Facilitating renewable energy transition, ecological innovations and stringent environmental policies to improve ecological sustainability: Evidence from MM-QR method

Given the alarming rate of ecological corrosion, countries around the globe are seeking ways of curtailing environmental deficits to attain future sustainability. In this quest for green development, economies are motivated to adopt eco-friendly practices that can assist in the fulfilment of resource conservation and efficiency to achieve green eco-systems. Keeping the importance of the concept in mind, the current study analyzed the influence of renewable energy transition, ecological innovation and environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint of OECD economies from 1990 to 2017 under the theoretical concepts of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Applying the advanced Method of Moment Quantile-Regression (MM-QR), the empirical findings reported the negative association of the studied green variables with the ecological footprint across all quantiles while also validating the Kuznets curve in the sampled sample economies. Moreover, the outcomes of heterogeneous panel causality revealed the uni-directional causal link from ecological innovation and renewable energy transition to ecological footprint. On the other hand, economic growth and policy stringency have been found to have feedback causal association with the ecological footprint. The study recommended the formulation of policies to syndicate countries’ economic and financial tools with environmental and technological incentives to promote sustainable business operations and country-wide green awareness.