Renewable Energy, Green Finance, Ecological Footprints and Environmental Quality: A New Insights from South Asian Countries

Abstract

Within the context of South Asian nations, this study investigates how factors such as FDI, ecological footprint, green finance, utilization of renewable energy sources, and Information and Communication Technology all have a role in determining the quality of the environment. In order to investigate the dynamic interrelationships that exist among these elements, this study makes use of panel data and in order to evaluate the nature of the connection that exists between the variables that are the subject of this investigation, the research performs slope homogeneity tests as well as cross-sectional dependency tests. The research indicates that the ecological footprint, green financing, FDI, use of renewable energy, and ICT are all collectively responsible for the increase in carbon emissions and the deterioration of environmental conditions. However, the use of renewable energy sources has been shown to have an effect that is inversely proportional to the release of carbon emissions. The study utilizes a mixed order of integration (0,1) in order to derive short-run and long-run correlations among South Asian countries. The results indicate that several factors are exerting an influence on the quality of the environment. However, it is seen that the consumption of renewable energy is having an inverse impact on carbon emissions.