Natural resources-environmental sustainability-socio-economic drivers nexus: Insights from panel quantile regression analysis

In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it will be difficult for many countries especially developing countries, to increase economic growth while promoting environmental sustainability. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship of KOF, GDP, GDP2, HDI, MFG, NRE and PD on CO2 emissions in 64 countries during 2000–2020. The findings showed that the EKC hypothesis was valid up to the 70th quantile in full sample. However, in the higher quantiles, a turning point was observed. High-income countries exhibited an N-shaped relationship, while upper-middle-income countries showed an inverted U-shaped relationship. Lower-middle-income countries displayed a U-shaped relationship until the 30th quantile, followed by an inverted U-shaped relationship from the 40th to 80th quantile, and an insignificant relationship after the 80th quantile. Low-income countries exhibited a U-shaped relationship. The study found that globalization mitigated CO2 emissions in high-income countries. However, in lower-middle- and low-income countries, it shows the pollution heaven hypothesis. The industrialization and non-renewable energy significantly degrade the environment. The HDI mitigated CO2 emissions in the progressive quantiles of high- and upper-middle-income countries, but in another sub-samples.