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The role forest resources, energy efficiency, and renewable energy in promoting environmental quality

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Abstract

At a time when environmental concerns are rising in the world, natural resources, such as trees and other green plants, remain the most crucial factors responsible for reducing environmental degradation. Green plants inhale carbon dioxide and prevent the soil from wash and wear, hence their significant role in enhancing environmental quality. Therefore, it is essential to come up with state-of-the-art researches on the role of green plants to the environment. The present research is aimed at adding to the growing body of literature by investigating the effect of forest resources, together with renewable energy and energy efficiency in enhancing environmental quality. In this research, we use the data of the seven emerging countries, seven developed nations and 15 developing west African nations, from 1990 to 2019. The current research adds to the growing body of literature in that it presents a comparative analysis of the three important economic blocks, as well as employing three major methodologies of data analysis, the CS-ARDL, AMG, and CCEMG techniques, which are strong over cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity, and dynamics. Major research outcomes show that renewable energy and energy efficiency negatively affects carbon emissions, while gross domestic product positively affects carbon emissions in all three regions. Population size and forest resources reduces carbon emissions in the emerging countries and seven developed countries, respectively. Non-renewable energy promotes carbon emissions in the seven developed countries, while in the emerging countries it reduces emissions. This research recommends the efficient utilization of energy, use of renewable energy, and forest preservation to promote carbon neutrality goal.

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Data availability

The data used in this paper is secondary data and was retrieved from the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/ and https://data.oecd.org.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the authors of past papers as cited and referenced in this paper. Their contribution to the growing body of literature has made this paper a success

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  1. Economics Department, Near East University, North, 99138, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Thomas Abuobeleye Akpanke, Abraham Deka, Huseyin Ozdeser & Mehdi Seraj

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  1. Thomas Abuobeleye Akpanke
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Thomas Abuobeleye Akpanke Wrote main manuscript text, Abraham Deka analyzed the data and provided results, Mehdi Seraj structured the method and research model, and Huseyin Ozdeser supervised the work. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Abraham Deka.

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Akpanke, T.A., Deka, A., Ozdeser, H. et al. The role forest resources, energy efficiency, and renewable energy in promoting environmental quality. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1071 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11617-8

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