Can green growth and ecological footprint mitigation go hand on hand? The role of sectoral energy consumption, green innovation, and greenfield investment in emerging economies

Priyanka Pradhan (), Puspanjali Behera (), Litu Sethi (), Badri Narayan Rath () and Narayan Sethi ()
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Priyanka Pradhan: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela
Puspanjali Behera: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela
Litu Sethi: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela
Badri Narayan Rath: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad
Narayan Sethi: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela

Economic Change and Restructuring, 2025, vol. 58, issue 2, No 1, 27 pages

Abstract: Abstract This study investigates whether green growth and ecological footprint mitigation can go hand in hand, focusing on 17 emerging economies over the period 2003–2021. Using augmented mean group (AMG) and three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimators for robustness, the empirical results reveal that energy consumption in the industry, transport, and residential sectors hinders green growth − 1.639, − 2.272, and − 0.699, respectively, while fostering the ecological footprint. Conversely, green technology innovation (0.738) and greenfield investments (0.335) promote green growth, while simultaneously reducing the ecological footprint. Additionally, the detrimental impact of sectoral energy consumption on green growth and the ecological footprint reduces when the share of renewable energy use surpasses the threshold level. These results indicate that green growth and ecological footprint can go hand in hand if renewable energy use is adequately integrated into the energy mix. Furthermore, the government should encourage green technology innovation and greenfield investment to achieve better green growth and mitigate the ecological footprint in the long run.

Keywords: Greenfield investment; Green technology innovation; Green growth; Ecological footprint; Sectoral energy consumption; Emerging economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10644-025-09860-9

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