Importance of natural energy, and blue resources to address environmental challenges in view of the Saudi Vision 2030

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to scrutinize the impact of natural resources, energy, and blue economic indicators on the ecological footprint of Saudi Arabia over the period from 1993 to 2022 by employing a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. We have simulated the missing data using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The study encompasses the effects of post‐Vision 2030 and post‐COVID‐19 policies and their assistance in minimizing the environmental footprint. The observed results determine that non‐renewable energy consumption increases the ecological footprint, whereas natural resources and biocapacity drop the ecological footprints in the case of pre‐ and post‐Vision 2030. For variable fisheries production, the post‐ and pre‐Vision 2030 results demonstrate a boosted ecological footprint in Saudi Arabia, with the highest coefficient among all results. This research offers valuable insights into how Saudi Arabia's energy consumption and natural resource management impact its ecological footprint, highlighting the effectiveness of Vision 2030 and post‐COVID policies in promoting environmental sustainability. The study's findings provide crucial guidance for policy making to reduce environmental impact while considering the role of fisheries and biocapacity in ecological balance. Based on empirical findings, this study commends some policy understandings that assist in being effectively implemented towards a sustainable environment.