Analyzing environmental concerns of sustainable development goals in SAARC region: how carbon emissions policy influence environmental sustainability?

Abstract

Carbon emission policies have gained significant attention internationally as natural disasters are occurring rapidly and the environment worsens. This research aims to determine the causal relationship between various factors, such as the carbon emission of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries from 1990 to 2018. To achieve this, the study employs non-linear auto-regressive distributed lag models to analyze Load capacity factor, Fossil fuel consumption, Economic Complexity, Foreign direct investment, Renewable electricity consumption, and Economic Growth on carbon emission. Using this method also aids in capturing the non-linear interaction and temporal dependencies of the data. More specifically, the findings indicate a positive and direct relationship between economic complexity, renewable electricity consumption, and foreign direct investment in achieving sustainable development targets. In contrast, the direct influence of fossil fuel consumption and economic growth has been negative. These findings help understand the extent of progress toward carbon emissions and help the policymakers and stakeholders to design and implement sound and effective strategies for sustainable development that are appropriate to the economic and environmental realities of the countries.