Do Anti-Corruption and Renewable Energy Drive Environmental Sustainability? Testing the EKC Hypothesis for G20 Countries

Abstract

The environment must be preserved in its natural form so that humanity can benefit from it. However, pollution is increasing for many reasons, especially due to human activities, and a sustainable environment is in danger. Many studies have been conducted in different countries to make predictions, work out solutions, and raise awareness on this issue. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of economic growth, anti-corruption, hydropower, and renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint, one of the environmental indicators, for the period 2002-2022 in the G20 countries. Using the method of moment quantile regression analysis and the half-panel jackknife causality method recently introduced in the literature, this study investigated the relationship between the variables. Both the regression analysis and the causality method showed that anti-corruption and renewable energy reduce pollution, while hydropower energy increases environmental pollution. Furthermore, it is found that the EKC hypothesis is valid.