Renewable energy generation, agricultural value added and globalization in relation to environmental degradation in the five most populous countries in Asia

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of globalization, renewable energy generation, and agricultural value addition on the ecological footprint (EF) and carbon emissions (CO2) of selected five most populous countries in Asia during the period 1975–2020. The Westerlund cointegration test supports long-term cointegration relationships among the considered variables in selected countries. The long-term elasticity results of the mean group, augmented mean group, and common correlated effects mean group estimators clearly show that agricultural value added and globalization make significant contributions to the ecological footprint and carbon emissions of the five most populous countries in Asia. However, renewable energy generation significantly reduces the ecological footprint and carbon emissions. Moreover, the impact of gross domestic product (GDP) on ecological footprint and carbon emissions is significantly positive while the impact of GDP2 on ecological footprint and carbon emissions is significantly negative, thus validating the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for specific Asian densely populated countries. The results of the causality test indicated a two-way causality between renewable energy generation and ecological footprint, supporting the feedback hypothesis. There is also a two-way causal relationship between agricultural value added and ecological footprint. Overall, these empirical results show that renewable energy plays a prominent role in combating environmental pollution in selected densely populated Asian countries. Thus, these countries should achieve their sustainable development goals by cultivating existing renewable energy generation policies. Moreover, specific densely populated countries in Asia should encourage clean energy production and consumption in the agricultural sector, and increased investment in renewable energy can improve environmental quality and agricultural production.