Drivers of Environmental Sustainability: A Wavelet‐Based Assessment of Energy, Agriculture, and Innovation

Environmental challenges around the world require urgent and broad action to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will benefit all individuals in numerous areas such as energy, innovation and agriculture. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the interrelationships between energy transition, environmental patents, sustainable agriculture, food production, primary energy consumption, and food trade openness in relation to CO2 emissions, and to establish a comprehensive policy framework that is urgently needed. The study also incorporates interaction terms between sustainable agriculture and energy transition (INT‐1) and between sustainable agriculture and environmental patents (INT‐2). The outcomes of the novel Wavelet‐based regression and Quantile‐on‐Quantile Causality uncover that energy transition and patents diminish CO2, whereas sustainable agriculture, energy consumption, production, and food trade openness are linked with growing CO2, with the magnitude values remaining above 0.80 in middle periods, and surpassing 0.90 during short period (from 2 to 8) and long‐term (from 16 to 32) time scales. Furthermore, the results expose that INT‐1 and INT‐2 strengthen the connection of sustainable agriculture toward CO2. Besides, the findings of causality confirm that all explanatory variables substantially predict CO2 across different quantiles, signifying their robust predictability power. These results are consistent with the global efforts outlined at COP 29 to accelerate climate action and subsidize the attainment of SDGs 7 and 13.