Economic growth and environmental sustainability within the BRICS countries: a comparative analysis

Abstract

Increasing environmental degradation is seen as a major threat to sustainability in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Consequently, this study analysed the effect of economic growth on environmental sustainability within the BRICS countries using a panel data set from 1990 to 2017. Owing to the probable cross-sectional dependency errors, the study's estimates via the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) were supported by Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimates. The results confirm that economic growth and environmental sustainability are co-integrated at the panel level, indicating the presence of long-run equilibrium relationships. The study concluded that GDP growth exhibits a negative impact on environmental degradation in the short run but seem to have reversed in the long run - tacit support for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. All robustness checks, including temporal and spatial changes, validated our main findings. Various policy implications and recommendations are highlighted.