Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Ecofeminism or techno-centrism? Analysing the gender-environment concoction in the Anthropocene: a study of OECD countries

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

Abstract

Women’s participation and technological innovation have a crucial role in ensuring environmental sustainability in the long-run. However, the nature of this relationship has diverse opinions across the continuum. The present study focuses on the empirical relevance of this debate based on the theoretical underpinnings of ecofeminism and techno-centrism, using panel data on 37 OECD countries for the period 1990–2019. Employing the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach, the study constructs two models, based on ecofeminism and techno-centrism, respectively, and finds that both have a negative and significant impact on environmental degradation measured by the ecological footprint. The results suggest that equality of women in the labour markets and technological innovation through R&D expenditure are both viable developmental tools for ensuring environmental sustainability. Moreover, the empirical estimation also confirms the existence of an N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve between economic growth and environmental degradation in the case of selected OECD countries in both ecofeminist and techno-centric models.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data used in the study has been extracted from open sources and can be obtained upon request to the corresponding author.

References

  • Greening AL, Greene DL, Difiglio C (2000) Energy efficiency and consumption—the rebound effect—a survey. Energy Policy 28(6):389–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4215(00)00021-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal B (1992) The gender and environment debate: lessons from India. Fem Stud 18(1):119–158. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allenby BR, Graedel TE (1999) Defining the environmentally responsible facility. National Academies Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Álvarez-Herránz A, Balsalobre D, Cantos JM, Shahbaz M (2017) Energy innovations-GHG emissions nexus: fresh empirical evidence from OECD countries. Energy Policy 101:90–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ausubel JH (1996) Can technology spare the earth. Am Sci 84(2):166–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagliani M, Bravo G, Dalmazzone S (2008) A consumption-based approach to environmental Kuznets curves using the ecological footprint indicator. Ecol Econ 65(3):650–661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bilgili F, Khan M, Awan A (2022) Is there a gender dimension of the environmental Kuznets curve? Evidence from Asian countries. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1–32

  • Bilgili F, Koçak E, Bulut Ü (2016) The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a revisited environmental Kuznets curve approach. Renew Sust Energ Rev 54:838–845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlassare E (2000) Socialist and cultural ecofeminism: allies in resistance. Ethics Environ 5(1):89–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carolan MS (2005). Realism without reductionism: toward an ecologically embedded sociology. Human Ecology Review, 1–20

  • Churchill SA, Inekwe J, Ivanovski K, Smyth R (2018) The environmental Kuznets curve in the OECD: 1870–2014. Energy Econ 75:389–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clement MT (2011). The Jevons paradox and anthropogenic global warming: a panel analysis of state-level carbon emissions in the United States, 1963-1997. Society and Natural Resources, 24(9), 951–961. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920903482937

  • Dagar V, Khan MK, Alvarado R, Rehman A, Irfan M, Adekoya OB, Fahad S (2022) Impact of renewable energy consumption, financial development and natural resources on environmental degradation in OECD countries with dynamic panel data. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(12):18202–18212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dinda S (2004) Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: a survey. Ecol Econ 49(4):431–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dumitrescu E-I, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29(4):1450–1460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle RF, Granger CW (1987) Co-integration and error correction: representation, estimation, and testing. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 251–276

  • Ergas C, York R (2012) Women’s status and carbon dioxide emissions: a quantitative cross-national analysis. Soc Sci Res 41(4):965–976

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster JB, Clark B, York R (2008) Critique of intelligent design: materialism versus creationism from antiquity to the present. MIT Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganda F (2019) The impact of innovation and technology investments on carbon emissions in selected organisation for economic co-operation and development countries. J Clean Prod 217:469–483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan C (1993) In a different voice: psychological theory and women’s development. Harvard University Press

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1991) Environmental impacts of a North American free trade agreement. National Bureau of economic research Cambridge, Mass., USA

  • Im KS, Pesaran MH, Shin Y (2003) Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. J Econ 115(1):53–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jebli MB, Youssef SB, Ozturk I (2016) Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade in OECD countries. Ecol Indic 60:824–831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan H, Weili L, Khan I (2022a) Institutional quality, financial development and the influence of environmental factors on carbon emissions: evidence from a global perspective. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(9):13356–13368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16626-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan I, Zakari A, Ahmad M, Irfan M, Hou F (2022b) Linking energy transitions, energy consumption, and environmental sustainability in OECD countries. Gondwana Res 103:445–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan Y, Khan MA (2021) Determinants of carbon emission, environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: an empirical evidence from India. Intl J Energy Environ Econ 29(1):1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan Y, Khan MA, Zafar S (2023) Dynamic linkages among energy consumption, urbanization and ecological footprint: empirical evidence from NARDL approach. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal

  • Khanday IN, Wani IU, Tarique M (2023a) Do financial development and institutional quality matter for ecological sustainability in the long run? Evidence from India. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal

  • Khanday IN Tarique M, Wani IU, Dar MH (2023b) Poverty and financial development: an asymmetric and nonlinear ARDL analysis for India. J Econ Stud

  • Khurshid A, Deng X (2021) Innovation for carbon mitigation: a hoax or road toward green growth? Evidence from newly industrialized economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:6392–6404

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khurshid A, Qayyum S, Calin AC, Saleem SF, Nazir N (2022a) The role of pricing strategies, clean technologies, and ecological regulation on the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda. Environ Sci Pollut Res, 1–14

  • Khurshid A, Rauf A, Qayyum S, Calin AC, Duan W (2022b) Green innovation and carbon emissions: the role of carbon pricing and environmental policies in attaining sustainable development targets of carbon mitigation—evidence from Central-Eastern Europe. Environ Dev Sustain, 1–22

  • Li Z, Khurshid A, Rauf A, Qayyum S, Calin AC, Iancu LA, Wang X (2023) Climate change and the UN-2030 agenda: do mitigation technologies represent a driving factor? New evidence from OECD economies. Clean Techn Environ Policy 25(1):195–209

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lomborg B (2008) The skeptical environmentalist’s guide to global warming. Iowa Public Television

    Google Scholar 

  • Lv Z, Deng C (2019) Does women’s political empowerment matter for improving the environment? A heterogeneous dynamic panel analysis. Sustain Dev 27(4):603–612

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKinney LA, Fulkerson GM (2015) Gender equality and climate justice: a cross-national analysis. Soc Justice Res 28(3):293–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mtar K, Belazreg W (2021) Causal nexus between innovation, financial development, and economic growth: the case of OECD countries. J Knowl Econ 12(1):310–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-020-00628-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mujtaba A, Jena PK, Bekun FV, Sahu PK (2022) Symmetric and asymmetric impact of economic growth, capital formation, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on environment in OECD countries. Renew Sust Energ Rev 160:112300

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Naiga R, Penker M, Hogl K (2017) Women’s crucial role in collective operation and maintenance of drinking water infrastructure in rural Uganda. Soc Nat Resour 30(4):506–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2016.1274460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD Climate Change—OECD (2021) https://www.oecd.org/climate-change/

  • Özokcu S, Özdemir Ö (2017) Economic growth, energy, and environmental Kuznets curve. Renew Sust Energ Rev 72:639–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panwar NL, Kaushik SC, Kothari S (2011) Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection: a review. Renew Sust Energ Rev 15(3):1513–1524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pattison A, Habans R, Clement MT (2014) Ecological modernization or aristocratic conservation? Exploring the impact of affluence on carbon emissions at the local level. Soc Nat Resour 27(8):850–866. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2014.911996

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels with multiple regressors. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 61(S1):653–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedroni P (2004) Panel cointegration: asymptotic and finite sample properties of pooled time series tests with an application to the PPP hypothesis. Econometric Theory 20(3):597–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2004) General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels. IZA, Bonn, Germany

  • Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. J Appl Econ 22(2):265–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH, Shin Y, Smith RP (1999) Pooled mean group estimation of dynamic heterogeneous panels. J Am Stat Assoc 94(446):621–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman MM (2017) Do population density, economic growth, energy use and exports adversely affect environmental quality in Asian populous countries? Renew Sust Energ Rev 77:506–514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman MM, Alam K, Velayutham E (2022) Reduction of CO2 emissions: the role of renewable energy, technological innovation and export quality. Energy Rep 8:2793–2805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.01.200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadorsky P (2013) Do urbanization and industrialization affect energy intensity in developing countries? Energy Econ 37:52–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.01.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz PW, Zelezny L (1999) Values as predictors of environmental attitudes: evidence for consistency across 14 countries. J Environ Psychol 19(3):255–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon J (2005) The ultimate resource. Princeton, NJ. Princeton Univ. Press. Simpson, John Warfield.

  • Singh N (2006) Women’s participation in local water governance: understanding institutional contradictions. Gend Technol Dev 10(1):61–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/097185240501000104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorrell S, Gatersleben B, Druckman A (2020) The limits of energy sufficiency: a review of the evidence for rebound effects and negative spillovers from behavioural change. Energy Res Soc Sci 64:101439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steffen W, Grinevald J, Crutzen P, McNeill J (2011) The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Phys Eng Sci, 369(1938), 842–867

  • Stern PC, Dietz T, Kalof L (1993) Value orientations, gender, and environmental concern. Environ Behav 25(5):322–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su CW, Liu F, Stefea P, Umar M (2023) Does technology innovation help to achieve carbon neutrality? Economic Analysis and Policy, 78, 1–14. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2023.01.010

  • Sun Y, Yesilada F, Andlib Z, Ajaz T (2021) The role of eco-innovation and globalization towards carbon neutrality in the USA. J Environ Manag 299:113568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113568

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taghvaee VM, Nodehi M, Saboori B (2022) Economic complexity and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: sector-wise environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(53):80860–80870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uddin GA, Salahuddin M, Alam K, Gow J (2017) Ecological footprint and real income: panel data evidence from the 27 highest emitting countries. Ecol Indic 77:166–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Udemba EN (2021) Mitigating environmental degradation with institutional quality and foreign direct investment (FDI): new evidence from asymmetric approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(32):43669–43683

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ulucak R, Ozcan B (2020) Relationship between energy consumption and environmental sustainability in OECD countries: the role of natural resources rents. Res Policy 69:101803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang K-H, Umar M, Akram R, Caglar E (2021) Is technological innovation making world ‘Greener’? An evidence from changing growth story of China. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 165:120516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang X, Khurshid A, Qayyum S, Calin AC (2022) The role of green innovations, environmental policies and carbon taxes in achieving the sustainable development goals of carbon neutrality. Environ Sci Pollut Res, 1–15

  • Wood EM, Foster JB (2006) In defense of history; Marxism and the postmodern agenda. Aakar Books

  • Xue L, Haseeb M, Mahmood H, Alkhateeb TTY, Murshed M (2021) Renewable energy use and ecological footprints mitigation: evidence from selected South Asian economies. Sustainability 13(4):1613

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yazgan Ş, Yalçinkaya Ö (2018) The effects of research and development (R&D) investments on sustainable economic growth: evidence from OECD countries (1996-2015). Rev Econ Perspect 18(1):3–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • York R, Clark B (2010) Critical materialism: science, technology, and environmental sustainability. Sociol Inq 80(3):475–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zelezny LC, Chua P, Aldrich C (2000) Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism-statistical data included. J Soc Issues 56(3):443–445

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    Inayat Ullah Wani, Ishfaq Nazir Khanday & Shaukat Haseen

Authors
  1. Inayat Ullah Wani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ishfaq Nazir Khanday
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shaukat Haseen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. IUW conceived the idea of the study, reviewed the relevant literature, and performed the econometric modelling included in the paper. INK formulated the basic design of the paper and extracted the relevant data from the declared sources. SH helped in providing a proper theoretical background to the study. The first draft of the manuscript was written by IUW and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Inayat Ullah Wani.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

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

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wani, I.U., Khanday, I.N. & Haseen, S. Ecofeminism or techno-centrism? Analysing the gender-environment concoction in the Anthropocene: a study of OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 115021–115036 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30598-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30598-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation