financial openness of the commonwealth of independent states. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:17354–17370

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruffing K (2007) Indicators to measure decoupling of environmental pressure from economic growth. Sustain Indic A Sci Assess 67:211

    Google Scholar 

  • Saboori B, Bin SJ, Mohd S (2012) An empirical analysis of the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions in Indonesia: the role of energy consumption and foreign trade. Int J Econ Financ 4:243–251

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadorsky P (2010) The impact of financial development on energy consumption in emerging economies. Energy Policy 38:2528–2535

    Google Scholar 

  • Saidi K, Mbarek MB (2017) The impact of income, trade, urbanization, and financial development on CO 2 emissions in 19 emerging economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:12748–12757

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarfraz M, Mohsin M, Naseem S, Kumar A (2021) Modeling the relationship between carbon emissions and environmental sustainability during COVID-19: a new evidence from asymmetric ARDL cointegration approach. Environ Dev Sustain:1–19

  • Sarkodie SA, Ozturk I (2020) Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Kenya: a multivariate analysis. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 117:109481

    Google Scholar 

  • Seetanah B, Sannassee RV, Fauzel S et al (2019) Impact of economic and financial development on environmental degradation: evidence from small island developing states (SIDS). Emerg Mark Financ Trade 55:308–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Solarin SA, Bello MO (2018) Persistence of policy shocks to an environmental degradation index: the case of ecological footprint in 128 developed and developing countries. Ecol Indic 89:35–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulaiman C, Abdul-Rahim AS (2018) Population growth and CO2 emission in Nigeria: a recursive ARDL approach. Sage Open 8:2158244018765916

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamazian A, Rao BB (2010) Do economic, financial and institutional developments matter for environmental degradation? Evidence from transitional economies. Energy Econ 32:137–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Ullah S, Ozturk I, Majeed MT, Ahmad W (2021) Do technological innovations have symmetric or asymmetric effects on environmental quality? Evidence from Pakistan. J Clean Prod 316:128239

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulucak R, Lin D (2017) Persistence of policy shocks to Ecological Footprint of the USA. Ecol Indic 80:337–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Usman A, Ozturk I, Hassan A et al (2021) The effect of ICT on energy consumption and economic growth in South Asian economies: an empirical analysis. Telemat Informatics 58:101537

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan Y, Wang C, Ding D et al (2016) Industrial carbon footprint of several typical Chinese textile fabrics. Acta Ecol Sin 36:119–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Yasin I, Ahmad N, Chaudhary MA (2020) Catechizing the environmental-impression of urbanization, financial development, and political institutions: a circumstance of ecological footprints in 110 developed and less-developed countries. Soc Indic Res 147:621–649

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Sobia Naseem

  2. School of Business, Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology, Loudi, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Mohsin

  3. Faisalabad Business School, National Textile University, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Zia-UR-Rehman & Sajjad Ahmad Baig

  4. Binjiang College, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Muddassar Sarfraz

  5. Research Center for Engineering and Management, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 300191, Timisoara, Romania

    Muddassar Sarfraz

Authors
  1. Sobia Naseem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Muhammad Mohsin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Muhammad Zia-UR-Rehman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sajjad Ahmad Baig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Muddassar Sarfraz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: Muhammad Mohsin, Sobia Naseem and Muddassar Sarfraz; Methodology: Muhammad Zia-UR-Rehman; Formal analysis and investigation: Muddassar Sarfraz and Sajjad Ahmad Baig; Writing—original draft preparation: Sobia Naseem, Muhammad Mohsin; Writing—review and editing: Muhammad Zia-UR- Rehman; Funding acquisition: Muddassar Sarfraz; Resources: Sajjad Ahmad Baig; Supervision: Muhammad Zia-UR- Rehman and Muddassar Sarfraz. All authors approved the current study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muddassar Sarfraz.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standard.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Ilhan Ozturk

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Naseem, ., Mohsin, M., Zia-UR-Rehman, M. et al. The influence of energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation in BRICS countries: an application of the ARDL model and decoupling index. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 13042–13055 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16533-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16533-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation