Sterling insights into natural resources intensification, ageing population and globalization on environmental status in Mediterranean countries

Abstract

Along with the increasing aging population (AP) and global interconnectedness in the Mediterranean bloc comes climate change issues faced by the Mediterranean region in its trajectory to energy security and sustainable development. To meet the continuous energy consumption demand while cutting down natural resources extraction and exploitation with a view to minimizing environmental impacts, the policy structure in these countries may require readjustment, which is the motivation for the present study. This study advances a strategic framework for investigating the impact of natural resources rent as well as aging reliance on carbon emissions in the Mediterranean region for the annual frequency data from 1990–2016. Using quantile regression to analyze the highlighted variables, empirical results shows that both income and natural resources rent have an inverted U-Shaped connection with CO2 emission, which affirms the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Subsequently, globalization and energy use show a positive relationship with emissions while AP is negatively correlated with emissions. Depending on the outcomes of this analysis, a multi-stage Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework has been developed and SDG- 7, SDG -13 as well as SDG-8 were examined in this context. While these three SDGs are the main targets of the study, the SDG System has also provided a way to test other SDGs.