Green Policies and Resource Management in G20: Impact on Material Footprint

What is it about?

The study examines the impact of environmental governance, green innovation, and renewable energy transition on trade-adjusted resource management in G-20 countries from 1990 to 2020. Using the method of moments quantile regression, the research found that environmental governance significantly reduces material footprint across all quantiles, while green innovation and renewable energy transition mitigate resource footprint at various levels. The study also confirms the resource-based Environmental Kuznets Curve. The findings highlight the importance of ecological governance, green technologies, and energy transition in improving resource management. The research addresses the urgent need to identify factors promoting effective resource management in light of climate and biodiversity challenges, offering valuable policy implications for G-20 economies.

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Photo by Andras Kovacs on Unsplash

Photo by Andras Kovacs on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research is important for several reasons: It addresses a critical global challenge: sustainable resource management, which is essential for achieving decarbonization targets set by international agreements like the Paris Agreement. It focuses on G-20 countries, which are major consumers of natural resources and have a significant impact on global environmental issues. The study evaluates the impact of key factors (environmental governance, green innovation, and renewable energy transition) on resource management, providing valuable insights for policymakers. It uses advanced statistical methods to account for non-linearity and heterogeneity in the data, offering a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between variables. The findings can help inform policy decisions to improve resource management and promote sustainable development in major economies. Key Takeaways: - Environmental governance significantly reduces material footprint across all quantiles, with heterogeneous effects from lower to higher quantiles. - Green innovation and renewable energy transition both mitigate the resource footprint at all innovative quantiles, though with varying magnitudes and significance levels. - The study confirms the existence of a resource-based Environmental Kuznets Curve, suggesting that economic growth initially increases resource consumption but eventually leads to improved resource management as economies develop.