Abstract
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) economies have yet to meaningfully contribute to accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7) affordable and clean energy, (SDG 8) decent work and economic growth, and (SDG 13) climate action. Dealing with this issue might require a shift or alteration of policy framework that is the major theme of this study. Consequently, this present research inspects the influence of economic growth, transportation, tourism sector development, and renewable energy on ecological footprint using panel time series from 1990 and 2019 for the BIMSTEC region. To evaluate this dynamic nexus between the mentioned environmental pollution drivers of ecological footprint, this study employed the augumented mean group (AMG) and common correlated effect mean group (CCEMG) regression estimators after detection of cross-sectional dependency. The empirical outcomes denote that economic growth and transportation sector of BIMSTEC countries increase the levels of ecological footprint. Conversely, tourism sector development, globalization, and renewable energy protect the ecological excellence in the region. Moreover, it is observed that a unidirectional causality exists from economic growth to ecological footprint, ecological footprint to transportation, tourism to ecological footprint, and globalization to ecological footprint, while bidirectional causality exists between renewable energy and ecological footprint. By observing the positive function of tourism, green energy, and globalization on sustainable environment progress, central authorities are capable to redesign policies concerning supportable efficient technologies and regulate globalization towards green programs and agenda to reduce global warming.
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are variability from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand
Ecological deficit refers to the situation where the demand for natural resources and ecosystem services exceeds the capacity of the environment to provide them sustainably. This occurs when human activities like overconsumption, pollution, and habitat destruction degrade natural systems and reduce their ability to support life. As a result, there is an imbalance between the resources consumed and the resources regenerated, leading to a depletion of natural capital and a decline in ecosystem health.
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Muhammad Naveed: introduction, methodology, writing-original draft preparation. Md Minhazul Islam: visualization, writing original draft and preparation. Muhammad Usman: conceptualization, project administration, supervision, software, formal analysis, revised draft, interpreted results, validation, writing-original draft preparation, review, and editing. Mustafa Kamal: literature review, validation, finalizing manuscript, review, and editing. Mohammad Faisal Khan: finalizing manuscript, review, and editing.
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Naveed, M., Islam, M., Usman, M. et al. Demystifying the association between economic development, transportation, tourism, renewable energy, and ecological footprint in Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation region during globalization mode. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 120137–120154 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30706-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30706-2