Analyzing the Role of Renewable Energy and Energy Intensity in the Ecological Footprint of the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Even though a great number of researchers have explored the determinants of environmental pollution, the majority have used carbon emissions as an indicator while only recent studies have employed the ecological footprint which is a broader and more reliable indicator for the environment. The present study contributes to the literature by exploring for the first time in the literature the role of real output, energy intensity (technology), and renewable energy in the ecological footprint under the STIRPAT framework for a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country—the United Arab Emirates. By applying the novel bounds testing with dynamic simulations on the data from 1992–2017, the findings of this paper reveal that energy intensity and renewable energy have a negative and significant influence on the ecological footprint but real output has a positive and significant impact on it. In other words, the empirical results indicate that a rise in the real income increases environmental pollution while increases in renewable energy and advances in technology mitigate the level of emissions. The findings also suggest that the government should establish new programs, investment opportunities, and incentives in favor of energy intensity-related technology and renewable energy for the sake of environmental sustainability. The outcomes from this research analysis are useful for policymakers, industrial partners, and project designers in the United Arab Emirates.

How do renewable energy consumption, financial development, and technical efficiency change cause ecological sustainability in European Union countries?

“…Additionally, an increase in REC diversifies the energy supply and reduces the dependency on imported fuels, causing the promotion of energy efficiency that also favorably influences the environmental quality. The studies reporting the parallel relationship between REC and ecological sustainability consist by Chien et al, 25 and Dogan and Shah 27 , while contradicting the findings of Magazzino, 31 who concluded a negative impact of REC in the environmental sustainability of Italy.…”

“…7,25,26 For example, Riti et al 8 highlighted the significant role of clean energy in preventing ecological damages in African economies and indicated that renewable energy is ecologically favorable. Dogan and Shah 27 analyzed the data of the United Arab Emirates for the period 1992 to 2017. They explained that energy intensity and renewable energy are significant in improving the environmental quality by reducing the ecological footprint.…”

Symmetric and asymmetric nexus between economic policy uncertainty, oil price, and renewable energy consumption in the United States, China, India, Japan, and South Korea: Does technological innovation influence?

“…Excessive application of conventional energy such as fossil fuel has tremendously challenged the environmental protection program and limited the ultimate benefits of environmental development. Oil demand, according to the statistical review of world energy ( 2021 Inferring to the importance of clean energy, that is, energy from renewable sources, has extensively investigated and positively documented critical rules in economic growth and environmental protection (Adebayo and Kirikkaleli, 2021;Dogan and Shah, 2021;Nair et al, 2021;Andriamahery and Qamruzzaman, 2022;Qamruzzaman, 2022a;Banga et al, 2022;Qamruzzaman, 2022a;Guan and Qamruzzaman, 2022;Gyimah et al, 2022;Li and Qamruzzaman, 2022;Ma and Qamruzzaman, 2022;Weixiang et al, 2022;Xia et al, 2022;Zafar et al, 2022;Zhuo and Qamruzzaman, 2022). For instance, in the study of Toumi and Toumi (2019), asymmetric causality to REC, carbon dioxide emissions (CE), and real GDP via nonlinear broadcasting between these variables via the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model was carried out in order to investigate the short-and long-run asymmetries.…”

Empirical Evidence of Environmental Technologies, Renewable Energy and Tourism to Minimize the Environmental Damages: Implication of Advanced Panel Analysis

“…The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nations are susceptible to the effects of climate change because of their inherent vulnerability to severe climatic conditions, exceptionally elevated temperatures, scarcity of water resources, etc. Due to the scarcity of water, most of the MENA countries, especially the gulf countries, have limited green areas, which further exacerbates the ecological challenges in this region [ 6 ]. These conditions are responsible for further climate challenges, such as significant changes in the annual and seasonal temperature.…”