An Empirical Investigation of Ecological Footprint Using Nuclear Energy, Industrialization, Fossil Fuels and Foreign Direct Investment

The G-7 economies comprise a few of the global, mainly economically developed countries. On the other hand, in conjunction with these high economic development performances, the ecological behaviors in G-7 anions have concurrently provoked to elevate deep apprehensions among the stakeholders. Therefore, the present research aims to empirically investigate the environmental influences of nuclear energy, industrialization, fossil fuel energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the G-7 nations between 1991 and 2018. After checking the cross-sectional dependency, this study employed the first-generation ((full modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS)) and second-generation (Driscoll and Kraay (D-K), feasible generalized least square (FGLS)) approaches for robust and reliable findings. The findings explore that nuclear energy production is ineffective in curbing the figure of ecological footprints in the long-run. Moreover, the industrialization process and fossil fuel energy consumption reduce environmental quality in the G-7 economies. More to the point, the empirical findings recommend that these nations can renovate their industrial production procedures in an eco-friendly behavior they can experience an unsoiled deployment of the energy transition. Similarly, the FDI also degrades environmental eminence in the long-run. This validates the pollution haven hypothesis in the G-7 countries. Based on these results, this study suggests the G-7 nations should reduce the production of nuclear energy levels, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy production in the industrial sector, reduce fossil fuel-based foreign investment, and assimilate ecological welfare strategies within their development planning.