Factors Affecting Environmental Pollution for Sustainable Development Goals—Evidence from Asian Countries

Abstract

The world is faced with climate change and gradual increases in seawater and carbon dioxide levels, and leaders of countries all over the world need to take action in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper aims to identify the factors affecting environmental pollution in Asian countries for sustainable development. This study collected data from the World Bank covering 2000–2020 for 15 Asian countries. The data were processed via STATA 17.0; the study employed the unrestricted fixed effect to solve the research problems. The empirical results suggest that electricity consumption, fossil fuel consumption, renewable consumption, population, imports, and exports affected environmental pollution in the 15 Asian countries. In addition, electricity consumption and fossil fuel consumption had a strong positive effect on Asia’s environmental pollution. Moreover, population and renewable consumption negatively affected CO2 emissions. These results indicate that, if an Asian country’s electricity consumption increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will increase by 0.674%; if an Asian country’s fossil fuel consumption increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will increase by 0.203%; if an Asian country’s renewable consumption increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will decrease by 0.01568%; if an Asian country’s export of goods and services increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will decrease by 0.054%; if an Asian country’s import of goods and services increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will increase by 0.067%; if an Asian country’s population increases by 1%, then its CO2 emissions will decrease by 0.2586%. Based on the empirical results, the study suggests new policies for green energy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).