How Do Economic Growth, Renewable Energy Consumption, and Political Stability Affect Environmental Sustainability in the United States? Insights from a Modified Ecological Footprint Model

Abstract

AbstractIn the last century, global warming and environmental pollution issues have reached the levels that threaten humanity. Competition on economic growth is considered one of the primary causes of environmental pollution. It has increased the significance of sustainable development and renewable energy consumption. Within the scope of sustainable development, the countries with large economies bear a greater responsibility to reduce environmental pollution. This study aims to investigate the effect of economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and political stability on environmental degradation in the United States (US) for the period 1984–2017. A comprehensive econometric analysis is conducted by using the Fourier Autoregressive Distributed Lag (FARDL) test in this study. The results of the cointegration tests indicate that economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and political stability are cointegrated with the ecological footprint pressure index representing the environmental degradation. The FARDL test results reveal that economic growth increases environmental degradation, whereas renewable energy consumption and political stability mitigate environmental degradation in both the short- and long-run. This study provides policy recommendations aiming to increase renewable energy consumption and political stability within the context of sustainable development.