Natural Resource Abundance, Renewable Energy, and Ecological Footprint Linkage in MENA Countries

Abstract

Apart from being vulnerable to the menace created by climate change, the MENA countries consume more of non-renewable energy despite their resource endowments and great renewable energy potentials. Energy consumption, natural resource exploration and urbanization may add to environmental degradation since ecological distortions emanate from human activities. This study investigates the effects of the aforementioned variables on the ecological footprint in MENA countries. The findings confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and further reveal the negative impact of natural resource and economic growth on the environment. Renewable energy and urbanization reduce ecological footprint. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) were applied to obtain the country-specific results. Further findings suggest a feedback causality between urbanization, economic growth and ecological footprint. Policy directions based on the findings are extensively discussed.

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