Determinants of environmental degradation in Saudi Arabia: exploring the unexplored

Abstract

Purpose Environmental degradation is recognized as a serious problem globally, and hence, Saudi Arabia is no exception. This paper aims to focus on the economy of Saudi Arabia to identify the determinants of environmental degradation. Design/methodology/approach Time series data spanning from 1971 to 2014 is used and analyzed using the recently developed autoregressive distributed lag modeling approach. Findings The obtained results reflected that natural resources, per person income and urbanization, have impacted environmental degradation both positively and significantly in the long run. Similarly, an insignificant negative relationship is established between trade openness and environmental degradation. Moreover, energy consumption has positively but insignificantly affected environmental degradation. In the short run, only per capita income has positively influenced environmental degradation while the rest of the variables have lost either significance levels or their direction of relationship has reversed. Originality/value As this is a pioneering study on the economy of Saudi Arabia, therefore, the authors assume that policymakers will find the findings of the current study very useful while formulating and implementing policies to control environmental degradation.

The relationship between socioeconomic development, renewable energies and the innovative process

“…Concern for environmental protection has led private and public organizations to invest heavily in research on new technologies to generate energy from renewable sources (Ellabban et al , 2014; Fusco et al , 2017; Tahir et al , 2021). Renewable energy sources contribute to achieving two major objectives in modern society: reducing greenhouse gases by curbing the impacts of climate change; and guaranteeing the security and reliability of energy supplies in the long term without the possibility of depletion (Banos et al , 2011; Elumalai et al , 2021; Anil et al , 2022).…”

“…Concern for environmental protection has led private and public organizations to invest heavily in research on new technologies to generate energy from renewable sources (Ellabban et al, 2014;Fusco et al, 2017;Tahir et al, 2021). Renewable energy sources contribute to achieving two major objectives in modern society:…”

Nexus between foreign direct investment and ecological footprint in BRICS and Next-11: the moderating role of green innovation

“…Still, others found that trade openness does not impact environmental degradation, like Ayobamiji and Kalmaz (2020), Shah et al. (2022) and Tahir et al. (2022).…”

“…,Nguyen et al (2018),Karasoy and Akçay (2019),Ansari et al (2020),Kongbuamai et al (2020),Burki and Tahir (2022),Roy (2023) andWang et al (2023). Still, others found that trade openness does not impact environmental degradation, likeAyobamiji and Kalmaz (2020),Shah et al (2022) andTahir et al (2022).…”

Exploring industrialization and environmental sustainability dynamics in Ghana: a fully modified least squares approach

“…Several attempts have been made in the literature to uncover the causes of environmental pollution, with conflicting results (Mesagan and Nwachukwu, 2018;Omri et al, 2019;Shaheen et al, 2020;Ur Rehman and Zeb, 2020;Chien et al, 2021;Khalid et al, 2021;Rjoub et al, 2021;Tahir et al, 2021;Burki and Tahir, 2022;Chu, 2022). Undoubtedly, the extant studies have identified numerous factors including economic and demographic factors as drivers of environmental degradation.…”